In this chapter a lot of different things are going on so we will be all over the place working. This house is driving Mike nuts because he likes to work on one project, finish it, and move on to the next project. Well... we haven't been able to do that
.
11/21
Back to the fencing. Mike and I picked up more fencing to complete the back fence.
This is our process.
First Mike drills into the concrete.
And then he screws in the concrete anchors.
After that is done the post has to be bolted down.
Then we put the white cover over the post and start screwing in the fence panels.
We have to make a gate for the fence since they don't pre make them. After we cut it down and add the wood for the cross bracing we install it. The fence and gate is done on one side.
The fence and gate on the other side by the garden area.
While we are working on the fence Mark 2 shows up to finish the pool. He starts off by cleaning the pool with some potent chemicals. Next he makes repairs on the pool with new fiberglass.
He rolls on fiberglass to patch it.
Mike calls our old curbing man to see if he can give us a quote. He says he can come the following day to give us a quote on both houses.
The next day he shows up and gives us a reasonable price. We do the same thing on every Florida house for landscaping. First we get rid of the overgrowth. Then we have curbing installed around the house and around any larger trees or garden areas. After that we re sod up to the curbing. Then we out rock in the gardens to keep it clean before we paint the house. Then we plant. It makes a little more work to do all the planting at the end but it keeps the house the cleanest for painting.
His crew will be back before the end of the month.
That night Mike and I start working on the wood floor in the kitchen and dining area. The hardest part of this job is figuring out to start the job, lol.
We are installing a real Mahogany click and lock floor. We start at our angled entrance.
11-23
Mark 2 is back to work on the pool. He starts off by rolling on the first coat of resin and this is some really stinky stuff.
We got our first quote to replace the front window and back window of the house. It came in at $1576.00 for 2 windows.
If it was my house I would have replaced the windows and put in Formica counters in the Kitchen and finished the back fence. Since it is not my house and I don't think many women buying a house will want Formica so we will have to pass on the windows. At least the new owners, if they want to replace the windows will get the tax credit. But a lot of the houses here still have working original windows.
And on that note the granite men show up to do the templates for our tops. Here are our templates.
And
They will use those templates back at the shop to make our granite tops.
That night Mike and I get back to work on the kitchen floor. It's coming along.
11-24
Mark 2 shows up to do the final coat of resin on the pool.
I get back to doing a job I was avoiding in hopes that we would be able to get new windows. I am going through a ton of razor blades.
Here I am scraping away.
And on the back window making a mess.
Mark 1 shows up to pressure wash the driveway and prep it for staining. Mark is hungry for work so Mike and I decided to give him some extra work. We could have done the driveway but this way it will get done faster. Mark also gave us a quote for ripping out our old lawn and putting in new sod.
Later on the we get an estimate form a painter to do the outside of the house. He came in at $2580.00 which is way too much. Back to the drawing board.
The Home Depot measuring man showed up to measure our house for carpet. We found a carpet that will match our counters, cabinets, and wood flooring perfect, at least that's what we hope. Home Depot had to do a full measurement before they can give us a final price.
11-27
Today Mike and I started painting the bedrooms. Again he does all the rolling and I do the cut in.
Here he is painting one of our many dreaded closets. They are dreaded because there is no way to get done without making a mess. The space is just too tight.
It was a good day. We got both bedrooms done.
Home Depot called us with our real quote. They are trying to nickel and dime us on the install
. That's how they can advertise $139.00 for whole house installation because they charge extra for everything. We told them we would have to shop around some more.
We went to a couple of smaller carpet places that were recommended. Yes they could match the "price" but the quality of thee carpet was far less than the HD carpet.
Finally we go back to Home Depot and talk to the Flooring man. After a lot of haggling they gave us an additional $736.00 off. Ok we can handle that.
when the carpet comes in they will call us with an install date. Now we have to move it along in this house.
While we were there I also ordered the master bathroom vanity which turned out to be a small fiasco but I won in the end. They don't carry the vanity in the store so I have to order it through their catalog. I know the vanity because we used the same one in TN otherwise I never order something without seeing it. So Home Depot's on-line site had the double vanity for $529.00 with free shipping and the HD store catalog has the exact same vanity for $699.00
What a rip. So I have to talk to a salesman and the manager because I want the on-line price plus my 10% off. I also want it shipped to the store and not my house this way if there is a problem with the vanity DH has to take care of it. Finally I get the $699.00 vanity for $476.00. Woo hoo. So between the carpet and the vanity it was a good day of savings.
11-29
Today Mark is going to stain our driveway. We decided to keep the driveway since it is in good shape and hopefully make it look better.
The first square is stained. I hope this looks good.
Mark and Rick staining the driveway.
While Mark and Rick are outside staining the driveway, Mike and I are inside painting the bathroom and the hallway. We get done with tat and start the ceiling in the den area.
The driveway has 2 coats of stain.
The next day is busy. Mark and rick will be back to do the border and lines on the driveway and the curbing will also get done. the outside should really start coming together. Woo hoo.
Mark starts off by taping off the driveway.
The curbing crew show up to work. It's a pretty cool process.
First they dump in the sand
And then they mix in the concrete and then add water.
After it is mixed on their truck they put the mix into a wheelbarrow and bring it to the curbing machine.
They shovel the mix into the machine and it spits out curbing. How cool is that? I love it. It's the little things that make me happy, lol.
Next they smooth out the curbs.
And add some expansion joints.
Now that they finished the curbing at this house Mike and I go over to the other house with them.
We come back to see how Mark did with the border. We talked about doing the border and putting in 2 or 3 vertical lines across the driveway but no seeing it we decided against the additional lines. We don't want to make the original squares in the driveway stand out.
Here is our driveway with the border. Now we have to pick a house color. We might do it the same as the border.
Well that finishes up our second month in this house. I think we are doing pretty well. Now we will be in for the final push. I hope you all enjoyed our story.
Lisa
