Jose has a helper with him so they have been moving right along.

Jose has now worked for me several times and every time I remind him early and often to keep the doors to the outside closed because the cats will get out. I got a call today about noon. Yep, the cats got out. One of my cats I'd rather not be out because she is a flea magnet. She won't run off or anything. The other one I think might. We have a huge cat next door we call Bully Cat that terrorizes every cat in the neighborhood. I'm afraid my other cat would bolt and never come back. Fortunately the one that will come back got out but the other one stayed in. All will be well when she decides she wants back in. I'll just have to deflea her.

Back to the important stuff.

They finished up the master bedroom today except for a couple of places they need to touch up. Then Jose said "I'll be back in the morning to start the other room" YIKES! So, I've been emptying this room into wherever I have an empty piece of floor. I can't put my bedroom back completely because of the wet paint and I don't want to sleep in there with the smell. So, my house is a major league mess.

But, the bedroom looks awesome. Pics when I get the mess cleaned up.

Jose just left. His compressor was right by the TV and his hose had a leak so every 5 minutes it went off. This just added to the fact that my office stuff is now piled up in my bedroom and my bedroom stuff is all piled up in my living room and my office is covered in plastic.

But, it is looking really good. And, I can get to everything I need to get to.

The inside of the house will be finished soon (except for possible bathroom do-over). So all is good.

That super sucks. Do you know if the inspector is right about the code?

The inspectors are correct. I don't care for them but they know the code.

The rest of the building full of paper pushers is pretty clueless.

Jose has finished. He did a wonderful job. While he was here I asked him to do a few extra things which he did. He is by far the best contractor I've ever come across.

He really underbids things imo. And, after doing the extras I kept asking him how much and he kept saying "just pay me what you think". He did this last time too.

This ploy might be to his benefit, though. I gave him a pretty healthy bonus. It ended up being more than the other guy bid but Jose did a bunch of little things that I don't think the other guy would have done. And, he did it better I think. And, I just like the guy. Great attitude. Has a wife and 3 kids. One of those guys that just does the right things in life and doesn't ask for anything.

So, I have a bit more before I can call it complete. I still need to do the window sills and re-hang the blinds and put the switch covers and such back on. But, I'm getting close.

If I'm reading Jose correctly he's not angling for tips, he's angling for recommendations for more jobs. The nicest thing you can do for him is ask for some business cards and give them to people who need work done, the bigger the job the better. That's where he makes his money.

Yeah, I recommend him to everyone I know.

Today was put things back together day. I made, painted, and installed the window sills in the bedrooms. I need to let the caulk dry and do a little touch up painting but I'm close. Cleaned the windows and put the window blinds back and all of the outlet covers.

I also took this opportunity to spring clean before I put things back. Got rid of a bunch of junk.

Everything still isn't back in. I'll finish up tomorrow.

Pretty good day. Worked long and hard but got a lot done.

Pretty much done with the interior now I think. A few minor odds and ends but all looks good.

Here is my red door.

Ever watch rehab addict?

Or as I call it "The Let's Put Subway Tile Everywhere Show"

She's possibly too old for you, but I might be a little addicted to Nicole Curtis.

Sometimes I wonder if there is an inverse correlation between how much somebody likes to use subway tile and how much time they've spent in a tiled subway. Do people who've actually ridden the Paris Metro really want to be reminded of it when brushing their teeth?

I'm convinced that subway tile will become the avocado refrigerators of the future. Everyone will hate it.

Too old for me? Ha.

I like this girl (flip or flop)

Today I started on the back yard. Well back and side. I've been agonizing over this because I thought it was going to be nearly impossible to fix. But, I had to start somewhere.

My original plan was to replace the walkways with leftover stone. But, I nixed that. I've decided to put a stone walkway encircling the pond hole, fill in the pond hole, and put crushed granite on top of paths that already have crushed granite. Basically, the entire yard will be raised about 2 or 3 inches.

I figured just the prep work alone would take me and 3 guys about 2 days to do. But, I don't have enough equipment to keep them busy. I only have 2 wheelbarrow and I don't want another. So, I decided to get 2 guys and see how far we could get.

One guy looked as old as dirt. Even older than me. The other guy was slightly younger than me.

These guys were absolutely fantastic. One guy works for a sprinkler business so he was accustomed to digging. The old guy worked as hard as anyone I've ever used.

We got EVERYTHING I wanted to get done done and finished early on top of that.

I am super super happy. All in all a great day. Plus, you couldn't ask for better weather.

So, this week I'll order sand to lay the stone on, crushed granite to fill in where needed, and some more dirt to top off the pond hole.

Here are some pics

She is like 10 years younger than Nicole Curtis. She's hotter I guess, but it's more than just looks. Personality, but also being a worker and knowing a lot of the rehab stuff.

I'm thinking of doing some flips and probably will actually do it more like flip or flop (quick job/quick profit hopefully), but I wish I could (hope I can) do it more like Rehab Addict.

Yeah, she doesn't know a lot about construction. Husband takes care of that. But she is spot on about what to do to make a house sell. Great eye.

After watching these shows I think to be really successful you need someone that knows the contractor side of things and another that understands design and what sells. 2 person job I think.

Well, it takes a few different skills as well as money. You can either have partners, investors or hire what you need. If I get started, and it won't be for a couple months minimum, I'd first be looking for good real estate agents and probably depend on them for part of that "what sells."

You should blog it here if you decide to do it.

