Week 4

It has been a busy week both for the project and for us at work.  Plus there was the excitement about the tornado-ridden storms passing though the Dallas area on Tuesday.  And there was a good bit of excitement around the renovation project.

While not directly related to the renovation the new pool equipment was installed and we are in the process of evicting the swamp monster. 

We got a new, electronically controlled, variable speed pump, a new DE filter about twice the size of the old one, a new sweeper and booster pump, a new chlorinator, new valves, a new time clock and lots of new PVC pipe.

 The media room is really starting to take shape.  Shelving for the kegerator niche was added, base mold was installed, window sill and trim was added, a door to the upper cubby storage was added, a new solid core door from the media room to the hallway was added, cabinet assembly and installation started and the pocketless pocket door was installed.

The shelving in the kegerator niche. The bottom shelf is for holding the CO2 tanks behind the kegerator thereby freeing up space in the kegerator for the more important beer kegs.  The upper shelf will be hidden below the lid of the kegerator so the lid can be opened without moving the kegerator out.

The door allows access to a storage area above the cabinets.  This is an a perfect place for Andy to store large brewing pots and fermentation bottles.

The assembly and installation of the cabinets are started.  The cabinets are a black-brown but appear mostly black.  The two smaller base cabinets will have three drawers.  The upper cabinet will have glass doors with in cabinet LED lights.  LED lights will also be installed under the upper cabinets.

This is the shelving for the main media components.  You can see the A/V and speaker connections through the cutouts in the back of the cabinet.  The cabinets will be removed when the painters paint the walls so the ugly yellow won't show through.  The rear surround speakers will be mounted below the component shelf.

Lola is checking out the trim that was added around the windows.  These windows will have cellular blackout shades.  The trim is added to cover the normal gaps around the shades but it gives a nice window case look to the windows.

This one door caused a lot of discussion and confusion in how to implement it.  Since this is a media room, we wanted to minimize light coming in and sound going out.  The door is a heavy solid core door.  The design calls for the door to slide into a slot when closed and to overlap the width of the opening.  In essence this is a pocket door without the pocket to hide the door when it is open.  Andy calls it a pocketless pocket door.

The most dramatic change however occurred in the master bath. In last week's post we showed that the bathtub was installed.  But when we met with the cabinet builder to talk about the custom closet door and the custom bathtub skirt, it was noticed that the tub was not level... it was off by a half inch.  while this may not sound like much, when it comes to tiling and building the tub skirt, it is a big deal.  The plumber was called back in on Monday morning to fix it, but, according to him, it is level and he left. 
Darrell, my RHD project manager, along with one of the subs pulled the tub and corrected the problem himself and reset the tub.  Now the plumber has to come out and reattach the plumbing.

The tub had to be pulled out so the stringers could be reset level.

The tile layout became a bit of an issue.  The architect, Ryan, originally called for a 2x6 tile pattern which means cutting those out of the 12x12 tile.  While that was a cool design, there were a couple of problems.  First was the fact that the limestone tile that Andy and Anna selected had some really cool quartz deposits of various colors.  Andy's concern was that the quartz would either get cut up too much or would be lost in the design.  Another issue is that the 12x12 tiles has a small bevel on each of the four sides.  If they were to be cut into 2x6 tiles these would have to be dealt with.  So, Ryan created a couple of alternative designs resulting in a really nice design using the full 12x12 tiles. 

This is the shower with the accent tile that has the multi-sized mosaic.  The picture does not do it justice.  It looks fantastic!

The floor of the shower is 1x1 tiles.  These are the same kind of stone is found in the accent tile.  The shower curb will be capped with granite just like the pony will will have.  The granite company has found a perfect match with the granite that we used for the vanity counters.

The tile around the tub is almost complete.  all that is left is the accent tiles in the little diamond areas.  This accent tile has the same colors as the accent tiles used in the shower by are 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch.  If you look carefully these were used inside the window casing.  The 2x4's are an optional feature... actually they are holding the upper tiles in place while the mortar dries.

