House Building Update

Lee asked via email, "What is happening on the house?"

Well, it's been a while since I've worked on the house. The outside maintenance work has kept me too busy to get much house building done. In fact, the only movement on the house front has been the hallway ceiling. It's being finished in the same fashion as the lanai ceiling. 

Above -- What's done to date. The sliding lass door is the entrance into the bedroom. We opted to keep the door rather than replace it with a standard door. 

I have managed to purchase the flooring for the hallway. We opted for a snap together vinyl type floor that looks like wood. We can not use the laminated "wood" flooring  that snaps together. It's too moist here. One of our neighbors installed it and had problems within a year with the edges curling. I've heard of others having the same problem in our area. Since we both decided that we didn't want ceramic style tile in the hallway.....nor carpeting either......we opted for a vinyl style floor. I thought that meant sheet goods, but then I came upon this snap together stuff. We're willing to give it a try. 

We still have a threshold plate to make for between the kitchen and the livingroom. I've got the wood, but David has to make it. Milling it down is well beyond my skills. Next job will be finishing off the bedroom, which should be simple and quick. Just a case of doing the cedar thing that has already been done in the other rooms. With a lot of experience doing it, the job should go quickly.

The final major project : the bathroom and bathroom roof. Not simple. Not quick. In fact, in a way I'm dreading it a bit. Moving the plumbing and electrical. Removing part of a wall and putting in a door. Making a shower. Making a waterproof floor that slopes to a gutter drain. Tiling the walls. Building the outside deck and hottub or furo. Definitely new building skills for me. David is going to have a lot of work to do in this project. The roof especially. So I'll be the assistant doing the easier or simpler stuff. In fact I've gotten really good at painting, sanding, making straight cuts......buying supplies.....changing saw blades; recharging tool batteries.....running around lining up things.....cleaning up afterward. David is fast with the nail gun, so I let him at it. He's good at the complicated stuff, whereas I'm slow as molasses. I've watched carefully at how he does things, so I know I could do it too if I had to. But I no longer feel that I have to be the one to do it all. Yes I could, but now I let David do the hard stuff. He's got the muscle, experience, and is 10 years younger. Let the young guy do it!