The SunnySide: Late Night Retaining Walls, Drywall, Paint and the Final Month

It's been busy the past month, and that's meant a big delay in updates (apologies). But after a lot of work to finish the interior walls, it now feels like we're on the downhill, with lots of finishing work converging on these final weeks of September.

Here's a quick summary for you. It'll feel great, like those movie montages where the main character works really hard over 3 minutes of b-roll and incredibly accomplishes some unbelievable task that would take a normal human decades.

On August 2, the city hooked the main power up to the house. No more temporary power pole! And just in time too. You don't realize how convenient it is to have outlets everywhere until you don't have them to plug your tools into.

The drywall team was....colorful. They worked incredibly hard, and always had something to talk about. They moved fast, and I didn't always catch what they said, but I do know they were always complaining about someone named Jefe. While Tony and his crew worked inside, I worked outside to build the front retaining wall. They were hilarious, and we became friends by the end of the week. I also got an education in Mexican beers, and can now only drink Modelo Especial.

Drywallers made our little nook at the top of the stairs look great. Ideas on what to put in there?

Naturally, rooms look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT with drywall up. It was fun to start seeing how spaces would really look.


This is looking from the front door towards the back, with the kitchen on the left and craft room door to the left.

And here's a shot looking towards the front door, with the 100+ year old timber we salvaged from the old house.

By August 16th, it was time to get the front retaining wall built (area left of garage). I was not looking forward to this. It had to be perfect, with perfect drain pipe, perfectly cut stones, and perfectly level. Time to call in backup. Huge thanks to the Kneiers, Bernsteins, BGs, Stamschrors, Warrens, D-As and Michele.

First step was actually leveling the massive dirt piles in the back yard, and bringing it all up to grade.

Thanks to my buddy, Dayn, we were able to get it all done in a day, and it really made the backyard look usable.

Then we had our small deck put in.

Done! That was easy! We wanted just a small landing space because a) our backyard is small and b) we'll eventually put in a patio for grilling and cigars....I mean, uh, for tasteful patio furniture and family dinners in the summer.

Before we could begin on the front wall (area left of garage), we had to clean up a drywall mess and start excavating soil. Time to get an excavator! This time it was just a baby, about 3' in width. Casey was surprised to hear it was that small say and simply said, "Chris...I'm about 3' feet wide."

The wall started next to the house, and I had to space it so it ended on a full block in order to use a corner stone for a nice clean turn (for the stairs). Behind the first row of stone was the perf pipe burrito. This is to drain water that builds behind the wall. This pipe extends under the stairs and behind the second front wall. Factoid: the reason Machu Picchu still stands today is because of superior drainage. Walls usually fail because of water issues, but the Inca's mastered this back in the 15th century and became experts at dealing with water. (thanks for the history lesson, Tim!)

The wall was sunk low enough into the soil that the first row came up against the footing drain. Here you can see the small gap left in the wall to account for the footing pipe. Problem: wall has to go all the way to the house foundation.

It only took about 3,456 hours, but I was able to delicately cut an L-shape out of a stone so it could fit over the pipe and continue the wall. Nailed it.

With the base of the drainage system in place, we went back to building wall.

This time, we worked from the defined corner and made sure we had all the corner pieces aligned. At first, this took forever as nothing was lining up right. But then Andy walked by, took one look at it, and immediately knew I had set the first corner stone wrong, causing a domino of miss-alignments. I just stared at the wall for a good 30 minutes wondering how I could miss that. #tired.

Four days just wasn't quite enough time....so we worked pretty late into the night.

We got moving pretty good after that, and Tim helped me slam out a few layers of the first wall. Here he expertly handles the plate compactor. What you can't see is that the engineering of the wall calls for omni-directional geo grid to support the surplus loads - that is, the walkway to the front door. In all, there were 12 layers of alternating geo-grid, 6 on each side of the wall. Our basic process was lay block with glue, fill up behind with drain rock, level to drain rock with dirt, compact it all, lay and stake geo-grid, wash, rinse and repeat. Look how cute that mini excavator is...

Here the first wall is essentially completed. In the corner of the wall you can see the drain pipe emerging from the base row. We had to cut corner pieces to allow it to pass through.

Next, we had to extend the pipe to travel under the future concrete stairs and line up behind the second front wall. Here you can see we got it done, and capped the pipe at its end. It was not easy as we had to keep the slope of the pipe, ensure it was behind the wall, but also low enough that it would pass under the first row of stones, which they themselves had to be level with their sister row of the first wall...all while accounting for the fact that the sidewalk sloped upwards and was not a reliable leveling surface. Nailed this too.

