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Our Story
May
18
2005
0
My House
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
Ugh. This is exactly as addictive as I thought it would be. My headache says, "Go to bed," but I just keep measuring stuff.
May
25
2005
4
The Addition
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
Did I mention this is addictive? Seriously.
Oct
18
2005
0
The Addition
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
A foamcore model of our soon-to-be-new old home.
Jan
19
2006
0Turns out you need more paperwork to knock down a wall than to build one. We thought we would get the permit yesterday, now we have to wait 3 days for the county to process a "Certificate of Title" or sum-such. This will prove that we really really paid our taxes (and it costs $10.00). The tax office front desk lady gave...
Jan
20
2006
0So I refinanced my house and they sent me this paper and I needed to file it or something. I put it in my to-do file, for about three years. Not really a file either, more of a stack, any way, it was lost before we moved. If it was so important, why did they send it to me anyway?
Today I got a call from the bank saying...
Jan
22
2006
1Quoted directly from the original deed of our house (some parts illegible).
No part of the premises or property above described shall ever .......occupied or owned by or held for, or rented, leased, sold, .......conveyed and or otherwise become the property of, or ..... use or possessions of, any person or persons other...
Jan
23
2006
0So I took the paper over to the bank today. I dropped it off with the sweet lady at the front desk. She's sweet, but I have issues about this kind of stuff. I want it to be like in a movie where she jumps up and runs it to the proper person immediately, while the entire foyer full of people breaks into a song-and-dance...
Jan
24
2006
2Ace stopped by this morning to pick up the last of the permitting paperwork. He needed a pic of what was to be demolished, and we didn't have a pic of the carport and storage readily available, so he ran over and took one.
Look at our dumpy little carport!
I mean, our house isn't really dumpy, I swear, but seeing both...
Jan
26
2006
0We were not meant to close on the loan today. First we went to the bank. This is not where you go, you go to the title company. Then, when we were less than halfway through the paperwork, Ace shows up hugging a big box of Cheese Nips (orange hat and shirt to match) and notices that our bank put the wrong amount on the loan....
Jan
27
2006
1Done. Not much to report. We brought youngest boy with us. He ate rasins and had a minor flip out. I was out of town for three days and Christiane has been home with him so when we look at him we don't see the same child. I see cutie-pie-dumbell-wanna-fly-like-batman and she's just waiting for his head to spin around. So, maybe...
Jan
28
2006
2
Still talking about the details last night. We lowered some of the countertops to 32in for Christiane's comfort. She had some brilliant ideas about the little stretch of lowered countertop next to the sink: one half pull-out trash and recycle and one half open shelves.
Jan
30
2006
0We got the demolition permit today, construction permit is tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon, they are going to start pouring piers.
I better get some "before" pictures.
Jan
31
2006
0These correspond to this and this.
I forgot to note the mysterious box above the vent hood. My guess: it's Hoffa. I wanna be there when they bust it open.
Feb
1
2006
3In a mad dash to prep for the fact that the project officially kicked off YESTERDAY, I put an ad on Craigslist: free stuff, in the carport, come and get it. What doesn't get taken gets thrown in the dumpster (which is now sitting in our driveway!!! eeeee!!!).
Well, the freecyclers decided to help themselves to our whole...
Feb
2
2006
0
I just happend to drop by as the hackberry was felled. Exciting and a little sad. Nobody likes hackberries, so naturally I am fond of them. I am also fond of good advice, and I hear that a hackberry is a plant that grows like a weed, then falls on your house like a ton of bricks.
Feb
2
2006
0Just a warning: At this point, we may not be able to blog at a pace that reflects the rapid progress that is being made on our property.
Day 3 - dawn:
Day 3 - dusk:
Feb
3
2006
0They demolished the car port bright and early in the morning. I had a small panic about my antique boat parked next to the storage and raced from my office to go push it out into the middle of the back yard. A couple of the demolishers came over and helped me when they heard me grunting. The wheels had sunk into the ground...
Feb
5
2006
0My sister told me last night that she couldn't see the difference between the before and after pictures in the previous post. "Did they just move the bushes?" Maybe it's more dramatic to us. In fact it was staggering to me.
Is this shot better? See, the porch is gone, See? SEE?
Feb
5
2006
0Everybody's got it! Well, not everybody, but they are pretty common in our neighborhood when you start to look for them.
Christiane was so excited to get ours that I ran over and took pictures before work to show her. They've already filled this one up and brought in a new one.
Feb
5
2006
1...and the detached storage. This is where Christiane's presence is important to getting things done. See me in that picture? You can't tell, but I'm thinking, "Hmm. I wonder if that was such a good idea."
The kids got a tour of hazards. Don't fall on nails, pick up broken glass, open natural gas lines, step on live wires,...
Feb
5
2006
0Tonight I ran over and popped the groovy "7308" numbers off the house, drug the boat to the back of the yard, took down the last 6 jute blinds and hauled the last two window units over to the rental.
A couple of observations: 1) This would have all been a lot easier without a hole in the living room floor and a 2 foot drop...
Feb
6
2006
1This is a little hacky, but you get the idea. Mouseover for a before/after:
Feb
6
2006
0They finished clearing the concrete and dug the holes for the piers that go around the exterior edge of the house. Most of the concrete in the back porch will remain. No reason to remove it. So, someday years from now when the new owners puzzle over what the house looked like before the renovation and addition, there will...
Feb
8
2006
0Tuesday was a no-visible-progress-at-the-house day. Hopefully there won't be too many of those.
Here are a few pictures of the work completed last Friday and Monday.
1. There is hole in our living room floor where they are putting in 3 new piers. They really cut out the minimum. I can't imagine standing in one of those...
Feb
9
2006
0David took me to the house today to look at the new piers. WOW!
I realized that I have been avoiding going there during the day because I am a woman alone. At night, I don't feel safe walking through the rubble in the darkness.
Seeing the piers up close was exciting. Even though we have gotten our money's worth from...
Feb
9
2006
0My sister's family sent us a super-nice gift certificate wedding present to Rejuvenation. I've been drooling over the catalogues for years.
Now. I'm. Going. Shopping!
