Another Rainy day, and more delays

Today is Thursday, October 16 and the rain we have endured since Sunday is down to a drizzle.

Yesterday the roofers thought surely they could start taking down shingles and the concrete crew would definitely be able to start working on steps, sidewalks and the utility slab behind the garage.  They thought wrong.  However, Jose and his men showed up to continue to work on the retaining wall.  Another shining  ‘Best Subcontractor Star’!

Prepping to add another layer of gravel behind the wall

Behind the wall a first layer of gravel was poured in.  Next, the first landscape filter fabric was drapped across the void behind the wall.  A shrouded perforated drain line was placed into this sling and now lays at the bottom of the back side of the wall.  Gravel was poured in to completely cover the drain.  Then Jose wrapped the excess fabric over the gravel, first one side, then the other over the first, kind of like assembling a burrito.  That mat was secured by very large landscape staples.  Here you see the next layer of fabric that will lay over the first installation.

Second layer of gravel

That poor guy is standing about ankle-deep in mud.  Jose wants to make absolutely sure that no soil can work its way into the drain line.  What I remember from one of my civil engineering classes is when building a retaining wall, the build-up of pressure and water seepage must be addressed.  When properly installed, the set-backs in each layer of block help the structure push back against the pressure of the soil.  The drain line is imperative to alleviate water pressure from either ground water or surface water.  The channel must be kept clear.  The drain is 4″ and will continue to the end of the wall where it will drain into a gravel pit, yet to be dug.

A new subcontractor joined the cast of characters on our construction set.  The heating contractor came to install the new boiler and hot water heater.

The original 1962 mechanical system

Although highly inefficient from the stand point of energy consumption, my old cast iron boiler was great for heating the utility room in the winter.  So much so, that I used a clothes line and hanging rod John installed in the utility room instead of my gas-powered clothes dryer during the 8 month heating season!

So, another ‘must fix’ on our very long list of maintenance items was upgrading the mechanical system.  We chose to replace the system with a new ‘high efficiency’ boiler and  ‘indirect hot water tank’.  These new pieces of equipment allowed us to take down the masonry chimney flue and use two 3″ PVC pipes instead; one for exhaust and one for air intake.  Water in the new hot water tank is heated via the boiler through a heat exchanger. The new tank is basically a giant thermos.

The new system!

And the rest of the Utility Room

My mom wanted to enter me in a ‘World’s Ugliest Laundry Room’ competition.  She  was sure we would win!

I will be creating a new Laundry upstairs in what used to be part of the existing Master Bedroom.  This room will be dedicated to the boiler, hot water tank, the water softener and the reverse osmosis water filter system.  And of course, storage.

Today, the roofers did come, as did the landscapers, Bill and his concrete crew, the HVAC contractor and Steve.  With a dumpster still in the driveway, the parking on the drive and and down the street along with the noise from nail guns, compressors, saws and the bobcat is probably making my neighbors wish we were done already.  It is quite chaotic here today!

However, Great progress was made:

Forming the new steps and sidewalk

The front entryway, ready for concrete.

The coolest gadget to send the roofing material up to the roof.

There is a motor that whisks the blue lift with its cargo up to the roof in just seconds.

New roof

The finished retaining wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday October 14, a gray rainy day

From my desk, I can look out and watch the water falling off the roof of the new porch addition because there are no rain gutters.  I see the palettes of roof shingles in the driveway that were delivered yesterday for the roofers that are supposed to start today.  I don’t think so.  I wouldn’t want to be on a slippery roof in the rain either.

Its garbage day and I assumed that the noise I heard is the garbage truck and not any of the subcontractors.  I am so wrong.  Jose, the landscaper, has just delivered his bobcat and three of his crew to finish the retaining wall.  I don my rain coat and boots and head out to see if they are really planning on working in this weather.  I am amazed, four men with shovels digging heavy, fairly wet soil around the location of the future concrete steps up to the front door.  Jose wins my favorite ‘Subcontractor of the Day Award!’  Today is Day 4 on wall.

Laying out the foundation for the retaining wall

Because we dropped the driveway 3-1/2 feet, there is a sudden drop at the edge of the front lawn needing a retaining wall to keep the dirt in its place.

The channel for the bottom of the wall is hand dug about 15″ below the top of the driveway surface.  Then filled with gravel (that now resides on the western edge of the driveway.  The dumpster is free to go!) and tamped into place.

That machine looks heavy. It is tamping the gravel to make a firm surface for the block.

