Happy Birthday to my grandson, Ethan!

Here's a picture of my beautiful grandson, Ethan Dail (pronounced Dale)... his 1st birthday was December 3rd. Ain't he somethin'!

No hot water yet but the shower's in...

Howell King came this afternoon. Unfortunately the weather was not conducive for working outside so he wasn't able to hook up the tankless hot water heater (it's on the outside of the house behind the tub. He was able to install the shower which we'll obviously need before we can move in. This picture is not exciting but shows the shower installed. Eventually I'll cover the "Home Advantage" waterproof OSB with tile or wood or standing seam roofing?
When Howell comes back Thursday, he'll hook up the water heater if the weather permits and set the kitchen sink. In the meantime I've got to get the sheet rocking finished in the kitchen so we can paint in there before Thursday. It'll be MUCH easier to paint before the cabinets are set. Before Howell arrived this afternoon I spent the day sanding and finishing the sheet rock. I'm almost finished in the utility room and kitchen.

To avoid finishing sheet rock (ugh!) I plumbed today...

It ALL has to be finished eventually but I look for ANY excuse to avoid finishing the sheet rock... it's just SOOOO tedious and I'm NOT good at it. Yesterday I avoided the mud bucket by doing some necessary plumbing and hanging some cabinets in the utility room (wrenching my back in the process). Here is a picture of the plumbing maize behind the bath tub... I hooked up the water to the new tub and redid the toilet supply line (oops, I forgot... I shouldn't have put the valve on before I sheet rock... oh well, it can be cut off and redone later). The shop towels under the connections are to check for leaks/drips in my newly glued joints... there were NO LEAKS!... ooh-rah!:Here's the end result... WATER!... oh, I tested the Jacuzzi and it WORKS... that earns me 50 brownie points with Alexis... you know how women like to soak their tush!?I also hooked up the water line for the kitchen sink (all these pipes will be inside the base cabinets):I should have waited for some help (for my back's sake) but I wanted to surprise Alexis by hanging some cabinets in the utility room (6 wall cabinets and two base cabinets came out of a Vanderbilt Medical Center remodel... I got 'em CHEAP!... less than $200 for all 8 cabinets). These are temporarily hung with just nails. I need to screw them to the wall and remove the 2" X 4." By the end of the week I'll get the white Corian counter top cut for the top surface of the base cabinets... we'll use this area for folding clothes, etc.In the corner to the left of the base cabinets we'll put the "new" CraigsList dryer. We'll put a lint/dryer sheet trash can in the space between them. I also had the BRILLIANT idea of putting a short clothes rod (14") between the wall cabinets on which to hang clothes during ironing or to prevent wrinkles when clothes are first coming out of the dryer.
Howell King, our plumber/electrician extraordinaire, returns this afternoon and we'll work on hooking up the shower hardware, getting the kitchen sink cut in to the counter top and firing off the propane hot water heater. Slowly but surely it's getting done.

Two weeks late with a report...

