307A Construction Update thru October

Sorry for the long delay in posting an update!  The past 1-2 months have been absolutely draining.  Productive, but draining.  I've been on a couple of deadlines...another coming up this Friday.  In the mean time we've gotten quite a bit accomplished at the house. 

The picture above is actually a bit out of date!  Regardless, you can see that the downstairs is now completely tiled, drywalled, and primed.  Since this was taken, we've finish painted all but one wall of the downstairs - still waiting on a color selection there.  A faithful brother from Christ Community, Chuck Clark, took a few days of his time to install doors and trim throughout.  Only paint remains for the trim.  Carmen's mom and my sister did a great job of scrubbing the grout haze off of the tiles - they look much better now than the above and only need some spot cleaning now. See below for a better idea of the current state.

Also high on the list of of accomplishments in the past few weeks was exterior painting.  Last weekend Matt Bernstein, Dan Hyer, my dad and Carmen's dad helped during a concentrated effort to paint the exterior of the house.  We got a late start on Saturday due to a very cool morning which we used to complete some additional cleaning and demo on the exterior.  By end of day Sunday, we were able to get the front and back completely painted as well as most of the first floor on the side.  Carmen was actually able to hop in a paint Sunday evening while my sister ran around with Norah.  It was great to be working along side Carmen.  She is typically caring for Norah while I'm working so it was a treat to have her by my side with a paintbrush.  At this point, we're just praying for a couple more well placed 60+ degree days to finish the job.

Primary focus for the next few weeks will be the kitchen.  We have moved all of the boxes of cabinet pieces and parts to the house and look forward to a cabinet blitz this upcoming weekend!  I'm hoping to get the carcasses assembled and hung by end of day Sunday.  Anyone that hase Ikea cabinet assembly or general cabinet installation experience would be welcomed with open arms!

Please keep us in prayer for strength and stamina over the weeks ahead.  We're keeping our chins up, but the past four months of working evenings and weekends is starting to take its toll on all areas of life.  We're surrounded by faithful friends and family who renew us daily, evidence of a faithful God who loves us deeply.  As I was writing this, the Lord brought to my mind the narrative from Exodus 17:12 where Moses holds up his staff to the Lord, bringing protection to the Israelites as they fight off an attacking army.  Moses, however, grows tired and cannot hold his staff alone any longer.  As his energy fades, Aaron and Hur come to his side, holding up Moses' arms as he holds his staff.  The staff stays raised and the Israelites steal victory from those who attacked them.  What a brilliant picture of the weakness of humanity, the strength of unity, and the beauty of a God who chooses that picture to be the conduit of His strength.

Our arms are weary, but we feel you at our sides.  Thank you.  Praise God.

Blessings,
Justin

ps - Worth another shot - here are links to the latest albums:
Photos - 10/09
Photos - 10/15
Photos - 10/22

Working on the Photo Issue

Thought I had figured out the photo issue, but alas, no luck.  I will post when it's fixed...

"It actually looks liveable!" (Carmen)

We've come a long way in a week.  Just last Saturday we had all of the walls open with just a little bit of sheet rock on the ceiling and one wall.  After working several nights this past week with John & Matt Bernstein as well as a solid Saturday with John & Paul Lockerby, the place is really taking shape.  As you can see above, all of the drywall is up and the mudding has been completed.  A fellow named Luis came all the way down from Stafford (north of Fredericksburg) to mud our house today.  He worked 10 hours today and completed all three coats of mud thanks to some fancy fiberglass tape and quick-drying mud.  He clearly knew what he was doing and gave us a very fair price.  He will be back on Tuesday evening to do the finish sanding which will leave the walls ready for painting!  Very exciting. 

After Luis wraps up on Tuesday, I will be crunching to get the floors cleaned and leveled for our tile blitz next Friday and Saturday.  That should make a HUGE difference in the appearance of the house.

The next three to four weeks will be full of interior and exterior painting, trim, cabinet assembly and appliance installation.  Also on the list is demolition of the upstairs bathroom vanity/mirror and flooring.  The vanity and tub were installed so close to each other that you can't clean between them.  Thanks to a few years of water gradually dripping down there the bottom of the vanity is starting to rot and there is some lovely yellow mold expanding up the wall.  The leaky shower valves need to be repalced also, so hopefully there is someone out there handy with plumbing?  I figure now is the time to fix it!  We'll be picking up the bathroom vanity, sink, faucet next weekend.  Still need to make a decision on the shower fixture.