Getting this right, took them all day.  I was so impressed with Jose’s attention to detail is this early phase.  As the retaining wall follows the rise in slope of the driveway, the wall steps up at regular intervals. We designed an S-Curve in the wall near the top of the driveway so the steps up to the higher level would be beyond the edge of the garage door.  Blocks were put in, then taken out  to adjust the gravel base over and over again.  The edge of the driveway was marked in string, levels and spray paint.  This is one of those design elements that you have to figure out on site.  We generally knew what we wanted, however, the final design is at the mercy of the site conditions and the actual building material…concrete block does not bend, and final elevation can only be measured once it exists.   And I can see now the abandoned main drain to the septic tank looks like it could end up in the middle of a step!  I am sure someone will figure out how to work around that.

We began the design with many photos of a concrete wall built like planting boxes stepping down the driveway.  Bill, my dear, sweet concrete man, shook his head and gently told me that could cost me about 25% of my budget.  So we let it go.  Jose said he could do a very nice stacked stone wall for far less money, so we spent several weeks researching a look.  We knew we did not want it to look rustic like many in the neighborhood.  The look we wanted was a mortared in place stone wall.  Again, back to Bill.  That would require a 42″ foundation wall, doubling the price of the wall.

Please, not concrete block….I did not want it to look like a parking lot wall.  However, I did start researching options for a block wall, determined I was going to hate it!  Luckily, I found several manufacturers who made  products that had interesting shapes and textures.  After several trips to different brick yards, we settled on a wall system by ‘Allan Block’.  We could live with the colors (all 4 of them), but what we liked about the wall was the patterns that could be made with the different sized blocks. We choose a block that would be nicely cut with sharp corners, and had the pieces to make an Ashlar pattern.

Now that the wall is assembled (with just a little grumbling from Jose….it is not a straightforward install, it requires planning and artistry.  And that’s what I told Jose!) it not only has a random pattern in elevation, but the blocks front to back are different depths, giving even more character to the wall!  I am pleasantly surprised that I like more than I thought I would!

The wall is starting to take shape.

I like the view of the back of the wall!

The front of the wall is not bad.

The landscape filter mat is laid behind the wall and around the drain to keep soil from clogging the drainage system.

Construction behind the wall.

Filling the voids with gravel.

I know I am really going to like this.  And even more so, now that I have seen the awesome effort that has gone into building the wall.

I have worked on and off on this post all day.  Its 3:30 and now raining in a steady downpour.  Its quiet outside, and they have left for the day.  I am so glad that they braved the elements for as long as they did today.  Great job!

 

 

 

 

 

Tying the new to the old

Once the addition was framed up to the rafters, work began on the existing house that remains.

Tying the two pieces together

A new built-up roof will be added over the existing roof that will tie into the new addition.

We had a long ongoing discussion about how we were going to finish the siding on the house.  Our initial conclusion was to keep the existing cedar siding, and continue the same detail on the new structure.  Part of that decision was the thought we would save money and the other was our desire to reuse as much material as possible and make the house look like it had all been built at one time.

After close examination and much flip-flopping of opinion, we concluded that replacing all siding would create a more seamless look.  The cedar on the house is typical of many of the homes in our neighborhood that were built-in the late 50s and early 60s.  The planks are a full 1″ thick and 11″ wide.  Not at all typical for new construction, and not a standard size piece of lumber.  To match the existing, we would have to buy boards that needed to be milled to the old size, adding extra cost to an already expensive siding option.  And, most likely, the old siding would look even older against the brand new wood.

I stood in the driveway watching the first board come down.  “Is there anyway to reuse this wood?” I mused.  It went against everything I felt about being wasteful if the cedar was going to end up as landfill.  I was in for a great surprise…the back of the cedar had never been stained, and it has a smooth finish.  Steve said he could trim the one edge with the nail holes, and we could have 10″ wide boards.  And use them, we will!  We have two covered porches that will have the ceilings covered with cedar planking.  The structural beams holding up the porch ceilings will be sheathed in cedar to match the cedar posts.  My list is growing as I think of new ways to use up what could have ended up as just scrap.

As for the new siding, we have not come to a decision, yet, on what that will be.  However, what we love, is, of course, the most expensive option.  John is sharpening his pencil and trying to trim the budget.

A much-needed addition

As with so much of this remodel, we are trying to fix fatal design flaws.  One of those was the poorly designed and impractical front entry. High on the list of ‘must fix’, was the cracking and horribly out-of-level front side-walk and front stoop.  We are halfway there with a new concrete front porch.  The other was the lack of any overhanging protection at the front door.  This is Chicago!  It rains often and snows even more.  The fatal flaw is the orientation of the front door, we face north.  For the past 14 years I have called our entrance, “the lawsuit waiting to happen”.  We get the most incredible buildup of ice dams right over the front door.  Even more fantastic are the icicles that impede the storms door’s ability to open wider than a few inches.  The greatest threat to bodily harm, though, is the ice that builds up on the concrete stoop.  Overnight, we can get a 6″ thick frozen lake of ice on the walking surface.  I dread deliveries from UPS during one of our freeze thaw cycles in the dead of winter.