I apologize for the delay in getting Brigid's Wood information posted... sanding sheet rock is a whole lot like watching paint dry... NOT very exciting and even less photogenic. We have been making progress although our move in date has been changed to just before Christmas (move in = camping out).
I may not have made mention of the garden tub set back but last week we discovered that we had leaks in two of the four Jacuzzi jets. The Jacuzzi repairman said that it would cost about $1,000 to fix the tub (I guess you get what you pay for?... $0.00). The main problem was that even if we didn't use the whirlpool option the tub would still leak during any normal bathtub bath. Bummer! I had to drop back 15 yards and punt... errrr... actually I jumped on CraigsList and found another Jacuzzi-type tub north of Nashville. It was 6' feet long and 42" wide... additionally it had a VERY nice Delta brand facet that would have cost as much as I paid for the tub & facet together. Alexis and I jumped in the truck and went to pick it up (we love going on road trips together). Being from Texas where you can drive all day and never leave the state, Alexis continues to be amazed that we can be in another state within hours (actually 15 minutes if we drive south into Alabama). It was a long trip to Nashville and beyond - especially since Alexis had to teach school the next day - but the tub looks great and is an easier color to decorate around... white. Now we have a white ceiling, a white tub... a white toilet... and a white Corian vanity top.
Getting back to today... Howell King, our illustrious plumber/electrician, came today and we got quite a bit accomplished. We tore out the brown garden tub and hauled it outside (for photographing before being posted "for sale as is" on CraigsList although Alexis may want to keep it for catfish farming... really!). Next, we brought in the "new" tub and got it installed. There were a few problems with the installation but Howell has an incredible "can do" attitude and we (mostly him) were able to "git-er-done." Here's a picture of me in the tub getting ready to nail up the waterproof backer board:Howell also got one of our toilets and the vanity installed in the utility room (the utility room will double as a half bath). Alexis chose "bicycle YELLOW" as the color for the utility room to honor her dear departed Aunt Gladys who LOVED yellow (it's now OFFICIALLY the Aunt Gladys Memorial Utility Room and Half Bath). The picture (below) is not a true representation of just how YELLOW bicycle YELLOW is. Actually, I'm just teasing Alexis because I like bright colors... and bicycle YELLOW is bright and happy. She plans on using a "sun flower theme" with the bicycle YELLOW. Next, we'll put up the six wall cabinets, the two 30" floor cabinets and set the dryer in place (we'll bring the washer when we move... it goes just beyond the vanity in the corner). I also hung the mirror today. Cost: toilet = $0.00 (thanks to Howell)... vanity = $0.00 (CraigsList)... mirror = $12 (CraigsList).Howell said that he'll be back Monday and we'll hook up the shower, finish the kitchen sink and run some wiring for this new Jacuzzi tub. We're getting there... in fact, if it weren't for my SLOW sheet rock finishing, WE'D BE THERE!

Ceiling FINISHED and cabinets temporarily in place...

Well, day before yesterday Aaron and I finished the final stapling/screwing of the ceiling. What a relief to have that done.
Yesterday he and I moved the utility room cabinets and the kitchen cabinets from the storage building into the living room so we could access other stuff in the storage building that we'll need to be able to move in in two weeks.
Regarding the kitchen cabinets: I had NO idea what I had? When we bought them (almost 2 years ago) they had already been torn out and were sitting under a carport as multiple units. I knew the size of the kitchen they had been in but I didn't know how these custom units would fit into our kitchen. Last night when Alexis got home from school, the chiropractor and visiting with her Mom, we set most everything in place to see what we had. That was easier than trying to do the layout on graph paper. Happily, we were able to find a place for almost every unit and could get an idea for how the kitchen was going to feel. This picture was taken from the living room looking towards the kitchen window. You can see the rooster and cow that were painted on the ends of floor-to-ceiling end cabinets. Both of these tall cabinets have a little white picket fence that attaches on the floor below the artwork. You can also see some of the other animals that are painted on the faces of the cabinet doors (chickens, geese, baby chicks, rabbits, etc.). It would have cost more to pay an artist to paint the murals than we paid for all the cabinets. We're having to improvise with what we have but it appears that the kitchen is going to be spacious and have lots of cabinet/counter space. The wall opposite the window will have the propane stove and the refrigerator. Counter tops will wrap around the entire kitchen in a "U" shape.We have too many of the Vanderbilt medical center cabinets for the utility room but that's a good problem to have. We have LOTS of overhead wall cabinets, one deep base cabinet which will have a Corian counter top for folding laundry, etc. and one floor-to-ceiling cabinet that will fit in the SE corner of the utility room.
Howell King, our plumber/electrician came yesterday and worked on installing the garden tub but he ran out of parts and left before I returned from taking Aaron home and buying some things for the bathroom at Home Depot. Howell and I will set the garden tub tomorrow afternoon and hook up the shower. Hopefully, we'll also get the water pipes/drain run from the plumbing wall between the kitchen/utility room to where the sink is going to sit under the window. Next we'll set a toilet and we'll be able to move in and camp out in our new house.

Of note: Today is my grandson Ethan's 1st birthday... Happy Birthday, Baby Boy... I love you!

