Construction: Organization Solutions

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Maria Langer

Keeping my things neatly organized is a major goal in my new home.

On May 20, 2014, I began blogging about the construction of my new home in Malaga, WA. You can read all of these posts — and see the time-lapse and walkthrough movies that go with many them — by clicking the new home construction tag.

I spent much of the other day working on organization solutions for my home. I want to be able to put things away neatly, organized so they’re easy to find. I want to open a drawer or closet and see things arranged where they belong.

Coat Closet

The very first thing I did was to hang a shelf and rod in my hall closet. This would be my coat closet. All of my coats, on hangars, were in a wardrobe moving box that was basically falling apart under their weight. It was March after the drywall was done and the kitchen cabinets were being installed — the same time I was using a variety of coats. Clearly, I needed a coat closet done.

The shelf and rod in my coat closet was my first home organization project.

I used a pair of 1×6 boards, cut to the depth of a shelf I wanted on top and mounted rod holders on them. Then I cut a piece of dowel I had — former curtain rods from my Arizona home — and fit in in place. I painted the boards and shelf. Voila! My coat closet, which I’d also use to store my vacuum, was done.

The Pantry

I had decided early on that I didn’t want food in my kitchen cabinets and I didn’t want appliances on my kitchen counters. That meant putting in a pantry.

I call my pantry “the amazing shrinking pantry” because it originally appeared on my plans as a walk-in closet with shelves on three walls. During the framing process, as the skeletons of my future walls were set, it became obvious that if the pantry was that big, it would extend far into the great room and hide the top of the stairway from view of the kitchen island. So we cut it to about half the original size. That made it a deep closet. Later, when I realized that I needed a place to put the ladder for the loft, creating a cubbyhole in the wall where the pantry was could be a good solution. I hired a framer to modify the future walls, cutting space from the back of the pantry. The space that was left measured only 33×32 inches when the drywall went up. The pantry had gone from a small room on paper to the smallest closet in my home.

Melamine board is durable and has a washable surface.

Undaunted, I put in shelves a few weeks ago. I bought a 4×8 sheet of melamine board. That’s basically particle board with a melamine resin coating. I had the Home Depot saw man cut it to size on the big saw, not only saving me the trouble of doing it myself but making the board movable. A full sheet is simply too heavy for me to handle on my own. I also bought some white 1×3 trim pieces. At home, I cut the trim pieces to the depth of the shelves and used wood screws to attach them to the closet walls at the studs. (First time I used my stud finder.) Then I laid the shelves atop the trim strips. I spaced the shelves with enough room at the bottom to fit my wine cooler and wine bottle rack (trimmed to size). The first shelf was tall enough to accommodate my countertop appliances: mixer, food processor, coffee maker, bread machine. The next few shelves would hold my food. The very top shelf, which required a stepladder to reach, would hold seldom-used entertainment items, such as a steamer, pitchers, and platters, as well as liquor bottles.

Finishing this first organization project was a real morale booster. I was able to move my food up from my RV, where I’d been living for nearly two years, and unpack my kitchen appliances. It was the first step to really making my kitchen usable.

Pantry Shelves
My nearly finished pantry includes shelves for food, small appliances, and spices.

Of course, I wasn’t quite done. After painting the board edges and screw heads with glossy white paint (to match the melamine), I started thinking about adding shelves along the wall in the very narrow space between the edge of the shelves and the doorway. I was mostly concerned with storing spice bottles — with a real kitchen at my disposal again, I had begun doing a lot of cooking and was accumulating small jars of herbs and spices at an amazing rate. I’d been storing them in a basket in the pantry, but every time I needed something, I’d have to dig through the basket to find it. I tracked down white wire spice racks on Amazon.com and ordered four of them. Although my original idea was to put two on each side of the doorway, I wound up putting three on one side. The spices fit nicely — and yes, I did put them in alphabetical order — on those shelves. That was the first project I finished last week.

