New Office Space - Day 37

Boy am I glad I contracted out the finishing of the drywall to C & S Drywall, Inc.! First of all Barry showed up 30 to 45 minutes early which is amazing for a contractor. Then he started his magic with the fancy tools. Like I always say, "It's all about the tools." He taped and mudded all the seems and covered all the screw heads and was out the door in an hour. I was shocked. He'll be back tomorrow night to put on the corner bead and what ever else. I'll try to post pictures after then.

New Office Space - Day 36

As I was leaving work today I saw my electrician contact and he said he would be able to come over this week and install the new sub panel. That was the first piece of good news. Later I received a phone call from the drywall finisher and he is starting tomorrow. This is great news! It's really coming together now.



Later we went out to dinner at Max & Erma's with Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Jan and Doc. The girl's school was having a fund raiser where 20% of the proceeds from the bill went to the school and we also thought is was a good way to celebrate us almost completing a month of doing pretty well on our goals that we set. We had a good time and some good food.

New Office Space - Day 34

Oh Yeah! Today around 12:30pm I put on the very last piece of drywall. It was a tiny little piece on the inside of the game closet and boy did I let out a holler when it was done. I was so happy to have that part of this project completed. That took a lot of time and a lot of energy but I think it is going to be worth it.

I called the drywall finishing contractor who had come out to our house about a week ago to give us a quote and left him a message asking him what we need to do to get on his schedule. This is the next step and I can't imagine how much better it is going to look after that part is done and then we will be able to prime it and paint it.

New Office Space - Day 32

I got out of .NET training early today so I was able to come home and get some dry walling done before Kelly had to leave for Crop night.  I got almost the entire game closet dry walled.  I only have a couple of small strips left to call it completely finished.

Only a few more pieces of drywall to go.  Cross your fingers that it will be finished by this weekend.

New Office Space - Day 30

One month into the project and I would say if there were a few less interruptions (but that's life) and a few less home repairs along the way, this might be close to a finished project. Oh well I think it is going pretty well.



I came home for lunch today and did some electrical work and some minor prep work.



My Dad came over and we installed a new register and the drywall that goes around it. It was a little tricky, but as you can see we got the job done. I also installed another little piece of drywall before cleaning up for the night.

New Office Space - Day 29

Long time no update, sorry about that!  I have been doing some work but I have been bad about posting my updates.  Actually the work has seemed kind of slow as well.  I finally got the existing network, phone, and satellite wiring reworked and put into it's new place so that I could drywall the wall between the laundry room and the new office.

 

I also put up a few pieces of drywall on that wall separating the two rooms and ran a few electrical cables so that I can put up the last piece of drywall on that wall, hopefully tomorrow.  I'm currently in training for work so I may be getting home later in the day but I also may get home early like today so we'll see.

 

Here's another picture of Kaden helping out.  He's going to be a pro at this by age two!

 

New Office Space - Day 25

Another day, another helping hand from Dad. Dad came over and we went and picked up eleven more sheets of drywall along with some other things from Menard's. We came back and hung a couple of small pieces before I realized that I was out of drywall screws. I thought for sure I had another box out in the garage. Another trip to Menard's. I should have bought their stock before I started this project.



Dad had to get going to try and get his glasses fixed, the ones that I stepped on and broke the frames last Saturday. Sorry Dad! Then he was going with Mom and the rest of the Sisters to have dinner with my Grandparents who are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary today. That is cool!



I hung a few more sheets of drywall and the closet is almost completely covered with drywall. Only a few more tiny pieces to go and then the ceiling.

New Office Space - Day 24

Did lots of prep work on the closet wall to get it ready for drywall, hung two sheets of drywall, then started prep work on the wall separating the laundry room and the new office. I only have a one and half more studs to nail in but I had to quit so the kiddies could go to bed. I was on a roll too. Anyway here's a picture of the closets with the newest drywall on them and the finished picture of the sump pump installation.

New Office Space - Day 23

I finally found a lid for the sump pump basin today at the Menard's South of town. I had to modify it a little bit to get it to fit but it looks good. I also used plastic ties to attach the drain pipes and cords to make the installation look more professional.



I did some prep work on the back of the closet wall. It was quite unsquare so I was making some changes to make it square before hanging the drywall.



