Garage Reorg

About five times last week I couldn't find some tool or something in the mess that our garage has turned into. It was time for some container store and some organization. The drywallers were working inside so it got me out of their way and now we can find whatever thing we happen to need. All the wood I used was leftover from our inside framing. Most of it was slightly warped or twisted enough to not use it while framing, but it's still useful for shelving since it doesn't have to be perfect.

I also power washed the driveway and front porch for good measure. I'll throw up a pic of our cleaned up front porch and new furniture. Next weekend if the weather is nice we will plant the rest of the landscaping and just about call the outside finished.

Drywall hung

The two man drywall crew got everything hung and are currently taping everything. We have them user contract to prime, sand, and paint so we should be finished in another week with them. Then just some flooring and trim and this house will be livable again. 

Drywall starting

Our contractor got all the supplies delivered yesterday and they are currently moving about ten times faster than I could. This is money well spent on subbing out in our opinion. 

Insta-Landscaping

Although it wasn't exactly instant as it took six of us about 7 hours of hard, hot labor today, but it was instant gratification at the end. Yesterday we got all the dirt moved around and semi-smooth and the extra hours we put it this week for prep really paid off. Today we attacked it starting at 7am with the help of our friend Adam and 3 laborers. First everything had to be smoothed out and all the hard edges needed to be cut in so the sod could butt up against it without sticking up. Everyone did an awesome job and the end result looks amazing. Now we just need to keep it watered and hopefully it will stay green forever. Or at least until we sell this house. In a couple weeks we will cut in some planter beds and plant a few perennials to make everything really pop.

As a side note I'm not sure how anyone would do this without a bobcat. That thing paid for itself many times over. I damaged some driveway pavers, but the amount of moving and lifting that thing can do in a short time is a life saver. Get yourself one. You won't be disappointed. No, you can't borrow mine.

Before Landscaping

We decided to hustle this weekend and knock out a long awaited project. A truckload of sod is coming tomorrow at 8am to take this yard to one of the ugliest on the block to hopefully the best looking on the block. We've been working a few nights this week to strip the old grass and weeds and a dump truck load of 20 yards of topsoil just arrived. Luckily I have the day off today and a bobcat to make quick work of it. Should be a great before and after shot tomorrow! Unfortunately we picked the hottest weekend of the year, but better to knock it out now than wait until the end of the month when it's the middle of summer.

Ready for drywall

We finished some odds and ends stuff this weekend to get 100% ready for drywall. We framed around the fireplace mantle so we could hang a TV above it and run all of our wires for ceiling speakers down to the basement where the electronics are stored. I'm not sure what we will end up doing with the look of the mantle, but we still have a couple of months to decide. The drywallers will hopefully start next week. The yard started getting torn up (again) last night. More on that tonight and tomorrow, but the sod is coming on Saturday so it should be a pretty dramatic before and after!

Inspections and insulation

It was a good start to my 5 day Memorial Day mini vacation. We've been hustling to get all of our electrical, plumbing, and mechanical rough-in finished so we could get our drywallers in to do their work. Today we had inspections on all 7 of our open permits. Not sure the county inspector was too happy with me scheduling all these permits at once, but we passed everything and I got the OK to insulate. A few hours later I got the basement insulated and ready for our next inspection tomorrow. There's not too much to look at right now, but looks like we will be cleaning everything up this weekend and getting our drywallers rocking in the next week or two. In another month we should have the makings of a mostly finished house... can't wait! One of the things I'm looking forward to is having a toilet on the first floor again. Oh, and hardwood floors and no more extension cords and maybe some nicely decorated rooms and closets to store stuff and a big TV to watch and less dust and... well, you get the point.