The Bedroom Closet

My old house had a large walk-in closet in the master bedroom. While it was nice to have all that space, there were two reasons why I didn’t like that closet:

The upstairs heater/AC unit was in there. The house had two-zone heat and, because it didn’t have a basement, it had two separate HVAC systems, each of which had the air handler in a closet. This ugly, fully exposed thing stood in the back corner of the closet, taking up about 20% of its space.
There were ugly wire shelves for linens in there. The house didn’t have a linen closet. (Who builds a house without a place to put linens?) Our solution was to add shelves in the master bedroom closet. But instead of putting in nice, neat shelves, my wasband went with white, plastic coated wire shelves. The kind of shelves you might have in your garage. They were shoved into place right inside the doorway, like the afterthought that they were. Functional, but ugly.

(Looking back at it now, I realize that it’s just another example of the half-assed solutions I lived with for 29 years. Why do something right when you can do it cheap?)

I didn’t want to be unhappy with my new home’s closet. I wanted to do it right.

The closet is 100 inches wide and 35 inches deep with a 72 inch wrapped doorway. Eventually, I’ll hang a pair of sliding doors on it, but for now, it’s wide open.

I explored a lot of possible solutions, including a DIY shelf setup. Although my pantry shelf project wasn’t bad, I knew I lacked the building skills to create a satisfactory solution from scratch inside the closet. That meant either a kit or hiring a contractor.

I contacted California Closets. That’s a company that build (supposedly) custom closet solutions. I asked for a “free consultation.” I thought that meant someone would come to my home and talk to me about what I wanted. But instead, it meant that a woman would call me from her home or office in Spokane, talk to me about the size of the closet, and email me some sketches. She had no desire to come see me until she knew she had a sale. And with a materials-only quote of about $1500 for a closet design that wasn’t anything like what I wanted, she certainly wasn’t going to get the sale.

That meant a kit. I looked at the John Louis Home Deep Deluxe closet organizer kit several times before finally buying it. I found a coupon code online for 10% off and shipping was free. It arrived a week later in a big box that was too heavy for me to lift. My friend Tom helped me drag it up the stairs, where it sat in the hallway until the movers came. The movers moved it into the bedroom at my request where it sat until last week.

Assembling the John Louis system was not like assembling Ikea furniture. It required precise measuring, driving multiple heavy screws into the wall, and cutting shelves and garment rods. I started it late one afternoon, worked on it for about three hours, and then made the mistake of taking a break for a glass of wine while I watched the sun set. I picked up the task the next day. Although the instructions were clear and in plain english with plenty of illustrations, the installation video, which I watched on my iPad as I worked on each step, was invaluable. The system is extremely flexible and comes with enough shelving to do almost anything you like. I customized my closet with basically equal single and double bars on either side of the standard 24-inch shelves. The resulting organizer exactly filled the entire 100-inch width of the space, which lots of shelf space. It was affixed firmly to the wall, attached to studs wherever possible. And it looked awesome.

Here’s the finished closet organizer with the tools I needed to build it. (My chop saw, which I used to cut the shelves, is down in my shop.)

Laundry Room Shelf

While I was on a roll, I figured I’d use my new shelf-installation skills to put up a shelf in my laundry room. My laundry room is remarkably tiny, only 5×6 feet, and houses a full-sized washer and dryer (stacked), water heater, and 3-bin hamper. I’d been putting laundry soap, clean rags, and other items on top of the hamper and the place was a disorganized mess. A shelf was the solution but because the plumbers had roughed in for a taller water heater, I had some weird water pipes running down the wall. The shelf couldn’t go from wall to wall.

The solution was to mount shelf supports on three studs of the wall and place a melamine shelf atop it. I’d already bought everything I needed. The shelf supports had cups at the end to support a clothes rod — I thought that might be a nice touch to hand dry shirts and other items. My bedroom closet had spare rod.

Laundry Shelf
It isn’t easy to get a picture inside such a tiny room. The other end of the shelf is where I put my laundry detergent. The top of the laundry bin doubles as an ironing board; I got it on Amazon.com.