The first part of today was some little things I needed to finish. Electrical plates, door knobs, door stops, etc. Pretty easy stuff.

Then I decided to spring clean my garage. I've accumulated a lot of random lumber, pvc, etc. I've been storing it in the rafters of the garage. I don't know why I do this but I never can seem to throw away any leftover project "stuff". I'm not a hoarder with personal things but anything related to construction I can't seem to toss.

After removing it all I'm somewhat amazed the roof didn't cave in from the weight. I had quite a bit out there.

The first pic is the semi-usable lumber I pulled out. The second pic is my ever-growing trash pile that I probably doubled from stuff pulled out of the garage.

That's a good idea.

As is your later post. I think I should do some garage cleaning before it gets dark.

Here is what my weekend looks like. Dirt, crushed granite, and sand. I have now successfully filled up my entire driveway with crap that shouldn't be in the driveway.

Pretty eventful day yesterday. Too tired to post after working all day. This will be a multi-parter.

Went to the day labor place hoping to find the two guys I used last week. Both were there and seemed happy that I came by.

We started out by clearing the area by the side of the house where the AC is. I have some sort of invasive ivy growing on the fence there and it had overgrown most of the ground. So, Roosevelt (one of the guys) cleaned that up while Crispin (the other) and I started putting down sand where the stone was going to go.

As he was delivering sand, I was setting the stones. I had two piles of flagstone and my goal was to end up with no piles of flagstones. That's sort of hard to determine when you first start but I made my best guess. After all of the sand was put down, I continued putting down stone while they started on the granite on the side of the house.

About mid-morning, the wheelbarrow wheel bit the dust. I recently bought this wheel because the wheel that came originally got a flat and had a big dent in the wheel so it wouldn't seal properly to inflate the tire. But, the new cheapaass wheel Lowe's sold me has a frickin' plastic bearing which disintegrated. So, the guys filled up buckets and used a dolley. It was slow but we kept going.

About lunch time I got all of the stone in place. However, the old flagstone I had was a different thickness from the newer flagstone I have so it needed to be leveled out properly. This is a pretty tedious process. I told the guys to get this all leveled while I went to get a wheel and lunch.

I got to Lowe's and took the old wheel in to make sure I got the size right. I figured I couldn't get my money back so I didn't try. When I was looking at wheels I couldn't find a heavier duty wheel. All they had was the kind I had bought. But some Lowe's worker came over, I think with a trainee who just happened to be a cute girl. I showed him the old wheel and told him I wanted a heavier duty wheel. Since there was none, he told me he would sell me a new one for $5. I'm convinced this was more to impress the trainee with his generosity than to help me out. But, whatever the motive, I got a new wheel for $5.

I got back and the two workers were both doing something other than leveling the stones like I asked. I think they did something but the stones were still a mess. So, after lunch, armed with a new wheelbarrow wheel, I got Roosevelt to help me with the stone while Crispin continuted to put down the crushed granite.

Because of the frailty of the Lowe's wheelbarrow wheels, I told Crispin not to load the wheelbarrow up so heavy. I ended up telling him this at least 10 more times during the day.

The afternoon was spent just getting the stones level, laying some more stone along the driveway, and putting granite between the stones. I watered it all down to let the granite settle in.

We were pretty much all spent by 4:30. It was an incredibly amount of work. Shoveling, lifting stone, wheelbarrowing, etc.

But it was a very satisfying day. We got all of the backyard stone in. All of the next-to-driveway stone in. AND......we used up ALL of the flagstone. It worked out perfectly.

Part of my winding down of the remodel is to get my garage cleaned up. I don't really see a need for a cement mixer anymore. I also had a big stock tank that I kept my koi in. And I have a battery powered lawn mower that has been gathering dust for years.

I put the mower and mixer on craigslist last week. Craigslist can be the most tilting thing ever. You get flooded with "will you take less" and "can you hold it" emails. And, about 90% of the replies are people that "want" it but never show up to get it.

Anyways, some guy emailed me on Wednesday saying he wanted the mixer. I told him if he showed up Saturday and I still had it, it was his. Much to my amazement he showed up. He took the mixer and about 15 bags of concrete I had left over that wasn't worth me loading up to get my money back from Lowe's.

The guy said he had some acreage and I asked him if he wanted the stock tank. I gave him a price and he took it. I hadn't even advertised this so this was a bonus.

Then, during lunch when I was checking emails some guy said he wanted the mower and could come by immediately. He did and he took it.

So, 3 big items out of my garage without much of a hassle.

The day labor place sort of interests me. I'm just curious about how someone ends up there. The vast majority of guys there are over 40. I guess everyone has a story.

I had one guy that I used many years ago that was obviously very intelligent and well-read. He told me he had worked for the legislature for years. Something had happened that we wouldn't disclose other than some vague "life happens' reference.

Roosevelt (the guy helping me with the stone) claimed he owned an irrigation business. He told me he got high ratings on Angie's list, but I haven't verified this. He probably did install irrigation on some level.

He talked a lot about politics and his son who is in high school. I was sort of curious how he ended up at the day labor place but I didn't ask.

Crispin, it turns out, is 66 YEARS OLD! Holy crap. This guy shoveled and wheelbarrowed all day. Amazing.

I asked them about the day labor place. Apparently you have to get there at 6:30. Your name gets put into a lottery that assigns the order you go out. They told me that the first 15 are a pretty good bet to get work but after that is is iffy. Anything over 30 and it is probably not worth hanging around. I've been there on days where I have seen at least 50 guys. Tough way to make a living.