So - much done, but much to do as well.  Thanks to all who take the time to read this and keep up with us!  Also, I think I have fixed the problem with the links to our photo sharing site.  I had a privacy setting checked that was keeping everyone out.  Give this link a try and please let me know if it doesn't work!

https://picasaweb.google.com/112282802816936221737/307AConstructionPhotos1002?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJmvvaLPtqaYLg&feat=directlink

Blessings,
Justin

Progress Report @ 307A - September

September has been another busy month for the Waltons here in Charlottesville.  Carmen is back at St. Anne's Belfield teaching 7th grade math.  So far so good on that front.  Childcare gets a little more complicated during the school year, but the Grandmothers are faithfully chipping in every week and we have some great sitters/friends for the remaining days.  Work at VMDO has been busy with my project deadline pushing into the second week of September.  I then had to jump onto another deadline, but have been able to kept the hours manageable feeling the need to push forward on the house.

As for the house work, we ended up expanding the scope of renovation downstairs to include an almost complete re-wiring thanks to a co-worker of mine, Paul Lockerby, who has been an absolute rock and mentor over the past few weeks of work.  After he had convinced me we should take the time to really do it right - and that he was going to make sure it would be - I decided to go ahead and remove the ceiling in the kitchen and re-design the lighting.  Figuring out the circuiting was quite a task since there were so many things on each circuit - a symptom of the old 100amp fuse panel we had replaced.  In the end we added 7 new can lights in place of the old busted (and all different) ceiling mounted glass and brass lights.  We installed the new range, hood, fridge, w/d, dishwasher and disposal receptacles.  We re-spaced existing and added new countertop receptacles and installed receptacles behind the wall cabs for countertop lights if we would ever want them.  We re-positioned one of the ceiling boxes to use for a pendant over our kitchen table as well.  Last, we added a motion detector light on the side of the house....it's really dark over there at night.  When installing the run for the range, we had 50' of 8-3 wire (expensive stuff) and literally only had inches to spare even after cutting some diagonals...thank you Lord!  If we had come up short, we likely would have had to scrap the whole thing and buy another!

Beyond the electrical, Carmen's dad, John, my friend Mike Robinette and myself finished out some framing and installed all of the insulation last week. This past weekend Paul helped me get started on the drywalling.  John was the hero of that day for bringing home the drywall lift.  Try hanging a 12'x4' sheet of drywall over your head without one!  Paul had never used one, but left a believer.  It's an awesome machine.  We finished the ceiling in one day of work, even with all of the cuts for lights and vents.  John has been great about getting all of the right materials and tools at the right times and asking good questions.  It certainly helps to have someone who estimates building supplies daily! 

This past week I've been slowly chipping away at the walls and am hopeful for finishing all the drywall hanging by Saturday.  Our neighbor, Brandon, stopped by last night and helped me make a lot more progress than I would have on my own.  Praise God for his help.  In the mean time I've been trying to line someone up to do the mudding, which I feel is a bit of an art and am not keen on using my novice skills to do.  A few things have fell through, but I'm hopeful of two guys John has lined up to stop by over the next two days and draw up estimates for the work.  If all goes well, we will have the downstairs mudded and sanded before the end of next week just in time to install tile the weekend of October 8/9, courtesy of Carmen's cousin Roger.

Of course, everything is moving a little slower than anticipated, but we're still plugging along and progress continues to be made.  Please keep us in your prayers that the Lord will keep providing wisdom for all the decisions we have to make along the way and that the right people would come at the right time so we can get things finished soon.  We have now been out of the house for more than 20 months, so needless to say, we are itching to get back in!

Here are some of our latest photos:
Photos through 09/12
Photos through 09/28

Thanks for everyone's prayers, encouragement and gifts.  They mean more than any of you could know.

Blessings,
Justin

August Update at 307A

It's been just over a month now since our last post.  Sorry for letting the time slip away!  We've had quite a full schedule between the house repairs, my office deadlines and our trip overseas in between.  Looking back at our last couple of posts, I realize quite a bit of work has happened.  Here's a general summary of what we've done:

- Exterior:  We completed the exterior board and batten siding as well as all of the window, door, fascia and skirt trim work.  Both of our dads painted and sealed the front of the house.  Carmen's parents have popped over a few times since to continue paint and sealing around the side of the hosue.  We're about half-way down the long side right now.  Carmen and I have generally landed on colors for the exterior of the house.  We've got a nice green color picked out and will likely go get a pint of each color to test out this week.