I spent about an hour cutting the shelf, mounting the supports, hanging the shelf, and fastening the rod. While the result wouldn’t win any design competitions, it was functional and not nearly as ugly as the water heater below it.

Bathroom Storage

My bathroom needed storage, too. I had not designed it to have a medicine cabinet set into the wall. That was mostly due to my complete inexperience as a general contractor and the simple fact that I didn’t think of it. Wall mounted medicine cabinets were big and bulky — I didn’t find a single one I liked that wouldn’t cast a shadow with the over-sink light fixture above it. That meant any medicine cabinet items would have to go elsewhere.

I saw an over-toilet cabinet that matched my bathroom vanity in Bed Bath and Beyond and picked it up on one of my trips into town. While I was still on a roll, I assembled it. Although it looks pretty good and it’s attached to the wall for safety — don’t want that falling down on you while you’re doing your business in the seat — I’m not 100% happy with it. It’ll either grow on me or I’ll find another solution. Perhaps a wall-mounted medicine cabinet over the toilet? With this in place for now, I have plenty of time to think about it.

Before and After Toilet Storage
I think these before and after shots do a good job of showing how much better the toilet area looks with the shelf unit in place. And its practical storage, too.

Remaining Projects

I have two big storage projects left to do:

Linen closet shelves. When I bought the melamine board for my pantry, I also bought board and had it cut for the linen closet. I just haven’t gotten around to putting in the shelves. I’ll use the same technique I used for the pantry.
Shop shelves. Although I bought and assembled some shelve units from Ikea for shop storage and was ready to buy and assemble more, Ikea no longer sells those kinds of shelves. My friend Bob showed me the shelves he assembled in his garage. They’re simple and sturdy. I already have 12 2×8 sheets of plywood that I’d been using on my deck until I got the decking down. Those will be repurposed for shop shelves. I bought the 2×4 lengths of lumber I’d need for the job. These shelves will go into the far back corner of my shop area, where my furniture was stored until it was moved upstairs. I’ll use them to store shop supplies, camping gear, and other equipment I need but don’t use regularly. I’m a huge fan of clear plastic bins for organizing related items; those shelves will be sized to fit the bins.

I have the materials I need to do these jobs. Now all I need is the time.

Guess I’d better get to it.

Construction: The Deck

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Maria Langer

Finally finished after too much procrastination!

One thing I wanted on this home was a deck — a place to spend time outdoors any time of year to take in the view, entertain friends, and just kick back and relax in a comfortable place. In my opinion a home in a beautiful place needs an outdoor living space.

The Plan

My original plans called for just a long, narrow, covered deck on the north side of the building, over the garage doors. But I realized that I’d need room for a table and chairs so I added a wider, uncovered deck on the east side of the building. The total nearly 600 square feet was split almost evenly between the 6 x 48 foot covered deck on the north and 10 x 30 uncovered deck on the east.

The builders prepared for the north deck from the start, planting the posts at the same time they planted posts for the rest of the building. This made it easy to make the deck roof part of the living space’s roof. Later, just before pouring concrete for the building’s floor, they placed the deck posts for the east deck. And finally, near the very end of the project, they spent two days framing the deck.

Front of Home in August 2014
Here’s what the front of my home looked like on August 1, 2014.

And that was all they did. There was no deck floor, no deck rails. That would be up to me.

Off to a Slow Start

Although the deck’s completion, with rails, was required for final inspection, it was very low on my priority list. If you click the new home construction tag and page back through the blog posts that appear, you’ll get a better idea of what I considered more important. Almost everything. And that was especially the case as summer turned to autumn and then winter.

When spring rolled around, I was ready to start thinking about the deck. I already knew that I wanted composite decking — I have absolutely no desire to paint or stain or waterproof wood.

I struggled for a while trying to figure out what brand and color I wanted. I shied away from Trex — the popular brand name — because their new decking planks are wrapped with color and have a different color core. That means if the deck is gouged, the interior color would show through. Choice Deck, which is the brand I went with, was the same color throughout. And although I could get a gray color that Lowe’s had in stock for about 20% less, I went with the reddish tan color I preferred. After all, I have to live with it — may as well get something I really like.

