His and Her Home Repair Saga, Day 3

Home Repair Saga, Day 1
Home Repair Saga, Day 2

The contractor and demo guys were here yesterday and work started! Yay! ....... Well, yay for the fact that the work started, but not so yay for all the problems they found.

We already knew that it was going to be bad, but it is worse than they originally thought. Here are some of the phrases I heard today while demo was being done:

"Shew! That's messed up!" 

"Why would someone do that?"

"This doesn't make any sense."

"Hmmm....that's weird."

They started by taking out the stairs.

"This door's gonna fall." 

"It [the sliding glass door and frame] should stay up. I mean, I think it will. Yeah. Well, maybe".

With a tone of sheer awe and shock, "They didn't even use the right sand [underneath the stairs]."

"I don't want this thing [sliding glass door] falling on me and if we demo those bricks, it's going to [because the builder built it on the brick skirting instead of on boards like they are supposed to]."

"Here, let me see your camera so I can show you something." I handed over my camera, he took a photo, and gave it back. I asked what I was looking at and he said a rotted piece of wood where the steps were connected to the house. The second guy reached out, took a fist full of wood off the house, and crumbled it to dust in his bare hands. My heart stopped beating for a second. I had to sit down.

This is the photo the demo guy took.

 The contractor was here last night to check on materials for tomorrow and he said to himself, "It ain't sittin' on nothin'." The "it" here is the back of the house. He then had to prop it up with some cinder blocks and a board because the back wall of the house had sunk a little since the guys left (less than 7 hours earlier).

"Even the porch light has not been installed correctly. There's been water leaking in around it because they messed it up."

"It can't get much worse than this." (I don't know if this is reassuring or scary. I'm going to choose to feel reassured. Or at least try to be.)


Here are the photos of day 3...demo day - aka Completely Stress Out Amanda Day!

This is where the stairs used to be. See all that lovely water damage?

The other side of the board is not as damaged - thank goodness!

This is how the contractor held up the back of the house until the morning.

The entire view.

*phew* Lots of demo and lots of stress. The contractor met with me this morning to talk about how he is going to fix the structural issues with the house. He came up with an idea that I actually understand - a first for me in home improvement - but it has upped the cost by a considerable amount. I am so happy that this is getting done, but my anger towards the builder who didn't take any care or concern for his quality of work is starting to grow.


Which contractor phrase is your "favorite"? Mine is the "They didn't even use the right sand" because the way he said it cracked me up. You have to smile right? It messes up less makeup than crying. :)


Happy Thursday,

Her Getting Back, Take 2

I really wanted to have house project progress photos (phew - say that four times fast!) for you today, but our contractor delayed our start again. This time it was the weather's fault. My fingers are crossed that today is the day work will begin.

I have been working hard this week and last to get ready for the new school year (I go back a week from today). There are a lot of little things and a few big things that I have been working on. I know now that some will get done and some won't. (More on that next week when I share my summer to-do successes and misses.) One that will be getting done is the pencil idea I had last year. I put duct tape around the top of my pencils to help show which ones were mine and to encourage students to return them. The idea worked like a champ and I am doing it again!! I still had pencils in March, which is completely unheard of. Most years I am out of pencils by December.

I blogged about how I did this last year, so rather than retype everything I am copying and pasting. I know it's a cop out - forgive me. :) The only difference between this year and last is the tape. Last year's theme was zebra print - this year is polka dots.

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Every year I buy pencils and pens for my students to borrow as needed. ---- Key word --- borrow! But because I teach middle school, I usually am out of pencils/pens by midyear. Last year was particularly bad because I was out of pencils and pens by the end of November. I have seen many ideas online, on other blogs, and Pinterest about how to "tag" pencils. I decided to go simple. Here is what I did...

I went to Target to pick up the materials I needed. A box of plain pencils and some zebra print tape. (The theme of my room is zebra print.)

I cut a small strip of tape and put it on the end of the pencil.

Then I just rolled it up. Simple as that!

All 60 pencils took about 30 minutes with Sean's help. He cut the tape as I rolled the pencils. 

Now when my pencils are borrowed I will know who has them so I can ask for them back. I know I could let the kids keep the pencils but I hate running out and not being able to afford to buy more mid-year. I really want them to last this year. *fingers crossed*

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Do you have a specific way you keep track of materials that you loan students?

Happy Teacher Prepping,

His and Her Home Repair Saga, Day 2

Previous Posts of the Series:
Home Repair Saga, Day 1

I talked about what is going on here at home on yesterday's blog. (Click here to see that post.) I promised to come back today and share what happened. Here's a photo of the progress...