George, the tile guy, is doing a fantastic job with the tile.  He pays attention to the details.  He will be working Saturday to finish the wall and the floor tiles and grout everything.  Monday should bring the painters and they will start prepping to paint.  Sometime mid-week, the glass company will be in to measure for the frameless shower enclosure. 

A couple of items might take some time.  The door to the master bath uses a barn door type of hardware which they are having trouble locating locally and will likely have be shipped.  The door itself is not in yet either but has been ordered.  Then there is the custom-built tub skirt and the custom-built closet doors.  Those might take some time to complete.

But, we are definitely beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Week 3 - Thurs & Fri

Mmmm... the smell of freshly applied texture wafting through the house.

As we mentioned in the last entry, this week started of a little quiet but picked up on Wed with the drywall guys a-rockin' and a-scraping in the media room.  On Thurs, they continued repairing and prepping the drywall for texture in the media room and started scraping popcorn from the master bedroom ceiling.  The media room and master bedroom was textured on Friday.

This is the view that we found at the end of the day on Thurs.  The walls were swathed in plastic.  It made quite a decor statement.  The worse was that the ceiling fan was also wrapped in plastic which was bad as we like the airflow at night... even in winter.

Yeay!! No more popcorn in the bedroom and media room.

While the drywall guys were working in the media room on Thurs, the windows installers came to installed the new windows in the media room resulting in a lot of activity in the media room.

The new windows in the media room.  The old windows were in really bad shape.  The new windows are argon-filled, low-e efficient windows.

The drywall guys also had some company on Fri while they were working in the master bedroom.  The tub arrived late Thurs so the plumbers were in the master bath installing it.

The new tub.  It is a BainUltra Amma 66x36 tub.  It uses forced warm air to create a soothing bubbling action and the air also heats the backrest.  This eliminates the issues of maintaining a whirlpool tub and eliminates the bacteria risk that they have.

It was quite a discussion this morning trying to figure out where to put the faucet, handles and hand shower.  The handles actually rotate 180 degrees and are fairly large in size.  The hand shower is also fairly large the hose connecting it to the diverter is limited.  Well, you can see where the hand shower and the handles will be.  The faucet is in the corner just to the right of the handle.  The control for the air jets was also installed.

Andy had a meeting with the tile guys, the architect  and the project manager to discuss the tile layout. Hopefully, the tiling will start on Mon and should take about four days.  Again, there might be a scheduling conflict with the drywall guys as they have to finish texture in the master bath.

To end the week, Andy received the written estimate for replacing the pool equipment... new variable speed pump, new larger DE filter and adding a new sweeper.  He gave the go ahead so the Swamp Thing will have to find a new home soon.

Til next week.

Week 3 - Mon to Wed

The week got off to a slow start but picked up steam by Wed.

Windows were delivered and are in the garage waiting to be installed.

These are the four windows for the media room.  The current windows really needed replacing.  Since these are south facing windows the argon-filled low-e windows should really help keep that room cooler.

This is a new window to go next to the tub in the master bath.  It should really add a lot of natural light, along with the existing sky light.  It will look great as well.

This is where the glass block window will be installed next to the tub.  Of course, the new tub in not in yet.

On Wed, the drywall guys started work.  You can see in the picture above the drywall in the master bath has been added.  In the media room, they started patching all of the cutouts that the electricians had to make for running the media cables and rocked all of the new areas.

The new walls have been rocked.  You can clearly see how the three "niches" step-out.  The kegerator niche is in the middle and on the right we will add base and upper cabinets.  You can see an opening leading to the space above the cabinets where there will be a little door.  Andy plans to use this space to store some of his brewing equipment such as fermentation bottles and his new brew kettle.

The old popcorn style texture on the ceiling is now gone.  Of course you might consider popcorn texture to be appropriate for a home theater.

