Deck deck go - update.

Because I had so much concrete up there, they had to make some space with a new sub-sub floor. My slider used to have a two inch step down. But after the concrete removal, it became an almost 11 inch step down. And that's not a normal step. The new sub-sub floor also has the correct slant for proper drainage. Now my step down is about seven inches. And that's a normal step.



Because there are two subfloors they put in brackets to make sure the top one never bounces. There were a lot more of them, but this must have been an early picture. Every place where one subfloor met the other - there was a bracket.



Then they stuck in the tongue and grove plywood. Well technically they put in insulation first, but you don't really care about seeing that do you?



They took my slider out and put in a new flashing base at the floor line.



These are my industrial sized scuppers. I thought I would have two floor drains and a few scuppers, but they chose only the larger sized scuppers. Scuppers are sort of like the emergency release valve of decks. If your drains stop up and water keep rising, they are sort of like the overflow part at damns.



Then wire.



They stripped the stucco from my wall because the paper had been torched due to water infiltration. Luckily the damage hadn't really crawled the walls.



This is what it looked like yesterday. Pretty much ready for the next step. And that is your deck update.

Fire drill Wednesday.

This morning my Nest smoke alarms woke Mr S. and I up with the sound of - there is smoke in the entry way.

Which has happened a couple of time actually. Since my family has been through a fire the first couple of times it freaked me the hell out. But now, I don't love it obviously. But with the fires up North I feel like the practice drills aren't maybe that bad.

I mean, you get woken up by a fire alarm. What do you do? You literally have ONE MINUTE to figure out if your house is on fire and get out. People just don't understand how fast real fire happens. Your house can literally be fully engulfed in three minutes.

I was kinda proud of Mr S., because he flew out of bed and started trying to assess if there was any smoke in the house. There wasn't. But it's nice to see how he would react if there were.

Three inspections in three days. I will catch you up soon.

They might have broken me.

Not the contractors, but the old people who used to live in my house. When I think about the tons (and I means tons) of stuff I have torn out of my house - it's just mind boggling.

Buying old people houses used to be a tactic of mine. Old people neglect things, and I don't mind fixing them. When I buy a house I want to rip everything out anyway - so why not buy an old person house at a discount because they have neglected repairs.

My deck and one other project are actually the only improvements (other than fences) I've made since the recession. Which was good because you aren't going to put money into a place you are underwater on. I basically spent the whole recession making my place look better by ripping things out. Seriously, you just can't believe how much stuff old people accumulate. And I bought a hoarder house! That's my rental. Seriously. They were pulling dump trucks of stuff out of there.

But this house has that house beat.

10 tons of concrete on my deck. (no exaggeration at all) - check
Shake roof - check
Beat up hot tub with gazebo - check
I once had something like 52 rose bushes. Now I have a calming three - check
The front yard had pea gravel which I had taken out with a large caterpillar and dump trucks - check
Mr S. and I rented a small caterpillar and re-graded the yards. I think I rented two debris bins from the city. - check
I took out a few concrete pads in the back - check.

And these are just the major things I've ripped out. So..... I think the old people that used to live here have whooped my ass.

Lacy has been going to work with Mr S. since my project started, and today the company gave her an actual badge. But I can't post it because obvi - I don't want everyone to know where he works. Companies do that now. I'm not sure if she signed the NDA.

Rain will light a fire under your ass.

Inspections days are like your pubes are on fire. Tomorrow - I have another inspection. Rain is suppose to come on Thursday. And I had them do some power modification as you probably saw as the blog was down for a lot of the day. Sorry.

This is also why you don't have any pictures right now. I will upload some tomorrow. They made crazy progress today.

The contractors take up a lot of space in my head. It's not only the job, but I'm constantly trying to learn from them. I'm a weekend warrior, so watching the professionals who do this day in and day out                                
is helpful to make sure when I do stuff myself, that I'm not a hack. At least I hope and try.

Spiders!

It's crazy where they are building stuff these days. But these legs might be my Halloween pumpkin inspiration this year.

You don't think he was being sarcastic, do you?

Look at the wheels on this thing.

For all those "robots are taking our jobs" people.