I did the math and ordered 100 12-foot planks. The guy at Lowe’s got me a contractor’s discount. I paid for delivery and waited.

Deck Delivery
100 pieces of Choice Decking being delivered.

The stack of decking effectively blocked the garage.

The deck arrived on April 3 on a semi flatbed truck. It came palletized in three bundles. The driver left the truck on the road and drove the pallets in, stacked, on a three-wheeled forklift. He backed it down my driveway, which I thought was weird, but it worked. I had him leave it in front of my big garage door. At the time, my RV was in there but my helicopter was still in California on a frost contract.

Traveling for the frost contract and doing other things around my home kept me too busy to start on the deck. At least that’s what I like to tell people. In reality, I was probably procrastinating. The problem was, I didn’t know how I’d get the decking materials up to the deck and didn’t know how to install it. And then there was the height problem — my deck is 10 feet off the ground and the only way I could walk on it was on 2 x 8 sheets of plywood I’d put down. I’d tried (and failed) to hook up my deck light fixtures because I’ve kinda sorta got a fear of heights.

It was only after watching a video on the Lowe’s website and realizing that it wasn’t going to get done by itself that I was ready to move forward.

I realized that I could stand up a piece of decking against the framing and then pull it up from on top. That solved the how to move it problem. I’d stand up a handful of boards, then climb the stairs, go out onto a piece of plywood, and pull the boards up, one at a time. What a workout! I pulled up about a half dozen pieces to get started.

My friend Rich volunteered to help and I’ll never say no to volunteer helpers. He came by on his day off and we started laying the first few pieces closest to the door of the front (east) deck. It took some trial and error, but by the time we took a break a while later, we had the first five or six pieces laid.

Later that day, I was called to California on my frost contract and was gone for two full days. I’m not sure why I was so surprised that the deck hadn’t laid itself while I was gone.

More procrastinating. I am an expert.

But now I had a hard deadline: the helicopter was coming back on April 22 and I needed to get it in the garage. That meant I needed to get my RV out so I could shift it to the right and make room. That meant I needed that pile of decking off my driveway apron. I got to work.

I shot this about halfway through my second day of laying decking.

For the next week, I worked on the deck almost every day. It became a tedious full-time job. Although you’d think it was like laying my floor, which I almost enjoyed, it wasn’t. Every single piece had to be trimmed, pilot holes had to be drilled, screws had to be driven. Lots of kneeling and crawling around and getting up. It was tedious. The only good thing about it was that I was able to work out in the warm sun and get some color back into my skin after the long, dark winter indoors. And dragging those planks up from down below helped me build (and feel) muscles I never knew I had.

I worked my way across and down the front deck, feeling a real sense of achievement when I could finally stand on a solid deck by one of the supporting posts. That’s when I started thinking hard about the rail.

The Guard Rails

I know what I wanted: something that I could see through. I didn’t want to block the view with bars that the county required to be a maximum of four inches apart. I’d put tall windows in my home, set low so you could see out them even when sitting down. I wasn’t about to block that view with ugly vertical rails every four inches.

The obvious solution was clear tempered glass. I went to the home improvement show at the Town Toyota Center, a local venue, which seemed to be timed just perfectly to research solutions. I spoke to three guys who did decking and got a quote for the materials alone: more than $3,000. Ouch! I don’t know why I was so surprised. I needed 105 linear feet of rail.

My friend Bob and I had discussed using wire fence panels as an alternative. I did some research and found some 3 x 16 galvanized welded wire panels with 4 x 4 squares. I was quoted $59 each. I’d need eight of them. I already had several solid vertical posts, but I’d need other ones in the six 12-foot spans. (Posts in a pole building are typically placed 12 feet on center.) Bob and I worked the idea, tossing thoughts back and forth. We came up with a solution that would use pressure treated lumber to “pinch” the wire panels, holding them in place. We’d then use ripped pieces of the decking material to support a trimmed piece of deck as the top rail. The solution would not only be cost effective, but it would be just as maintenance-free as the rest of the deck.

bolts
These are two of the 7-inch long 1/2 inch bolts holding the central vertical supports for my deck rails.

