Beach Bonfire

So last night we were invited to a bonfire at Mission Bay. It was nice to relax and enjoy good food and company. There was a party next to us and they had Mexican rice, carne asada, homemade salsa (made with habaneros), and re-fried beans. They kept giving us plates of food until I thought I would explode.

We stayed until the fireworks at Sea World. Then headed home to feed a hungry dog.

Totally Slacking

Ok, so it has been over a month since I posted, I've been busy!!! Well kinda. A lot of progress has been made on the kitchen and this weekend we are suppose to get the cabinets installed. From that point it should be a hop, skip, and a jump to the finish line. Below are the photos of all the work that has transpired in the last month. My brother flew out for 3 weeks and helped out immensely. Without his assistance I would still be laying tile.

The beginning, measuring out the "corner stone tile" everything will be based off it.

Work in progress, breakfast nook.

Grouting

Finished, looking from the b-fast nook through the kitchen into the mudroom/pantry

Hung our TV, FINALLY!!!

Hid all the cables behind the wall

I spent hours in the attic/sauna. this is looking down from the right of the chimney. Below is the built-in shelves that hold the TV equipment


This is looking down where the TV is hung. The brick is the chimney and the bottom of the photo is the wall where we hung the TV.

Stil patching the walls

Well still working on patching all the walls. It has been really humid and the joint compound is taking forever to dry. I have made two coats and will sand then maybe one more patch. After that it is painting.

My brother is coming out to visit and will help tile the floor. Then maybe it will begin to look like an actual kitchen.

Sorry no photos today, they would be about as interesting as watching paint dry. Pun intended. :)

Drywall Nightmare

Holy Crap!!! To finish the drywall of the ex-soffits I had to lug these two very heavy pieces of wood up into the attic. The plan was to place them over the chicken wire and give something for the drywall to be screwed into. If you forgot, I don't have any wooden studs.


In the center, the attic has about enough clearance to crawl on your hands and knees. The problem is that you have to crawl over two air ducts. Oh and did I mention that they are wrapped with asbestos? The clearance is about 10 to 12 inches. No I am not kidding. The good news is that there are wooden planks that create a kinda catwalk to crawl.



So once I had those in place I finished with the drywall and then mudded the joints. The joint compound goes on pink and dries white. Hopefully in a few days I can sand and then re-joint again. It is a good thing that most of it will be covered with the cabinets because I suck.

Let there be light

The electrician finished the "rough work" and we have new lights. I didn't know there was rough and finish work. Once we get the cabinets installed then he will come over and put the undermount lights and the rest of the receptacles.

When he cut the holes in the ceiling he used a drill to actually make the cut instead of a circular hole cutter. This virtually eliminated any cracking or chipping in the plaster. Once he cut out the plaster he then had to hand cut the chicken wire out. Glad I did not have to do that.




We went with the 5" canned lights vice the 4". In the center where the old light fixture was there is a junction box so he could not install a canned light, instead we will install a new light fixture to break-up the ceiling. This way the eyes should focus on that instead of the canned lighting when entering the kitchen.


Now we have a lot of patching to do.

He did not hit any real snags except over the kitchen sink. We wanted to put one recessed light however when he went into the attic it was discovered that exactly in the center and perpendicular to the wall is a rebar. We then went with two 4" lights flanking the rebar.



It's amazing what lighting can do for a room.

Flooring

Pulled up the linoleum and only found one "minor" problem. When we bought the house the owner said that in the mud room under the closet floor it lifted up/access or something like that. Not sure what I expected, however I did not expect a giant hole in the floor. I am guessing that at some time there was a plumbing issue and needed access. I am heartened to know that the floor is thick and has rebar.

Our friend who likes to destroy things got into the act of taking the baseboards off. She got a little overzealous and ended up taking out part of the wall. However looking to the positive we did learn that the inside walls are also framed in rebar. That is good to know if we ever want to move walls (I THINK NOT). I also learned that the walls are not lathe and plaster, but "button board and plaster".

Monday the electrician arrives to wire the ceiling and walls. WHOOHOO!!

Framing

So last Saturday I began to frame out the soffits that we ripped out the previous weekend. It took me 5 hours to complete two pieces of drywall for the left soffit. If you remember, this house is made out of rebar and gunite, so I do not have any wooden studs to attach the dry wall. Nor do I have a lot of anything to attach my framing wood. In other words it is a pain in the A**!!

I was so disgusted and frustrated, I didn't even work on Sunday. Trust me, it is harder than it looks.



So now (above is right soffit) instead of trying to finish in one day/attempt I am now taking it easy and doing a little bit each day. (kinda like the song "dad I gotta go" "no son you can't have no genuine trunk coconut you bang your head") Much more relaxing. By the way if you got that last part about the song then you are OLD, LOL.