Some progress to report on the Remodeling

Since the last time I posted on the remodel we have made some progress.  Mostly due to Wendy’s diligence.  We have installed a French door, some tile, and carpet in the family room.  We also carpeted the guest room in the same carpet.

 

Here are some before and after pictures.

 

Before:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are some of it now:

 

Same tile as in the hallway.  We need to still get the trim up around the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We weren’t expecting the fireplace to be wrapped in carpet again.  Now that it it we may keep it and put a wood border around it and the brick above the fireplace.

 

Close up of the carpet.  It really looks and feels good.

 

Norm and his son installed the carpet and did a great job if you are looking for someone, I would recommend him.

A little progress on the remodel

Since I decided to do the STP with my wife this year, any extra time has been spent  on training for this or recovering from the training.  The outcome of this has meant that almost nothing has gotten done on the remodel.  Over the last few weeks, the time needed to recover from the training has seemed to decrease.  I can now take  a long ride and after resting for a while, do something like mow the lawn or weed the garden, which I hadn’t been able to get to before.  

This freeing up of time combined with the long days of summer has meant getting a little bit done on the remodel.  The painting is now to a point where the cabinets could go in.  My son came home from college and we hired him to remove the old carpet and haul it off.   We also had a cabinet installer to come in and get the first part of the cabinets installed. 

More Learning

When in the OSR Masters program, I learned about Punctuated Equilibrium points.  These are points or milestones in a system where change becomes chaotic and it is no longer possible to predict what will emerge from a system.  At these points, small inputs can have enormous effects in the final outcomes. 

As a system passes through a punctuated equilibrium point,  the foundation of the system—the parts of the system that keep it stable and unchanging—are loosened.  In human systems, I believe this means that changes can be introduced that would normal seem impossible, but which can seemingly be accomplished with relative ease.

Think of people that have gone through near death experiences, some make whole scale changes in their lifestyles and never look back.  After having a Heart attack many people stop smoking after years and years of feeble attempts.  Other people don’t change at all.  They somehow have a belief that the way it was is the only way it can be and this belief informs their choices going forward.  Many people knowing that smoking will kill them, smoke through heart attacks and lung cancer up until the bitter end or until the explosive oxygen they are using to breath precludes them from smoking—else they blow themselves up.

It is almost like the normal laws of cause and effect don’t apply as we go through these punctuated points. 

Life goes on–2 months and counting

Well it has been two months of the six at UW-IT.  The job is going great, though the time is speeding by.    My job is divided  into two parts.  The first part has to do with Bench marking and metrics.  In this, I am gathering the inputs to complete two surveys which will enable UW-IT to evaluate itself against many different university IT departments.  This will be used to determine strategy and for determining where to focus improvement activity.  Also here, I have been looking into developing metrics, actually a dashboard type concept for IT.  So far this is in the research stage, with benchmarking being the current focus.

The second part of the assignment is in helping with the implementation of ITIL.  ITIL is a set of international best practice processes for IT.  I worked for many years at Boeing in the implementation of process management and ITIL.  This has several facets and has been very interesting.  I designed and held a world café conversation involving 45 fresh ITIL foundation certified individuals.  This was designed to promote a community of change agents and to discuss the strategy of ITIL implementation going forward and was a great success.  I have been asked to design another conversation as the next two certifications classes complete.  For this first conversation I invited 60 people, so getting 45 to attend is a fabulous turnout.   For the next one I will be invited over 100 individuals.

Day 228–Transition–Breaking the Code?

Image via Wikipedia

It has been busy last few weeks.  I have wanted to continue on with my networking series of posts, but have not had the time to get back to it.  There are several reasons for this.  It is the beginning of the Holiday season so going through Thanksgiving took some time away from my normal activities.  I also pushed to get the remodel to the point that the sheet rocker can come in.  All the cabling and electrical work in the walls is complete.