Feb
10
2006
0I was just at our County Commissioner's campaign web site. I had one question. What does the County Commissioner do? Not a clue on the web site. So I thought, "What obvious first question is not being answered on the Erwin House Blog?"
Thus, I present floor plans and elevations.
(btw, this is what a County Commissioner...
Feb
12
2006
1I believe in mocking things up. So yesterday, I used the kids' sidewalk chalk to draw a life-sized version of our new kitchen on the back porch of our rental.
I was trying to explain the concept to our older boy.
Boy: Why are we building the kitchen in the back yard?
Me: It's just a drawing.
Boy: It's really flat.
Me:...
Feb
13
2006
2Saturday: We had a meeting with the communications guys. When they called I really thought Ace was handing daily management of the job over to a lackey.
Communications Guy: "Hi, I'm the communications specialist for Ace."
Me (thinking): "Oh well, Ace is a busy guy, he has to delegate."
Turns out the communications guy runs...
Feb
14
2006
0Monday night, way past his bed time, Chuck came by to talk about kitchen cabinets. I really hope he can do them. I like the idea of a neighbor building part of our house.
He told us about the drunken barber that lived in our house in the 70s, and how he crashed his car on Lamar and Airport while having a heart attack (the...
Feb
16
2006
2
The Ikea kitchen is cheap, but inflexible in design, and it comes from a factory, not a craftsman across the street. If anyone has had a bad experience with Ikea cabinets, we really need an excuse to not use them.
Btw, this is one of the last things Christiane did before her computer melted. Did Ikea kill her computer?...
Feb
16
2006
0
...for the kitchen backsplash. Colors and mixture by Christiane, and it fits the Apollo-space-program-chic that I want the kitchen to have. I have an old boat from 1959 that has those influences: chrome, gold, gloss white, red, gray, and black.
The mosaic generator on hakatai.com is a nice bit of interface design (except...
Feb
17
2006
0There was little visible progress this week. We got a Pod, which looks like a small one-car garage, dropped in our yard. And that's about it. The trusses will not be ready today. They will be ready next Friday (they better), which means less will happen next week. Somewhere, they are still building trusses, and windows,...
Feb
21
2006
5
Measuring the siding
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
David is a hands-on kind of guy. For those of you coming to the open house tonight, be prepared to feast your eyes on the 3D model he's been working on.
Measuring the siding
Building the model
From the east
From the south
If I have time today and tomorrow,...
Feb
21
2006
0
After our open house, I had time to glue on the windows. This is at least slightly related to the mania that drives old men to build elaborate model trains in their basements. Good thing there is some practical value.
Feb
22
2006
0Building the model revealed an awkward spot around the front door. The steps to the front door don't make sense with the posts from the porch above, and because we're moving the front door to the left, the sidewalk doesn't line up with the door. Angling the porch fixes this and turns the two posts into a gateway.
Christiane...
Feb
24
2006
0Every time I see a flatbed truck with wood on it, I check to see if it is heading toward our house. If there aren't any trusses in our yard by the time I come home from work, it's going to be a really long weekend.
Update 11:00pm: No trusses. Truss machine broke. Monday. Fee fie foe phooey.
Feb
24
2006
0I dropped by the house on the way to work. No trusses of course, but there was a bunch of not-our-dang-stuff in the dumpster.
a small table
a few mops
toy tunnel
two cots
igloo cooler
flower pots
a propane tank
Worse than a stocking full of coal on Trussmas morning.
Feb
26
2006
0
A long rainy drive to the big box on the highway. In 3-4 weeks we should have 2000 lbs of wood, glue, and hinges delivered.
Feb
27
2006
0
Before I start talking about the kitchen we ordered, I should say a few words about Chuck, our neighbor-cabinet guy. He's local, he's a small business, and he's got tons of experience with custom cabinetry and historic restoration. He'll be doing the trim for the interior of our entire house, for sure, as we want to match...
Feb
27
2006
0I looked it up. I'll be damned, there is such a thing as a truss machine. And they look like they break all the time.
Today? Trussmas?
Feb
27
2006
1The clouds have parted, the sun is shining, a hint of sawdust lingers in the air, and there are trusses piled in our front yard!
No rain in the 8-day forcast. Should be an exciting few weeks.
Mar
2
2006
0Carport and storage - Demolished
Piers - Poured
Trusses - Delivered
That's it. Except for the Trusses, the last two (going on three) weeks have been just waiting.
I blame the Bush administration. They pulled money from levee improvement projects. Then New Orleans sank while the president played guitar.
Now a good number...
Mar
3
2006
2I drove by the house, oh, four or five times today. Each time, I anticipated the destructive aftermath of today's scheduled demolition. Each time, I was disappointed.
I was at the low point of a fairly crummy day when David announced that, on his way home from work, he had driven by the house and there was a crew in the midst...
Mar
4
2006
0
Off with the siding! Part 2
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
The demolition continues.
I think the crew is a little tired of us dropping by every five minutes but stuff is happening!
The shutters and doors and various other details have been set aside, and soon the windows will be too.
Oh my god, they're going...
Mar
5
2006
0The deadbolt on our front door has been so out-of-whack, the we hadn't been able to lock it from the outside since August. It was a problem that came and went with the humidity, but this time it seemed permanent.
With the siding off, you can see what happened. The door facing had sunk about and inch. Either because of the extra...
Mar
6
2006
0
Off with your windows!
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
There went our picture window!
She's going right back where she came from, so we sure are glad to see that she survived removal.
Took six guys, and I think they were all shocked to see her land in one piece.
Mar
6
2006
2
Framing Walkthrough
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
We met early this morning with our contractor, Ace, and the framer he hired. We had one last chance to make sure that everything was exactly how we wanted it: the placement of all of the doors and windows, the walkable area of the kitchen, the height of the ceiling....
Mar
6
2006
0They took the roof off today. I stopped by the house four times. Each visit driving deep weird grooves into my amygdala. (From now on, every time I hear the Honeydrippers' "Sea of Love", I'm going to think a wall is about to fall down.)
You can see the green walls of our living room from the corner of Pasadena and Grover....