A drywall finishing contractor came over today and said it would be a $200-250 job to finish the drywall I'm hanging. I'll be glad to pay that and save myself the headache of doing that work. He said he could do it next week if all the drywall was ready. He estimated four days to complete the project.

New Office Space - Day 22

Well today started out like any other day until I came downstairs to check my email before going to work. It was then that I discovered that the basement was flooded (part of the basement) and the sump pump was just sitting there stuck at the top with water just pouring over the basin. This is the third time in the past few months that something similar to this has happened so today I decided it was time to replace the darn thing.



I emailed my boss and told her I would be taking a personal day to clean up and replace the sump pump. While I was cleaning up and waiting for some of the room to dry I took apart the shelves in the laundry room since they needed to come down so that the new office space could be drywalled.

I went to Menard's and purchased a new submersible pump to replace the old pedestal style that we had. These are supposed to be quieter, which would be nice since my desk will be on the other side of the wall. I worked on this for quite a while but finally got it installed. I also installed a new GFCI outlet in the laundry room for the washer and the sump pump. They both had been plugged into an old outlet with ground adapters because the outlet had no spot for the ground from the plug. Oh dear!

After all that I decided that I wanted to get a few sheets of drywall hung before calling it quits.

New Office Space - Day 20

This was one of those days where most things seemed to go right. I got started around 8:00 working on re-routing some drain lines to the sump pump. I was almost finished with the framing (which didn't get finished as I had hoped yesterday) when my Dad got there around 10:00. I finished adding some extra support studs while my Dad hung the electrical boxes. We ran all the wiring for the electrical boxes, the Ethernet cable for the network, and the coaxial cable for the satellite.



After wiring we installed insulation on all the walls that we could, there is a little problem with the wall facing the laundry room because there is no wall covering on the laundry room side and you shouldn't install insulation and leave it uncovered. There ended up being more problems with that room later in the day, it looks like we may need to take down all the shelving in the laundry room so that we can re-stud the wall so that drywall can be attached correctly (oh boy).

With the insulation and wiring being completed on a large part of the room the next step was drywall. After lunch, I asked my Dad if he had time to go and help me get some and bring it downstairs because obviously this is not something I could do by myself. We went to Menard's and picked up eight sheets of drywall and hauled then down to the basement. My Dad took off his coat and said he had a few more minutes so we decided to hang a couple of pieces. We hung the first three pieces on the longest wall and then I hung the last piece after he left with a little help from Megan. It looks great.

Here are a couple of pictures of Kade from Day 18 (I think). He is so into helping. We couldn't decide which of these pictures we liked the best so we put all three up.

New Office Space - Day 18

Another day another couple of support studs and pieces put into place. The best part about today was my Dad came over (again) and helped me get past the last couple (I hope) of sticking points for the framing. I should be able to knock the rest of the framing out pretty quickly tomorrow barring nothing else comes up.

New Office Space - Day 17

Sorry about another day with no pictures but things are moving a little slow right now. I put up one of the two little walls and a couple of the extra studs needed in the closet area for attaching drywall to. I also cleaned out a bunch of the scrap wood and took it out to the garage or the trash.



Kade worked with me the whole time. He was so good, always bringing me something I needed or playing with my tools or his. The girls went home with Mom which made for a very quiet evening. Thanks Mom!

Are You Missing Something?

In the continuing saga of missing teeth, Mattey lost another tooth today. Actually it's been a while since one of the girls lost a tooth. One of Mattey's top front teeth has been loose for quite some time and finally with a lot of help from Dad it came out today. She doesn't want the tooth fairy taking this tooth just yet so we told her she could just leave it on her dresser. As long as it wasn't under her pillow then the tooth fairy knows not to stop.

New Office Space - Day 16

Not too much to write about today. The wall that was framed yesterday but not completely finished or attached has been finished and attached. I now have two very small (less than 6 inches wide each) walls to build to go around a corner of cement that sticks out. I was out of wood so I had to go to Menard's to pick up some more supplies. I bought the insulation for the room and all the wiring since that is what I will do next.

New Office Space - Day 15

Another good day of construction. The first thing I did was look at cutting down a pipe that was hanging in the laundry room, came through the wall into the new office space, then exited out through the foundation into the garage. Both ends of the pipe were just hanging not connected to anything. While twisting the pipe to get it ready for cutting it started to move back and forth in the foundation so instead of cutting the pipe shorter and capping the ends I decided to removed the pipe and patch the foundation. This was a good choice and made for a much cleaner look.