We received estimates on removing the popcorn and painting the master bedroom and will probably go ahead have that added.  Andy hates paying someone for doing something that he can easily do like the painting, but Monica ruled the day on this issue.  Andy did hold the line on painting the hallway though.

We also ordered new cellular blinds for the media room and the master bedroom.  We will have blackout blinds in both.  In the media room so that we can darken the room during daylight for running the projector.  The media room windows will even be trimmed such that light coming around the edges of the blinds will be minimized.  The master bedroom window faces the street so we definitely wanted privacy.  It will be able to open from the top as well as the bottom.  So when we want some natural light but still need privacy we can just pull the top of the shade down a bit.  We also went with the cordless option on all the blinds much to the dismay of the kitties.

Not related to this renovation project, the pool equipment needs to be replaced.  The maintenance of the pool has just gotten worse over the last couple of years.  The equipment is 20+ years old.  The pump is on its last legs and is leaking.  We have had it turned off for a few weeks and at any moment we expect that the Swamp Thing monster will emerge from the pool.  It's pretty nasty... yuck!

We will at the minimum replace the pump with a new variable speed pump that is much more energy efficient, a new larger DE filter and a new sweeper.  The old Kreepy Krauly sweeper is a real pain.  Maybe a new saltwater chlorination system.  Andy had a pool company out to take a look.  It is pretty expensive but really has to be done.  He is just waiting on the written estimate.

Next up this week is the finishing of the drywall and texture work, delivery of the new tub and maybe the media room windows installed.  We are also meeting the the tile guy on Friday.

Week 2 - Wed thru Sun

The week kinda got away from us and we didn't get get around to posting so it's time to play catchup.  This phase of the renovation is not quite as visually dramatic as the addition in phase 1.  We certainly don't have a dozen guys with saw, drills and hammers arriving in the ungodly early morning hours.  There is much more "quiet" time with this project.  Of course, we don't have a major deadline like an upcoming wedding like last time either.

Most of the work the second half of this week centered around electrical and media cabling in the media room.  They first tackled the electrical needs.  They added new above the counter outlets in the cabinet nook and prepped for the addition of LED lighting inside the upper cabinets as well as under cabinet LED lighting both operated by a single switch.  Outlets were also added to the kegerator nook, one for the kegerator and one  with a switch for future lighted signs.  They also added the can light for the new celing of the kegerator nook.  Outlets were also added to where media components will be. 

This is the cabinet nook where you can see how they had to cut the drywall to run electrcity.

 They were back on Friday to run the media cables. Andy had spent a lot of time measuring and locating where he wanted everything.  That included speaker wiring for the seven speakers, RG6 for the two subwoofer locations, two hdmi cables and two cat6 cables across the room and moving the location of the existing speaker wiring for the outdoor speakers.  They thought that they could knock it out in half a day.  Well, it did not happen they way they expected.  But they persisted and had all the cables ran by the end of the day.

This is the wall that will house the main media components.  Andy had already run four cat6 and four RG6 feeds into the room which they had to move up the wall a bit.  This is where all of the other cables running throughout the room are sourced.  The big three-gang size hole over toward the right is where all the speaker wires meet.  A big ole' mess of wires.

This is a view of the ceiling.  They had to cut a few holes to run the cables.  Fortunately, the bid included sheetrock repair since we figured that some ripping had to be done.

Andy spent the best part of the weekend terminating each and every cable.  He connected one data and one video cable to the main wiring closet and tested out each speaker, hdmi and network cable.

