Week 25 Thursday

September 25 2014

View East yesterday evening

View West something is brewing

What a surprise this morning, I woke up to an unfamiliar sound on my windows this morning.  Haven't seen rain in a longgggggggggggggg time in SF.  We need it badly but please stay clear until we can get the new roof on the building.  The HOA is busily getting bids from various roofers and hope to decide soon.  I definitely don't want any rain coming into my newly remodeled unit.

The doors jambs all had to be removed and re-installed today.  They all moved when the sheet rockers started their work.  Large muscle not fine muscle guys and they will be back again tomorrow.  They still have one more coat of thin plaster to apply before the painters can start.  They should be done by the end of the week.  

The painters will be in on Monday to prime and paint the ceiling.  That will take the rest of next week.  If the floors are dry the overlay will take the week of October 6th.

Home stretch!

Stay tuned and watch the transformation.  If you want a hint of it's future look at my Pinterest posts.  http://www.pinterest.com/jdzinesf/hyde-street-penthouse/

www.jd-zine.com

Week 25 Tuesday

September 23 2014

Wouldn't you know it a film crew is shooting a Toyota commercial on the same day we are pouring cement.  At least it is in the block down the street and not in front of our house where they usually shoot because of Lombard Street.  The only problem is that they have taken all of the parking on several streets for the shoot.  

We have a huge cement truck plus a truck the same size that carries all of the equipment and is towing a machine that pumps the cement up to the fourth floor

.

 There are 17 guys on the job.  3 from the cement company, 2 from my contractor and the other 12 are pouring cement into a wheelbarrow, dumping , raking, leveling, and them smoothing with a large trowel in each room.  They started at 8 am and said it would all be finished in one to two hours.  

The pump truck which is sending the cement up to the 4th floor and the view down to the street.

One wheelbarrow at a time, actually several, but this is how they get it into the individual rooms.

Really hard work, heavy lifting, dirty and a lot of it on your knees or leaning over.  They did not finish it two hours more like six and you don't get a break because cement can become concrete in a blink of an eye.

There is a big mess everywhere that they assure me they will clean up but I will check before the rest of the owners get home.

Stay tuned and watch the transformation.  If you want a hint of it's future look at my Pinterest posts.  http://www.pinterest.com/jdzinesf/hyde-street-penthouse/

www.jd-zine.com

Week 24 Wednesday

September 19 2014

Sorry you haven't heard from me in awhile but work is progressing.  The tedious process of taping, sanding, taping, sanding, etc. has been progressing slowly.   They will be finishing today.  I took a video but it doesn't seem to want to up load to the blog.

They also have prepped the floor for the gyp-crete pour on Tuesday.  Again one more problem besides the fact that were supposed to do all of this yesterday. When the truck came they said they could not pump the cement up to the fourth floor and through the window because of the hill.  So now when they come on Monday they have to run the hose up four flights of stairs and into our unit.  I hope we don't have any problems with this.  What a mess that would be.

They will be installing industrial size de-humidifiers in the unit in order to get the moisture out of the concrete asap.  We cannot put the finish coat on until it is completely dry.  Mean while I have scheduled everyone and hope this does not delay things.

I hope this means that the painter will be starting on Wednesday. The end is finally in sight.

Stay tuned and watch the transformation.  If you want a hint of it's future look at my Pinterest posts.  http://www.pinterest.com/jdzinesf/hyde-street-penthouse/

www.jd-zine.com

Week 20 Sunday

August 31 2014

New pile of rubble

The rockers finished on Friday and left this huge pile of rubble not only in the kitchen but in every room.  So I guess the extractors will be back again on Tuesday.

Tuesday the contractor has to get a nailing inspection (really it's a screwing inspection but I guess they weren't happy with the sound of that).  Seems a little inane, they come to inspect to make sure it has been installed correctly and measure how close the screws are together.  They can't take the next step until the inspection is complete.

When  went to inspect yesterday, I realize that they did not do the door jambs correctly.  I will have to meet with the contractor on Tuesday to figure out how to get this done correctly.  These jambs are turning out to be a head ache.  But I must say the directions leave a lot to be desired.  I think I will draw these people some details so they can inform their next clients what actually needs to be done.  It could have been quite straight forward.