Bob went with me to pick up the panels. He has a small trailer with a lumber rack on it that was perfect to transport the 16-foot panels. When I picked them up, I discovered that the price quote had been wrong: the panels were only $25 each. ($200 saved!) He and I worked together on a “proof-of concept” section. This included a central vertical support made of a 2×4 and 4×4 that pinched the center of a panel. Those were attached by driving two large bolts through the header at the outside edge of the deck.

Although the end result wasn’t perfect — I’d tweak the design as I installed the remaining panels — it was pretty damn good. And it looked good, too — perfect for the building’s construction style. Rustic without being trashy.

Proof of Concept
The first rail panel for the deck looked surprisingly good.

Finishing Up

North Deck in Progress
It was at about this point when I realized I didn’t have enough deck planks.

But before I could do the rails, I needed to finish the deck. As I wound around the corner to the north deck, I realized that I’d soon run out of planks. I’d made a minor miscalculation but also needed more pieces for the rail. I did some more math and ordered another 40 pieces. This time, I had them delivered to the north side of the building, leaving the driveway apron clear.

Dog in Composite Sawdust
Composite decking makes saw “dust” when you rip it, too. Dog not included.

I kept at it. Every once in a while, to break the tedium, I’d do one of the side rails. I had two 6-foot lengths which didn’t need central vertical supports. They were easy to do. I realized that if I cut the decking planks to length before I ripped them, I didn’t need help pulling them through the table saw’s blade. (Duh.) I also had two 10-foot lengths; a discussion with the inspector assured me that I’d need central supports for those. Trouble was, that required climbing a 10-foot ladder and using a drill to drill through up to three 2x12s. I tried — I really did. I even bought a special drill bit that I thought might make the job easier. But in the end, I realized that I lacked the physical strength to do the job. I’d have to get Bob back for a marathon bolt installation session.

Bolt Cutters
Any job is easy when you have the right tools — right, honey?

In the meantime, I finished the deck surface. My friend Barbara came by to help on the last day of that chore — she and I sped through the screwing process, assembly-line style.

Then I measured, cut, ripped and installed as much of the rail panels as I could. I had to buy a humongous bolt cutter to get through the galvanized wire without having to stand on the handle of the smaller bolt cutter I already had every time I made a cut. I used the same technique to get the 12-foot long wire panels up to the deck as I’d used for the planks: stand them up, then go upstairs and pull them up one at a time. I put them into position and set up the vertical supports.

Then I got Bob back. He worked with me on a rainy morning, climbing the ladder to drill holes and fasten bolts, never complaining once as we buzzed through the job. When he was gone, the only thing left to do was the top rails.

Did I ever mention that I was a master procrastinator?

Deck almost done
This shot shows the north deck with the rail panels waiting to be capped.

I don’t know why I didn’t just do it. I’d cut and ripped everything I needed and laid it out by each panel on the deck. Yes, some trimming was required, but I could use my little circular saw for that. All my tools were there, all the screws I needed. Everything. Yet it took more than two weeks for me to get the job done, doing a panel or two every few days.

I think it was the inspector requiring me to get the caps on that finally put a fire under my butt. Yesterday, while I was home waiting for it to rain (so I could get to the work that actually pays for this stuff), I finally did the last two rail caps.

I was done.

Front Today
Here’s what the front of my house looks like today. I’ve got some cleaning up to do under the deck.

It was a lot of work and I did about 95% of it myself. I don’t regret it one bit. While I could have hired someone to do the labor — at a cost of at least $2,000 — there’s something so rewarding about doing a job yourself, seeing it done, and remembering what it took to get it done.