But the larger reason is two fold.  The first is that I think companies are more interested in hiring people, maybe it is a end of the year push or a beginning of the year push, but it has seemed to change in the last couple of months.  Companies who are hunkering down to weather bad times, tend not to hire people like me that help with improving their efficiency and productivity.  They need people that can keep the factory up and running and not much else.  Now people are looking at capturing efficiencies so that they don’t overhire people and so that they can work on the backlog of improvements and changes that have piled up over the last couple years.

The second area that I think has changed is the way that I am applying for jobs.  I think I may have finally cracked the code on getting my resume to be seen by people.

Remodel – Slow progress

It has taken a while to understand the best way to move forward on the electrical in the basement, but I think I finally have a handle on it and know how to proceed.  I was thinking that I would add a new circuit and pull a new line from the garage to the other end of the house in the family room.  Instead, I think I will be able to add on to the existing circuit that supplies our guest room.
I’ve also installed insulation in the laundry room, hallway, and in parts of the family room, though some of the installation in the family room will have to come out because in changes to how much new wiring we are doing.
Progress is coming in installing speaker wire for the surround sound system.  Here I want to mount all the speakers high on the walls with the majority of the wiring running in the walls.
The greatest progress has been made by my wife and her friend who put in a massive amount of hours last weekend to tile the laundry room and hallway.  It looks fantastic, well you can judge for yourself by looking at the pictures below.

Remodel - Great progress.

 

In my last blog I wrote about how unexpected things come up and change the plan.  I talked about my oldest brother coming to town as a care giver for a liver transplant patient.  The benefits of this on the remodeling was that he helped my with taking out the sheet rock in the basement, so great progress has been made in the basement this last week.

Here are some before pictures on the basement:

Remodel Update – Forward progress

Finally, getting tile installers lined up, now we have too many.  We signed up for one person to come in on Oct 4 to do the master bath shower and floor area.   And then I received another reference.   He was on vacation to start with, so when we were talking to the other contractors, we couldn’t with him. 
Finally made contact Saturday, received a bid in Sunday.  His price is about 30% higher, but they, (it is actually two partners), can start this week.  Even at 30% higher, it is 1/2 of some of our other bids.
We are still signed up for the other guy on Oct 4th; we may keep this date while I get the main bath prepared to be updated.  Though I’m very concerned that I won’t be able to make that date.  due to the overlap of this tile job, letting it all cure, and ordering and installing the shower door.  However long that all takes, would then be subtracted off the dates between now and Oct 4, since I can’t start in the Main bath until the Master is operational again.
In Order to get a good idea the tile design, we laid it out on the living room floor.  Alex was instrumental in coming up with the tile pattern.  It is great how the remodeling is pulling us closer as a family.  In my opinion, that alone is worth the money invested.
Here is the general idea:

This first picture is a little dark.  The stones represent the floor of shower. 

Day 114 – Transition – Hanging In

It is amazing how busy my days are now that I am not working.   The list of things I need to do is endless, and I find myself  lapsing into catch up mode quite often when I focus in one area for too long.

I am in wait mode for hearing back from a job a UW.   I interviewed and felt the interview went well and it seems like a great job.  Hope to hear back soon and at the same time UW is notorious for taking a long time to make decisions.

In the mean time I have found several other jobs to apply for.  And hoping to get some more interviews from these applications.

The last two weeks of the WorkSource Networking group have been great.  Last week they had Ray Roberts a former Seahawk now motivational speaker and this week was Rita Ashley and Executive Career coach and author.  Ray has a down home style and personality which was inviting and great to listen to.  His message was about the importance of relationships in life and how mentors had influenced his life. 

