Thumb and Hammer Blog

Four adults, one child and three dogs.  Under one roof.  In a house that is a still a construction zone.  In a perfect world, the work would have been done by now.  Alas, a perfect world this is not.
On Monday, we were still recovering from the 11-hour road trip.  I headed out to the kennel [...]

On Thursday and Friday, the contractors continued working on our house while we were hundreds of miles away visiting my wife’s family.  We returned home Sunday night to find that the tile in the kitchen and in the hallway had indeed been laid while we were gone.  Sunday marked the first night of a two [...]

This may be a little confusing because I have only been counting the days that the contractors have worked on this project.  However, with the kitchen renovation, there has also been a cabinet maker toiling away in his shop for a couple of weeks.  I did not count the days he spent installing the lower [...]

Friday was the contractors’ 44th day working on our house.  The second floor bedrooms, except for a bit of trim in one closet, are finished.  It is finally possible to start moving things upstairs, and we will be calling a mover to get some of the large items out of storage.
On Saturday, my wife, daughter [...]

A lot has been accomplished in a short amount of time on the second floor.  On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the three contractors fixed up the drywall (mud and primer), laid the bamboo floor, hung doors, installed trim and finished painting one of the rooms.  Was all of this work within my abilities as a [...]

A lot was happening on Monday.  The contractors brought in a helper as they began working upstairs.  The helper busied himself patching the holes in the floor while the contractors fixed the wall in the guest room that had been damaged when they erected the supporting walls in the basement their first week here.  They [...]

Only one contractor was on the job from Monday to Wednesday, but the kitchen renovation progressed at a steady pace.  The other contractor, refreshed from his week’s vacation, returned on Thursday, and by the end of the day Friday, we were ready for the base cabinets to be delivered.
The drywall was hung on Monday and [...]

On Wednesday, the rest of the kitchen was gutted and the rough in for the wiring was started.  Half of the work crew has headed to warmer climes for a week, leaving one contractor on the job (although he did bring in a helper on Wednesday).
The contractor was unable to work on Thursday.  My wife [...]

Hammers and prybars (not to mention the contractors) were given a workout on Monday and Tuesday as the old cabinets were ripped out of the kitchen and the ceiling and walls were stripped back to the joists and studs.  There were no real surprises– no major structural defects or bad wiring to discover.  Therefore, the [...]