Inside.

Outside.

For those of you who checked out yesterday's post, you might be a little confused. "It looks the same," you might be thinking. Well, it is the same. The demo guy called in sick and the contractor couldn't send someone else. He promised that someone would be here today to begin demo. My fingers are crossed.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show some progress photos. 

Has this happened to anyone else dealing with contractors and construction workers?

Happy Tuesday,

His and Her Home Repair Saga, Day 1

This week our house is having surgery! Well, not really, but that is how it feels. Several very nice people are here today to demo so that tomorrow they can begin the rebuilding and repair work. 

Well that is just way too far into the story. Sorry! Let me back up a little bit...

Source

One of the reasons we bought our town house was because of the beautiful sliding glass door on the back wall leading to the back yard. It lets in a lot of light and in the spring/fall we open up the screen door and get a great breeze and all that fresh air. Last November, we had one of the panes of glass shot out by a BB gun for the second time since we moved in. When the guys came to replace the glass, they asked Sean's permission to look underneath the house in the crawl space.

**Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson! Danger!**

There was no reason for them to need to look, but obviously they had seen something that they were concerned about so he told them to feel free to check out whatever they needed to. When they came up from the crawl space, they told Sean that our sliding glass door - which is 8 feet wide - is actually built on three pieces of track instead of one and it has been leaking/seeping in water every time it rains. There was some pretty major water damage that would have to be addressed soon.

**sigh and smh and sigh again**

You can see in this photo where the track has broken and cracked and where the door itself has begun cracking. :(

Fast forward to this summer, we began calling contractors to give us their opinion on the damage and quotes for the repair work. We had several who did not return our phone calls, several who had some pretty comical reasons why they could not come out to the house until September, and a few who were willing to stop by. One was in and out of the house in under 10 minutes and his only idea was to take all the siding off the back of the house (all two stories of siding) to see what was there and then give us a quote for the work. Ummm...no thanks! The other two were very nice, they answered all my questions, and they gave us a good idea of what work they thought needed to be done. In the end, we went with experience and the person we felt we could trust the most. 

We are going with a company whose name makes me smile every time I think about it --- Hammertime Home Improvement.

You pictured this too right!?!?!      {Source}

The problem is much more detailed and extensive than we realized back in the spring when the glass company gave us the heads up. Apparently the back of our house is not sitting on a girder/joist like it is supposed to be. The final girder/joist is about a foot inside the home. The entire back wall of our two story home is resting on 2X8s on top of the brick skirting. Essentially the back of the house is sinking and is structurally unsound. This explains the cracks we have all over the back wall and why the sliding glass door is about an inch lower than the rest of the living room floor. The builder took a shortcut (he is out of business now) and the home inspector missed all of this (he is also out of business, after being sued three times in two years for missing things during inspections).

**Not OK! Just not OK!** 

Throughout this week, we are going to have masonry guys and demo guys and contractors and who knows who else here working on repairing the water damage and structural issues. They are going to jack the back of the house up to make it level, add a girder/joist where there should be one, take out the sliding glass door, reframe/re-dry wall the door opening, and put in a new 6 foot sliding glass door. The back of our house will be level and no longer sinking by the end of the week!

**Happy Dance!!!*    {Source}

Here are some before photos - (it looks bare because we had to take down all the art and decorations and move all the furniture from the back wall). 

This is the inside view. 

This is the outside view. (Our contractor spray painted with an orange color to show where the demo will be done.) 

One last shot of Alex looking out the back door. 

Come back tomorrow to see what work they got done today.


Have you ever had to have major work done on your home?


Happy Monday,

His: Saturday Snapshots: City 2 Surf Expo

Have you liked our "His and Her Hobbies" Facebook page? If not, click here!

Today we are linking up with Melinda at West Metro Mommy for Super Saturday Snapshots.

This time last year I was in Sydney, Australia for the City2Surf.  (You can read the blog post about it by clicking here). Because I was an international entrant I had to pickup my race bib at the Expo that they hold the day before the race. We had trouble getting to the expo site as there was traffic everywhere, and we ended up walking the last couple of kilometres there. While I was at the expo we did take a few photos and I wanted to share some of them with you today.

There was a line to get in but it moved pretty quickly.

Once you got inside you went into different queues depending on your start group colour. 

Once you got your race bib you went through the expo which had dozens of vendors and a few walls where you could sign your name.

As you can see we weren't the only ones that signed this wall.

Amanda and Shellie filled out two of these posters. They were supposed to go up along the race route. I didn't see them on race day but there was so much going on I could have missed them.

This is probably as close as I will ever get to breaking the winner's tape of any race.