Mar
7
2006
0David's last post reminds me of yesterday. The youngest came with us to the walkthrough and was fascinated with the process of taking the siding off of the house. He wanted to know, what were those tools they were using? I told him they were called "crowbars."
"Hmmmm, crowbars," he repeated, thoughtfully.
Uh oh.
I...
Mar
7
2006
3Christiane has been (ok, me too) a little obsessed with the blue tarp on our house. I cannot exaggerate the blueness of the light in the house. The diffused sunlight comes in every square inch of what used to be the ceiling. Even the closets. Red objects appear black. And after your eyes have done their best to adjust,...
Mar
8
2006
3They deliver your kitchen to their store in Houston instead of to your front door.
We were hoping for something like this:
the kitchen
Originally uploaded by splityarn.
Alas, we instead got a phone call. "Come pick up yer kitchen."
Did I mention our kitchen is in Houston?
Anybody in Houston wanna bring us our kitchen?
Mar
8
2006
0
Something happened while we have been marveling over the tarp and all the destruction. They started building our house. The sub-floor for all the new downstairs square footage appears to be done. And extra supports under the house have been connected to the new piers.
Our oldest boy leapt over the chasm still in the living...
Mar
8
2006
0
Update 12:30am: I called Ace who was so asleep he almost couldn't speak. Then I went to the house. What a haunted house scene. Lightning, thunder, a creaky gate, half a house, and a big billowing blue tarp. I got a broomstick and pulled down a couple of corners that were exposed, and hooked the tarp to various nails which...
Mar
10
2006
0
FRIDAY AM:
WEDNESDAY AM:
SATURDAY AM:
I had driven by the house on Thursday morning and thought to myself, "The no-walls thing is really getting to me. I need to stop driving by until there are walls."
On our way to Brentwood Tavern last night, David made a pit stop. I'll be damned--there were walls.
Funny...
Mar
10
2006
2
This is a photo of the master bedroom on January 31, 2006. Put your mouse on the picture to see what the same view looked like on Wednesday this week. About the only thing that remains is that doorway, and it's coming out too.
So much has happened this week. I really don't know where to start.
Mar
13
2006
0Nevermind. I totally misunderstood. It was the measurements of the old parts of the house that were off. That makes so much more sense. Still, several trusses are the wrong length. We'll see how big a delay it causes.
We got a call from Ace yesterday. They built the downstairs slightly too small. Four inches front to back,...
Mar
13
2006
0Since the last post made no sense. Here is a better (I hope) explanation. (Bored yet?) The plans were based on measurements of the old house, which were slightly off. Front to back across the bedrooms, the drawings were 2.5 inches short. So the trusses were short. And the length of the bathtub was wrong. It was drawn 6 inches...
Mar
14
2006
0I suck again (sorta inside joke). I spent the whole prenatal appointment this morning trying to solve the wall-in-the-wrong-place problem in my head. I had a good solution. Brilliant even.
After the appointment, we went back to the house and they had already built the wall. Looked perfect. The trusses can be used, the walls...
Mar
14
2006
0
Trusses
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
I know there's been a stink about the trusses. I haven't been able to keep up, really. With cousin Ben here for Spring Break, my Master's thesis due in one week, and freelance deadlines, I'm a little busy. Oh, and I'm baking a baby.
All I know is that I drove by this...
Mar
15
2006
0
Christiane did a neat thing this evening. She took a photo of our living room from the exact position we had rendered it in Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer. (Put your mouse over the picture to see the rendering.)
We have these images in our heads from working in the software all summer and into the fall. And now we are starting...
Mar
16
2006
2So far, I am loving our contractor. This is a rare thing, from what I hear. Most of the people we talked to complained about their remodeling experiences, and they gave us many, many warnings.
Things aren't perfect, but he's a good guy. One of those genuine types who takes pride in his work and is honest about what he can and cannot...
Mar
17
2006
2
The second story started going up yesterday.
There was another small scuffle (I alluded to it in yesterday's post). The draftsman had placed the windows on the south and east walls of the second story in one spot on the elevations and a different spot on the floorplans. The picture above shows the incorrect positioning....
Mar
18
2006
0
The second floor has been creating traffic jams of rubberneckers on Grover for the last two days. I wonder what they're thinking?
I've had a few initial observations.
1. It looks bigger on the outside, than I thought.
2. It looks smaller on the inside.
3. The downstairs bathroom and bedroom are more public that I thought....
Mar
19
2006
1Again, never mind. Not a problem. We'll have our big 30 inch eaves.
I think I figured out what bugs me about small eaves. It's kind of like a guy wearing a hat with a brim that's too small. Specifically, the hat that Sylvester Stallone wears in the first Rocky movie.
And to think that guy is now the governor of California.
Mar
19
2006
0Our older boy set out this weekend to author a graphic novel of our renovation. These are three select pages from that tome.
In the first page we see the house before renovations. It is a memory of the first night the boys spent at my house (before it was "our" house). Fate sent an awesome hailstorm, which would have been...
Mar
20
2006
0There was light rain all weekend. The house got wet, but it wasn't that bad. By Sunday afternoon it was drying off. Then one last storm last night. There was thunder and lighting all night.
And it got really wet.
There was some damage to the drywall. There are pockets of water making their way down the wall under the paint...
Mar
20
2006
2This is just a bunch of observation I want to get down before I forget them. (Warning: Booooring)
1. Christiane just started her third trimester on Saturday. Thus, I have produced a timeline. I still think we can be in the house for the birth. We've had a very productive 6 weeks and all the design decisions are made. 12 weeks...
Mar
23
2006
2
I've just uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr, catching up on the two days without an internet connection. I took this one at night, so the color is a little weird. Note the makeshift scaffolding on the right hand side.
All Erwin House Photos
The framing is about done and they are wrapping the house in plywood and Tyvek....
Mar
23
2006
0
IKEA delivers! That's our kitchen.
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
That's our kitchen, delivered yesterday with little pomp or circumstance.
They have been making such amazing progress on our home that I might be baking brownies in my new kitchen in time for the midwives to help deliver the baby! Note to self:...