Trying to finish sheet rocking kitchen & utility room

I had hoped Aaron could come again today and help finish stapling the ceiling but he was under the weather so Alexis and I spent the afternoon finishing sheet rock by ourselves... she sanded while I did a number of corners and worked on the wider joints. Hopefully Aaron will be feeling better tomorrow and we can get the stapling finished up and some more sheet rock hung. We're completely finishing the sheet rock here and there to facilitate our moving in (some hanging, some partial finishing, some complete finishing). We want to get the kitchen and utility room finished so we can move in the cabinets for those rooms (and the kitchen appliances). The storage building is so full that until we get the aforementioned stuff into the house moving will be very difficult (things like our new bed are not accessible because they're behind the cabinets and appliances). Here is a picture of the south & east kitchen wall (the soon-to-be home of the propane cooking stove - see the propane pipe sticking out near the floor - and the refrigerator - see the wall outlet and water hookup for the ice dispenser). As you can see the ceiling is sagging a little bit because we haven't finished the stapling.This is the east and north wall in the kitchen (directly opposite the picture, above)... the sink will go under the window with the dishwasher to the right of it... the opening in the wall is for the plumbing for the sink/dishwasher.
This is the east and north wall in the utility room. The dryer will be in the corner with counter space and lower cabinets to the right and a floor to ceiling cabinet next to that. Wall cabinets will be on the wall above the dryer and lower cabinets. These are very substantial cabinets albeit very plain (perfect for the utility room) that came out of a remodel at Vanderbilt medical center in Nashville.

Sheet rocking and rolling...

Alexis and I worked for several hours this afternoon hanging sheet rock. Initially when Aaron and I were hanging "rock," we left the approx 6" space at the bottom of the 8' 6" wall to be filled in later. Subsequently, I realized that leaving the 6" space between the two sheets would make the finishing much easier although I'll have to do a much better job because it will be more visible at the 4' height. Here is some of the sheet rock Alexis and I hung in the utility room (we will finish hanging the 6" strip tomorrow). Our plan is to get this room finished and then to begin moving in the cabinets. We bought a bunch of very nice (but plain) cabinets from Vanderbilt University's medical school for next to nothing. Setting them in place will significantly free up room in the storage building so we can get to other stuff we'll need soon (like the kitchen cabinets and the appliances). I gave our landlady our 30 day notice so we'll have to move in by December 15th and begin camping out. I'm hoping Howell King can get our water hooked up this week now that the house has heat.Here's a nearly 12' piece we hung in the office... it's yet to be completely screwed to the stud walls. Man, when my Senco screw gun is working, it's a dream (50 sheet rock screws per plastic belt). Pretty much as fast as you can pull the trigger and "hop" to another spot to be screwed this gun screws and countersinks an 1 1/4" sheet rock screw. It does sometimes jam, however, which is a hassle.
And down the hall (these two sheets will need more screws tomorrow too):

The wood stove is in

Well one of the things that I accomplished since my last posting on Tuesday is the (temporary) installation of our Tempwood wood stove. When I got the fire roaring, Mosby thought he had died and gone to doggie heaven. When we lived at Wonder Cave, during the winter he was a permanent fixture in front of the stove doing his impersonation of the RCA dog inches from the fire box. Here is the stove (sans cast iron lid... we couldn't find it although Alexis is sure it's in the storage building) with a stainless steel pan doing duty as the lid. The house heated up very quickly in spite of the fact that the doggie door (picture, below) and the still-to-be-closed 1' X 1' opening for the water pipes to the tankless water heater were letting in tons of cold air (it was in the 30s outside). The concrete floor hasn't heated up yet from the stove's heat so I put down some scrap OSB for the boys to lie on. That's my buddy Baxter next to me:
This is the make shift doggie door I nailed over the back door to prevent some of Franklin County's cold air from from pouring into the house. I've "invented" a semi-keep-the-cold-air-out flap which I will install tomorrow (Mosby is in the foreground). Obviously when we move in the OSB over the door opening will come down and we'll use the door again. This set up lets the boys go outside at will.
Here's another shot of the lid-less wood stove with yours truly watching Boone groom his little brother Mosby.
And here's Mosby in his basket ready for bed:

Insulation... complete

John Fitzsimmons came back this morning and finished blowing the cellulose insulation... another milestone! Next we'll install the wood stove (the boys will appreciate that with it in the twenties tonight), do some more sheet rocking and if we can figure out how to stain the floors with the dogs living in the house, we'll put down the chicory stain. After John left, Alexis and I cleaned up and went to the dump. Here are some pictures of our clean(er) house:
Looking into the master bath from the master bedroom:
Looking into the kitchen (and down the hall... office to the right) from the dining room:Looking into the office from the dining room (Baxter in the foreground):The master bedroom... CLEAN!:I have been dreading finishing up the stapling of the ceiling because I'll have to be up and down a ladder all day which KILLS my foot... but I think I've come up with a way that won't be as hard... stay tuned.

