Our Monona Mess

  No Day 90 After 90 days of our Monona Mess, we took a day off. I cleaned some jalousie windows and that is it! Nothing else.  On day 91, we started right back in.  Dave worked on continuing the wiring.  He has to get the closer to ready to install, including stripping and splicing them.  Then we continued working on the breezeway.  Since we had to rip out most of the ceiling to deal with the electricity, we decided to raise the roof to open the space. Dave dropped the rest of the insulation this morning.  Then he climbed up on the roof and mended the hole where the old vent was on the house and put the new vent in the breezeway (we had water damage from condensation from the roof on our initial inspection and knew that it needed a vent.) Then Dave noticed that he put it in upside down and sent me to Home Depot to get another one. In fact, if you wonder what I worked on--well, I looked up wiring specs, went to Home Depot twice, pick up groceries at 2 ...

  2 out 3 Ain't Bad Dave spent the morning stapling the wires for the inspection.  But unfortunately, we did not pass our wiring inspection. We need to spend the weekend working on wiring each circuit and attaching the recessed lights.  But the plumbing inspection and the framing inspection both passed with just a couple of little fixes needed. We will get the wiring (and HVAC because we found out the company we hired never pulled a permit) reinspected next week and then we will be ready to close up the walls and start putting it all back together.   

  A Visitor On Tuesday morning, I opened the door to leave for work and saw a rabbit. I closed the door. When I reopened it and he was gone. Later Dave found him here. He probably got in the day before when the window people left the door propped open all day and spent the night inside. Dave left the door open for him to leave today. The main focus on Tuesday and Wednesday was the final push to be ready for rough-in inspection on Thursday.  The plumber finished the plumbing, but not without a couple of hiccups, like switching the hot and cold on the sink or finding a pin hole leak at the very end.  Dave (and I and Chad) ran the rest of the wires for the stove, the dryer, and the bathroom.  Wiring was also not without its hiccups either, such as finding a wiring mess (we have no idea what the numbers coordinate with) or having the ceiling bust open (dumping insulation and mouse crap on the kitchen floor) and needing to be repaired with mesh.  Dave also ground dow...

  Bathroom Progress This morning the window installer came back and put in the 2 bathroom windows. Both windows were too big to be in a bathroom or they needed to be tempered class.  We decided since one was over the toilet and one was over the bathtub to make them smaller to let light in, but keep some privacy.  They fit perfectly inside, but it changes the look from the outside quite a bit. Dave spent the evening taking out old wiring and moving the light at the top of the stairs. 

  Filling the Crack Today was a busy and, at times, challenging day. Dave began the morning by filling the the crack in the basement wall.  First, he used epoxy to put nipples up and down the crack and then he covered the entire crack with epoxy.  Then he mixed up the foaming solution and injected it into the nipples beginning with the bottom and working his way up. Through the rest of the day, the plumber continued to work on plumbing for the kitchen and swapped out the few remaining copper pipes, so he had the water off for much of the day. Dave worked on ripping out old electrical outlets and lights, so he also had the electricity off in parts of the house during the day.   

  Progress at Last Dave had to work today, but lots happened while he was working. This morning the window guy came to install the new kitchen window.  The new window is smaller to fit over the countertops in the new kitchen.  It creates a very different look both inside and outside.  But the north side of the house is looking pretty good.  While Dave worked, I worked on several projects on my own. I removed the rest of the carpet from the kitchen and the entryway.  The tile started to come up with the nails in the by the door.  I also cleaned one section of the jalousie windows--that is 25 slats--only 200 more to go. This picture does not quite show how amazing the difference is, but notice how the top window on the right looks frosted.  That one is not clean yet in this picture because I needed to wait until Dave was done working so he could  get it out for me. The windows were disgusting.  The plumber worked on the house today too....