Mar
24
2006
2I've been using several consistent places to take before, during, during, during, and after photos. And I just decided to name the locations and tag them in Flickr. Some of the before photos are out of order, but you can figure out which ones they are.
Gnome's Eye View. Named for a garden gnome who observes the construction...
Mar
24
2006
1
They're putting on our subroof right now as we speak thisveryminute. Apparently, the rain is no biggie. With the subroof and the Tyvek, the house should be fairly water-resistant.
Of course, it doesn't have any windows yet, but hey who's counting?
My biggest concern is that the rain will simply slow the project down...
Mar
24
2006
2I would have been more demanding of the draftsman. Today we encountered the third boneheaded mess-up in the plans. The wall between the dining room and the kitchen is one complex piece of origami. You won't be able to tell when it's finished, but it's wacky. We asked if elevations were needed and he said they would understand...
Mar
25
2006
0I had a student journal meeting on campus around lunchtime. I was driving home after the meeting, talking on the cell to my mom about the progress on the house. I was going to do a quick drive-by on the way to the rental, but stopped and pulled over when I saw a cop car in the old driveway.
"The house looks great," I was telling...
Mar
26
2006
3Today I noticed our pending trim in the front yard. It looked small to me, so I snapped the tape measure off my belt (like a real-life architect) and measured it. Horrors. It's 3.5 inches. That's wrong. The old trim was 4.5, and I want the old trim back.
According to the James Hardie web site, they have 3.5 and 5.5 inches....
Mar
26
2006
0I dropped by the house late on Friday night and caught the framing crew playing cards in the downstairs bedroom. It was a chilly night and they had blocked the door with a 4x8 sheet of plywood and had run an extension cord through the window for a light. I didn't disturb them. As I drove off, I saw the light glowing and shadows...
Mar
27
2006
0I'm amazed by the difference in building quality between our house and the scaffolding that the framing crew uses to get 25 feet up. None of the boards line up, half the nails don't hit the other piece of wood. Do these guys dare each other to get on this stuff?
On Friday I saw a guy putting up plywood above the second...
Mar
27
2006
9On Saturday we popped over to the Tile Guy. The place was teeming with pregnant women and toddlers. We picked up our backsplash sample (CoffeeHouse Blend II). It was browner than we expected, but we decided to make it work. We picked out the floor and paint color in a flurry of decision making. Bamboo floors, white cabinets,...
Mar
28
2006
1I have not had an attic since I lived with my parents. It's been dorms, apartments, rental houses (you just don't go into the attic in a rental house) and then I bought the little flat-roof house on Grover. So when we designed our house, there was very little emphasis on the attic. We put in just enough for the AC and a few boxes.
Still...
Mar
28
2006
1I just discovered Autostitch. It's perfect for interior shots, and for a house that is out-growing it's exterior "before" picture vantage points. Each of these panoramas are combined from about 20 individual photos.
Mar
28
2006
2Dear Ace,
I am afraid that we are going to have to request a change order. Since it has rained forty-billion-hundred inches of rain in the last 24 hours, and it is supposed to rain forty-billion-hundred more inches in the next two days, and since nothing is happening at the house right now (except for everything getting...
Mar
29
2006
0Our bank has managed to be consistently disconcerting. From getting the loan amount wrong on the paperwork at closing and then saying it didn't really matter, to the events of today.
On Thursday Ace told us he was requesting a draw. We had about a week of delays in the first draw, so we wanted to be on top of things this...
Mar
31
2006
0Slowish week. Rain sent the framing crew packing, and I think they were waiting on windows anyway. In an ideal situation, we are at the halfway point. 9 weeks down, and 10 weeks until Christiane's due date.
Saturday: AC guy started putting in ducts
Monday: Framing crew started putting up trim, finished Tyvek wrap
Tuesday:...
Mar
31
2006
14Well.....maybe the Coffee House Blend II will not work. Now we are looking at the Bungalo Blend from Modwalls for the backspalsh. Very cool and right for our house.
I saw a link to Schoolhouse Electric on House in Progress. They have some very cool light shades that ride the line between nerdy and atomic in just the right...
Apr
3
2006
0They started to put the trim on today. This includes the window trim, which is wrong.
Last week I sent these photos to our contractor and supervisor to show how I wanted the windows and doors trimmed. I even had a detailed phone conversation about the drip cap. I compromised on the 3.5 inch trim, since that cut is not available...
Apr
4
2006
2When David and I first sought bids, we spec'ed a metal roof. Everyone told us it would be too expensive. We picked our contractor, we accepted asphalt shingle, we moved on.
Today, David talked to the contractor, and he told us he's going metal. Because of the low pitch (2:12), he didn't feel confident about the protection...
Apr
4
2006
0As usual, Ace made everything all better. The trim on the windows is near perfect. The new windows had no sill. I didn't specify windows with sills. I didn't know you could get them without. So the trim at the bottom won't be the same. But the drip cap is back and the lower boards are marked for removal on the old windows....
Apr
6
2006
0
Yesterday, I made a heroic mad dash to the Habitat re-store to get a window for the dining room. When I got there, there was this dude, touching the window I had spotted the day before. I loudly unrolled my tape measure and tapped the window with the end. The dude saw my desperation and took a step back.
The great news...
Apr
6
2006
3We've come a long way, baby.
We made our daily pit stop on the way home from school and watched as they worked on finishing up the siding on the front of the house. I just love how the mixed siding looks! I love the windows! I love the roof!
And I love the doors that open from our bedroom onto the... nothing. Deep...
Apr
6
2006
2There has been a bunch of progess this week. Concepts, drawings, and notions have been popping up as realities everywhere.
The tile sample arrived today (Bungalo Blend from Mosaic Tile Market ). It couldn't have been a better match for our paint colors. Austin, I think we have a kitchen design.
And I took some photos...
Apr
9
2006
2
When we started putting the finishing touches on the electrical plans, the draftsman said, "Don't worry about this little stuff, an outlet here, a switch there. You'll do a walk-through before the electrician gets started and make these changes."
Friday morning I got a call from Christiane. "The electrician is at the house,...