We started insulating today...

I made a trip to South Pittsburg, Tennessee (about 25 miles down the mountain towards Chattanooga) this morning to check on some wood that I may use in our shower surround (I have a friend that used teak wood in her shower and it is BEAUTIFUL ...and functional with 3 coats of marine grade polyurethane to shed the water). I need something that looks "brown" and "woody" to match the brown garden tub. My goal is to make it look like I chose the brown color of the garden tub instead of just using what I got for FREE on CraigsList (shhhhh, don't tell anybody, okay!).
On the way back I got a call from John Fitsimmons, the cellulose insulating guy. He said he could be at the house in 20 minutes and was ready to insulate. I hurried home and he was unloading his equipment. Within 20 more minutes he was spraying the dampened (sticky) cellulose into the 2" X 6" South stud wall... what a MESS (but he cleaned up as he progressed):His helper kept the machine full of cellulose for the sprayer and then "shaved" off the excess so the insulation was flush with the studs:When John finished the South wall, he went up into the attic and began filling between the ceiling joists with 11" of the dry (VERY fluffy) cellulose:John ran out of cellulose and had a dinner engagement at 7 PM so he has to come back tomorrow morning to finish the job.I continued my research today on cellulose and further confirmed that I made the right decision in choosing cellulose over fiberglass. Cellulose has a higher sustainable R value than fiberglass (fiberglass actually loses R value as it gets colder while cellulose increases in R value) and seals the building significantly better against air infiltration than bats of fiberglass. I read in several places online that my energy (heating/cooling) costs will be approximately 40% less with cellulose. We're gonna be snug as bugs in a rug!

The BIG NEWS today...

... is my FOOT. After my exhausting day Friday, I took Saturday off and vegged... it was glorious. The instructions said, "repeat if necessary" so I did. NO work at the house today either! The result is that my plantar fasciitis is light years better... I can walk without imitating Grandpa McCoy on the "Real McCoys." Actually, it was very encouraging because it appears that once I'm off the ladders my foot will heal relatively quickly! Ooooh rah! Here's the culprit, to wit:

Except for some final stapling...

... the ceiling is done. Aaron was able to work Friday before leaving for Louisiana and we worked nearly 12 straight hours until we got all the tin up... it liked to have killed me... I haven't been that exhausted in I don't know when. I was hoping Alexis would shoot me when I finally got home. There is still some final stapling that I have to do Monday but otherwise the ceiling is up and the insulation guy can fill our attic with 11" (R-50) of cellulose. Following the insulation I can hook up the wood stove and prepare to stain the floor. Next Howell King, our plumber/electrician, will do the final hook-up of the water and we'll be getting close to moving in and camping out while we finish mudding and taping the sheetrock. Here are pictures of the ceiling in the various rooms:
Master bedroom (needs final stapling)... the far south wall will be insulated with cellulose before I hang the sheetrock:
Hall (needs final stapling)... the fat, out-of-shape, old guy at the end of the hall is moi... Baxter is ready for bed with his winter jacket:
Master bath (needs final stapling)... the sheetrock "plugs" will come down when I hang full sheets.
Utility room (needs final stapling):
I rested Saturday and didn't even go over to the house until we had to feed the boys... it was wonderful to veg!

We're cooking with gas...

Today Kevin, the propane guy, installed the "black iron" propane system for our cooking stove, our tankless hot water heater and our (maybe) propane backup heater. We'll be ready for winter with passive solar, our Tempwood wood stove, our electric space heaters and now propane. Here's the propane regulator for our system mounted below the hot water heater on the back of the house:We continued to work on putting up the tin ceiling... here's the office (lacking one more 10" strip)... that's the pull-down stairway to our guest loft... "so no one will over stay their welcome." We have to put the mattress up through the remaining "un-ceilinged" trusses tomorrow or it won't fit up the stairs... it's like building a house around a mattress:Here's the utility room (also lacking a 10" strip):And... here are our three boys ready for bed:

Boone in his house:Mosby in his beloved basket yawning:...and Baxter checking his eyelids for holes:Hopefully Aaron can give me ONE MORE DAY before he leaves for Louisiana so we can finish the ceiling tomorrow.

More tin is up... Aaron is a sheet metal cutting genius!