- MEP:  Fitch Services has completed all of their work on the HVAC, electrical and gas work.  We now have a functional 13 SEER heat pump with a variable speed air handler.  It's a good deal quieter than the old system.  We moved the location of the heat pump around to the side of the house where the shed used to be.  It fit there quite nicely.  We'll screen it in at some point.  Paired with the new HVAC is a new 200A electrical panel by the back door.  It's huge!  Apparently some new code regulations are responsible for the larger size.  Seems completely unnecessary, but the panel is nicely mounted, so we're fine with it.  Also installed was the new electric water heater, a short-style, which we pushed down under the stairs.  That worked out really well and will leave us plenty of room for the W/D once I open up the doorway for it to fit through.  Last on the list was the gas, water and sanitary connections for the W/D, all in place.  The next step will be to have electrical outlets installed for the dishwasher and range as well as a few re-located outlets for the fridge and microwave.  We'll also be installing the dryer vent around that same time.
- Interior:  Lots to do.  After the electrical gets completed, we will install the insulation - hopefully this will start next weekend.  I'm hoping to start drywall Labor Day weekend.  Any expert mud-ers out there?  Carmen's cousin Roger is going to come out on the 17th and attempt to knock out ceramic tile on the floors, which we have on order from Lowes.  Its a dark gray tile.  We hope it will be nice durable floor and we'll find some nice area rugs for the kitchen and living room to add some color.

- Kitchen Cabs:  Bought and picked up!  The day after we got back from France, my dad kindly turned around braved the I-95 Saturday vacation traffic.  I left the house at 9am and got back at 9pm....whew.  That after getting in from a full day of travel the night before at 11pm.  It was a good time with my dad and a productive trip.  We have everything but the microwave, cabinet legs and countertops which were all temporarilty out of stock.  Apparently the earthquake in Japan knocked out the supply chain for the countertops....dang!

- Trash pile:  Gone!  Thanks to some hard work from John Hunt, Lew Brown and a gracious neighbor, we knocked out four truck loads Saturday morning.  All the trash is gone.  The homeless gentleman who was picking scraps will be disappointed, but the debris had to go!

In between all of this work at the house we took our long-awaited trip to France. Praise God, it was an amazing trip.  Norah did amazingly well on the airplane.  Our hosts were great.  The accommodations were awesome both in Bourg St. Andeol and in Paris.  We were really happy to be able to do it as a family.  There are some great memories.  Carmen has posted some photos on her facebook page.  You can check them out here:  album 1 -

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100415385515953.2734258.6209682&l=c51bbacd69&type=1 album 2 -

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100415397646643.2734262.6209682&l=f0f6dda150&type=1

Here are some recent photos of the house:

Debris pile (once on the side of the house) is gone, front of house is primed and sealed.

New header from kitchen to living room is in, clutter removed, walls cleared off and ready for electrical work.

You can see from this photo that the kitchen wiring is in a state of disarray....soon to be fixed!  I moved all of the tools underneath the stairs to keep them out of the way.  The interior is ready to go.

Another shot of the cleaned up and cleared out interior from the living room.  Earlier today this room was filled with OSB, Hardie Panel and wood cut-offs.

In this shot you can see the new heat pump on the side of the house, the new window and door trimmed out, the new electrical panel and meter (left center) and the leftover siding and sheating under the tarp.  Hopefully the leftovers will go a long way toward the shed I hope to build this fall.....I've got to have somewhere to put my tools!

Kitchen designing Charette at Ikea

Carmen and I needed to break out of the bounds of our computer and sketchpads and see some kitchen layouts in person.  So, Friday we packed up and braved a trip up I-95 to Ikea.  The trip up was smooth sailing.  We arrived around 7pm and moved quickly from model kitchen to model kitchen checking out finishes and arrangements.  We had done a little homework ahead of time and came up to Ikea with a design like this in mind:

We figured the extra counter and storage space of the island would be great to have and felt better about how open it was relative to our old kitchen.  Here's a picture of the island above in a kitchen we saw at Ikea:

After a few minutes taking measurements, we started to realize that the island, as we had envisioned it, was not really going to fit.  This opened things up for us as to what the middle of the kitchen might look like. 

About an hour or so into our trip to Ikea we ran into this kitchen:

This is the kitchen Carmen kept mentioning as we recalled the cabinet finish and room colors on the ride up.  What do you know, that they had a picture of the cathedral Sacre Coeur in Paris hanging on the wall of the kitchen.  It just happens that is where we were engaged to be married.  Of course, this sealed the deal on the cabinet finish. It also happened to have the kitchen table in the middle of the room and it got me to thinking about eliminating the island cabinets and bringing the dining table into the kitchen.  Carmen liked the idea and I think that's how we're going to build it.  The plus of this design is that we keep the rooms distinct and we free up space for a computer desk in what was the dining room.  It will be nice to have a place other than the dining table for our laptops!  Here's what we think it may look like:

So, that's where we left it.  Just a couple more weeks and we'll be placing the order!  Hopefully Carmen and I will be able to nail down the gist of the order this week and doa  finer check next week.