Rita’s main message was about the importance of networking in looking for a job.  She believes the idea of putting in an application without already having a in with the company ludicrous.   She understands that it is a requirement for unemployment, but she believes it is not the way people get hired.  Her book is self published I believe, which is becoming more and more common.  I would like to write a book at some point, now if I can just narrow down a subject.  Here is a link to her website JobSearch4Execs

After hearing that I didn’t get one of the jobs I interviewed for, Ray’s message was perfectly timed to lift my spirits.  Rita’s message was filled with takeaways that I can use.  I am re-invigorated to write an  elevator speech and to adjust my LinkedIn presence—tightening up my message in both cases.   Here is a YouTube video about elevator speeches for an investment pitch; it needs a little translation for job hunting but the basic idea if the same.

 

I have been experimenting with a couple of programs.  The first is Google reader—I have been using this in the hopes of being able to digest information faster both to give myself news, but also as a way to find article that are worth sharing in a social networking context.  And another program that I loaded yesterday, but that I think has promise is call Gist.  Gist allows you to follow people and companies in one center location.  In one location, you see news articles, tweets, Facebook entries and more.  This allows you to engage more directly with your network.

So now I’m back in the saddle and very busy.  The remodel has kicked into a higher gear as I have moved the TV and computer upstairs, basically eliminating the basements as part of the house.  This has crunched our living into a smaller area—already feeling the closeness in both the negative and positive aspects.   I’m in the middle of gutting the walls and ceiling down to the studs.  Hoping to complete the gutting by the end of the week.

Soccer assistant coaching has also started for my daughter’s team.  First practice was yesterday, the car registered 90 degrees, which is melting weather for Seattle.  Supporting practices takes a bit more time away from other tasks, but it is worth it to be outside and helping the girls learn teamwork and the skills of soccer.   And I think we are going to have a fun team this year. 

Can’t believe it has been 114 days.  Time passes so quickly.

Today’s Quote:

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

--Stephen R. Covey

 

Remodel Progress – its all arrived, now what?

I wish I could focus on the remodel and not be distracted by everything else that I need to get done, especially the job searching.  For the most part, we are moving forward at a fairly constant but slow pace.   This week a lot has happened.
Finished up replacing the new exterior wall.  If you remember the water damage went through the exterior wall behind the washer and dryer.

We gutted the laundry room in June and have now completed the repairs to the outside wall except for the final coat of paint. 

Remodel – Some Forward Motion

We have a cabinets and a new tub on order.  We ordered a shower surround that came in damaged, so we changed and decided to put in a tiled shower in the master bath. 
Last week I met with a tile guy who is willing to take on the job.  He was recommended by a friend and this weekend we went and saw some of his finished work.  He does an excellent job. 
After I met with him I started the demolition of the master bath.  The demolition is now mostly complete.  I have a few pieces of the sheet rock left at the top of the wall just to give the ceiling extra support (you can see these in the picture below.  On the other side of the ceiling sheet rock is the attic.  I decided not to replace the ceiling sheetrock because I didn’t want to deal with the attic insulation and the heat of the attic at this time.
With my son helping and a borrowed a saz-all, we cut the fiberglass shower into pieces and hauled it out since it would fit through the door.  Taking out shower, sheetrock and flooring probably took two days.    This was stretched over four in order to still be able to look for work and do my other chores, though I got way behind in everything.
Removed the flooring to get the flooring out, this takes us down to one toilet in the house because I removed the laundry room toilet a while back.  So we decided to reinstall the one for the laundry room.
Bringing stuff in and out is not light duty.  I needed to borrow a truck to haul out a load of garbage ( this is the second load to the dump since starting).  And we needed the truck also to haul in new sheetrock. 
Working with the sheet rock has replace my lifting weights at the Y the last few days.  I am feeling new muscles that my regular work out misses.  I measure and cut the sheetrock in the garage and carry the pieces upstairs to the bathroom.  Since I end up measuring about three times, forgetting the tape measure a couple times,  then carrying the piece up to check it out, only to have to take it back down to do a little more adjusting—with each of these meaning a trip up and down the stairs—this turns out to mean many trips up and down the stairs for each piece of sheet rock installed.