So much of my new home is like that. I worked hard to do most of the electrical work, all of the flooring (including bathroom tile), and all of the in-closet and shop storage solutions. To say that I’m amazed and proud of what I’ve accomplished is an understatement of epic proportions.

And I reap the benefits of all that hard work every day as I begin to enjoy my new home.

Video Tour

Want to see the new deck? Here’s a video tour. Sorry I look so ratty in the beginning, but I was tired when I recorded it.

Construction: Post-Move-In Walk-Through

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Maria Langer

Another video tour.

I moved most of my furniture into my home last week.

Well, I didn’t move it. I hired movers. They were here for about three hours and moved my bedroom set, two leather sofas, and futon from their storage bay in my shop area outside and then back in, up the stairs, and into their proper locations. They assembled my red leather sofa, bed, and dresser/mirror combination. Then, since I had two young, strong men at my disposal, I put them to work carrying up a few more things: the outdoor furniture set I’d assemble that weekend, the remaining Pergo I’d use on my loft, and an extra wall cabinet I planned on turning into a coffee table/game storage cabinet on my loft.

Penny's New Morning Spot
I’m not the only one glad to have a sofa to lounge on.

When they were gone, I spent some time cleaning up before some weekend guests arrived. I have to admit that it was nice to have a sofa to lounge on at the end of the day. I had the TV and “home theater” system set up the next day and watched a DVD the evening after that. I now regularly listen to music from an old iPod through the stereo system. It’s the little things that make a space a home.

As for the bedroom — well, I’d forgotten how amazingly comfortable my bed is. It’s like sleeping on air. How did I live for two years without it?

Anyway, I put together this video for a new tour of my great room and kitchen. Enjoy!

The bedroom isn’t quite ready to be revealed; I think I need to rearrange the furniture and I’d like very much to get the closet organizer and doors installed. I’ll do a video for that and another one for my finished deck very soon.

By the way, if you’re wondering about my punchlist deadline and the Good Life article, it’s been pushed back. I don’t want stress in my life anymore, so I asked the reporter to wait. I’ll probably invite her to visit in July.

Construction: The Punch List

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Maria Langer

And a deadline.

About two months ago, I was driving a rental car down a perfectly straight dusty dirt road alongside an irrigation canal in California’s Central Valley when my phone rang. It was a woman named Susan who writes for The Good Life, a lifestyle magazine for the Wenatchee area. She had been to the Wenatchee Home Show (which I’d missed because of my trip to California) and had seen the time-lapse video of my home construction that I’d given to Western Ranch Buildings to show off in their booth. She’s spoken to Tanya about the place and learned that it wasn’t just a typical pole building. It would be a home and a garage and a place to store big toys like a giant RV and a helicopter.

She decided that she wanted to do a story about it for Good Life.

I was flattered, of course — who wouldn’t be? But my home was far from finished. The kitchen cabinets had just been delivered and would be installed the day after my return. Then the appliances would come. The countertops, floors, bathroom fixtures, and so much more still needed to be done. And all those wires sticking out of the walls needed attention.

I told her it would be ready in May. She promised to call back. I figured I had a 50-50 chance of her remembering.

She remembered. She called early this week. We set a date for her and a photographer to come visit and see the place. I put the date on my calendar. I had just over three weeks to finish up and move in.

Holy cow, was I going to be busy!

Still, I work best and fastest and produce the most when I have a deadline Susan had given me one. If I wanted my new home to look the best it possibly could when when and her photographer showed up, I had to stop procrastinating and get finished.

In an effort to stay focused, I’ve come up with this punch list of items that need to be done. They fall into two categories: inspection items and finish items.

Inspection Items

Although several people suggested that I build my home inside my building on the sly without getting inspectors involved, I didn’t think that was a good idea. Maybe I’m being naive, but I believe that inspections and housing rules exist for a reason — safety — and that having an inspector (or two) look over my work would help me keep my home up to standards. With that in mind, my building permit has two parts: my main building (which has been approved) and my living space inside it (which has not yet gone through final inspection). To legally live inside my building, I need to pass all inspections and get a Certificate of Occupancy (CO).