This is the same main component wall as above but now it is not a spaghetti bowl of cables.  Everything has been neatly terminated with a connector plate or connected with keystone jacks and tucked away.  The top row of boxes will be inside the component shelving.  Starting from the left there is the connector for the outside speakers which will be hooked up to a Sonos Zone Player.  Next is the two network cables that run across the room to the other wall. The network capable Blueray player will be connected via an ethernet cable with another connection for future expansion.  The next box is a double gang that will contain the four cat6 ethernet and four RG6 video connections back to the main wiring closet.  The Blueray player will be connected via a patch cable.  The next box (blue) is the power outlet.  Then the speaker connection panel.  There are enough connections for an 8.2 system.  I wired for a 7.2 system, not having a rear center speaker but that would be easy to add.  There is an empty box for future expansion and then a box with two HDMI connections that run across the room.  The lower row has two speaker connections for the rear surround speakers that will be mounted under the component shelving just above the sofa.  Out of the picture in the lower left is one subwoofer connection.

This is the other side of the room where most of those wires end up.  There are five speaker connections.  Up high are the left and right high speakers, Around 36 inches are the left and right front speakers which will be new tower speakers.  The lower right is another subwoofer speaker outlet.  In the middle of the room is four boxes.  From the left, is the two cat6 ethernet connections.  The next box contains two HDMI connections for feeding the Blueray player over to the AV receiver plus one extra.  Then the connection for the center speaker and finally a power outlet.

As you can see running a massive amount of media cables is a daunting task.  As Joe, the head electrician said, if it was easy, Andy would have done it himself.  Andy knew it was going to be a difficult task and is really glad someone else was doing it.  Terminating and testing was a piece of cake compared to that.

We are just so excited about the new media/party room.

Not much really happened in the master bath except when Andy went to take a shower Wed morning, there was absolutely no hot water.  After washing critical areas in the frigid water he went to figure out the problem.  His first thought was that the hot water was turned off when they were working on the master shower plumbing on Tues.  Well, the water heater was heating the water just fine.  It was perplexing at first.  However, Andy realized that the plumber installed new valves in the shower and hooked them into the water supply so he figured that somehow the valve was mixing cold and hot water and putting it back into the system.  Well, when RHD's supervisor came, they discussed it and Daryl called the plumber.  Well, it turns out that the new valve has a cartridge inside that doesn't ship until the trim kit ships. Without the cartridge to control the flow of water, it was doing exactly what Andy thought.  Daryl told the plumber to come over before end of day and take of the problem.  He was fortunate that he fixed it before Monica came home wanting a hot shower.  Actually, she didn't even suspect until sometime later in the evening.

That lower valve caused the hot water crisis.  You can see that the plumber cut and capped the water pipes to prevent the water mixing in the valve and going back into the feed.

Last post, we showed the issue with the master bath exhaust fan/light.  Given the profile of the ceiling and the placement of the cabinet, this ended up being a bit of a challenge.  We came up with several alternatives some of which were not great.

Miguel was able to move the box up almost a foot and extended it out.  The fan/light will hopefully clear the cabinet now.

Some insulation was added to the master bath exterior walls and the electricians hooked up the fan/light.

The HVAC guys were out to relocate the vents.

The AC vents were extended out to the new walls.

The return vent had to be relocated as its former location is where the new base cabinets will be.

This room had a beam at the peak of the ceiling and it was pretty ugly to boot.  We really had no idea if it was structural or decorative.  The plan was just to sheetrock under it to just make a flat area.  When the electricians took down the old ceiling fan they discovered that the beam was in reality very flimsy. 

This beam is really just a box made out of paneling material.  The electricians were surprised that the fan never fell down.

With the false beam removed we could see a 2x4 that was attached to the underside of the ridge beam.  We needed a place to run electricity to the two new ceiling fans and something to hang them on of course.

The solution was to mount a 2x10 in place of the beam.  This left a space to run the wiring for the ceiling fans to hold the mounting boxes which can be seen in the picture.  This new flat beam will just be rocked over.  This is one of those cases of un-forseen issues that result in an additional work order (AWA) but, fortunately, it was fairly small and also included the labor to add a door to create a storage area above the cabinet nook.

