April 22, 2010 -- Day 229

The walls are back in! We're a day away from the drywall installation being finished. The difference is unbelievable. I'm really able to picture what the house will look like now, as opposed to a week ago where it was all exposed wood and wires.
Also, big news, we bought our kitchen appliances and they should be delivered on Saturday. We chose all Frigidaire appliances. A side by side stainless steel fridge (the most grown up fridge I've ever owned!), a gas range with a convection oven and a microwave and dishwasher. The fridge was last years model that will no longer be sold, so we got around a $400 discount. In addition, there are all kinds of rebates that we're going to apply for. We're so excited about our new appliances. I even got misty-eyed in the middle of Lowe's.

April 6, 2010 -- Day 213 -- Inspection Passes!

I had no doubts James' work would pass inspection, it was just a matter of getting all the loose ends tied up and getting the inspector out. Our electrical, plumbing, gas line, framing, mechanical all passed inspection. The next step is getting our PG&E account set up so we can apply for some rebates. Also, getting the walls put back up!

April 2, 2010 -- Day 209 -- The weeds, the blasphemous weeds.

Above is a picture of our yard with lots and lots of weeds growing. These weeds grew up upwards of 3 feet tall in only a few months! James and I pulled them out and then covered the ground with plastic. We read about this technique for getting rid of weeds in an organic weed removal book. What should happen is that the ground will heat up to 120-130 degrees and kill all of the remaining roots and seeds. We'll be leaving the plastic on for a few months

to get the roots good and burned up!

April 2, 2010 -- Day 209 -- Some more progress

Here's our drywell. The drywell was built to help drain the water discharge from our water softener. First, I used the jackhammer to break up some concrete from the walkway, then James and I dug down about 4 feet. James then installed the drain pipes. The next step is to fill it up with small rocks and cover it with soil. The water will drain from the softener into the well and then dissipate into the surrounding soil. It was a lot of digging. A lot.

March 1, 2010 -- Day 179 -- Furnace work

James has spent the past few days working on installing the duct work for our new furnace. The old furnace was in the floor, in the middle of the house, with 2 vents coming up from the floor. This isn't a very efficient way to heat the house because 1)it's a very low efficiency furnace and 2)if you want to heat a room, the door to the room has to be open. Either way, the furnace was no longer functional so we had to replace it. We decided on a forced air heating system, with the furnace up in the attic. This means installing ducting in the attic and making cut-outs in the ceiling of each room for the air ducts.
We should be ready soon to have the furnace installed up in the attic!

February 4, 2010 -- Day 154 -- Insulation

One of the things we really like about the house is that it will be very energy efficient once we put in new windows and insulation. Well, putting in new insulation means removing the old insulation. The insulation is so old that it doesn't do a good job insulating. Installing new insulation on top of it would just be a big mess so James gets to scoop out the old insulation. It's blown-in insulation so must be bagged and removed. He's worked for a few hours so far and has removed about 8 big black garbage bags!
We'll be re-roofing within the next 2 years, so will install the new insulation after re-roofing. A bonus to installing new insulation is that the City of Santa Clara has a rebate that we will apply for.

January 20, 2010 -- Day 139 -- Gas Line

Instead of being out in the rain, lucky James has spend the past few days crawling under the house putting in the new gas line. Lucky is sarcastic because under the house is a dirty, yucky, generally unpleasant place to be. This is according to James, because I'm far too afraid to go under the house.
The previous owner had a gas line for the water heater and the furnace only. The furnace was a floor furnace (that appears to not have been functional for years) with only 50% efficiency and the water heater was a 30 gallon heater in a closet. We're buying a high efficiency furnace and installing it in the attic. We've also bought a 50 gallon water heater and moved it out to the garage. In addition, we're installing a gas fireplace, gas oven and range, and gas clothes dryer-hence the necessity for work on the gas line.
The gas is turned off during this whole process so there's no need to worry about James' safety. Also, the way to test if there's a leak in the gas line is pretty amusing. You hook up all the pipes, turn the gas on, then rub liquid soap at the connections. If the soap bubbles, you have a leak! If no bubbles, no leaks. I'm not sure why, with my fear of foam, this is so hilarious to me, but it is.