Ceiling's Done!

Yay, the Man finished the ceiling! Voila la! What a difference!! From cracking, ugly plaster to a smooth drywall finish.  The Man did a great job, and fairly quick too. Only about 2 weeks since the ceiling fell.

And our temporary living room is restored back to normal! For now....

It's so nice to have another room back again.....just having our bedroom was rough for the last 2 weeks....

Lady Out!

New Year, New Challenges

Happy New Year!! 2015!!

First blog of the year.... here we go.

What a delightful way to start the new year! On January 2nd, our ceiling in the "brown" room aka our TV and temporary living room just fell down. Yes, out of nowhere. Well not exactly. There was a hairline crack around Christmas time which exponentially grew everyday but we tried to ignore it, hoping it would just hold. And it did not hold. In fact, the plaster ceiling came crumbling down on our sofa and rug. Good thing my little Punas were not hurt! So here's the damage:

(Exposed lath and missing plaster)

(The Man was right on it, the next day filling the hole with drywall)

(Drywall puzzle)

(Drywall puzzle with washers to hold down the existing plaster ceiling edges)

(The Man carefully cutting out drywall "puzzle" pieces)

(The next day, plastering begins....and the Lady is taping up the seams with fabric mesh tape, to keep the seams from
cracking as the Man claims. There is no way to put mesh tape up without getting dirty, it's a messy job!)

(just like that, here's my contribution: mesh tape on the seams between drywall and plaster. The Man swears by
this. Otherwise, you'll be sorry with cracks down the seams)

(Tape while the plaster mud is still wet, so it can adhere well)

(Me on the ladder looking out to our street)

Offffff course with any construction or renovation, you always hit a hiccup. Plastering on the old ceiling with a combo of the new drywall has backfired a tad on the man. We got some major bubbling and peeling from the old ceiling (not strong enough to hold the new plaster), so the Man had to remove the new plaster that he just plastered on and put big chunks of mesh up on the ceiling to hold the new plaster to the old ceiling. Yes, complicated, tedious hard work.

It set him back a few days and frustrated him as well. He said he's drywalling all of the ceilings from now on.Sounds good! Plus we got some rain this weekend, which dampened the environment, so we couldn't paint. He finished plastering and sanding/sponging the ceilings but we're just waiting for all of it to dry up to paint.

Patience. Live and learn. Two attributes we will probably come across again and again this year.

Working mode,
The Lady

Week 8: Designing On The Fly

Week 8......wow, we are in Week 8 already? Today is the first day of Autumn. Summer is officially over and we have own this house for 2 months. Time flies. I'm so glad it's Autumn though. I am looking forward to cooler but sunny crisp weather.

Back to the casa......seems like I have been "designing on the fly" a lot recently, which has resulted in a few change orders (kicking myself in the butt), headaches and design that is not well planned. NEVER design on the fly. If you can help it. And never, ever design without specifying!!! What the hell, everything I learned in school and from my mentors, I have bloody thrown out the window. I am going against everything I learned!!! Ugh, I am upset at myself for this. Do you homework kids. Specify, specify, specify. Know your crap before you design it, so you don't look like a dummy in front of the GC and foreman.

The Man and I were at the house till about 8pm last night with our foreman. He was patient enough to wait and go through it with us as we "designed on a fly." Part of being a designer is "working" out the kinks with the foreman, making design and construction decisions together. What you see in AutoCAD or your drawing is different from what is on-site. Probably the number one rule of construction that I learned early on from my mentors. So naturally, sometimes designing in the field is necessary. Last night, it was necessary.

(Bathroom wall where the toilet and vanity will be going)

(The Man and the foreman working out the details of the window molding. He is having a hard time salvaging
the old stuff since it's so old.....)

(Classic example of designing on the fly. My notes on the back of sheetrock for the
foreman to build-out. Tonight it was deciding on where to put the shower "niches" for
shampoo, soaps and such. As you can see the sharpie markings on the studs, we
obviously didn't know what we were doing and kept changing our minds.....)

(Finally the bathroom is closing up! Drywall's up and lighting's in!)

(Drywall's up and the walls are closed up. Drain and shower/tub valves are in so
it's ready for hot mopping and cementing!)

(Downstairs, the laundry room's complete...almost. The old water supplies for the laundry need to be canceled.
Next step, floating cement. Oh joy. My rage from last week was about floating cement and how it's going to add
thickness to the existing floors - because our floors are warped....we'll see how it comes out)

(Aside from what the GC is working on, which is the bathroom, kitchen, laundry, the Man has his own projects,
which is getting at least one room ready for move-in soon. This is moving at snail pace. As you can see, the ceiling looks
like crap after we scrapped the popcorn ceiling off. The Man is drilling washer and glue into the existing plaster
to reinforce it, so it doesn't come crumbling down later on....)

At least Autumn is here,
The Lady