We also mentioned in the last post about the issue with the dryer vent.  Even though it has been nearly a year and half since the original addition, RHD did fix this for us.  The HVAC guys did a fantastic job of installing a rigid vent pipe up through the roof replacing that bunched up flexible vent that ran up and down the attic rafters to be vented out the soffit.  They found that it was totally clogged up with moisture and wet dryer lint.

The new dryer vent.  The HVAC guys did a great job on this even using mastic on all the joint and at the ceiling.  They even directed it a bit away from the other vent pipe to not have any interference with flashing.  What used to take several cycles to dry can now be completed in one cycle.  Looking forward to getting the new washer/dryer installed.

Next week should be the installation of the new windows in the media room.  Hopefully the repair of sheetrock and texture work will start.  We are also getting a quote to remove the popcorn from the master bedroom and re-texture. 

Most of the work in the master bath will probably have to wait after the installation of the tub which will arrive on 3/30 and be installed on 4/2.  However, the tile has been ordered for the master bath.  Andy needs to pick up the tile for the media room backsplash.  Not sure if they will get to painting this week.  We're hoping that they will make some good progress on the media room while the master bath is kind of stalled.

Week 2 - Tues

For a while today there was quite a bit of activity between the framers and the plumbers. 

One of the ongoing minor issues in the master bath is where to locate the new exhaust vent/light.  The original box down was pretty low and the exhaust vent/light was located there.  The new design called for carrying through the same ceiling profile as over the tub but with a 4 inch vent pipe getting in the way it just isn't possible there and wouldn't really allow much room for the vent to be installed.  So the idea was to create a smaller box down to hold the vent/light.  So that's what the framer did.

This vent pipe makes following the designed ceiling profile impossible and there is no easy way to move it.

After much discussion yesterday, this is the solution that the framers were told to build.  Unfortunately, there is a problem.  Can you spot it?

The rail in the picture holds a cabinet and the top of the cabinet extends about an inch above the top of the rail and a foot out from the wall.. well, if you haven't figured it out yet, that would pretty much totally block the light and possibly the vents.  So, back to the drawing board.  Daryl and I discussed options and decided to put the vent up in the sloped ceiling and rework this drop down.  Pat concurred.

The framers then worked on the fir out of the walls in the media room.  The end wall will have a step out kind of design.  We were a little concerned about how it would look, but it is going to add some interest to the room.

This is the wall they were working on.  You can see the door to the left and then just a straight wall.

The build out of the wall adds a good bit of architectural interest.  The door "alcove" is to the left.  The kegerator "alcove" is there in the middle with the wall brought out about 8 inches.  Then the cabinet "alcove" was brought out about 25".  The section above will be sheetrocked.

From this view, you can see the step out of the walls.  One thing that Andy noticed is that there is a good amount of space above that cabinet alcove and thinks it might be nice to have a little door up there for some storage.  It would be perfect to store seldom used items like his fermentation bottles and the 9-gal brew pot.  But, we don't want to destroy the esthetics either.

The other big news of the day is the rough in of the shower plumbing.  This is something that Andy is very excited about as he is a shower person, not a bath person.

Here is the shower plumbing.  We were able to raise the shower head by four inches since the low ceiling is now gone.  The rectangles of copper in the middle of the picture is where the four body spray nozzles go.  The two black circles are the control valves.  One valve regulates the temperature and one switches which nozzles are in use.  We will be able to use just the shower head, just the body sprays or everything at once.  Everything at once would likely empty a full water heater in about 10 mins so gotta be a little judicious in its use.

We finally got a delivery date for the tub.  Unfortunately, it is not scheduled to be delivered for another 10 days, on 3/30.  It had to be shipped from Canada.  Another bit of not-so-good news came in the form of the estimate for running a water line for the proposed ice maker.  Adding in the cost of the ice maker it really was more than we could justify.  Fortunately, the ice maker seems to be in short supply and has not yet shipped, so Andy is going to try to cancel the order.  If it's too late, then we will just have some very expensive ice cubes for the next party.