  Breezeway Beautification The breezeway may never be finished (the house may never be finished either) but on Friday, Dave made the outside look pretty.  He added some trim and caulk and painted the wood and at least from the outside, it looks great--the above picture is the front and below is the back.  Let me remind you that the inside still looks like this though.  Dave took off work on Thursday and Friday to work on wiring. On Thursday night, our friends Anne and Chad both helped us to run some long runs through the basement. It sure was nice to have 4 people pulling wires instead of just the 2 of use. On Friday, Dave spent the day tacking down those wires through the basement and bringing them to the fuse box.  On Thursday, Dave and I also took the old copper pipes in for recycling and made $200 and then we went shower shopping. We are still having a hard time finding the right shower for the master bath--in stock and at a decent price.  Speaking of s...

  Getting Ready for Rough In We just really want to get to rough in inspection, so every evening is about wiring. Lauryn and Teagan even get asked to help because sometimes we just need more hands.  We continue to wait for windows so that we can finish adding the rest of the electric.  Dave had an electrician come today to inspect his work and see if we are on the right track and the good news is that we are--the bad news is that we have quite a bit left to go.  While he was here, the electrician also fixed the wiring in the garage for Dave.  While working tonight, we tried out ways to lay the tiles in the hall bathroom. Which one do you like?

  Empty Storage Unit Dave and I (and his parents) worked hard today, but most of it is not picture worthy. We put together the final shelving unit for the garage and cleaned up.  Then we worked in the yard some. Dave's mom trimmed some bushes now that they are blooming and Dave took the stump out near the road (it is already gone).  We ended the day by getting the last of EVERYTHING out of the storage unit. At the end of the day, we were too exhausted to even empty the van.  While we worked, the plumber also put in many more water lines, installed the hose bibs (hard water in the front and one hard and one soft in the back, so Dave can wash his Mustang in soft water) and installed the water filter. 

  Polarity problems Dave's adventure in the breezeway opened him up to wiring upset. On Saturday, he spend the entire day trying to figure out what the heck someone had done with the wiring and how to fix it.  Above, you can see the switches and an outlet near the overhead garage door. These switches are for the garage lights, breezeway, and outside lights, so we we currently have to go out to the garage and through it to turn the breezeway and outside lights on and off. They stupidly come in from that junction box that you can see below.  The ceiling in the breezeway was a mess. Poorly insulated, gross and disgusting, and so many wires going through one light box that was totally over heated.  Dave (with help from Chad) worked all day to try to get it all figured out and rewired and at the end of the day--he hooked up the new wire and...it almost all worked. So he climbed up in the garage to see what was going on and discovered that lights had reversed polarity....

  No Shiplap On Day 74, we took the day off. It is the first time in 74 days that no one worked on the house. I did go to the storage unit and bring home a load of rubbermaid containers so that we can get rid of the storage unit soon, but we watched TV, played video games, and did not work on the house.  On Thursday, we ran 2 runs of wire from the kitchen to the fusebox at the same time--down the wall and threaded through many holes in the joists.  We also found out that the windows are delayed...AGAIN...and the flooring for the laundry room and front entry is in. On Friday, we decided to work on the breezeway again. Dave wanted to check on what was going on on the other side of the light switches. True to this house, there seemed to be too many wires going into one box and it was not clear where they all were going when they left the box.  He opened the wall in the breezeway and found that cool tongue and groove wood (it is not really shiplap, but it looks cool anyw...

  One Wall by the Numbers 9 joists cut 3 beams attached together with 45 special LVL 3 3/8" screws 18 2x10 blockings between joists and truss tonailed with 90 screws 15 2x10 hangers  180 special hanger screws 9 49inch straps with 26 fasteners in each 1 wall completely gone

  A Big Project Today was day 2 of taking out the wall. Dave began by blocking the 2x4s that hold up the beam to the concrete walls in the basement for support.  One is in the corner of the basement and the other is above the toilet downstairs. While he worked on this, I drove to Delavan to get the correct screws to attach the 2 beams together. That was the only place that was open on Sunday that had the correct type and length of special screws.  When I got back, Dave worked on attaching the beams together and hanging the trusses on the beam.  Then he and his mom cleaned up the insulation. Mary is camouflaged in the dining room.  At the end of the day, the wall was out, but the jack was still there trying to life the ceiling on the living room side until we could put in the blocking.