And then we hit a sewer pipe with the mini excavator. You can see Gaylan here standing over the exposed part of a broken pipe. This is where my sewer line is. I panicked. Everyone else stayed calm.

Here's a close up of the broken pipe. It shattered in many places and was filled with dirt. The entire time, Casey, who was always level-headed about the project, wasn't convinced this was our sewer pipe. However, this was right where my sewer pipe was supposed to be. So, we all took a break, consulted photos from 6 months ago when the sewer was done, remeasured...and I still wasn't convinced. I went off to cry somewhere and Casey started digging a little to the right to see if he could find another pipe - and he did. In the lower part of the photo you can see a small exposed section of white pipe in the bottom of the hole. THAT'S my pipe. The other one? Ya, we knelt down and just pulled it out by hand. It was a broken piece of the OLD sewer that the crew had missed 6 months ago and left in the ground. AGH!

Disaster adverted, we continued on the with the second section of wall. Everything was turning out level and even with the first part of the wall.

The kids got involved too and helped me lay some geo grid. Here, Matthew and Aaron help me place the stakes.

Peter even helped, and staked down some geo grid. The hammer he's using weighs as much as he does.

Big Brother Daniel helped cut out the strips to size, saving Dad's back.

And it's done! It's that easy. In between the two wall sections, concrete stairs will be poured.

It's starting to look like a real house!

It was a very exciting day when we got our shiny new garbage cans. I took this picture because these cans will never be this clean again.

Next, the crew started installing the rain garden required by the city....I don't want to talk about it.

Still don't want to talk about it.

Yup, still don't.

Ok, I'll talk about his part. This is a "slotted" pipe. According to the city, "it's so much better" than a perforated pipe. It's also only available at 3 stores in the Northern Hemisphere.

Next was painting. Thanks to a friend, I got a paint sprayer, and after some trial and error, got the hang of it. Saved days of time over rolling. I also had to suit up since the paint mist is so horrible. Thankfully, I still had all the stuff I used to wear when changing the kids' diapers, so I was prepared.

I missed a spot and got some on my head. Bonus: thicker, fuller, healthier looking hair in just 2 hours.

The kids came by to help paint too. Was fun to see them working in their future rooms. That was fun. Here, Daniel preps some Frog Tape (which was amazing).

Matthew and Aaron got going on their room. We had them start in the closet for no particular reason at all.....ya....

Peter was not to be left out, and did his part too. He was "all done" shortly after this photo was taken.

It was great to see the kids enjoy the project and take some ownership over their future rooms.

Daniel is always a great help, and he got some special alone time to paint, away from the distractions of his brothers.

Long days of painting call for only one thing: Margaritas! Oh, I mean, dinner out with the family. Kids did great!

It was very satisfying to see the results, and we got some nice, clean lines. Because I know some of you ladies will want to know what colors Michele picked out, here they are: Silver Drop, Magnetic Gray, Urban Rain Coat, Ash Blue, and Silver Strand. Gentlemen, if you want to know what we used, these colors are also known as: Light Gray, Dark Gray, Blue, Light Blue and Gray.

Pure satisfaction. Frog tape is great.

Here's the front room in Silver Drop (aka Light Gray).

Oops. Forgot to put in an egress window. That was not fun.

After leveling the backyard, Andy recommended I put another layer on the retaining wall behind this compressor unit. I hedged not wanting to do it, but did it anyways. Ya, he was right. definitely needed another layer.

I'll spare you the excruciating story of getting our gas approved and installed, but just know we started this process in 1861, shortly after the outbreak of war with the South.

After a lot of hard work, here's what the front levels looked like with the walls done (no caps yet), egress window in, rain garden placed (still don't want to talk about it), and gravel leveled for future concrete.

Another photo of the front.

Then Jeremy, Karlstrom's Ace trim guy, started casing the doors, windows and closets for us with a nice, simple Craftsman trim style.

This is the MIL kitchen, sans counters. It's the same style as the main kitchen upstairs. Anyone know someone who wants to rent a new MIL, two-bedroom, in the Greenlake area? A nice family with four rambunctious kids will live above you:)

Then things got really exciting with kitchen cabinets and counters going in upstairs!

This is facing East, towards the backyard. The general layout of the kitchen is similar to the old house.

The countertops going in really made it feel like we could move in. Super excited.

This is opposite the sink. The front door is in the upper right of the photo. Double ovens will go in the large opening at the end of the counters.

The area in the wall in the top center is where the fridge will go, and to its right is the small pantry and sink. Many blessed moments and meals will occur here. PTL!