I should add here that my property will have much greater value if it includes a legal living space. I’m thinking of the future, too.

There are two inspectors:

The electrical inspector makes sure my electrical system meets standards.
The building inspector makes sure my building and home meets standards.

The good news is, I’m almost done with all items needed for the inspections. I’m pretty sure this is a final list:

Close up drywall in garage ceiling and fire tape. My bathroom is immediately above one of my garage bays. In order to complete the plumbing work, we needed to leave part of that ceiling open. The drywall guy provided precut panels to close it back up. I need someone to help me hold those panels in place while I screw them in. The entire garage ceiling had to be drywalled and taped to meet county fire codes and the whole thing is done except this one place. I estimate it will take about 2 hours and I’ll need a second set of hands for about 30 minutes.
Using “hog panels” as a deck rail solution was suggested by Bob, further developed by me, and executed/fine-tuned yesterday by the two of us. A low cost, rustic solution that doesn’t look trashy.
Finish deck. Because two doors open onto my deck, the deck must be finished for final inspection. That includes not only the floor, but a rail and barrier around the edge with openings not larger than 4 inches. The deck is 600 square feet and the rail is 104 linear feet so it’s quite a job. Other than some assistance getting me started the first day, I’ve been doing the deck floor myself. I have about 400 square feet laid. Yesterday, a friend came by to help me work out an idea we had for the rail and barrier. I suspect I have at least another 4 to 6 full days of work on the deck, which could be shortened up with some dedicated assistance from a friend.
Install safety rail around loft. This is a bummer and I’m hoping I can get the building inspector to give a little on it. I have a loft over my hallway and laundry room and bedroom closet. Because it’s tall enough to stand up in the county requires a rail around it like the barrier around my deck. But I don’t even have a ladder to get up there (yet) and won’t be using it. Such a shame to be delayed for this space. It’ll take about 2 days to get this job done — once I figure out how I’m going to do it.
Finish electrical work. Yes, there are a few fixtures remaining to be wired. They’re all on the deck. I need to climb a ladder to do them and I figured I may as well wait until I had a deck floor to put the ladder on. There are six light fixtures: two spotlights and four sconces. There’s also the outlet I need to install for my air conditioning compressor; most of the wire has been run and I just need to put in an outlet. (Note to self: call HVAC guy to ask where he wants the outlet. And maybe encourage him to take his man-lift home?) Total time for all electrical work needed to be finished: 3-4 hours, mostly because of some additional conduit I need to run.
Install hand rail for stairs. I keep forgetting this one. I suspect I’ll use the dowels that were curtain rods in my old home for this job. So glad I packed them and took them with me — it’ll save me a bunch of money. Total time for this job: about 2 hours.
Install doorknobs and locks on fire doors. I was required to have 20-minute rated fire doors between my garage and my living space. There are two of them in the entrance vestibule at the bottom of the stairs. A friend helped me install them well over a month ago and I bought the doorknobs. Don’t know why I haven’t installed them yet. Total time for this task: 1-2 hours.
Finish shower stall. I’m actually not sure if this is required for the county. The shower plumbing works, but there’s no enclosure to keep the water in if I used it. This is going to be a bit of an involved task that will take at least 2-3 days. Not only do I need to erect the acrylic block walls I bought, but I need to tile the back wall. And I hate doing tile work. If this isn’t required, I’ll shift it to the list below.

Finish Items

Finish items are the things I need to do to make the house more cosmetically pleasing or functional. They’re not required for final inspection and, therefore, should be done after those higher priority items. This list is extremely long, but I’ve managed to list the ones I want done before the Good Life crew come visit.

