Crap!

Well, just about to clean out the garagio so that I can start making for the February Bountiful Bowls Pottery Fair here in Rockport, and...

Ah, how sweet it is.

History of event here in old Caller-Times article.

Garage Conversion Update

In case you haven't heard, we are not going to have the room finished by Thanksgiving. We decided we needed to slow down because of Taylor's shoulder injury. We ARE still hosting Thanksgiving, though. The walls will be bare sheet rock and the floor hard concrete, but we have AC, electrical, doors, and room for everyone.

We were most encouraged the last week of October when Mom and Dad came to visit, and we took an extra day off to work. I failed to get any photos of Mom and Dad working! They helped me with the large bookcase which will hold our entertainment systems. Dad stripped and sanded shelves while Mom and I painted the cabinet part. We also did some yard work which I have fallen desperately behind in. Also, Mom and I volunteered at Halloween on the Harbor. Here we are in our costumes:

Mom was a mouse, and she made me a gypsy costume for this year.

While the rest of us were doing easy projects, Taylor worked on knocking out the opening for the walk-through from the kitchen to the room and also the opening for the pass-through between the 2 rooms. Here are the photos:

You can just make out Taylor's white shirt and overalls.


As soon as we had the hole, Euni had to get on the counter to check it out. He's not allowed on the counters and is usually very good about this, but it was just too interesting to ignore.


Here's Taylor working on the last of the electrical.


Here are the 2 openings framed-out and sheetrocked with 3 new pendant lights
hanging above what will be a counter.


Here is the front wall which we finally were able to sheetrock this weekend! We had to wait for a Jeldwen contractor to install a new door because the one we installed was defective and the wood began to split. However, the company was great and took care of the problem with very little hassle on our part. Then, we had to get our final wind storm inspection. Piece of cake!!

Garage Conversion Update

The first sheet of sheet rock goes up!!

And some more.

I know it's very exciting, but this is the last piece of old sheet rock coming down.

Kitchen Before & After Photos

Here they are (finally):

2 BEFORE photos of main kitchen area

AFTER

BEFORE of stove area

New Stove area

BEFORE of "eat-in" side

AFTER

We still have more trim work to finish, so don't look too closely. Also there is a tile piece to install on the wall behind the stove and the opening to the new room still to knock out and build pass through counter.

Hurricane Ike

I forgot to plan into the "dreaded list" a week of hurricane preparation and evacuation. Turns out we didn't have to evacuate because the storm has changed course and is headed right towards my parents in Galveston County. However, our house is boarded up and all outside items have been moved into the garage/new room. We won't be able to work on it this weekend, but of course, I have a back-up plan.
We'll be praying for our family and all the others in the path of the storm.

New Side Door

This used to be a window. We needed a door to go from the new room to the front yard. Don't worry, we'll remove the red shutters now that it's a door.

Before Photos

I forgot to show the before photos of the garage exterior. I took these with the camera when it had condensation after going from the cool house into 90+ percent humidity. That's why they're foggy.

A Window & AC

It seems like I should have more to report because we had the long Labor Day weekend and then we took 3 days off to work on the house, but the going has been slow.
Here is Taylor framing out what looks like a balcony but is actually the opening for the window.


And here's the window!

It took us 3 days to get that baby in!

When we first moved into the house we were dismayed by the horrible condition of the garage doors. In fact, they were in such bad shape, whenever I locked myself out of the house, I would just kick in one of the panels and crawl through. It was very exciting to load those sad things into the truck and haul them off to the dump. Here's "Extra Cat" lounging on the debris.

The rest of the work isn't too exciting. Taylor did a bunch more electrical work. We also put in another door, but I failed to take pictures of it, so I'll add that later. However, if you need to see more, here's a photo of THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB we accomplished.

Yes! We are now working in an air conditioned room!! We have 2 vents in the space and even though we haven't put sheetrock on the ceiling or walls, we remove those cardboard covers when we're working. It makes a huge difference in energy level and brain function. Did I mention that Taylor did the duct work on the hottest day of the summer? (I assisted but didn't even have to put my head up into the sauna area very much. Taylor had to crawl all the way back to the main unit area.)

