New Blue, Goodbye Beige

Today we started painting the house. Got a little rain, which slowed the process.

Jimmy raked and tore out the overgrown. Julian helped mulch the front planter, nearly unloading the truck single-handedly!

Wheeeeee!

Passed electrical inspection with flying colors. Thanks, Matt!

Have narrowed the paint choices down to 2 or 3. Tomorrow we say goodbye to the yellow/beige of the last 11 years.

Finishing the Front Door

Today we urethaned the outside of the front door with a marine varnish. Shiny, to say the least. Used a polyurethane on the inside. Nice, dried fast. Also installed the new door handle and deadbolt.

Inspections & Door Framing

We've done two inspections for electrical and about three for construction. Our next electrical inspection is tomorrow and hopefully we will be clear for insulation and drywall.

At this point we are cleared to stucco the outside of the building, pending the door being framed out and finished. Joe worked on that today though I'm not sure if the framing is completely done.

The Amaryllis Show

Photo by Julian.

Yard Work

Also hired a guy named Gil to do some trimming on the pine tree. It looks better but man is it dropping the sap! Don't stand still or you'll be combing it out of your hair!

He also helped us hang the staghorn which had been on the ground and had gotten the worst of the January freezes. Here's a little friend we found in there.

Matt the Electrician

We hired an electrician through a friend's referral and have really been pleased. Matt has worked his rear end off in the Florida heat, digging and cutting through concrete and doing whatever the inspector asks. Here he is cutting through the patio.


Digging the trench between house and bandroom.



Has to be 18 inches from surface!!

Windows

We are very pleased with the work that Bella Glass did last week
on the 9 fixed-pane windows.

Here's our little orphan window. Joe was hesitant to remove the old wood,
so we'll just fill it with putty and stucco it in.

the Main House

We have also hired another handyman, David G., to do some work on the main house. His first task was to finish the windows Jimmy and Lou replaced over the years. Trim them out and caulk it all nice. He did this on Monday the 9th, then spent the 10th through 12th pressure washing and caulking and patching and fixing some of the unfinished work that our crappy soffit guy left us with. Next week he will start painting!

The Return of Joe

I've been negligent in my records-keeping on this project. More "doing" than "writing about" these days ... but here I have a lull on a Sunday so I'm filling in the blanks.

Last Saturday Joe returned, and he brought Kevin. The two of them finished the furring strips, including the horizontal piece between each; they finished framing out the front windows; they drilled ventilation holes in all the crossbeams; they loaded up all the tools no longer needed; they swept the bandroom clean and neat and took all the trash either to the curb or the back of their truck. Nice!!!

Resuming Progress

There has been a slow trickle of progress so far this year. We completed the hurricane-strapping part of the process. This morning we passed (building) inspection.

Our zoning hearing was cancelled and the case closed (thank you thank you thank you).

The electrical is underway.

We hired Bella Glass to do the fixed-pane windows. They framed everything in Monday. Monday night Jimmy and I primed all the wood & trim. Tuesday they cut and installed the glass in the 8 fixed-pane windows. It looks great.

Red Cap Plumbing took care of three dripping faucets and capped the pipes that used to run into the side of the bandroom, then pulled all the nasty rusting pipes off the wall (except in one spot that we will have to break and patch).

We hired a carpenter to finish framing in the door. Once that is done, we can stucco the outside and paint.

Got a little more to do on the furring strips.

Things are getting done.