Every time a robot gets introduced to food service the net goes wild. And then I usually have to come out with a post telling everyone to calm down. Those jobs will still exist, they will just be different jobs.

So.......... there is a robot pizza company in Mountain View called Zume Pizza. It's been all over the media the past few months. Look at the jobs these monsters are hiring for.

Senior software engineer X3.
Android developer.
UI/UX visual designer.

Now, it's the first time I've ever seen a pizza restaurant need almost a full software development team. You can see the listings here.

I guess the market only goes up. Said in the most sarcastic way.

I'm a bit confused....

Is this an actual kink?

I can't believe they aren't driving me crazy yet.

This is the first time I've ever worked with a commercial contractor, and I think I'm sort of loving it.

Mr S. thought I'd be losing my mind by day seven. His timeline was - day one, they would drive me nuts. By day three I'd find them interesting because of all of their stories, and by day seven - I'd be over that.

But we are two weeks in now and if I could only use commercial contractors - I might do that. Obviously that is not a reality because they aren't going to fix stuff other than structural.

Residential contractors are always complaining and telling me I can't do things. Like once, I wanted to hang a really heavy set of sliding interior doors at my rental. That contractor and I went round and round until I scrubbed the net to find some extra heavy duty hardware to support a super heavy door. And to some degree I like the challenge of convincing a contractor that you can do what I want without a hack. I mean, you can always hire residential guys who will do anything you want, but you don't want those guys. You want the curmudgeons.

Commercial contractors I'm a little afraid of. They will do anything I want, so there is no one to rein me in. If I say I want this gone, I'd turn around and it'd just be gone. Commercial contractors are monsters. In a good way.

I guess on Monday I have my first inspection. A framing inspection. And I'm dancing with Mother Nature now. We get a chance of rain on Wednesday. Usually we can make it to Halloween before we get any rain.

Good luck finding a contractor.

Before all of these disasters, contractors were booked months out.

Hell - I had termite guys in yesterday and the termite guy was booked three weeks out! I was lucky to get in them in same day. But, you don't need that much skill to be a termite guy. So that means the skilled labor is locked up tight.

And then, one of the termite guys said he knows people turning down work left and right. They just can't get to it.

I'm actually surprised this hasn't shown up in inflation yet. They have a severe shortage of labor, and people must be spending or else there wouldn't be a shortage.

I'm not blaming the victims.

People in California are a little mental about their trees. For a while if the city or a developer tried to cut down a large tree on a property - all the old people would pop up and have a die in.

A lot of those houses would have been saved if they just had a defensible space. And I'm not Sunday morning quarterbacking this thing. My family's house burnt down. Although I'd spent the night at my boyfriends that night. I came back the next morning to get ready for work and the fire trucks were ay my house. We lost my cousin.

People don't understand how little time you have in a fire. Your house can be fully engulfed in three minutes. Seriously. THREE MINUTES.

The first thing I did when I moved into my house was tear the shake roof off and start cutting down anything that had pine in the name. Those trees are matchsticks.

Mr S. and I have had a million conversations about fire. ( and that is not an exaggeration) I told him we'd have a big fight because I'm not leaving. I'd start dropping (cutting down) all the sources of fuel.  Fire loves to climb, and if you have a 20 foot tree in your front yard, the fire could potentially be 40 feet. A house will never survive being next to that.

People always like to say that things can be replaced... and they can. But when your house burns down, it's like your past doesn't exist anymore. Your pictures are gone. That is the part that is long lasting.

Additionally, these fires would be a lot better if California was allowed to manage the forests again. Now you can't touch them because "nature". It's mental. Trees grow back. And what kind of stupid die in do you have for a burnt tree?

Fucking Awesome.

The worst is behind me.

Yesterday they got the plywood off to reveal the gooey insides. Considering what was on top, the framing actually looked way better than I expected. The two corners nearest the house had some joist damage. In all I think I'm only going to have to replace 4 joists. The one corner that had a knarly stucco crack had the most damage.