New Front Entrance

It took 4 weekends to drill 8 holes into the concrete so that we can FINALLY frame in the two openings for the garage doors. We placed our new front door this weekend. The weather was sweltering (notice the blue canopy - it rained on us), and we worked until we were out of light, but WE HAVE A DOOR!!! (and Exhaustion is our middle name.) Next weekend we'll install the new window and close in the other garage door. Then, after we install another door where a window currently is, we'll have the wind storm inspector out to approve it all. After that hurtle, we'll feel pretty good because the tricky engineering stuff will be over.

It's a fiberglass door, by the way. We didn't want to spend all this energy
and have it rot out in our harsh climate. Isn't it pretty?

Getting Nowhere FAST

We don't have much to show for the last three weekends of tears and sweat (well, the only tears were the ones caused by the rivers of sweat running into our eyes). We've been trying to work on enclosing the openings where the existing garage doors are. We've spent hours trying to drill into 40 year old concrete in order make holes deep enough for wedge anchors which we need to connect to the new construction. We finally got to consult with a wind storm inspector to make sure we are doing the correct things to get the new work certified for wind storm insurance coverage. Living on the coast makes remodeling jobs doubly difficult. However, the wind storm guy gave us some good advice, and we should save some time and money doing what he suggested. Here are some photos of Taylor and I working on those stink'n holes.

I'm working with a hammer drill.

Taylor's working with a star drill which means he's doing it the old-fashioned way by manually breaking up aggregate so I can come after him and drill out more concrete with the hammer drill. I know - it sounds like so much fun! How can I complain?!? What's amazing is how much faster the job became when we got the star drill and started working manually. We had two 3-inch holes drilled in 3 hours - WHAT INCREDIBLE LIGHTENING SPEED!

The other big job on the garage conversion has been running the electrical wiring.
I like the way Taylor makes notes on the walls to keep track of what's going where.

We're currently 4 weeks behind according to the dreaded list, so be patient with us.
Some day we'll have something pretty to show.

Garage Deconstruction

The job I had most feared during all this remodeling work was tearing out the sheet rock in the garage. I expected to have lots of roach poo and dead roaches falling on us as we removed the ceiling. Turned out it wasn't too disgusting. Taylor did find a snake skeleton in the wall, but it looked pretty cool. Here is a before photo of the VERY messy garage and some photos of the tear-out.

Kitchen Update

We've been spending our weekends working in the garage, so we are trying to fit the remaining kitchen jobs into the evenings after work. Here's a photo of one corner that is completely done (except I still haven't found the perfect convection microwave so the microwave shelf has stuff on it). Notice the upper and lower trim on the cabinets and the counter top edges. Those are the types of things we still have to complete. Of course, I have to go to IKEA to get more materials in order to finish everything.

After the Rain

Last weekend's showers which culminated in Saturday's water spout has left us with little somethings.

Surprise!

Big Bad Wolf

This year Marsha and I volunteered at the Rockport Arts Festival. It was a great way to help out a friend, our Arts Center, and ourselves. We figured we'd be able to take a few minutes before things shut down at 6:00 on Saturday and check out some of our favorite potters who come every year.

This year was a bit different.

When we arrived at 3:00 the weather was sweltering. It was hot and humid, and I spend most of my time wiping my face and neck. By about 4:00 or so, the temperature suddenly dropped and one of those Texas downpours began. I saw people running to get under cover. Boy was I glad we were volunteering under the Kids tent.


Things were getting pretty wet and the rain was coming down pretty hard but we were all under the good sturdy professional tents. I was surprised when the rain began falling much harder and the wind picked up. At one point I saw the rain driving almost horizontal and unsecured items began to fly away.


I saw a tent with paintings and jewelry try to fly away with a couple of artists holding onto the legs, so Marsha, the Arts Center educator, and I went out to help. By the time all the art was taken down and we secured the tent from collapse, I was soaked to the bone.


People held on until it was all over or until their tent collapsed. This was a food vendor who was out in the open. Most of the artists were lined up beside the three long tents that surround the festival grounds.


I don't think anybody flew completely away but several vendors took pretty big hits with damaged art work as well as mangled displays. Both Dale Neese and V. Chin lost at least one piece, but I think they were able to batten down their hatches alright.


Here's a few people praying to the Rain God.

I love volunteering. And so does Marsha.