Woohoo!



Knocking down old doors and Opening up new doors

Another week of construction has passed at 307A.  We were able to virtually complete demolition of the interior finishes downstairs and started on some alterations to the interior framing.  However, this week was most poignantly marked by the arrival of a new door and twin window to replace the busted up aluminum sliding door we demolished at the back of the house last week. 

The door and windows arrived on Friday afternoon just in time for us to install on Saturday.  They were graciously delivered by Carmen's dad, John,  from Purcell Lumber in Louisa.  Carmen and I were on the road that evening, so we (and John) were thankful that our friend Matt Bernstein was willing to stop by and help unload the windows/door. 

Kyle and I framed the new openings Saturday morning and were installing them by midday.  My parents arrived at the house around 1pm.  My dad helped collect some of the demolition debris and clear a work-space on the patio and my mom went straight to pruning the lavender bushes which were sorely in need ot some TLC.  Not long after, my dad started on priming the front of the house.  Carmen's dad showed up soon after and helped wrap up the priming effort on the hardie panel and battens on the front of the house.  Meanwhile, Kyle and I sealed and leveled the window/door.  We closed out the day by completing demolition of the remaining drywall and insulation.  It was a refreshing feeling to have all of the old drywall removed and clean studs to work with.  I'm sure our MEP contractor will apreciate the open walls as well.

Sunday was a short but productive day.  The day kicked off with a few curious kids from down the street running around the house and asking why we were taking the house apart.  The eventually found the guest bed upstairs and enjoyed a little bouncing on the mattress.  Kyle showed up shortly after and we got to work on the cedar battens.  By the end of the day, we had put up all but 2 ro 3 of the battens along the long wall of the house.

One thing I forgot to mention was that Matt Bernstein came by earlier in the week and help me start some re-framing of the interior walls to fit the new kitchen design.  Hopefully, Kyle and I will wrap that up tomorrow evening  as well as the framing beneath the stair and trim around the back window/door.

The week ahead will hopefully be the start of our MEP work - new electrical panel, new heat pump, new water heater, relocated washer/dryer, new outlets for an oven, microwave and dishwasher.  Once they have completed the exterior panel work, Kyle and I will follow behind with sheathing, tyvek, siding and battens to finish out the corner.  When it's all said and done, we will have a patio without the noise of the heat pump, a kitchen without the noise of the washer/dryer and a dishwasher we didn't have before....very exciting!

You can see more photos of our progress at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/112282802816936221737/307AConstructionPhotos0711071602?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNfk3oOvvrH4kQE&feat=directlink

Thanks for checking in!
Love,
Justin, Carmen and Norah

Construction Photos 07/05 - 07/10

Here is a link to photos from the past week of construction.  Slowly but surely she's coming together.  Can't wait to get the exterior buttoned up so we can slap some paint on the walls!

https://picasaweb.google.com/112282802816936221737/307AConstructionPhotos07050710?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLX_8pKeoLaaAg&feat=directlink

New window installation, Old door demolition and Insect eviction

It was another lively week of construction at the Walton Residence-to-be.  Kyle and I battened up the front and worked our way around the side with more Hardie Panel siding.  We installed the new awning window - which was very exciting!  We've worked our way around the back with demolition, pulling all of the remaining siding and sheathing off up to the last 4 feet at the electrical panel.  Also demolished was the busted up aluminum & glass sliding door at the back which appeared at times as if it might fall apart and shatter all over the patio...Thankfully it did not.

In the midst of our demolition around the back we found a second deposit of ants and eggs, the first being just around the corner behind what was the shed.  I think we've seen the last of the ants - I hope.  Not a day of construction goes by that I'm not  thankful we just gutted it and started over.  We've encountered huge gaps in insulation, dry rotted sheathing and siding, dryer vents to nowhere and studs literally cut in two.  I feel a lot better about finishing the interior now that I know the exterior will actually be weather tight and (hopefully) bug free.

In other news, the Lord was gracious to our family in setting up a day off from construction at the house today.  Kyle had to take off for the day to be with his kids, so we visited with friends at lunch, ran around downtown with Norah and enjoyed a great night with our homegroup.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed time, prayers, and gifts to help us press forward on the renovation.  It's a blessing to see the house being restored and gives us hope for our future there.  Please feel free to drop a line and ask questions if you'd like to know more.  It's a wild ride, but our Father is sovereign - He knew the beginning and knows the end.


In Him,
The Waltons