Apr
10
2006
0Just today: (double warning...boooorring)
They filled in all the holes in the old floor that were cut for foundation work. The good news is, you don't have to watch your every step while you check out the ducts and wires overhead. The bad news is there's no place for the crew to throw their food wrappers, and for the supervisors...
Apr
11
2006
2Its true. We bought a kitchen sink (and a faucet, and a pull-out recycling system, and under the cabinet lighting, and some recycling/compost bins).
I'm having trouble coming up with a good pun because the baby ate my brain. Something about babies and bath water... eh... I don't know. Feel free to fill in for my lack...
Apr
14
2006
0There is a part of the house that I think is best referred to as "The Neck". It's the wall behind the stove and everything goes through it. The windpipe, the nerves, the blood, lymph, everything. And our neck has a big-ass beam in it. Deep breath ... not my problem to solve ... not my problem to solve.
Yesterday, I saw that...
Apr
18
2006
1I've been not posting, holding my breath, waiting for the latest "issue" to be resolved. The last week has definitely made me feel like I am sitting on pins and needles, and not just because my hips are straining under the weight of this uber-baby inside my stomach.
Long story short... there's a support beam. It wasn't...
Apr
18
2006
8Don't Move It
Cons
1. Ducts in cabinets
2. Toilet in the wrong spot (with the sink between the toilet and tub)
3. Down draft oven cost 3X normal oven
4. Three inch drain in living room makes wall 4 inches thicker
Pros
1. Keep working, no wasted time (except today)
2. Get a rockin oven
Move It
Cons
1. Bigish soffit in dining
2....
Apr
19
2006
0Christiane and I met at soccer practice.
Christiane: I made up my mind. Did you?
David: Pretty much.
C: I bet we have the same idea.
D: You sure?
C: Yeah.
D: Ok, you say first.
C: No, you go first.
And so on. At some point we played "Rock, Scissors, Plenum."
We agreed, plenum beats rock, and we're not going to move it.
Thanks...
Apr
20
2006
4
door
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
There were some things that we wanted to keep from the original house. We wanted to keep the windows. Sure, they aren't as energy efficient. Sure, they aren't as thick. But they look damn fine and we love them. And new windows cost a mint.
We also wanted to keep our front...
Apr
21
2006
1In the past two weeks the project started too look like it was slipping off the rails, and the stress got a little thick around the house. Last Tuesday we pulled the emergency brake. We are back on track and all is good, but we lost some time. When you send a plumber home, he doesn't go wait by the phone. He starts another...
Apr
25
2006
2When I drove by the house early this AM, there were about 10 pickup trucks parked up and down the street. I haven't seen that much activity since the demo crew arrived three months ago, so I was both pleased and perplexed.
Things slowed down in the last few months as we were warned they would. The plumbing, electrical...
Apr
27
2006
3If you are like some people, you only want to see pics of the finished product, right? So avert your eyes! Because I have pics of the half-finished stairs! Wheeeee!
Last night, we snuck in for a quick pic after bathtime. Ah, the smell of sawdust. And, let me tell you, I have never seen wood like this before. It is truly...
Apr
28
2006
1A lot happened yesterday. I know, I know, I didn't post updated pics of the stairs. So shoot me. But David got a great shot of the landing.
The guys working on the stairs are totally my new best friends with cherries on top. The pic doesn't show it, but they did get the upper treads in by last night, and one of the bottom...
Apr
28
2006
2One last comment about the stairs before we start climbing them. They started building from the top. Really. In this picture you can see stairs starting at the top floor, leading to a landing, and ... that's all they got. There are just a few 2x4s and a strap holding the landing up.
The plumber said in 20 years he had never...
May
1
2006
0The house is becoming a machine. This month has been all plumbing, air and electricity. None of it quite done.
We have bathtubs. They look great.
We have stairs, no railing yet. They are gorgeous. All ipe. The boys went upstairs and checked out their new rooms for the first time.
The siding has been done for almost a month,...
May
3
2006
0We're slow to update around here these days. My body is definitely sending me clear messages: baby trumps house. Got it, lady? Baby trumps house.
So, I've mostly been prepping for the other new addition. I've been cooking up a storm, I've washed all the clothes and diapers, I've ordered the birth kit and tub liner....
May
4
2006
2... done.
Big, big sigh of relief for a house that can no longer be soaked to the bones by a big Texas thunder storm.
May
5
2006
0I've been a little worried about the particular shade of purple we picked out. It has to be right, or we're going to have to live with it wrong. "Oh, you're the people with the Barney house!" or "You mean the big lavender wedge on Grover?"
I took a couple more trips to the paint store, and consulted with my wife, and my three-year-old....
May
7
2006
4On Thursday, our front porch was showered with more than raindrops. Our IKEA shipment arrived with all of the supplements for our kitchen redo: the new sink, the faucet, the garbage and recycling bins and pull-out tray, the under-cabinet lighting.
Part of me thought that this point in the project would always seem very...
May
10
2006
4
Tub Shelf Idea
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
After college, my first apartment on my own was a veritable dream. It was an oversized one bedroom with a study, around 900 enormous square feet. It had one very long, large bathroom with a non-jetted garden tub.
At the foot of the tub was a shelf, about 12-18in...
May
12
2006
0
Purple!
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
Emergency officials asked locals not to panic after an Austin home spontaneously broke out in a strange and inexplicable case of Purple yesterday, frightening passersby and perplexing area homeowners.
"We don't know what caused it," said a gentleman found on the property...
May
14
2006
1In the last two weeks we got a roof, and the house was painted. The prep for paint took a few days, and was delayed some by rain, but most of it was done in two exciting days. The color turned out perfect, exactly the way I wanted it.
Simulation on the left, reality on the right.
There were rumors that the porch would...
May
16
2006
0As we hit the pre-inspection mode, we started to accumulate advertisements inside the house. Business cards and flyers were nailed, screwed, and stapled to various studs inside the house.
I guess normally, a house at this state would belong to a builder, and they may be interested in hiring eager sub-contractors. But this...
May
17
2006
6Well, someone finally built the daylight application I had always wanted to build. (Not as pretty of course, and upside-down.) You can put in any latitude, longitude, and time of day and get the exact angle of the sun. And it graphically shows the sunrise and sunset times for every day of the year.
