Same story. Kept on with the siding tearoff. Didn't get done what I wanted to get done. etc. etc.

Went to pick up Rene at the day labor place. He had already left with someone. No loyalty!

Picked a guy that said he could take off siding. Throughout the day he told me he owned a granite countertop installation company, a general contracting company and some other company. But apparently he didn't have a phone. He did know how to do stuff but he wasn't in any hurry to do it. I think he figured he was more of a boss type and not a laborer type. Won't be using him again.

Oh, yeah - that guy that completely quit on me a couple of weeks ago was trying to get me to take him. He didn't seem bothered when I told him I would never use him.

Anyways, me Lance and Lazy just kept on doing what we be doing. We put the soffit up along the north side which was really time consuming. I bought a brand new hard-blade and it was good for about 3 cuts. Gonna have to take it back and complain about it. Put my old blade in and was fine.

A couple of pieces of soffit weren't quite right. Lance assured me he was an expert caulker. We'll see.

Anyways, here's what we got done.

Partial sheathing and tyvek on one side.



Partial tearoff on front.



Just about filled a 30 yard dumpster. Not gonna get another. Dumpsters are expensive. If I have to slowly put pieces of siding in my trashcan then that's what I'm gonna do.



I really really really hope we can get the rest torn off, sheathed, and wrapped tomorrow.

Wanted to do x, didn't finish, yada etc.

Got one laborer today (in addition to Lance). Rene wasn't there so they sent out Jesse. At first I thought Jesse was about 18 or 19 but it turns out he was pushing 30. And, as Hank Hill says - that boy ain't right.

Jesse was pretty proud of the fact that he had met Ben Stein. The story was that Jesse was living in his Mustang with his girlfriend and one day his girlfriend was washing his home, er car, and Ben Stein drove up and tried to pick up Jesse's girlfriend. Apparently Jesse's girlfriend was wearing a green dress and green shoes. This seemed to be an important part of the story but I'm not sure how.

Anyways, Jesse was a pretty good worker. And, Jesse and I have the same birthday. Apparently he knew I was a Libra because of my fish tank.

We finally got the last piece of old siding off. Finished sheathing the north side, and got a significant part of the front sheathed.

We ran into a couple of interesting things.

This is the beam that runs across the front above the porch. Hard to see, but it has some old termite damage. I decided to not replace it. Most of it is in pretty good shape. It's a double 2x 8 and one of the 2xs is not damaged at all.



Here is some very interesting framing. It includes a header cut in two with another header sandwiched in between, a piece of angle iron (above the header) that doesn't go all the way across, and various creative partial studs and braces.



Here's pics of our progress.

Well I thought I had a decent idea about construction, and just watched a 4 month build from nothing to a 3 story 9 unit building next door to me, and this blog has taught me I know basically nothing.

lol holy ****

I can't even begin to guess what they were trying to accomplish here or what the starting point might have been.

My plan was to not work today. But, we are supposed to have a lot of rain coming tomorrow through Tuesday so I really wanted to get the rest of the sheathing and tyvek up.

Also, by working today I get to watch my Longhorns get slaughtered again by Oklahoma.

Rene was at the labor place. Lance had to be in court and was supposed to show up at noon. He did, but he had to go back to court. He ended up getting here at 1:30. He won.

Not much to report. The day was pretty successful. But, we worked 11 hours to get it finished. I still have to tape it all and seal the windows, but it is pretty much rainproof.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to ME!

looks like new construction

I'm not a construction expert or anything, but shouldn't you have more clearance between the bottom of the structure and the ground?

great blog!

Thanks!

Hmmm, I don't know. None of the foundation guys said anything about it. The engineer signed off on it. It is definitely higher than it was. Some of the front beams were on the ground.

Well, I'm really glad I got it all wrapped. We got an incredible amount of rain. Flooding actually. The inside of the house is nice and dry.