This wall is where they wanted you to share your race story.

My story said "Travelled 17000kms to get here. Just 14km to the finish line"

Even though it was a pain to get to the expo I enjoyed the experience and I was able to get a event t shirt and a few other race items that will come in handy for future races. It also got me into the race spirit and got me even more excited for the race. Have you ever run in a big race or gone to a big event?

Her August 2014 SLANT Box and Back To School TPT Purchases

Hi everyone! I am exactly two weeks away from summer vacation ending and very early alarms starting. I'm trying to stay positive and, today, I have two great reasons to smile.

First is my amazingly wonderful summer SLANT box from Courtney at Ramona Recommends. She is such a sweetheart and I loved getting to know her. She sent me a fantastic box and I cannot stop thanking her for everything. Here's what I got...

 The first thing I saw was a sweet note from Courtney. I am jealous of all the sunshine she gets in southern California, but she promised some sun-shiney gifts in the box. (PS - Isn't her handwriting great?!?!)

 

She included three note pads...one with adorable, summery flip flops, one to help our meal planning here at home, and a fun one that says "just a note" that I plan to use at school. She also sent a year-long planner and some adorable polka dot file folders. They will go perfectly in the room since I am switching to polka dots as a theme. :)

She also included two books. One was a picture book that illustrated the song "It's A Small World After All" with a CD that sings the song. The other book is a chapter book that I will be adding to my classroom library, once I read it of course. :)

She also included some fun items. Some "crayon" tissues, Expo markers, flair pens (my fave!!), pencils (that I know my kids will need/use), and stickers (which 8th graders fight over constantly). The peanut M&Ms were delicious! Yep, they are gone already! haha

 

Courtney - Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!! I am in love with everything that you chose for me. You were a great partner and I'm glad we "met" through this process. Thank you again and again!!

Second is the annual Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School sale. I am linking up with Erin at Learning to be Awesome to show off my stash. 

Click here to go to Erin's page.

My Wish List on TPT had grown to five pages - yep 5! I used this sale to clean it out and buy some of the things that I have been wanting for a while. Here's the list of what I got. The links are below.

Teacher Stuff:

Polka Dots Teacher Binder

Teacher Toolbox (Polka Dots Themed) - Editable 

 

English Stuff:

Book of the Month: Independent Reading for Middle School (Grades 6-8)

545 Slides of Daily Bell work/Warmups/Bell Ringers for English with answer key

Language Arts Interactive Notebook - Point of View Lesson - Grades 5-8

Punctuation Pockets Craftivity: Editing for Punctuation

Combining Sentences - Task Cards

Context Clues Posters & Interactive Notebook Entry

Context Clues Task Cards: 32 Cards (includes game answer sheet)

Interactive Reading Notebook Activity: Analyzing Author's Choices

Reading Workshop Kick-off for Grades 7-8

 

Civics Stuff:

Three Branches of Government - Interactive Student Notebook

 

How do you plan to spend the last few days before school begins again? Or if your school year has already started how is it going?


Happy (What's Left of) Summer!

Her August, 2014 Currently

It's the start of a new month which means it's time to join Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for the Currently linkup.

Listening: I used to listen to the Pandora app when I wanted music, but then I discovered iHeart Radio. I like this app so much more, because of their "perfect for" feature. I turned the app on a few days ago in the morning while I was getting ready and it offered a "Singing in the Shower" station. I listen to it all the time now! It's all songs that you can't help but sing along with. Here's what played while I typed this blog post:
          Thrift Shop by Macklemore
          Carry On by fun.
          Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
          Hey Ya! by Outkast 
          Stay with Me by Sam Smith

Loving: I found a Virtual Yard Sale group on Facebook a few weeks ago where people can sell household items that you would typically find at a yard sale. I made my first purchase yesterday and my second today. Yesterday I bought a beautiful, old, paned window to use as a picture frame which is all the rage right now. Today the purchase was a pre-lit Christmas tree. We have been talking about buying a new tree and today we got one for a major deal. 

Thinking: Going back to work does not bother me as much as the 5a.m. alarm clock does. I am just not a morning person.

Wanting: I had such great plans for all that I was going to get done over summer break. I'm nowhere close to done with all of it. I'm hoping I can find some motivation over the next two weeks.

Needles: Same motivation issue with my knitting. I have beautiful projects cast on but no motivation to work on them.

1st Day: We have to go back eight days before the kids which is going to be a blessing this year because of all the unpacking. We are moving into a new building so all my school items are in boxes. Being in a new building = AHHH-MAZING!! Unpacking = Ick!


What are you currently doing?


Happy Sunday,