Friday, April 10, 2009

Working on Project Plan

I'm trying to plan out all the tasks we need to do on the Redwood City House project so I can map out the dates. I've been working on my own little project plan in a spreadsheet. This will help keep me on track and will help me make sure I've got the correct materials when we need them.

Anyway, I've been pretty detailed in everything we need to do, and I'm not sure we can have the house ready to move in by the 26th of May. One of the problems clogging up the schedule is the availability of my Dad's time. He works full-time and, basically, has a life. But there's several things he'll need to help us with in order to be ready for later tasks. For instance, he needs to help us remove the toilets and repair the subfloors if necessary, so we can have the new vinyl installed.

I think Jeff and I are going to have to start going over at least one night during the week; the weekends just aren't long enough. We need to get started on demolition of the master bedroom drywall so we can get that room insulated and electrical upgraded. Which reminds me, I found someone who would install the drywall and patch that bedroom for $850, including materials, so we're going to go ahead and do it. It will save us on our energy bills, and we'll be more comfortable at night, especially as that side of the house gets pounded with sun all day long. It's already hot in there in the afternoon and it's only April!

I'm really looking forward to the estate sale being finished, because all that stuff piled around the house is making it nearly impossible to get anything done there, other than sifting stuff, that is.

We really need to get going on painting, which means we need the walls clear. You can only do so much painting at one time. The paint has to dry and we're limited by the time we have to spend there. I'm hoping by going out an evening or two, we can get through the painting in time. We want to finish all the painting before we have the new vinyl/carpet installed.

This coming week I'm going to try and start cleaning the bathrooms. I think the cupboards are still full and I'll also need to start removing the existing vinyl on the floors. I can probably get started on that before the sale. And if I finish that task, I'm going to start cleaning the walls, masking and painting. I can at least get the master bath painted before the house is empty.

In the evenings when we aren't working on the house, I spend a fair amount of time cruising around the furniture section of craigslist. I'm still looking for good deals on 1950s style living room and dining room furniture. There's a few pieces I'm watching, but since they're not exactly a great deal price-wise, I haven't gone and bought them yet. They may sell, but new sets get listed regularly. (There were a few good deals, but they were too far away to jump in my car and get them. Once we move, I'll be more willing to travel a bit of distance.) 

That's the one glimmer of brightness in this sorry economy, there's lots of quality furniture for sale. There's a fairly significant number of people who are selling everything to move or to pay the bills. Sad for them, good for us.

By working on this plan, though, I've also realized I have to get started with the packing. I cannot spend all my free time over in Redwood City; I have to spend some amount of time during the week packing up this end. Sigh, I hate moving. And this one will be more difficult because a chunk of our stuff is moving into a storage locker, at least temporarily. We need to spend that much more time thinking about what we'll need at the house and ask ourselves if this thing we're about to pack is going to get used again soon, or ever....

I was hoping to go to the local SCA event this weekend, but we're far enough behind that we may not have time. I'm missing SCA; I think the last event we made it to was in December.

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