Worst case scenario (property prone to flooding), requirement is still only 6 inches above grade. He's fine.

First I must get my whine for the day out of the way. As hard as this has been, I wish fixing life was as easy /whine.

I really haven't been able to do much lately. We went from drought to full monsoon. The rain finally let up this weekend but I had relatives in town so I didn't get much work in.

I was able to get all but 2 windows completely nailed and sealed in. The last 2 are not closing properly and I'll need some help to get them uncatywampused.

I bought a stud finder. My plan is/was to mark all the studs so I can attempt to nail the siding in properly. I did some research and the consensus was this bad boy:



I went to Lowe's with every intention of getting it but they had another much cheaper zircon for sale. They had a little demo thing set up to test them and the cheaper one seemed to find the stud every bit as well as the expensive one. The expensive one apparently attempts to outline the whole stud while the cheaper one just beeps when it finds one and you have to figure out where the center is. I'm fine with that. So, I bought the cheap one and started trying to find studs. According to the stud finder, the studs are EVERYWHERE! Geez. I sorta gave up but I'll fiddle with it some and try again later.

Quick (or not so quick) story. Poggers have heard this already.

About 3 years ago I came home to the sound of chainsaws in my back yard. My back yard backs up to a creek. My neighbor on the other side of the creek hired some white supremicists to cut down all the trees in the creek between our houses. How do you know they were white supremicists? you ask. Well, I think the swastika tattoo in the middle of the forehead is a pretty good sign.

Anyways... I went back to talk to the tree cutters and they seemed to be pretty sympathetic to the fact that I really didn't think cutting those trees down was a good idea or that my neighbor really had the right to do so. And, they were pretty eager to go get the owner - presumably to watch me attempt to kick his ass. Right off the bat the owner explained how he owned the creek up to my fenceline. I told him that sounded like bull**** but at that point in time the trees were pretty much gone and there wasn't anything to do but, well, kick his ass or sue him. I really didn't want to do either.

So, this guy now had a direct line of sight into my house which made me doubly uncomfortable because he looked like this creepy guy from a Bond movie.



Then, after that he builds a fricking 6 foot rock wall along the creek. Which I guess is good but sheesh, why cut down all the trees just to build a wall?

Anyways......................................

About 3 months ago they bulldozed his house. I have no idea if he still owns the place or not.

What, you might ask, does this possibly have to do with my remodel. So glad you asked.

They started framing exactly the same day I started putting up sheathing. Here is their progress. sigh.

I'm pretty sure horoscopes, dowsing rods and the Farmer's Almanac are all more reliable than stud finders.

So, I've come to sort of rely on Lance for help. He's pretty handy with everything and he's not expensive at all.

I called him today to see if he can work Saturday. I got a message that said something like "the owner of this phone has set the phone to not receive any messages", or something like that. Weird.

So, I'm back to doing stuff on my own like hanging doors and such. I can do it but it's so much easier with 2 people.

So far all the hardi I've cut is about 8 or 9 pieces of soffit. The new blade I got at Lowe's bit the dust after about 5 cuts. The blade I used to do my garage didn't fare well either. I'm curious if the hardi is somehow made different now? I dunno.

Anyways, I googled hardi blades and got this:



Then I was talking to a co-worker (who has worked with hardi before) about, well, all the house stuff and he suggested using a mitre saw. I have a mitre saw but it won't cut 12" pieces. In fact, I don't think it will cut even the 8.25" siding pieces. So, I sorta decided to get a bigger mitre saw. My saw wasn't a good one to begin with and I've had to duct tape the handle for some reason I can't remember.

Since Lowe's doesn't carry the diablo blades I decided to go to Home Depot to get a 10" blade and come back and get the saw on my way back. I'm not sure I've mentioned this but I pretty much hate Home Depot and it pains me to spend any money there at all. So, I'll make 2 trips if necessary.

But, Home depot doesn't have 10" diablo hardi blades. So, I'm back to the original plan of using my skil saw.