Tomorrow I'm having the termite guys come out and do a surface treatment and probably an inspection. Which seems like an odd expense. But I'm the type of person who will pay for an inspection because I don't want any surprises when I sell. And no, I'm not selling right now, but I always look at how hard it will be to jetison a house. Inspections are every cent worth the money.







Mr S. wanted skylights in the garage, and I have to say - it's not a bad idea. But that was just an exploration hole.

THE SNARKOLEPSY BLOG WILL BE DOWN TOMORROW.

I have to take power down to part of the house and since I self host that means images will be offline. Hopefully it will only be for an hour or two.

Hey, there are no ads here - but when the power goes out it gets really 1980's up in here. i.e. intermittent.

Since you asked...

You didn't get any posts this weekend because I'm feeling pretty rough and I had to do some super boring stuff for the deck to keep things moving. Like shop drains. And I think I'm pre-sick. I don't have all the symptoms yet to start complaining, but I just don't have any energy.

Anyway... back to the deck which is pretty much all you are going to hear about for a little while.

So - my options for fixing this deck are - waterproof membrane. That was suppose to be the A+ way to fix these things, but after seeing what they had on my deck including a membrane I was glad a chose another option. Allegedly, with a waterproof membrane I could have made a pool up there if the deck could have withheld the weight. That is how waterproof those membranes are suppose to be. They heat the seams to make an (allegedly) impenetrable product. Keeps water out, or in - if that's your thing.

The second best way to fix it is a product called Pli-deck. Which is concrete resin infused with fiberglass. Here and here. There are tons of youtube videos if you want to get your geek on. The pli-deck is the less expensive option, but I didn't chose it for that reason.

With the membrane you will see seams every three feet, and then there will be an overlap seam where they melt it together. After having those tiles up there I'm really looking for a very minimal look and those seams would have made me crazy. Now, you can put tile right over the membrane, but I'm obviously trying for a look with less lines.

I also thought the ply-deck system seemed more appropriate because (assumably) the fiberglass will help against cracking.

I will upload some pics for you, but I just don't feel like it right now.

The snarkolepsy job site is dark today.

And I'm okay with that. They only get paid on progress, so I'm pretty sure they are coming back. Plus a little contractor goes a long way with me. And these guys are great so far. But the contractor crazy is starting to come out now.  I will explain later.

They finally got all of the concrete off, and under every layer - there was water. There are a couple of spots here that are really dangerous to walk on now. After it's fully dried out from the heat I bet it just disintegrates. The ply is starting to curl up today.

Mr S. got home last night and I said to him - I think I've finally figured out why contractors are so crazy. They are just gossips. And when people gossip the information tends not to always be accurate. A little like twitter.

Twitter is also a gossip machine. So, you have to check the source several times before you believe anything.

I've worked with enough contractors that I know that they all are conspiracy freaks. So I wasn't sure when the crazy dam would break, but I knew it would. Turned out to be the youngest guy that's been on the site so far. He's in the full FEMA camps. Rich people are going to start killing people. The government is killing bums because they all keep disappearing. He tried to convince me that Trump was trying to take everyones guns. Complained about the DACA kids. To which I said - those aren't kids. They are old! How can you be here for 20 years and not be a citizen?

I asked him where they were putting the FEMA camps. He said at Walmart in Texas. Which I did track down the youtube videos, that are two years old at this point.  When you try to explain that there hasn't been anything new on that story they just tell you the government keeps it a secret.

Anyway. Mr S. got home and I told him the whole story and he says to me - Don't take away peoples' conspiracy theorys. They don't like that. I look at him and said, what? It's one of those things that make people feel special. That only they are smart enough to see the conspiracy.

So what your telling me is that I'm too sane for this world. And in the most sarcastic way he says - yes, that's what makes you special. I just look at him and we both bust up laughing.

This was a disaster waiting to happen.

The site foreman just got back and told me that so far he's dumped 7 TONS. So - roughly 14,000 pounds. Right? I could have two trucks on my deck. That is how heavy all that concrete was. This deck very easily could have pancaked to the ground.

I still have all the stuff from the last photo to dump.

It's really unbelievable that my roof deck leaks considering I had 4 roofs on there. Tile with three and a half inches of concrete. Then a membrane then another 3ish inches of concrete. And now we've reached the original sin. Which is flat roof paper.