The taping and mud will take a few weeks and then they can level the floors with the concrete.

Stay tuned and watch the transformation.  If you want a hint of it's future look at my Pinterest posts.  http://www.pinterest.com/jdzinesf/hyde-street-penthouse/

www.jd-zine.com

Week 21 Tuesday

August 26th 2014

Master Bedroom

South Kitchen Wall

West Kitchen Wall

The rockers finally showed up late today but they move really fast and already have quite a bit done.  I have speced a Level 5 finish so there will be lots of mud going on here.  I hope I will be able to post a video as I want you to get to see some of this process.

I had to go up to the house at least 5 times to day to meet with various subs and the contractor.  Lots of questions about these  Italian door jambs.  We finally got them set properly and then the rockers come on the job and when the 5/8" rock hits the jamb it is too big.  So now we have to remove it an replace all the rock that meets the doors with 1/2" sheet rock.  It would have been nice if some of this information had been included with their installation instructions. 

My idea for the fireplace is now out as the price for doing what a wanted was astronomical.  The material only costs about $300 and it was directly screwed into the wall.  So now I will be going for my third iteration unless I can find someone to do it more reasonably.

Stay tuned and watch the transformation.  If you want a hint of it's future look at my Pinterest posts.  http://www.pinterest.com/jdzinesf/hyde-street-penthouse/

www.jd-zine.com

 Week 20 Friday

August 22, 2014

My lovely pink palace

Insulation in, check!

Bathrooms water proofed, check!

Special door jambs finally here, check!

A lot of people on the job this week getting ready for sheet rock and inspections.

They finished the heating at the beginning of the week and the rest of the week they installed insulation.  The roofer came and waterproofed the bathrooms.  

I waited around all morning for the trucker to show up with the door jambs.  He was supposed to call in advance so I could have some able bodied men on hand. They were on a pallet and it weighed 300 lbs.   But of course no one told him, even though I called this morning to remind them.  He was super nice though and said he would wait for the men to arrive.  I think he was from the flat lands somewhere as he was a little freaked out about my hill and the cable car.  I had everyone move cars so that he had a huge space to get into and then he was happy.

They will install the jambs on Monday and Tuesday (Glory-be) they start installing sheet rock.  I can't wait.  I will take some pictures as it is pretty amazing how fast these guys are and then once they start the finish coats walking around on stilts covered in white dust.  My little angels.

Stay tuned and watch the transformation.  If you want a hint of it's future look at my Pinterest posts.  http://www.pinterest.com/jdzinesf/hyde-street-penthouse/

www.jd-zine.com

 Week 19 Friday

August 15 2014

This is a beautiful sight.  A truck loaded with sheet rock and insulation.  Of course all of this has to be carried up 4 flights of stairs.  I hope these guys are young and strong.

It has been a really hectic day from very early this morning.  Had to meet with the heating contractor this morning.  I am installing a slot ceiling system and when I got to the job I was not happy with their placement.  No thought to symmetry at all. Do not turn your back ever.

Shea came by last night to check out my speaker placement for the sound system and did not pass the placement in the den.  So now I need to figure out what to do with that room.  Back to the drawing room with the AV guys.  

Speaking of AV, they are doing my Control 4 system through out the house.  When it got down to specing the dimmers things started to get really complicated so much so that they had to have the engineer look at all the lighting.  No simple solutions anymore.  The new led lighting is really complicated and you have to look at every fixture to make sure that the dimmer will work with it.  Glad I don't have to figure all of this out.  But I do need to check with my electrician to make sure he is using the proper dimmers in all the other rooms.  And then all of these things need to be programmed to talk to each other.

Remind me to have all hands on deck when it is time to learn how to run everything.  I'm sure Ralph and I will be in a daze.  Need all my techies to keep me on track.

Concrete flooring sample with some of the other finishes going into our house.  I'm thinking it is not dark enough so there will be some more samples coming my way.

Problems with my cabinets they want me to split all of the doors on the tall cabinets which I was trying to avoid but they are wearing me down and I don't want to have to deal with sagging doors so I guess I will learn to live with it.

Stay tuned and watch the transformation.  If you want a hint of it's future look at my Pinterest posts.  http://www.pinterest.com/jdzinesf/hyde-street-penthouse/

www.jd-zine.com