So I plugged in the coordinates...
May
18
2006
1Happiness is trucks in front of the house. This is one of the better moments.
May
19
2006
0(apologies to Christiane for stealing her line)
The concrete crew finally came by this morning. From the looks of it, they are knocking out our little job on their way to the real one. At 7:45am, (when this photo was taken) they looked to be more than half-way done.
May
19
2006
2Ya'll really think I can climb stairs at this point?? Don't be silly--David snapped this shot for me.
Once the framing was inspected and approved (!) we found out that no time would be wasted installing the insulation and floating the drywall. I can't even imagine how awesome-ly low our energy bills will be. It was a complete...
May
19
2006
1Monday: Electricians fixed for code, but they mixed up the lights in the kitchen. I caught Ace at the house and got a walk-through. Concrete company built the mold for front and back steps. We had an odd code violation with a doorknob in an upstairs closet aimed right at an upstairs window. Have to put "safety glazing"...
May
20
2006
5
Arrivals
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
No, not the baby--the tile! That's right, the ModWalls custom blend we ordered came in, a whole boxfull, and it is gorgeous.
I swear, I could do the whole house in this stuff, it is just so pretty.
I have to admit, it is kind of weird having the tile. It means...
May
22
2006
6
Pocket Door?
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
What do ya'll think of this door?
We've got a pocket door that goes in the kitchen (leads to the pantry), and I had envisioned something with frosted or ribbed glass. This has the best of both worlds! It may come out of our pockets, though, since we didn't spec...
May
23
2006
0Sometimes all I need is a few feet of drywall hung or a key to the construction deadbolts that now seal the entrances to feel like something much bigger has been accomplished. These things don't really make for fancy pictures, but they sure do tickle MY fancy.
P.S. Rumor has it that we will be moving in within no more...
May
24
2006
3We have walls!!!!!
I'm verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves...
May
29
2006
1Misleading title. Actually waiting for the baby is the hardest part. The house has been progressing so swiftly it's making our heads spin.
Monday. Prep for drywall and dry wall in the downstairs bathroom. We last minute redesigned the master bathroom. Christiane wants to put a piece of furniture where one of the sinks...
Jun
1
2006
0
On my laptop the colors from Colorcharts.org are all kinds of wrong, especially the light ones, so I exaggerated them on the mockup.
a. downstairs bath: Ralph Lauren Polaris (Home Depot)
b. living room, office: ICI 924 Floating Lilly
c. kitchen: ICI 797 Moonstone
d. dining: ICI162 Red Maple (needs gray primer)
e. all bedrooms...
Jun
2
2006
4This month was, roof, exterior paint, concrete steps, and drywall. There are not that many big things left. Let's see ... deck, trim, floors, tile, kitchen cabinets.
Monday: Memorial Day
Tuesday: Patching and touch-up. I caught the touch-up guy/dog groomer filling in the hole for our phone nook (not sure what that thing...
Jun
3
2006
3They painted our kitchen on Friday so I could get started on the cabinets this weekend.
This is about 4 hours of work, first hauling 1200 lbs of kitchen parts from the Pod in the front yard, then checking the 8 digit number on the box against a 3 page parts list, then looking at the reference number for that group of parts,...
Jun
5
2006
7Day Two. Talked to Caro and cleared up a few things about hardware. (I found the hinges). Overnight someone had broken into the house and storage. They unwrapped everything in the storage and a few things in the house. They took my tape measure, instructions, receipt, warranty, and parts list. I spent most of the day checking...
Jun
7
2006
3Day 4. Another break-in. This time smashing up the side door and the Pod. The new padlock is gone and the latch is wrecked.
The police came by to dust for finger prints. They burglars left some pretty clean foot prints (thanks to all the drywall dust and two clean steps), but they don't do footprints for a crime like this....
Jun
9
2006
6
Saturday: Sorted all the boxes for the kitchen cabinets. No baby yet.
Sunday: Break in #1. Built one cabinet. No baby yet.
Monday: Installed cabinet twice, rails 3 times, No baby yet.
Tuesday: Break in #2. Painters primed the whole house and painted the upstairs bedroom. No baby yet.
Wednesday: Threw in the towel on the cabinets....
Jun
15
2006
3
No baby. Not yet. I expected the house to go past it's due date, but never the baby. As I write she is five days over her scheduled appearance. It has been a rough and sleepless 5 days.
There has not been much to post about the house for a while too. Since the drywall went in, my focus has shifted from "What happens next?"...
Jun
16
2006
3
IMG_7352
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
When we originally started designing the house, I spec'ed in a garden tub (non-jetted) for birthing. It had always been my dream to have a waterbirth, but with the last two the bathrooms were simply too small and the tubs too uncomfortable.
The tub is in, but not really...
Jun
22
2006
2Ah, dear reader, I am now like you, able to enjoy the redo only in pictures.
Just wait til you see the stain! Might be the only time in my life as a mother where I welcome a stain with glee.
In other news, I used to rent an apartment with a garden tub and shelf much like the one we're installing. It had a shower, too;...
Jun
26
2006
7With the new baby the days have been a blur. These are the things that happened over the last 2 weeks.
1. The Garden Tub. This is a big (expensive) screw up. Somehow our contractor thought that, because we wanted a garden tub in the master bath, that meant we did not want a shower. The tub he installed cannot be used for a shower....
Jun
28
2006
1
Trim
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
It might not seem like trim could be such a big deal, but it is.
Before I met David, my love of remodeling was mostly limited to reading renovation stories in Better Homes or watching This Old House. I surfed the web and bookmarked photos that I lovingly called "house porn."...
Jul
1
2006
7Your weekly update, new and improved with a cute baby in every post! We are in the final stretch. The time left before we move in can be measured in weeks not months. And I can almost count what's left to do on my fingers (ok ... and toes) (ok ... might need my wife's fingers and toes too).
This week was:
Trim
We had new trim...
Jul
4
2006
1I learned the terms for the interior window trim last week. The board at the bottom of the window is a stool (not a "sill" that is a exterior term) and the trim underneath that is the apron.
There are some small differences in the new window trim. The stool is less chunky and sticks out less on the sides, which is not great...