I did buy the 7" diablo hardi blade. We'll see how it holds up. It should, it's pretty expensive.

That's a whole lot of writing to basically say nothing.

If you don't mind waiting a couple days:

http://www.toolstoday.com/p-5281-fib...ing-blade.aspx

They ship really quickly, and I've been pretty happy with price/performance of what they sell.

Good to know. Thanks!

Last week some guy left a card that said he did masonry and skirting. Since the foundation guy gave me an outrageous bid ($2400), I thought I'd call this guy. Of course he barely speaks English so he had his wife call me to make arrangements to meet.

He showed up today with another guy. They were both either older than me or had lived a much harder life than me.

We talked a bit and he said if I want to see his work he just finished a house nearby. So, we drove over there and it looked fantastic.

When we got back he mentioned that he does masonry and said he could rock my wall(s). This was my original intention that I sort of gave up because I was getting overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done.

But, I'm sort of reconsidering. Sort of karma or something this guy showed up. I dunno. He said we would bring pictures of some of the work he's done and some different rock samples.

We'll see how it goes.

My goal today was to get the rest of the soffit up, get my french doors right, re-do the front door (it barely closes), finish up the last of the house wrap, and finish up the windows.

I was fairly successful. The french doors are perfect. Took me half a day but they are sweet.

The front door was another issue. Here's a pic of what it was sitting on. It's hard to tell from the picture but that gap used to subfloor. I have no idea why they cut it out. Those boards are all a different height. I forgot to take an after picture but I basically did my best to sister up boards in there to make a flat surface for the door to sit on.



The door does close now but it's really sticky. The latch holes in the door frame don't match the door at all. I think the frame didn't come with the door or something. I might go see if they sell just frames. I may end up getting a new door. I dunno. I'll sleep on it.

I tried out that diablo blade today. It says on the package "cuts like butter". I was skeptical, but sheesh - it really does cut like butter. It is sweet.

Anyways, my finished soffit and sealed front porch.

Any evidence he actually did work in the house you saw?

No, but I'm pretty sure he's telling the truth.

I'm going to get some other bids now that I'm considering this.

I hate doors. I'll probably die by a door falling on me.

I just couldn't let the front door be like I left it, so I sort of just started all over again.

Actually, I went to Lowe's first to see if they just sold door frames. They do not.

So, I raised the bottom somewhat so it would open with a carpet on the floor.

Then, I just started all over. Took the door off and spent a ton of time squaring and leveling it. Then, I put the door back on and it wouldn't close. I spent about 15 minutes trying to analyze it before I realized I hadn't screwed one of the hinge screws all the way in and it was causing it to bind.

Got the screw in and it worked!. The only problem is the area on the frame where the dead bold and lock is is so buggered that it's really hard to work with. But, I managed to get it workable.

It's not perfect but I can live with it without it bugging me.

Unfortunately, I have to re-do every single interior door before this is all over. I guess I'll be an expert.

Front gutters done.

Another round of storms coming. I'm pretty sure the state of Texas owes me for ending the drought.

I've decided I am going to get stone work done like I had it in my original plan. My plan is to have the front left gable side rocked all the way to the top and the front right face up about 4 feet. Additionally I am going to put a planter around the left side of the house so I want the area below the house rocked (instead of stucco underpinning).

The guy that left his card never showed back up. But, I've called several contractors. One was so scatterbrained I don't think I ever got what I wanted across to him. He still hasn't given me a bid. The second spent more time talking about the house he is remodeling. He still hasn't given me a bid. The third spent a lot of time with me. Got a good feeling about him. His bid to do all of the stonework and the rest of the stucco skirting was only $800 more than the foundation guy gave me for just skirting. I'm pretty sure I'm going with this guy but I have one more guy giving me a bid and I'm going to wait a couple of days for the other bids.

No work today. Going to the UT game. Hook 'em.