Scratch that. TWO layers of flat roofing material.

Day three of DEMO. Never thought I'd say that. I thought they'd have this thing ripped out in two.

It's like they are demo'ing my deck twice.

But I'm not mad because the jackhammers are a bonus. You have to teach your new neighbors you have the money to make their life miserable too. We will see what kind of people they turn out to be after a month. I hope exhausted because the also have a baby.

I should actually be recording that sound for posterity. In case I need it later.

A deck update.

This morning brought good news. They'd gotten all that tile off and stripped the pony walls to find they were in really good shape. But we also discovered a waterproof membrane. Which is one of the best ways to fix this problem. Or so I thought. I thought those things were suppose to last forever!

Apparently not. But it gets better! Once the membrane was stripped we found another concrete slab underneath that is about 3-4 inches deep. So they are up there with the jackhammer again today. At least I hope I'm teaching my neighbor that I too can be super annoying.

But more seriously - it is not an exaggeration at all that this deck could have collapsed on me. It had between 7 and 8 inches on concrete on it. I'm super lucky.

It's like a box of chocolates.

I wasn't sure what I was going to find when I got inside. I estimated this tile was sitting on about an inch of mud, but it turned out to be crazier than that. I've got about 3 and a half inches at the high slope.

When the contractor I'm using saw it, the only thing he said was - oh... someone has made a very big mistake. You see, this kind of weight should not be sitting over a garage. I'm not even sure how they got all that crap up there. It was so heavy it was trying to pull the stucco off two of the wall sides. You can see this in the last picture where I have a nice knarly crack where water can get in.

The other thing interesting about my project is I'm using a commercial contractor. Not a residential one.

My project is finally real.

I've been living with this hideous monstrosity since I moved into this house. My place was a flip, and a bad flip. But I'd planned to rework it, and then the recession hit. I actually talked the flipper down in price because of this deck. Not everyone is going to be willing to take on a project like this.

Under that deck sits my garage. Which is kinda why finding a contractor was so hard. I mean, anyone with a contractors license can work on it, but this is really a narrow slice of construction to do this right.

These decks were never really meant to be decks. All these years I'd been trying to figure out they they started out life as, and it wasn't until I got a new neighbor that I found out. He apparently grew up in one of these houses, and they were just flat roofs.

Now I get to bring this thing up to current code. So I get to work with the city which should be fun. Said in the most sarcastic way.

Now you know and I can talk about it because they are up there ripping it out.

Tomorrow is DEMO day. And Mr S. is taking Lacy to work with him.

No one knows what triggers e.cuniculi, so we don't want to put her under undue stress with all the noise.

The only thing I have to say about Las Vegas today since I have stayed in that hotel complex.

That is a valet only hotel. Once you check in - they take your car, and they insist on taking all of your stuff from your car to your room.

I always sort of hate it because I'm rushed to get my bunny and all of her stuff out. It's always sort of a hectic experience.

But it isn't like a motel six where you can go back to your car anytime you want. You can check it out, but for the most part you don't have free access to your car at all. And they take your belonging to your room.

So it will be interesting to find out how he smuggled all that stuff up there.

The ocean breaths salty.

Usually when I'm feeling a little sideways I head to the beach. It washes away all my troubles. It makes me feel better in a way nothing else can.

I was actually going to post this yesterday, but my neighbor with the dog ruined all of my zen. I was composing this post and their dog started barking non stop for an hour around 9:00. They know their dog barks but they still leave it outside. And I've effing had it. So when I they came home I went over to yell at them. It went like this.

Me- I just listened to your dog bark non stop for an hour.

Her - Well, what do you want me to do, put her down?

(because there is no solution between putting her down and making it stop barking)

Me - I don't care what you do with it. Why don't you keep it in YOUR house.

Her - we have nice things and don't want her to pee on our stuff.

Me - well it isn't fair for ALL of these neighbors to have to put up with your dog. If I have to take you to court I will. Then I stared at her for effect to make sure she knew I was as serious as a heart attack.

So.... now I guess I need another beach day.