There is one issue that is left over from the previous project that I had RHD take a look at.  The dryer vent used to go straight up and vented through the roof.  When they finished the addition, they just ran some flexible duct across the attic and out through the soffit.  Well, the flexible duct made many turns as it snaked across, up and down and over the rafters and did not vent properly.  In fact, when they removed the flexible duct today, the found that it was completely blocked with lint and water from condensation.  No wonder it took several cycles to dry clothes.  They will now use a rigid pipe straight up through the attic.  Once they fix that, then Andy will install the new washer and dryer.

Tomorrow, the HVAC guys will be out to move the vents in media room and hopefully will fix the dryer vent.  The electrician will be back to start work on the media room starting with the electrical followed by the media/speaker cables.

Week 2 - Monday

Monday saw the start of the electrical work.  Not really exciting in terms of having pictures so this will be a short post.

The new tub requires a dedicated circuit so the electricians had to run a new line from the box to the tub area where the air turbine will be located.  They installed the new recessed light for the shower, moved the switch to a new location and ran the wire for the new location for the combo light and vent.

The master bedroom was always an issue with not having good lighting.  There was only the light fixture on the ceiling fan which we were never happy with.  It just never did light up the entire room sufficiently.  We even bought a couple of lamps to put by the bed.  But we were just not happy.  So Andy suggested that we add some can lights in the recessed are of the ceiling and over the bed.  He asked for a quote on adding new can lights and, even though it was a bit expensive, we decided to go ahead.

They also installed those cans today and, boy, are we happy that we spent the money... well, we will spend it when the AWA is generated.

Two smaller can "pin lights" just above the pillows give us some great reading light.  We each control out own light independently with switches each side of the bed.  While they were running the wire, they added an additional outlet on Monica's side which is to the right in this picture.  This was a bit of a challenge to run the wires over to that corner.  They ended up having to cut a hole in the sheetrock to push the wire up into the attic from inside.  The sheetrockers will repair this hole and Andy will be painting this room in any case.

Four large can lights were added in the ceiling recess and beautifully lights up the entire room.  The ceiling fan light is redundant and, in fact, is no longer connected.  Andy will replace this fan with one that doesn't have a light fixture.  This one is fairly new and will be put in Anna and Courts' bedroom to replace the janky cheap one that was installed over 10 years ago.

The new lights in our bedroom was definitely the highlight of our day.

The framers will be here early on Tuesday to finish the bathroom framing and to frame the wall fir outs for the media room.  The plumber may also start working on adding the valves for the various shower components and give us an estimate on running the water line to Monica's ice maker.  Then more electrical work on Wed, primarily in the media room.

Andy will go to IKEA on Tues evening to order the counter top and pick up the rest of the cabinet and shelving materials.  Ceiling fans still need to be purchased and he needs to start working on the shades for the media room.  Still a lot to do but we are so happy that it is finally under way.

It's late and time for bed.  The framers are early birds and will be here at 7:30 am.  Based on our previous experience, they really mean 7:30am.

The work begins... week 1

The first week was consumed primarily with us getting ready for RHD to start on Thurs, 3/15 as was the subject of the last blog.  But it wasn't all just work.  There was some shopping fun too!!

We had to select cabinets for the media room.  We really like the IKEA cabinets that we used in the kitchen/bar area so off we went to IKEA to look at cabinets for the media room.  There will be a 5 foot by 7 foot alcove where we will have some base cabinets and some upper cabinets.  We will mount some shelving about 6 feet up on the back wall to hold the media equipment and the projector.  In front, we will use some low shelving to hold the center speaker and drawers for DVDs.  All of these will be a dark black-brown.

The original idea was to have a simple formica countertop... but... Monica fell in love with a CaesarStone Ruby Reflections quartz countertop.

This red CaesarStone countertop will add a nice burst of color to the media room.

Then it was off to Ferguson plumbing to select the tub, tub hardware and shower hardware.  Fortunately, we had already selected the tub while working with Ryan, the architect.  We chose the Amma alcove tub from Bain Ultra.