I also got most of the framing done on the last wall. I have just a little bit of work to do under the window and then I need to secure the wall in place.

Kade always wants to be in the room helping but today he has really been wanting to help hammer. He finally got his chance late in the day and he was very happy.

New Office Space - Day 13

Yesterday (Day 12) there was not much work done. My parents stopped by and we figured out how to get around the problem I was having the night before. I picked up Brendan and Corey after work and brought them home to play some games for a little while. It was mostly Megan, Brendan and myself playing Mario Kart on the Game Cube. We had a blast playing together and Mattey and Corey just liked to watch and cheer us on.



Today there was a lot of work done. I got started around 9:30 and didn't stop until a little after 4:00. My Dad came over and we framed in the rest of the wall that will contain the two closets. It was a pretty difficult wall to frame up but we finally got it done. Only one more wall to frame. Yeah!

New Office Space - Day 11

Not a good construction day at all. I put a few supporting pieces onto the game closet, marked and cut the top and bottom plates of the rest of main closet wall and then stared at it for quite a while trying to make it fit. We are trying to put in a 6 foot door for the closet to hold food storage and then a 2 foot door for the closet that will store coats or other out of season type things. As of right now I am missing 1/2 inch to make this exact setup work. I can't seem to come up with a way to make it work. I'm going to have to talk to my Dad tomorrow and see if he has any ideas, he usually does.



Seems as if staying up last night was a major waste of sleeping time since Notre Dame failed to score another point after I reported that it was 21-13 at halftime.  They are in a major slump (understatement) when it comes to bowl games.  That is nine in a row they have lost.

New Office Space - Day 10

I finally had to go back to work today so the updates may not include as much work as before. I put up a few support 2x4's in the ceiling joists then tried to figure out what is connected to what in our electrical breaker box. I went through each breaker and made a list of of everything that is connected to it. The electrician who does all the work for Press Ganey, Vin, came over and checked out our breaker box to make sure it could handle the added electrical outlets and lighting in the new room. He suggested adding a sub panel to accommodate for the small panel that we currently have. He gave me his suggested brand and size and said he would come back to help hook it all up. It's nice to know people like that who are willing to help.



Now I'm sitting here watching the Sugar Bowl and Notre Dame just scored to tie the score at 14. Hopefully they can pull off the upset! Shoot I didn't even finish this post and LSU scored to take the lead again.

New Office Space - Day 9

I almost hate titling this post anything to do with the new office space. I did clean up some of the mess left from yesterday's long day of work and I pulled down some spacer boards that were on the ceiling that will not be needed any more but that is all the I work I did on the room today.



Since today was the last day of my vacation and one of the last days for the girls vacation I wanted to find something fun and different that we could do. We decided to go on a tour of the South Bend Chocolate Factory. They have free tours that start at the top of every hour from 9 until 4 and they also have a small fee tour that allows you to dip your own chocolate spoon and visit the chocolate museum. It was pretty neat to see and the kids really enjoyed the samples.



Check out the photos at Flickr.

New Office Space - Day 8

Day 7 was a much needed day of rest.



Today was a good start to the New Year. I slept in after staying up late to watch the ball drop then Kelly made some waffles for breakfast. My Dad came over for a framing party. We re-worked the wall that I had framed and gave us some more space for the bookcase that will hold the games. We didn't get very far before we needed to make the first trip (and actually only) trip to Menard's. We needed some Liquid Nail and decided to pick up the rest of the 2x4's as well. The kids all came along and we piled the van full of wood.



After unloading the van we went to work, only stopping for a short sandwich break around 3:15. We managed to get the longest wall (17+ feet) framed and the tricky little bookcase area pretty well framed in. We got a lot accomplished. I was very thankful for his help and enjoy spending time with my Dad.

We piled the kids in the car and van again and headed for Grandma and Grandpa's house so that I could take a look at their computers. Their Internet connection was having some issues as was my Dad's wireless card on his laptop. We got those straightened out and came home.



Kelly had a fabulous meal prepared for us and waiting on the table. We had salad, ham, sweet potatoes, wild rice, and home bread. It all tasted very good. We read scriptures and sent the girls to bed.

I finally sat down for the first time all day and got to watch the 4th quarter of the Rose Bowl, but it wasn't really much of a game at that point. I'm going to bed early tonight!