Aaron and I continued to put up the tin ceiling today. We almost finished the kitchen, the master bedroom and the office so it was a productive day. Aaron was amazing with his measuring/cutting. He hit two home runs in a row with his cutting two panels that go down the hall and rap around the kitchen and the office. He did a GREAT job... I really appreciate his hard work, his attention to detail and his good old boy common sense... this old fat college boy just follows his lead.
Here's the kitchen with only a small corner to finish (not counting the final stapling which will secure the panels that are hanging down and flatten out the rest of the ceiling):This is a picture of the master bedroom... just one more skinny panel (8") and the final stapling):Here's a shot of the living room from the office which we will finish tomorrow:

More of the tin ceiling UP!

Today Aaron and I continued putting up the tin ceiling... we finished the living room and almost finished the kitchen. We ran into a problem that we needed to think about over night so we moved into the master bedroom and made good headway there. We finally have figured out most of the tricks related to my hair-brained idea of using "upside down metal roofing" as a ceiling. Tomorrow we expect to finish the master bedroom ceiling, the utility room ceiling, the bathroom ceiling and possibly the office. Thankfully, Aaron's trip to Louisana has been put off for several days so he'll be able to help me finish up the ceiling and maybe help me hang some more sheetrock.
Here's Baxter having supper in the living room beneath the new ceiling (we still need to do some more stapling but the hard part is finished):This is the kitchen ceiling (we have one more 10" X 18' panel to install to complete this room plus the extra stapling mentioned above):This is the sheetrock jack in the master bedroom (with two panels hung). Having the sheetrock jack and the staple gun has made the ceiling installation 10X easier:

The tin ceiling

Aaron and I got a late start because we had to rent a sheetrock jack (shown below) and we had to track down his step-father-in-law who was kind enough to lend us a compressor and a staple gun (with staples) to attach the 3' X 18' sheets of tin roofing to the ceiling. We're still struggling with the aftermath of my block mason's bowed west wall (almost every piece of tin had to be trimmed because the wall wasn't straight)... shoulda fired that lazy, good for nothing bum early on... would have saved me lots of grief and maybe I could have avoided contracting plantar fasciitis... oops... I forgot... the block mason was ME.
Nevermind!
Nevertheless we finally got rolling and started learning the tricks to putting it up with the jack. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to "turn and burn" (that's an old Navy saying), however, I don't think we'll finish (in fact, I KNOW we won't finish) and Aaron leaves for Louisiana on Wednesday. I hope I can find someone else as good as Aaron to help me for a few days to get the job done so I can insulate. Here is the ceiling going up (and a picture of the sheetrock jack that lifts the tin panels up to the ceiling joists for stapling):And another view:So far everyone who has seen the tin ceiling up (Aaron and Howell King) has confessed that they were initially apprehensive about the idea but now that they've seen it, they like it... me too!

Like it or not... hanging "rock"

Aaron helped me again today. We had planned to rent a sheetrock jack (it's a gadget that lifts the panel - usually sheetrock but in our case the roof tin - up to the ceiling joists so it can be attached hands free. Unfortunately, both rental places in Winchester were closed and we'll have to wait until Monday to rent the jack. Trying to make lemons into lemonade we hung sheetrock on the walls all day. I needed the sheetrock hung anyway so the roofing tin could be butted to it. I'm hoping that Monday and Tuesday Aaron and I can get the ceiling up using the jack because on Wednesday he leaves for two weeks in Louisiana for a roofing job. Here are me and Baxter at the end of the day standing in the master bathroom door.This is Baxter in the living room heading for his bed (this is the west wall of the living room... all it lacks is a 1' X 4' piece of sheetrock over in the "reflective" left corner):All of the exterior walls in the house are covered in the foil insulation (like around the kitchen window)... AAC blocks at R-16 + foil at about R-15 = approx R-30+. We can't hang the lower sheetrock panel in the kitchen until the water pipes are tested tomorrow in the main plumbing wall:The office... same here... we can't hang the lower panel until the tub is installed as we need access to hook it up and set it:Howell King is coming tomorrow afternoon to hook up my water system inside the house (we've had water to the house for months but I just finished gluing the pipes together last week for the inside house system). This morning Howell was here for a little while and got our electricity hooked up so we can run all of our appliances - including the 220 dryer - before the final electrical inspection.