Ahead of Schedule - What?!

 Our Martin Acres pop-top is zooming along!

We have just ended week 16 of our Martin Acres pop-top project (if you also count the couple of weeks in early March spent preparing to start.) You can only imagine my surprise when Ken told me that we are presently a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, when we met this week. I could have cried with happiness!  Essentially this last week has seen crazy amounts of insulation and siding work being done and our pop-top is racing toward the finish line.

On the outside the guys finished the cement board and the battens – or as I call them, the stripes. They also braved wobbly ladders and planks to reach the height of the peaks and up went the lapboard. Is that the right term? Anyway, it’s the horizontal siding that you see overlapping each other, in the upper triangle areas.

The next step is caulk and prep to paint. LOTS of caulk I imagine!  We can expect to see paint in the next 2-3 weeks so I better get a move on choosing the off-white paint color.

On the inside, during back-to-back days that hit 100 degrees before lunchtime and sustained that temperature well into the night, the insulation team filled all the ceiling and wall spaces with batting and foam and such. Honestly, I worried for their health! It was dusty, foamy, itchy and hot. The house was a sauna upstairs and they had to wear long pants and sleeves, masks and goggles. The older guy even trotted around on stilts!!!

City of Boulder Rough Inspection

 285 Martin Drive passed rough inspection!

It has been a busy week, but on the outside looking in, not a lot of apparent progress. Yeah, it’s hard to take pictures of another 20 feet of wiring and post about it!

Hard at work have been the HVAC teams, electricians and plumbers though. Every wall of framing has been punctured and threaded. Ducts are in place, wire connects outlets, light switches and fan hubs. CAT6 bundles terminate under the stairs and the other day I found a tub in the upstairs guest bath with actual water in it… not the kind that fell into the house from the sky, like last month either.

On the outside, we have the beginnings of siding too. Cement board has been cut and fit to cover the white paper that you’ve grown to love as much as I have. Following that, the vertical straps are being attached every couple of feet and the windows are being trimmed. And … ta-da! Balcony makes its first appearance.

They tell me painting is only about 3 weeks away. Between now and then there is a 50 pounds of caulk to apply, I’m sure!

Did I tell you the sliding door was now in the master bedroom? And that the first time I tried to open it I noticed the panes were bowed and it didn’t slide as easily as it should?  Oh dear! The Jeld Wen rep has been summoned and the problem diagnosed. Something about their construction and the need to be altitude-appropriate… which they were not.  I’m expecting new  doors in that frame, not long after the broken window – which Ken referred to as the eyesore!  LOL  At least we are still on the same page!

Speaking of…

How many of you have done a project like this and can say they are still on budget and time, at the half way mark?  I’m $300 over, according to our little spreadsheet. That’s not bad.  Of course, the price of drywall went up 15% last month and there’s not much that can be done about that, so it will most certainly affect the budget next month.  But still… I’m impressed with Storm Form, LLC.

Side Note: My “job” during this process is to make decisions. Sounds like fun, right? Most days it is. Some days I’m ever so slightly overwhelmed by my power and how in demand I am 🙂  Essentially, I have homework. In the evenings I look at garage doors, front doors, faucets and tubs. June has probably had the UPS guy scratching his head, as no less than 15 parcels have arrived to the front doorstep of the Longmont house! 

The Inner Workings of Construction

 From the outside looking in, the last week appeared pretty uneventful. Do not be fooled! 285 Martin Drive was a hive of activity. Never has it been more crowded with contractors and several of them (Eric, doing HVAC and Kevin, leading the plumbing team) worked weekends to stay on schedule. 

Dirk and Aaron built stairs – actual stairs, this week! And for the first time, I was able to take my neighbor, Donnie, for a glimpse of the second level.

Martin Acres construction forges ahead: The electrical got installed. 

Wiring diagrams are like secret code, if you ask me. It takes a special person with lots of highlighters, to understand exactly what needs to be done. I was on hand to answer questions, but I dreaded the times I was put on the spot when Ken wasn’t around. What if I gave the wrong answers? 

And plumbing… coming in and out. Hello 1955 cast iron pipe! 

After hours spent in my damp, dark crawlspace, only 3′ high, these guys were STILL smiling! I guess they didn’t run into my black widow friend down there.

On the outside the soffits under the eaves were being installed last week too.

 I have so many feel-good stories already, but here goes another:

Memorial Weekend, I decided to spend a half day trimming and thinning the junipers and other bushes along the back fence line. I had a pretty heavy duty lopper with long handles for leverage and I was making decent progress – if you judge it by the piles of branches chopped rather than the skill in manicuring trees into shape! At some point I noticed the lopper becoming increasingly difficult to open and close…. Then it was downright impossible.  Had I bent a blade? Eric was just finishing HVAC work when he noticed me struggling in the back yard and volunteered to use his van load of tools to make my tool functional again. Within minutes he had loosened, oiled and tightened my gardening implement and it was normal again. So nice!  

I know some people think it’s enough to have efficient, timely and reasonably priced contractors working on your house. It is…kind of. But take it to the next level and imagine all the good energy that is being built right in when you have teams of folks who are jovial, enthusiastic and seem to really care about working well with each other, making it easy for another person, keeping each other on schedule and in the loop with progress and changes. 

There is a reason I am drawn to 285 Martin Drive. You’ve heard me rave about the great neighbors but now you can add the attractive, positive energy at the job site. I find myself with the occasional hour or two of down-time between appointments and these days, am likely to be found in an old chair on the front patio, watching the world go by as I work via hot-spot with a laptop in hand.

… Or at breakfast with Mark on a Saturday morning.