Jul
10
2006
6Well, the cabinet guy postponed and postponed, then he worked a half day on Saturday and decided he had had enough. Ikea 2, me and cabinet guy zero.
Two thirds of the kids were out of town so I watched a 15 min Ikea video on-line and headed over to the house to take a swing at it.
I took down all but three of the cabinets...
Jul
13
2006
5The issue of the day is railing for the upstairs deck. Since the deck is built and they are ready to put up the railing like, yesterday, this is a heckuva time to tell us the railing we speced out in January won't work.
The issue is horizontalness. We want cables running horizontally. There is a rumor that the city won't...
Jul
18
2006
1
The dumpster is gone. We were so excited when it arrived.
When they took it away last week, I almost didn't notice.
Jul
18
2006
3
Super big thanks and a fresh basket of good karma to my farther-in-law who spent the best 10 hours of his Sunday helping me put up the rest of the kitchen cabinets.
The cabinet guy had hung the glass cabinets about .75 inches lower than the other wall cabinets, and he had put the base cabinet underneath about a half inch...
Jul
21
2006
4
IMG_8420
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
That's right, baby! Countertops!!! This day has been anticipated almost as much as the day the dumpster arrived. A kitchen just doesn't look like a kitchen without countertops.
We chose Wilsonart Laminate in Slate Gray. I chose it a few months ago based on a walkthrough...
Jul
23
2006
3
Peter's House, Our Temporary Home
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
Have I mentioned how awesome our rental experience has been?
A million times, I have wanted to blog about our rental. This place rocks. Hardwoods, ceramic tile in the kitchen, and a HUGE covered back porch that was a lifesaver for the kids on hot or rainy...
Jul
24
2006
0Week 23: Trimmy-trim-trim.
Monday. Trim.
Tuesday (July 4th). Trim.
Wednesday. Trim. Pocket door frame.
Thursday. Trim. Pocket door drywall.
Friday. Dumpster is gone.
Saturday. Cabinet guy quits.
Sunday. Re-install most of the cabinets.
Week 24: Hold the baby, I'm opening a can of woop-ass and I need both hands!
Monday....
Jul
25
2006
4We. Are. Moving.
I'm not sure where. I hope it's that cool house on Grover.
This morning I handed the Super a punch list with 108 items on it. Tonight, I scratched 1 item off that list.
AC Condensers were installed.
Two more items were almost done.
Deck Railing - needs handrail. Laundry Floor - needs threshold.
I...
Jul
26
2006
0
Yea for the punch list. The guys knocked out about a third of the list today. We got door knobs, lights, AC, a pocket door and about 35 other things.
There was a snag installing the stove. The City of Austin requires that gas valves be available without moving the appliance. This means the gas line had to come up through...
Jul
26
2006
0We've got a big crew at the house, it's hot, they are working hard, and everybody is getting punchy.
Plumber: Hey, Sparky!
Electrician: Aww, I was just thinkin' about you.
Plumber: Pervert!
Electrician: I was just thinkin' I wish I'd got here before you put in this goddamn gas line.
Later, in front of the house.
Me: It's...
Jul
26
2006
113 items checked off of the punch list today.
Deck - Railings
Downstairs Bath - install lights
Downstairs Bath - Fix pipes under sink
Downstairs Bedroom - Install or replace fan
Exterior - cut bolts out of concrete pad
Exterior - remove 2x4 from concrete pad
Hallway - window latch
Kids Bath - Shower trim
Kitchen - outlets...
Jul
28
2006
3Thursday, two items crossed off.
Hallway fire alarm
Stairs pendant light
The railing in the stairs is not done yet. Maybe today. We got the release for moving the electrical meter to the house. City of Austin cheerfully told me it would be done in 1 - 3 business days.
The floor in the master bath is done. Walls today.
Everything...
Jul
28
2006
1
IMG_8646
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
People always talk about what a nightmare remodeling is. When I first started telling people about our plans, long before we had even hired a contractor, people would tell me their stories.
"Our master bath addition took seven years!"
"Our kitchen contractor practically...
Aug
2
2006
13June 1: Four Months. Original Estimate for the project was 3 - 4 months.
June 10: Baby Erwin's due date. We built that bathroom for birthin'!
June 17: Baby Erwin is born in the rental.
June 28: Unofficial kickoff marked on June 28, 2005 when we put half of our stuff into storage and Christiane and the kids moved in with...
Aug
4
2006
1Last Friday I had the unique (maybe once in a lifetime) joy of filling a shopping cart with light bulbs for the whole house. I needed about 65. So many that I organized an Excel spreadsheet so I would know how many of each wattage to get.
I was so excited about my big bag 'o bulbs, that I stopped by the house and made Christiane...
Aug
5
2006
1Friday July 28th: Our electric meter was put on the house. Many, many things did not work, but the AC did. We had 7yo's birthday sleepover (at the rental). Bought light bulbs.
Saturday: I went to the house and pulled up all the cardboard from the floor, swept twice, then wet swiffered the whole downstairs. Painters showed...
Aug
5
2006
2Yesterday, our contractor said a cleaning crew would be by the house tomorrow and please, would we not go over there. Then Christiane got this in her fortune cookie.
We took it as a sign. We took the last day off. We did not go to the house. (Well, one drive by, but we didn't stop.) We went to the park, we had coffee,...
Aug
9
2006
15
IMG_Ribbon Cutting
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
We're in! We're in! We're in! We're in!
It's official. As of Sunday evening, we're in the Erwin House. Welcome home, family.
And I feel a little like David Byrne. Who's refrigerator is this? This isn't my vaulted ceiling! I might as well enjoy the deck...
Aug
14
2006
4
IMG_9161
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
There is no time for blogging when curtains need to be hung, shelves mounted, cabinets assembled, boxes emptied, linens washed, tchotchkies organized, and appliances appreciated.
The coffee nook was one of the first areas to be finished and used. The game room (we were...
Aug
21
2006
5I've been taking notes on my first impressions of the house over the first two weeks. Here they are.
Appliances: I have always had bottom-of-the-line appliances. I haven't had a refrigerator with an ice machine since I was in high school (except for the rental we had while renovating). So having crushed ice in the door...
