Hello all, it's been a while

[pecan]

2014 was a long year and not much done or enjoyed in the yard this last summer. My husband and I were forced to spend all our spare time and money trying to finish a construction project that went south.

Long story short we hired a contractor to complete an addition of a new master bedroom off the back of the house and turn the old bedroom into a walk in closet and extend the master bath. He started construction Sept 2013 and it was supposed to take a month. We fired him March 2014 after a nightmare of an experience and my husband and I did the work ourselves minus hiring out the brick, roof and tile.

Every spare moment has been spent on the house and we finally are officially finished as of this month.

That means 2015 I can play in and enjoy the yard again

No plans to do any major work in the yard this year, but a lot of plans that involve sitting and enjoying a cold beer with hubby.

Here are some photos of construction. It turned out nice and I finally have a great view of the pond from our bed

 

[RobAmy]

Beautiful

 

[Dave 54]

Very nice indeed and nice to hear from you again

Dave

 

[j.w]

Looks amazing and what a nice view you have now right from your bed.

 

[Lisak1]

Lovely! I know the frustration of construction jobs gone wrong. Kudos to you for a job well finished!

 

[Big Lou]

Great job! Contractors, contractors so aggravating. Glad your misfortune turned around. Enjoy.

 

[haver79]

Your addition looks great, nice work.

 

[addy1]

Welcome back, glad you got it done and it looks great.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Beautiful! ! Sometimes you just have to do things yourself. Well you must be very proud of your hard work cause it sure looks like it paid off!

 

[Mike in Vermont]

Very nice.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

. He started construction Sept 2013 and it was supposed to take a month. We fired him March 2014 after a nightmare of an experience and my husband and I did the work ourselves minus hiring out the brick, roof and tile.

Hmmm, looks like you did a very professional job, but after 6 months the contractor must have completed something?
Being a contractor myself I am curious how exactly things went sour.
Also I'm interested in the finish on the interior walls, what do you call that, and how did you apply it?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Looks nice! Can't wait to see how your yard looks once it warms up and all the plants start growing again!

 

[Tula]

It looks great and we missed you!!!

 

[pecan]

Hmmm, looks like you did a very professional job, but after 6 months the contractor must have completed something?
Being a contractor myself I am curious how exactly things went sour.
Also I'm interested in the finish on the interior walls, what do you call that, and how did you apply it?

Hi Mucky!
The contractor was fired when the addition was framed and sheeted with ply-wood, no roof, no brick and bare studs on the inside. 6 months to do that! Yep! The project started out fine , then slowly his crews showed up less and less. Then by Christmas 2013 his crews were telling us they weren't getting paid. He kept promising he'ed finish without issue. Jan and Feb 2014 no one showed up at all. Feb 2014 we received 2 liens on the house. 1 For the cost of concrete and the other for lumber. At that point we fired him, paid the liens and began doing the work ourselves.

Luckily my hubby and I are handy with tools and we have a lot of them (I was in occupational wood shop in school). First we hired out the brick, then roof. That took until July of 2014 to come up with the money and we did no work on the inside until that was done. Then it was electrical, insulation, sheet rock and finish work. Inspections throughout that we passed. In fact just passed final inspection today. So glad to be done!

The walls are sheet rock with a skim coating of mud over top to look like lathe and plaster (the rest of the house is lathe and plaster). I rolled the walls white then brushed on a glaze and rubbed it in with torn up sheets to get the look on the walls.

Here are the pictures of what it looked like when we fired the contractor. This is where we started.

This was the bathroom when we fired him, but in this picture we had already done the insulation. We ended up ripping the floor up down to the joists and taking out old rotted planks and replacing them with 1/2" osb prior to putting down the backer board and tile.

 

[pecan]

As you can see, it was quite a bit for hubby and I to take on. We looked at it in little pieces. First lets run a water line for the hose bib, ok that's done, now lets run some wires, ok that's done, now lets hang some insulation and so on and so on. Baby steps and I am still in shock that it is done.