Watch your step....PLEASE!

Through the years I've completed many additions on homes.

Through the years in business I've expanded my knowledge from doing just masonry to additions, home inspections, and now I am an authorized Pelican™ Dealer and Installer. I believe that in this economy diversification is what we need to stay ahead of others.
But I must admit that I love doing additions! They are challenging,.....some very challenging, and in some cases, fairly long term. It's a nice feeling to park my tool trailer for a few months, and become part of my customers lives. But this story in particular is about doing a major addition on my own home. My wife and I  purchased a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath Raised Ranch shortly after we were married. We had just had our second child and even though it was small, I liked to say that it kept us a "close" family. We talked about expanding, but I was just starting in business and we were just getting by.
Ten years passed.......another kid......I was getting itchy to expand our house to fit our ever expanding family. Looking back, I'm not really sure how we fit thirty something of our relatives in that house for certain occasions....but we did. At the time we were seeing a ton of Sears cabinet resurfacing commercials, and I got the bug to do our kitchen. I explained to my wife how I would put all new cabinets, and appliances in and I was going to make her kitchen beautiful. She suggested that we called Sears for our "Free in home estimate" I reluctantly agreed. This slick salesman came to our home with a suitcase and laid a bunch of samples all over our table and what he was proposing to do was to keep our cabinet frames, and just put a laminate over them, install new doors on the cabinets, and a new laminate counter-top.....all for the low price of........$16,000!!! But he had a really nice certificate already made out with my name on it for a 10% off, but only if I committed right then and there.

I told him to pack his bags and hit the road!

I told him that I would completely gut the kitchen, and put in new electric, new sheetrock, new cabinets, new counter-tops, new floor, new appliances and after all that was done, I was going to take my family on vacation with the money that was left over.....and I did. We were thrilled with our new kitchen! I felt so proud to be able to give my wife such a beautiful kitchen after putting up with the old outdated one, which she never once complained about.
Almost one year to the day I surprised my wife with a set of blueprints for our addition. She was in shock, but she was excited to see these plans, and was excited to get started. Within a week, I had the lumber
delivered, and the dumpster arrived in our driveway......we were off!

The actual addition in progress!

The addition was started, and there were workers all over the place. I remember telling anyone who came to work there....."Please be careful, I just re-did our kitchen and I don't want anything to happen to it. Well the roof came off without a hitch. Actually it was amazing that with all the cutting and banging there wasn't even the tiniest crack on the ceiling or walls.

But there was this one guy........We'll call him Tom......to protect his identity.

He was the kind of guy that just about everything he did, something got broken or damaged. I was keeping a close watch on him, because on the first day of the demo work, he "accidentally" dropped a two by ten on the stone bird bath that my Grandfather made and broke it to bits. The second day he put a ladder through one of my screens. The third day he was moving some two by fours, and almost knocked one of the other men off of the roof. He was a walking disaster, and we all had to keep a close watch on him, for our own safety. Each morning I would remind everyone, but especially Tom to be careful when working above my new kitchen. On the sixth day, the day after the electrician crew removed the old wires and installed all new wiring, we were ready to put the 3/4" subflooring in. I happened to be in the kitchen at the time, talking to the plumber, when all of a sudden two feet came smashing through the ceiling! Actually it was his feet and his legs too......dangling right in front of my face! I'm not sure how he didn't fall all the way into the kitchen. I knew immediately who it was.....who else could it be! "Tom......you careless son of a ....."  I screamed. I ran out of the house to see the other guys laughing uncontrollably. I ran up the ladder to see Tom struggling to get himself free from his compromised position. Actually it WAS funny to see only the top half of this guy with the look of shock on his face. But at the time, it really was no laughing matter.

For illustration purposes only, Not Tom's legs.

It took three of us to pull him out of the hole, and he was so embarrassed, and apologized profusely that I almost felt bad for him. But somehow, I knew it was gonna be him. I told him to go clean up the newly created mess that he had made in the kitchen. While I was discussing Tom's follies with the rest of the crew on the ceiling rafters, the plumber yelled to me through the newly created passageway....."You better come down here and see what your man did now!" I reluctantly climbed down the ladder because I was afraid that if it was another Tom created disaster, I might have to hurt him. I walked in the kitchen to see Tom running out the back door. The plumber told me that Tom put the ladder against our new counter-top to pull down the dangling sheetrock......but the ladder slipped, and put two really deep scratches across the top of the counter. Tom was fired........
The addition got done in record time, and although I've done a few more major projects on our house, our addition holds the best memories for myself and my family!

TIP OF THE DAY:

Sheetrock repair.....

How to Fix a Big Hole in Drywall

1. Cut away any stray, loose paper parts around the hole to be repaired. If any chunks of drywall are hanging, remove them as well.
2. With the framing square, or simply by eyeballing it, draw a square around the hole. The lines should extend about 1/2" past the edges of the hole.
3. With the drywall saw or jigsaw, cut along the lines of your square.
4. Cut your two plywood strips so that they are three inches longer -- on each end of the strip -- than the hole (i.e., your newly created square).
5. Insert the strips behind the hole, within the wall cavity.
6. With the cordless drill, drive the 1 1/4" screws through the wall and into the wood strips. Essentially, you are building a framework of these two strips for the new piece of drywall to rest on.
7. With the jigsaw or hand saw, cut your extra piece of drywall so that it exactly fits into your newly created "square hole."
8. Screw into the wood strips. Four screws are sufficient.
9. Apply drywall mesh tape over the seams.
10. At this point, fill over mesh tape with joint compound. Let dry, then sand. Fill in once again, dry, and sand until smooth. 
11. Keep Tom away from your house!

 

See you next time......from beyond.........