Doors. Right now, I don’t have any interior doors. Even my bathroom has nothing more than a curtain — and that’s just because I assume my guests would want some semblance of privacy when using the facilities. I need the following doors: bathroom, linen closet, coat closet, bedroom closet. I would also consider doors for the laundry room and pantry, although I think both could be handled with a nice curtain. This will require me to order the doors, wait for them to arrive, pick them up, and install them. I have no idea how long this will take or whether it’s something I can do on my own.
Windowsills. I have eleven windows that are deep set into the walls and need window sills. I’m going to make them out of wood. I figure it’ll take me about 3 hours to measure and cut them and then a total of 3 hours to apply stain and two layers of urethane. And then another 2 hours to install them. Of course, none of the wood working projects can be done at one shot — they all need time for the stain and urethane to dry.
Ledge around stairwell wall. My stairs are open on top with a wall around them. The top of the wall is unfinished. A woodworking friend will be making a custom ledge to top the wall. He’s coming tomorrow to measure and discuss his ideas with me. With luck, he’ll have them finished and ready to install in a week or so.
Wood trim. There’s a gap of 1/8 to 1/2 inch between the Pergo flooring and the walls. That has to be covered with wood trim. I’m using 1×4 lumber that I stain and urethane. I really need to get my act together and get this done. I’m probably looking at a total of 3 days worth of time to prep the wood, measure, cut, and install. A friend loaned me his nail gun so installation should be relatively painless — if I measure and cut right!
More wood trim. If I don’t put doors on the pantry and laundry room, I’ll need to trim out the openings. I’ll use ripped 1x6s with 1×2 or 1×3 framing. All this wood needs to be prepped, measured, cut, and installed. I’m thinking a whole day’s worth of time for this.
Move in furniture. I don’t think I’m allowed to move my furniture in until I get my CO, but I could be wrong. I’ll find out for sure this week. I’d like to get most of the furniture in so the place actually looks like a home. Most important: bedroom and living room furniture.
Get the front yard in shape. I need to reseed and mow the lawn, put in irrigation, and plant vegetables in my front yard planter boxes. I really should get that done soon so it looks good for photos.

These are the important items — the ones I need to make my home look like a relatively finished home for the Good Life crew. There are other things I need to do as well: ladder for the loft, window treatment for the bathroom, shelves/rods in the bedroom closet, shelves in the linen closet, towel rods in the bathroom — the list goes on and on. That’s one of the best things of putting together a new home: the little projects that come with it. Once cherry season starts, I’m pretty much stuck here so I’ll have plenty of time to get these things done. My goal is to be 95% finished by September.

And, as any homeowner can tell you, you can never be more than 95% finished with a home.

Construction: Deck Overview Video

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Maria Langer

A Periscope video captured and shared.

I’ve been experimenting a bit with Periscope lately. That’s a Twitter-owned app that makes it possible to do live video broadcasts. Although the vast majority of what’s on there is utter crap, there are a few accounts with live broadcasts of very interesting material. (My personal favorite is the Department of Interior (@Interior), which seems to have embraced Periscope as a way to show off our national parks and monuments.) Like Twitter, it’s all about who you follow.

My front deck is just about done.

While I don’t think my broadcasts are so interesting, they are a way for me to share what’s going on in my life with folks who might be interested — and to answer questions that they type in while the broadcast is going on.

Although Periscope only saves broadcasts for 24 hours, the video I record is also saved on my phone and can be copied to my computer. From there, it can be edited and shared to non-Periscope users. That’s what the following video is.

In this video, I offer a narrated overview of the work I’m doing on my deck. The front deck, which measures 10 x 30, is just about done; I still haven’t started the side deck, which is 6 x 48. I haven’t done the railings yet, but hope to get them started this weekend. In the video, I discuss the materials and tools I’m using and why I made some of the decisions I made. The wind machines in nearby orchards were going while I recorded and you can hear them in the background sounding a lot louder than they really do.

The only drawback I see to recording in Periscope and then sharing is that Periscope seems to severely limit the resolution of what it records. As a result, any Periscope video I share on my blog is at only 240 pixel resolution which, quite frankly, sucks.

An Eclectic Mind

Web site and blog for Maria Langer, writer, video producer, jewelry artist, boat captain, and helicopter pilot. Blogging since 2004.

Tag Archives: make it happen