Torgesen Family Times: remodeling is NOT for whimps!

It's been a long while since I've posted any updates... since the kitchen was demo'ed on Aug 19th or so.

What I've learned is that when you don't hear anything with construction from me... that means nothing is happening and it's not going anywhere. In fact, it's probably going horribly.

There have been very challenging contractor issues that have required Lance and I to manage the situation (sometimes daily or hourly) and work to resolve so many issues. We have had to take hours and hours off of work just to try to get things on track again. We don't want to fire this company because we don't want to start over again, but they should've been fired. I think we are on the other side of this now and we are finally making some progress again.

listing of some of the problems:

sent out framers without having wood delivered
framers didn't come out after wood being delivered after many many times saying that they would be there
very unskilled labor, very very very slow worker who seemed disabled
one guy who showed up at our place just as Lance/Sara were getting ready to leave on the bus, but he did nothing that day... what did he do? We have no idea.
unskilled labor used our ladders since he didn't have any...
another set of unskilled labor brought his girlfriend/wife and she was laying on our grass watching him all day (as told to me by my neighbors...)
left huge amount of garbage (candy wrappers, nails galore, wood everywhere...) at our work site/house
same worker broke our hose and knocked on the back door to tell my kids they broke it.
we asked repeatedly for an updated schedule, but have yet to receive one.
one worker with oil issues in his car left oil all over our driveway.
when conversing with my Project Manager - he said these unprofessional people were "on thin ice" with the the company, but they had decided to put them on our project... not on my watch!

The straw that broke the camels back as they would say was:

The unskilled labor started taking off the siding on the second story which meant that they didn't know how to read the plans. Structural work requires skilled labor. These guys were so unskilled and unprofessional it's difficult to even describe. We were emailing, calling, texting all this time. All we go were apologies and promises. No action to back it up. We finally called a timeout... No more. We didn't want apologies and promises. We wanted actual professionals that know what they are doing.

Since the time out - which lasted about a week - they have gotten it together and hired a professional framing sub-contractor. They had some questions about the plans (good sign) and had to call out the structural engineer. They had to give us a change order to add a saw cut of the existing foundation to get to the new foundation (which will house plumbing).

So, we've been in construction for about 7 weeks now and we could've demo'ed our kitchen about 2 weeks ago and be in the same spot. This is because of many things, not just one. But, sure is frustrating and super stressful.

We are basically eating mostly the same things:

Breakfast: eggo waffles, yogurt, oatmeal or those microwave Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches.

Lunch: kids eat at school every day and we eat whatever we can find in the freezer (P.S. Freezer meals have gotten better from memory), eating out during the week and weekends.

Dinner: Costco meals, "If you can find it - you can eat it", protein bars for Lance (yuck for me), anything you can warm up in the microwave, eating at our neighbors (so thankful for wonderful neighbors!) or at a restaurant.

It hasn't been that bad... but we have had to shift and rearrange and figure it out, even though we planned quite a bit for this remodel to happen. I guess you just don't know what will work until you actually have no kitchen.

All the other things in our life have been using up all the attention and time:

I've not only started a new job with a new commute to Seattle, but I'm PTA president for Sara's elementary school. I was also helping coach her soccer team and arranged/ordered all the jerseys. Lance is coaching Alex's football team (offensive coach) and he is also doing the siding for the house remodel (to save money...). He also wanted to do this lovely project to add a gas fire pit in our back yard. It's looking amazing and I can't wait to use it, but geez is it a ton (or two) of work. We unloaded 3,700 lbs of flagstone this weekend, which meant that I picked it up and moved each piece at least 2 times, if not 3 times! Lance was the puzzle master and laid out and leveled the pieces. So, if you think I'm going insane - the answer is yes. I'm insane. I felt like I was going to snap, so I made the tough decision to step down from coaching Sara's team. I just had way too much going on.

The next steps are to complete framing of the kitchen bump out so we can order cabinets.

Looking in the old kitchen and formal dining room. This will all be kitchen!

looking from the front room into the dining room

This is the front living room where the bonus room is being added where the vaulted ceiling was/is

The view of the outside where the kitchen bump out is being framed

The infamous saw cut old foundation to have access to the new foundation

another view of more kitchen bump out framing

part of the permit unfortunately was to add more "straps" to the house for sheer, which involves taking off a good chunk of our cedar siding. boo.

Lance has been installing the reclaimed siding and some new, making good progress. Note our fence isn't quite done connecting to the house yet... so Lance rigged up a section of OSB plywood to keep the dogs in (and our sanity intact)

another view

front of our house is full of a dumpster, a honey bucket, and a bunch of wood

We even have a back door to our garage and a smart door knob/deadbolt (I installed it!)

This huge beam was installed in between our old garage and new garage to create this opening. And thank goodness. Going outside to get to the new garage was getting seriously old.

We now have a new back yard garage door with a new smart deadbolt! progress!

And to the outdoor natural gas fire pit. I can't wait to use it! It's been more work than we anticipated (isn't it always?) and more money, but hopefully worth it! We are getting a gazebo to cover it, so we can use it when it's raining. It will be so nice to just turn on and off, with no smoke!