Its pretty cool how continuous aluminum gutters are formed - a machine in the back of a van.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Money into the gutter(s)
Finally got a gutter guy to come out and add a gutter over the garage. Before that, whenever it rained, water would cascade down over the garage door, which was very annoying. I also had 2 sections replaced - those were old galvanized sections, probably original.
Its pretty cool how continuous aluminum gutters are formed - a machine in the back of a van.
Its pretty cool how continuous aluminum gutters are formed - a machine in the back of a van.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
House Painting - Finale
I just paid the painter- $4000. I was expecting to pay a lot more!
The breakdown:
$3000 for all the painting (wash, prep, masking, 1 coat primer, 1 coat paint)
$ 800 for the labor to replace all the rotten wood (almost 3 days of labor)
$ 200 - tip (kinda low, but don't think I needed to tip; however, the crew was good)
On top of that, there was $1256 for the lumber costs which I paid for at time of purchase, so the grand total comes to $5256.
Based on the research I did, I think I got a pretty good deal, especially on the wood replacement labor. They did a lot of work on the wood.
And, on top of it all, they even touched up the varnish on the front door. Just a light sanding and restain/re-varnish. It doesn't look like new, but it's much better than before and I don't have to deal with it for another several years.
The leftovers (all the rotten wood that was removed)
The breakdown:
$3000 for all the painting (wash, prep, masking, 1 coat primer, 1 coat paint)
$ 800 for the labor to replace all the rotten wood (almost 3 days of labor)
$ 200 - tip (kinda low, but don't think I needed to tip; however, the crew was good)
On top of that, there was $1256 for the lumber costs which I paid for at time of purchase, so the grand total comes to $5256.
Based on the research I did, I think I got a pretty good deal, especially on the wood replacement labor. They did a lot of work on the wood.
And, on top of it all, they even touched up the varnish on the front door. Just a light sanding and restain/re-varnish. It doesn't look like new, but it's much better than before and I don't have to deal with it for another several years.
The leftovers (all the rotten wood that was removed)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
House Painting - Day 5 : Color me buckskin!
The painters are done with the majority of the work. Just a few finishing touched to be done tomorrow.
Buckskin - thats the color I picked. Funny how different it looks in indirect light vs sunlight.
Boris at 9 months
Boris is 9 months of age today. 
He seems to have stopped growing, since he has been at the same weight for the last couple of months. He weighs about 38 lbs, which is a good bit short of the predicted 50 - 60 lbs that the breeder expected.
At the dog park today, I saw another aussie who was 10 months and weighed 60 lbs. He looked just a little taller than Boris, but definitely "thicker". His owner called Boris a "mini". Hah!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
House Painting - Day 4 : Primed and ready to go!
Finally! No more wood being replaced. They applied the primer coat today. It already looks better!
House Painting - Day 3 (Make it stop!)
Day 3 and still more wood is being replaced on the house. Lucky for me, they have run out of wood surfaces to replace. So I think we are done with the wood work. A good indication of this is that they are now masking all the windows with plastic sheeting.
Just about every window frame had one or more rotten boards.
Even some of the soffit work was rotten.
The beginning of the masking work. Looks really eerie from inside!
Some good news - the carpenter was able to repair the gable vents, which were custom made and would have been difficult to replace. The one on the right had been severely chewed up by critters. Unfortunately, he did not replace all the louvers (only the really bad ones). By the time I saw it, it was already sealed up. But it is functionally sound.
This is what it looked like before.
Friday, April 16, 2010
House Painting - Day 2 (Worse than the first)
The saga continues... the painting crew is still finding rotten wood and loose paint. So they continue to scrape, chisel, remove repair the crappy paint and wood.
We had to buy another $367 of wood today, bringing the total to just over $1,100 for wood. The contractor thinks they have identified all the bad wood and we should have all the wood we need. They worked until 6:30 today but they are still not done. There is at least another half day of wood replacement to be done.
And its supposed to rain this weekend. And all that bare wood on the house. The painter says its no big concern, since we should have dry weather next week.
We had to buy another $367 of wood today, bringing the total to just over $1,100 for wood. The contractor thinks they have identified all the bad wood and we should have all the wood we need. They worked until 6:30 today but they are still not done. There is at least another half day of wood replacement to be done.
And its supposed to rain this weekend. And all that bare wood on the house. The painter says its no big concern, since we should have dry weather next week.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
House Painting - Day 1
The first day started off with pressure washing all the painted surfaces to remove dirt and any really loose paint. Then the crewe started inspecting the wood, looking for rotten wood to be replaced or re-caulking where needed.
Already today, the wood expense was $750 for the cedar boards, about half of which were used today. I still need to get the labor cost for the wood replacement today.
I did not expect it to go without problems, but it went way worse than expected. Once the crew got up there and inspected the wood, it went downhill from there. Over the garage door, almost every board had some rotting. Since this is a prominent faade of the house, I decided to get it all replaced.
On the west side of the house, there was a good bit of rotten wood that was replaced and there is still more to be done tomorrow.
Here is what was done today...
One of many rotten edges. Replacing rotten boards
The highest replaced board was as high as they got today. More (carnage) tomorrow.
Previous owner (aka idiot handyman) did not prime the wood used to enclose the former balcony. A lot of the paint came off while pressure washing.
And the finished (but unpainted) garage facade.
Already today, the wood expense was $750 for the cedar boards, about half of which were used today. I still need to get the labor cost for the wood replacement today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)