Aug
22
2006
6
Last Wednesday, the mason finally showed up to install the stone wall. No joke, I hadn't felt like blogging because the stone wall was unfinished. I know that sounds pretty lame, but it is true. There was something about that wall that felt monumental to me. It felt like the last thing, even though it wasn't--isn't.
Anyway,...
Aug
23
2006
1Tomorrow we make the final payment to our contractor. That means it's time for a real mortgage.
Here's a re-cap of our past experience with our bank (affectionately called "Hakuna Matata Federal Credit Union").
From January 26
...our bank put the wrong amount on the loan. Lame. And too late to fix it today. Better luck...
Sep
5
2006
2
I've been on home tours where the kids' rooms are a little over done. Stuffed animals arranged on hooks on the wall in the girl's room, or a perfect display of antique sporting goods in the boy's room. It's like the kids are just another accessory for their parents to decorate with.
We let the boys decorate their own rooms....
Sep
7
2006
0
Vaulted Ceiling
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
True, Erwin House is practically perfect. It is certainly my dream house. Still... there are some things I would change. Here's numero uno in the ongoing list of Things I'd Do Different.
Originally, we talked about painting each room in the house a different...
Sep
8
2006
4
Can Lights
Originally uploaded by daviderwin.
We had such a hard time deciding what to buy from Rejuvenation. After all, it would be easy to deplete a savings account or two with even a small spending spree there.
One of the items we loved was the Enterprise. It is shiny and edgy and can be used outdoors.
But,...
Sep
13
2006
4Christiane has a moving rule. Move the art first. That way the old house no longer feels like home, and you get your butt over to the new one as fast as possible. (My rule is move the stereo first, same reason.)
We had an unusual moving experience and did not follow the rule. In fact, all our art sat in a closet for nearly...
Sep
21
2006
4Throughout the project we have been taking picture from the same vantage points. Last week I put them together in a Flickr Slide Show. Below is a preview of some of the shots.
Sep
27
2006
1It isn't that there is nothing interesting going on at the Erwin House. If you consider cleaning, organizing, and purging interesting, then it is a regular kegger around here.
Actually, we've been going 20 rounds with Hakuna Matata, our friendly community credit union. And it hasn't been pretty.
The good news is that,...
Oct
20
2006
6Last September, David and I finally made our plans official: we called a few contractors and started getting bids based on the hundred-fifty-something draft we had created using the Better Homes and Gardens software. After multiple calls and interviews, we settled on Ace Bridwell and his company, Superior Renovations.
Within...
Oct
29
2006
7
I had this idea to turn the whole house into a jack-o-lantern. I picked up some poster board at the grocery store, and the boys and I blocked out the windows. 7yo designed the teeth, carefully sketching them on paper before getting out the ruler and scissors.
I wonder if we'll do this every year.
Happy Halloween!
Nov
10
2006
3
Long story about the jelly jar lights. We wanted the Otis from Rejuvenation, but it would have cost over $1k for all the lights we have. And we didn't like it that much, so we spec'ed cheap ($2.71) jelly jar lights for some of the lights and kept shopping for the others. The electrician installed the jelly jar lights in all the wrong...
Dec
30
2006
3
[15:32] thismetalife: there?
[15:32] dmetx1969: yup
[15:32] thismetalife: um
[15:32] thismetalife: i made a boo boo
[15:32] dmetx1969: waiting
[15:32] thismetalife: does AAA tow?
[15:33] dmetx1969: yeah
[15:33] dmetx1969: flat tire?
[15:33] thismetalife: um... from your own yard?
[15:33] dmetx1969: stuck in mud?
[15:33]...
Jan
12
2007
6
We've had to tell the kids to wear shoes outside the house. That they should look out for screws, staples, knife blades, saw blades, broken glass, staples, and rusty nails. We had a guy go over our whole yard with a magnet, twice. Each time filling buckets with these items.
So yesterday 4yo walks in with this thing.
I...
Jan
19
2007
5
About a year ago, when we moved out of the house in preparation for the remodel, ladybugs swarmed our bathroom. By "swarmed" I mean there were about a dozen. Which is a lot of ladybugs in an 830 square foot house.
Now that we are back, so are the ladybugs, only in much higher numbers. They buzz the lights in the kitchen,...
Jan
26
2007
1
Before Erwin House, I had never lived in a house with a bar. When we were designing it, I kept thinking about the Sopranos hanging out with their teenagers at their bar. It took us 3 months after moving in to find the perfect bar stools, and for that time the bar was a surface that collected paper, dirty glasses, and stuff....
Jan
27
2007
7
Our front door is finally finished. We stained it to match the stairs and with that last coat of varnish it looks glorious.
The first photo is a mid century ranch house around the corner from our house. I love this entry door and we decided to copy it for our front door. Our little neighborhood is full of these mid-century...
Feb
1
2007
0
Having to call AAA to tow the minivan out of our backyard was the last straw. So we ordered up a driveway. You know what it's like when you go to the grocery store hungry and you buy, like, a lot of food? Well, we're getting a lot of driveway. And a new sidewalk to boot.
The driveway starts out two cars wide, swoops around...
Feb
9
2007
1Chickenpox is here. We are going through it with typical Erwin House efficiency. 7 year old got it about 3 weeks ago and now 7 month old and 4 year old are synchronized. Both produced spots this afternoon. We know the drill and it should be over (forever) in about 7 days.
Hu-boy. Family vacation in 8 days. Hope we can go because...
Jun
15
2007
2
In the past two weeks we have had one car wreck, one case of German measles, one outer ear infection, one dead owl, one dead squirrel, and two dead fledglings. We built a fence, shipped 2 doors, and built an e-commerce website.
Last weekend I got all fearless with a 20" chainsaw rented from the local Big Box. I took out 4 dead...
Apr
3
2009
1Thinking about buying, renovating, and somehow keeping it green at the same time? You might want to check out this article on Bankrate:
Green mortgages save on energy, loan costs
Excerpt:
"Most energy-efficient mortgage, or EEM, programs let you qualify for bigger loans than you would otherwise by folding...