The Amma tub is similar to a jetted tub but uses heated air bubbles to agitate the water.  It also has a heated backrest.  We will have a nice stained wood skirt.

This is the hardware for the tub but with a brushed nickel finish.  All the faucets and handles have a cool twist.  Yes, Monica will get a hand shower for the tub.

Of course, Andy didn't want to be left out so we used the same twisting style in the shower.  Andy also added four body sprays.  Two will be at shoulder level and two will be at lower back level to provide a nice vertical massage for his old, old muscles.

Getting the upgraded fixtures, adding the hand shower and four body sprays in the shower pretty much blew out the allowance resulting in the first AWA (Additional Work Authorization).  If you read the blog during the previous renovation, you will know that AWAs are the bane of Andy's existence.

Andy and Anna went tile shopping for the shower and tub surround as well as the backsplash for the media room cabinets.

Tiles for the master bath.  The tile at the bottom is the floor tile which is what Andy has in the master closet and in the media room.  The tile on the right will be on the tub and shower walls.  The 1x1 tiles in the upper center will be on the floor of the shower.  They are an exact match for some of the tiles in the mosaic tile on the left which will be used as accent tiles on the floor and on the walls.

RHD started demo on Thursday.  They ripped out the tub and shower and took nearly that whole wall down to the studs.

The tub used to be here.  The plywood is covering a 3'x4' hole in the wall that will contain glass blocks which, in addition to skylight, should really brighten up the room and add some visual space.

The shower used to be here.  The old shower was walled in with a frosted glass door and a very low ceiling.  The new shower will be fully glass enclosed except for a small wall between it and the tub.  The ceiling will also be higher matching the profile over the tub and will really open up the space.

We did have a bit of a scare.  When they opened up the shower, they found some termite damage.  Fortunately, there were no live bugs to be found.  This was left over from previous owners who did have some termite problems, had it treated and did some remodeling.  We had a pest control expert take a look and he concluded that there was no live bugs.  However, he did suggest treating the opening where the plumbing comes out of the ground as a preventative while everything is open.

Demo also started in the media room.  All of that wainscoting was removed as well as the door and frame to the closet.  All the shelves in the closet was also removed.

The wainscoting is gone as is the closet doors, frame and shelving.

Friday was only a half day where they started framing in various places in the master bath.

Over the weekend, Andy spent a lot of time working on the wiring layout for the media room drawing locations of various locations of speaker, hdmi and power locations.  He had to order some additional hdmi wiring, wall plates and various connectors to add to his already stockpile of speaker wire, cat6 and rg6 cables.

Andy broke out the projector to figure out where to locate the screen, speaker and hdmi connections and power outlets for the screen wall.  If you look close you can see where he marked the locations in red.

Trying to figure out how to place the equipment shelving and locate all of the needed connections.  Andy said it was kind of fun getting to draw on the walls with permanent markers.

Monica has been lobbying for quite a while to have an under-counter ice maker in the media room.  (Too bad we didn't think about it during the kitchen construction).  The issue is that there is no water in the media room or near it for that matter.  Then there is the matter of a drain.  Well, after some coercion from Monica, Andy chatted to Pat about how we could accomplish adding the ice maker.  The first thought was to tie into the guest bathroom, run a water line up into the attic and over to the media room.  Unfortunately that would necessitate tearing a hole in wall of the front bedroom which has wallpaper that would be difficult to repair.  However, Pat had a great idea.  The refrigerator has a water line in the wall between the kitchen and the coat closet which extends under the stairs.  The water line can be run through the wall in the closet over to the hallway, up to the attic and finally down into the media room.  This would require opening up those walls but they will be easy to repair.  The drain then would run through the second bedroom closet to the outside wall... problem solved.  So, Monica will now have her ice maker!!

Electrical, plumbing and more framing should happen during week 2.