The Remodelogue

Getting this done was like pulling teeth. But the heated conversation worked! They put the roof back on before the major storm hit. And now the integrity of the roof can be tested. This storm is going to be intense.
They didn’t have enough to finish above the master closet because some of the material broke when they were removing it, but they got most of it done.
It looks a little funky, but they assure me it will even out with time.

The structural engineer came out today. I asked him to call me on my cell after and tell me how it went as we were going to be gone on our Christmas vacation.
He called and we passed! Whew!

Here are pix of some if not all of what they did to get ready for the next inspection on Friday. Mostly metal straps to futher stabilize the joints in important places.

Took off the old sheer wall that the fight started over. Also, a specific kind of bolt is installed. Glad we didn’t need another deputy inspector out here.

And replaced it with the new one, which is correct. The plywood is vertical and staggered.

About the picture below. It is a picture of the big beam spanning the living room back wall. On the other side is the Dining room which we are using as our living room during the remodel. To install this, they had to break the wall in the dining rrom, in our living space. I told them to hold off while I ask the engineer if there is an alternate way to do it so that they would not need to break through to the other side of the wall. They said there wasn’t but I asked them to hold off anyway. I emailed the engineer but didn’t hear back from him so they went ahead. I then get an email from the engineer the next day:
“Have him use the Simpson ‘LCE4′”
The foreman said “That’s what I wanted to use but he said no.” Sometimes even in the face of such bull##$%^, you have to just suck it up, deal with it, and keep your mouth shut. Argggh.

I’m not sure I understand what the lower brackets are doing in the pictures below. They attach the big beam to the 2×4 above it, but the 2×4 above it isn’t attached to anything so it seems stupid to me.

The nails from the roof went in and we are ready to have the structural engineer come out and look the house over and give his sign off.
Wow!
The engineer is a pretty uptight kind of guy. Not the kind of guy you want to have a beer with. Very buttoned up. Very manicured. But very serious and into his work. At least I have a fair amount of confidence that our house will survive the big one.
He’s checking everything out and finally he turns to the foreman and says “What is this?” It descends into a yelling match that I still can’t believe.
“Don’t yell at me!”
“Anybody doing this for 2 months knows that this is wrong. Is this your first job?”
“Don’t f%&^^&%^ng talk to me like that.”
“I can say anything I want!”
After they calmed down and the engineer went into the attic, I pulled the foreman aside and told him to be nice to this guy. He has what we want, namely a signature.
It ends up there is a list of twelve items that do not pass. And one shear wall has to be redone. The engineer even pointed out that one of the other sheer walls was done correctly. Why was this one done wrong?
I was hoping that we could get this passed before Christmas as promised, and press for it. Can we take pictures of the corrections and send them to you? He says he would but not for this many things. Implying that this is unusual.
He gives me the list, and I amke a copy of it for everyone.

The foreman promises to get all this done and we set the meeting for Friday at 2PM, the last working day before Christmas.

The Master shower gets framed out.

The sheer wall on the south side of the bathroom had to be reconfigured due to how we wanted the mirrors and lighting to be set up. Sheer walls need to have 4×4’s every 4 ft with a 4′x8′ sheet of plywood spanning from 4×4 to 4×4. But we need 60″ without a 4×4.
Click here to see the light mirror set up needing the 60″
So… we got a drawing from the engineer and it required 2 new 4×4s 60″ apart. And each now needs to be secured with a hold down. So that means the deputy inspector needs to come out again, which is more money. Hence our first change order! Yippee!!!

The open space for the mirrors and lights.

The two hold downs at the bottom of each of the new 4×4s

Here is a look at the windows even though they are not right.

One of the 4ft windows from the front. They are going to adjust the top of the frame down by cutting out the top inch or so of the side frame. This will hide some of that extra wood up there where the retractable screen is housed. The stucco will extend over the window a little.

The 3ft window for the hall bath.

We got Rabbeted Pair/French Casement windows. There is no center frame so they open up wide and airy.

This is the rectractable screen. The white crossbar will blend in once the windows are painted white.

The hinges are “sticky hinges” so they keep the window in place once you push it out. We didn’t want to have cranks.