Demo day 2

Yesterday the roof came off. Literally. Dave and Justo arrived at 7am and immediately started ripping the asphalt shingles off. Then came the underlayment. Next were the trusses. By the end of the day all that remained were the beam at the top of the gable and the two triangular frames at each end.

The dumpster has yet to arrive so there is debris everywhere. The chickens appear to be handling all of the commotion rather well, at least there has been no slow down of egg production.

There was a lot more activity on Steinback Mountain besides the demolition. John Laughton called to see if he could stop by with a hardware catalog. We're needing to rethink the cabinet hardware because we got our quote from the Contemporary Pull folks and it was a few dollars shy of eight thousand bucks. Yep, 105 pulls for almost 8K. As we told them in our email reply, there was no way we could justify that kind of money regardless of how much we loved their product. Bummer, bummer, bummer.

So around 9 John showed up with his catalog. Although there were a number of options that fit the aesthetic we're going for, we ultimately decided to use cutouts rather than pulls which means we will now be purchasing 3 pulls (for the fridge) instead of 105.

Continuing with the small world theme of the previous post,  John also went to school with the Tombleson boys. Yes, boys. Turns out Tim has an older brother. And John played high school football with them. And, best yet, he remembers swimming in the pool in our backyard. The pool we've yet to see as it has been covered by a deck for many years.

As John was heading out to his truck to leave, Mike and the tile guy arrived. We walked through each of the rooms we could get to which meant everything but the guest house. The pile of asphalt tiles outside the guest house by that time was high enough to prevent a safe entrance. We talked about how we were going to zone the radiant heat and then we looked at the tile samples. The tile guy was confident he could find something similar to the floor tile we're after and even convinced us that 18x18 inch tiles would be a better choice than the 24x24 inch or larger we thought we wanted. Easier to install and less waste were the reasons.

We then went to the stairs in the main house that lead down to the garage. The plywood stairs are going to be reconfigured at the top and the upstairs door is going to be removed. We're also adding three floor to ceiling windows on the walls of the stairwell facing the backyard that will mimic the windows in the living room. So we needed to decide how to cover the stairs since they're going to be much more visible. Both Mike and the tile guy talked us out of using the floor tiles which would require rebuilding the entire staircase and be very expensive for both materials and labor. So the options were either carpeting or linoleum. Actually, carpeting isn't really an option because Zoya our cat will have access to the stairwell when the renovation is done and she is a threat to all things woven.

So it was off to the flooring store where we found a few linoleum samples that were similar in color and texture to the tile. But, we thought, why not pick something that referenced the time period? We actually have a new mantra… instead of WWJD (what would Jesus do?), we find ourselves lately asking "What would George Tombleson do?" Or, in this case, what would George Tombleson have done? Kevin joked with the salesman saying we were probably the only customers looking for the style of 50s kitchen linoleum that, for decades, everyone else has been trying to replace. Because we really didn't need a lot, the salesman suggested we look at the remnants. And it was there that we found five or six rolls of commercial grade linoleum, all of which had the speckled treatment used in the 50s. The roll with a light grey background and white, brown and dark grey specks was the perfect fit. George would be very happy with the choice we're making.

At the end of the day the plumber showed up to see the site and prepare for his quote. He convinced us the wall mounted toilet for the BBQ room's half bath was probably not a good choice. That room is on a concrete slab which would have to be jack hammered and repoured in order to move the toilet bowl less than a foot. And since this will be the bathroom that will rarely be used, why not forgo the $1000 dollar wall mounted option and use a $100 traditional toilet instead? It's nice to have contractors who try to save you money.

Early evening we received an email from Laughton with his quote for the cabinets. Kind of what we were expecting. Besides, we'd much rather have beautiful and functional cabinets than a new Tesla. And, we're confident, so would George Tombleson.