Getting Exciting!

Today was one of those days where the flipping really starts to get exciting! Dad, Cory, and Chad met at the flip house this morning to get to work replacing windows and doors. Chad was able to take today off, as he is now finished with his training class at the new job, so all three were there to make a very productive day of it.

They began by removing the old main door on the east side of the house, as well as removing the very big window next to that door. The walls are only 2x3 construction, and they were no longer square between the door and window. It doesn't help that there was only about 3 inches of wall space between the door and window either. Well, the guys fixed all that! They got the window out with only one mishap of breaking glass, so all in all, not too shabby! Once they got the door and window out, they could begin fixing the issues with the wall, as well as begin on the 2x3 to 2x4 conversion. The new window is still very big, but MUCH smaller than the old window. It looks AWESOME!! It still lets a lot of light into the house, and yet it looks updated and much more fitting.

Oops!

Once the window was safe and secure, they could begin working on getting the new steel door in. What a difference that makes! The old door was terrible...it was beat up and didn't close right. The new door is wonderful! It actually closes and locks correctly, as well as having a window to let more light in. Much more stylish than the old door!

In the midst of their work, they suddenly noticed something strange coming down the street. There were two cops on motorcycles with their lights on making their way by the house. The guys wondered if maybe a funeral procession was coming, and much to their surprise, here came nearly 1000 bicyclists riding down the street with none other than Lance Armstrong! The Avera McKennan Cancer Institute opened their new multi-million dollar cancer facility in Sioux Falls today, and part of the festivities included a 15 mile bike ride around Sioux Falls with Lance Armstrong. Chad jumped off the ladder to grab the camera, and he did his best to catch a picture, but they were going so fast (uphill too!) that he only got the picture from behind. There was a large video camera in the front, and Lance Armstrong was the guy in the black shirt by the camera. However, it is pretty much impossible to see in the picture, but you can use your imagination!

And although we didn't get a good picture of Lance Armstrong, we did get a good picture of our friend Lee who happened to be along for the bike ride! We had no idea he was part of the group until Chad heard his last name yelled out, and then he quick snapped a photo of Lee giving a thumbs up!

After all the excitement, it was time to get back to work. I showed up at the house about that time after I got off work, so I was able to snap pictures of all three of the guys beginning to install the bathroom window. They already had the window removed when I arrived, so I got to watch them build up the framing around the window, put the wrapping on, and install the window. Very cool! The guys did a tremendous job today, and it looks great!

These guys are pretty strong. It's amazing how they can hold up that heavy piece of house wrap...:)

I had the guys pose for some fun "finished product" pictures. I think they get sick of me taking pictures all the time, but it sure is fun seeing them on the blog, isn't it!?!? :)

Tomorrow will be another fun and exciting day! We will be installing the bow window in the living room, and that is going to completely change the look of the living room as well as the front of the house. Watch for more exciting updates!



Up to Date

With this post, I will finally be up to date on the happenings at the house! Phew!

Dad and Cory worked at the house last week Wednesday and finished up the soffit and facia. What a surprise they found when they went to remove the big ugly vents on the side of the house! They removed the "triangles" and the vents in the middle, and found it was completely open to the attic behind the siding. We now figured out where all the little birdies were hiding out when they would fly up there. When the siding was initially installed, they had nailed 2x2's on the back of the triangle cut outs which, when installed, left the siding sitting off the 2x4's used for the framing of the walls. They had trimmed some mesh screen to cover the open edges, which they should have completely screened off the whole thing instead. What a mess! There were bird nests galore and Dad said you could tell they'd had a nice cozy home for quite some time. Well, not anymore!!! Dad and Cory fixed that issue, and now it's funny watching the sparrows fly up there and not have a clue where their home disappeared to. HAHA! :)

Here is a previous pic of a little birdie hiding out...

But not anymore!!

Once the ends of the house were fixed, they could install the soffit. Dad and Cory made boxes for the corners of the house, installed the soffit and facia, and Cory finished everything up on Thursday. It looks awesome!! I can't wait to see it with the new siding! :)

Discussing a job well done...



Thursday after work I decided to tackle the painting of the garage walk-in door, aka Cory's door. I figured if the weather is supposed to start getting colder, I should get that painted while it was nice out. I did the first coat on Thursday night while Cory and Chad cleaned out the garage. There was a bunch of junk left in the rafters, and the boys got that all taken down and thrown into the dumpster. We also decided that instead of rolling insulation in the attic, we are going to blow it in instead. That means all the insulation we had purchased was able to be returned to Menards and cleared out of the garage. WOOHOO!! That freed up a lot of room. When Chad and I went to Menards, Cory worked on organizing the garage more. It looks 100 times better than it did before! It will now be a lot more efficient for working in as well.

The next day, I took off work early and went back to the house with Cory. I painted a second and third coat on the garage door, and Cory tore off the first row of siding on the house. Between coats of paint, I also went around the house and picked up more fallen siding, etc., and I also removed the window well covers, as they were all broken to bits and doing no good anyway. The two of us had a nice afternoon outside in the beautiful weather listening to music and working away!

When Chad got off work, he came over to the house for a bit too. He and Cory discussed what to do with the concrete on the side of the garage, as well as a few other details of upcoming projects. After Cory took off, Chad and I went in the house and started pulling nails from the studs where Chad and Cory had removed sheetrock in the living room and kitchen. By the way MOM...you need to come get your fridge out of the kitchen. We are now having to work around it, and it needs to find it's home in your basement! :) Hopefully one of these days all of us kids can get that thing moved to Iowa!

This coming week, weather cooperating, we will be getting to the doors and windows of the house. What a change that will be! However, we know we will have some work to be done, as the house for some reason was built with 2x3 construction and not 2x4. Most houses now days are built with 2x6 construction! We are going to be updating the exterior walls of the living room and kitchen with 2x4's and then we will be able to install windows and doors. I'm sure we will run across some other hiccups, but hopefully all will go well! Check back next week for more updates on our progress!