HVAC, Electricians, Sprinklers, Oh My!

Six white contractors trucks, all working at our house today.  This picture doesn't even show the trucks that are parked on the other side of the street, all of which incidentally are not white.  They are blue, gray and black.

Here's a fellow headed up the ladder into the ceiling.  I believe that is Dan.  As to what he's doing, I have no idea.

This gentleman is installing ductwork for the heating.  See him up there?  This is like a game of "Where's Waldo?" only in our case, it's "Where's the Contractor?"

This man is installing the shower pan.

This guy is running the hoses for the sprinkler system.  Yes, we have to have a fire sprinkler system.  Don't get me started on the idiocy of that, we didn't want it, the City Building Department forced us to install fire sprinklers.  As in, if we don't install them we can't have a building permit.

And here's another guy in the ceiling.  I'm not sure what he's doing, but he's friendly.

These are the sheet metal guys.  They are measuring the sheetmetal for the ductwork.

Here's some of their materials.

Sorry one's a little dark, but there's some ductwork.

This is the other downstairs bedroom.  It's filled with PVC pipes and fittings.

The TV room is just full of all kinds of stuff.

This is the downstairs bathroom, with a new tub, and festooned with sprinkler tubes hanging down from the ceiling.

I don't know what these guys are discussing, I was just trying to get some pictures and stay out of the way.

Ductwork under the house.

More duct men under the house.

More pointing and measuring.

I don't think both of you guys will fit through that doorway together.

This guy is soldering copper pipes.

That's soldering wire in his right hand, and he's melting it into the pipe joint with the butane torch in his left hand.

Bye Caser, you have to stay with the contractors. 

More Misc.

Obviously I couldn't post pictures of Sport playing ball and not the Big Dog.  Considering a bulk of my life is spent at various ball parks watching the boys play, I could post baseball pictures every day.

Not only does Sport catch, so does the Big Dog.  In fact, the Big Dog is the reason Sport is a catcher.  He just wants to be like his older brother.  Isn't that sweet?  Speaking of sweet, maybe they'll be like the Molina brothers -- now that would be sweet.  Not likely, starting with the fact that they aren't Puerto Rican, but...

Here he is catching for his travel team.

And here he is hitting.  That's some power.

Back at the house, Chris is starting to wire the electrical.

Tools of the trade.

This is called "pulling wire"  because he's pulling the wire from that roll through the walls.

See where it goes through the  holes drilled in the joists?

Then down the wall.

Here he's securing it to the stud.

See, this one's all done.  It's called a home run, because it runs home, to the electrical panel.

And here's the electrial panel. 

A Bunch of Miscellaneous

 

Because my life isn't only the house, here's a peek at what else we've been up to. 
This is Sport, who catches for his Little League Team.  He looks sad.  Trust me, he's not.  He loves to catch, and he loves this team.  I think I just got a bad camera angle.  

Here he is heading out to hit.

And here is the house!  With a new roof!  Can you believe it?  I went to work one day, came by the next morning on my way to work, and this is what it looked like!

Doesn't she look fantastic?

While the roofers were putting on the new roof, Dan and Chris were downstairs framing new walls.

They built out this nifty half wall to hide the foundation.

The walls are framed in from the OSB sheeting because the original foundation is thicker at the bottom than at the top.

Here I am putting some paint on a board.  Were doing samples to try to pick a new color for the outside of the house.  Originally, I wanted it to be yellow, because the  house has always been yellow.  But Chris wasn't on board with that, so we're trying some new colors.

And look who's come for a visit!  My Mom!

So here's one paint sample.

And here's the other.  I know, pretty similar, but this one's definitely lighter than the other, and I'm detecting a slight pink cast to this one that I am not liking at all.  As you can see, I make my decisions pretty quickly.  But we'll still leave them up for a few days so Chris can live with them.

More Roofing

So after the torture of stripping the roof, the A team comes in to sheet it. 

This is how they get those sheets of OSB onto the roof.  It should be entirely apparent as to why I'm not involved in the sheeting process.  The thought of me trying to get one of those sheets from the sawhorse to the roof is really beyond my imagination.

There's Dan on the left and Chip on the right.  Dan's nailing the new sheets down with the nail gun.  I'm not sure what Chip is doing.

See Dan and his gun?

My job for today?  I'm a picker upper.  All of this debris needs to be put in the trailer.  So I'll rake it up and shovel it into one of the trusty trash cans, then carry it around to the front of the house and throw it in the trailer.

Much better, no?

Here's my trailer full of debris.

Case, lying under the trailer.

The end, for me, for today. 

Still Stripping Roof

Yes, it's true, the nightmare continues.  We're back on the roof again. 

We finished removing the asphalt shingles, then started on the tarpaper and cedar shingles.  I really can't think of any way to convey to you how hot and utterly miserable this job is.  Oh, and it was right about here that I pulled back some shingles to find......latch hook yarns.  Apparently a rat had built a nest under the shingles and lined it with yarn.  Chris found another one that had Christmas ribbon in it.  Like a little Martha Stewart rat.

Do you like how we've stuck the end of the shovels between the boards so they won't slide off the roof?

Take a good look at that.  It almost makes you want to hurl yourself right off the roof, doesn't it?

This is me, in what is quite possibly the least flattering photo ever taken.  I was so hot and miserable I didn't even care.  Still don't.
What I'm doing here, is hitting the cedar shingles with that little crowbar thing and breaking them away from the boards they are nailed to.  If you keep the bar between the boards and hit hard enough, you can break several at a time.  Its super fun and relaxing, and not at all hard on your back to stand like that all day.

There's a better look at the shingle smashing tool in Sport's hand.

Typically, you stand and work on the shingles uphill from yourself, but Sport is getting close to the edge, so has to work the other way around.

A bunch of shingles loosened, but not yet thrown off the roof.

Careful Sport, don't fall.

After the shingles are removed, we have to crawl over the entire roof and nail down every nail that's sticking up.  All the nails that held all of those shingles on the house, need to be nailed down flush.  If you don't, there will be a lump when the guys start to nail down the sheeting.  I don't want to be around when they have to deal with nails that were supposed to be nailed down but weren't,  while they are wrestling sheets of OSB on the roof.

Here's the Big Dog and Chris nailing down the roofing nails.  The best thing about this part of the job is the sitting.

Sport is still finishing the last corner.  I'm just standing up by the chimney, crying.

This is what the garage looks like without a roof.  So light and airy.

And here's the eating area and kitchen.

The kitchen.

The master bedroom.

One last look before we leave for the day. 

Yay!