I have been waiting for a covered porch since our first storm. We are hoping this new addition will alleviate most of our problems.  We will also be reinsulating the ceiling on the inside, creating an air gap to help maintain a constant temperature near the edge of the roof and adding a ‘ice and water shield’ membrane to prevent melting ice from dripping down the inside of our house.

I do like the way the new addition over the front door balances the new large garage addition.

 

The view from the street

And finally, the deck is taking shape on the front of the addition.

A substructure below the decking is installed

This structure slopes down to the east edge of the addition.  It will be covered with a water tight membrane and scuppers will be installed at the end of the slope to take away rain water or melting snow.

The view from our deck

With the walls now framed on the deck, John could not resist bringing up our folding chairs and setting them up to check out the view.  I am going to like it!

Traffic Congestion in the Driveway

This past week we had many trades coming and going.

The framers were still on site, adding roof sheathing, tying the existing roof to the new roof and building the new roof to cover the front porch.

Jose and his landscape crew came to start the retaining wall.

Demolition continued to remove exisiting siding, the fireplace & boiler flue chimneys, and the walls, floor & ceiling were taken down in the two rooms in the existing house that are also a part of the project.

Concrete block, gravel,  lumber and a dumpster were delivered.

And then we had a traffic problem.  Jose was confident that they could work in the driveway on the retaining wall while other trades were working there as well.  Steve had planned to have the dumpster picked up so the framing material could be moved over to take its place.  Jose arrived with his load of gravel to start the base of the retaining wall and had it dumped behind the dumpster before the dumpster was taken away.  Jose’s crew worked their way up the driveway until they ran into the lumber, still stored on the west side of the driveway, and they were not able to squeeze the bobcat with its loads of gravel between the edge of the driveway and the pile of lumber.  They left until there was more room to work.  But now, the dumpster could not move until the gravel was moved out of its way.

We would always like to have packages delivered early, except this week.  The concrete block was scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday.  Jose promised to return before then to move his gravel, so the dumpster could be picked up and there would be room for everybody’s material.  But on Monday afternoon, the many palettes of concrete block were delivered for the retaining wall.

Activity on the driveway

After the surprise arrival, Steve had to shoo all the vans and trucks belonging to the various subcontactors off the driveway.  In the middle of winter after a heavy snowstorm, our driveway always seems enormous.  On Monday it really appeared too small to handle all of our construction activity.

Steve wears the hat of Traffic Manager as he organizes the delivery of the concrete block

What else can fit in this space?

Fortunately, the framers went through most of the lumber pile by late Monday afternoon.  Steve was able to move the remnants over to the side yard, leaving space for all the concrete block to be stored.

It was really rather fun to watch.  I am working on keeping my sense of humor through this adventure.  As hard as everybody is trying to do their best, there will always be an event that will delay progress.  We have had several rain delays.  This week was just too much activity with subcontractors getting in each others way.

By the end of the day, after everybody left, it was quiet on the driveway, and it looked very organized!

A place for everything, and everything in its place!

 

 

 

We have structure!

Steve’s morning meeting with the framers

 

Now that the steel is in, work begins in earnest.

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The ceiling joist material is being hoisted into place.  Steve is ducking under the steel beam.

 

 

These are either the garage ceiling joists, or the 2nd level floor joists.  I suppose it matters where you are standing when you view them.  We are looking up!

 

I get a chance to try out the nail gun.

By the end of the day the floor decking is on, giving the crew a good platform to work on.

 

Then we left to visit our son in New York City, and spend time in Milwaukee with our youngest son for Family Weekend.

And so much happened while we were away!   Its amazing what a long stretch of beautiful, dry weather can produce!  Look what we came home to!

Standing at ground level in front of the garage door looking up at our new second story

 

view from the back of the house

In a few days, so much happened!  This crew is very fast.  While Steve and I were discussing details in the framing Monday morning, they moved right ahead of us!  I should have started the meeting with how I wanted the ceiling framed in the master bedroom.  When we sat down to meet, they were just starting to frame the interior walls on the second floor.  45 minutes later, the ceiling in the bedroom was framed, before we had a chance to discuss how I wanted the tray ceiling to look.  Who knew they would get all the walls up, and they would start the ceiling in the bedroom, rather than the bath room in the front?  I was caught assuming I had plenty of time to make my wishes known.  I have learned my lesson.  Do not assume anything!  Make sure everybody knows exactly what I want before they begin a project!

Later in the week, they very graciously reworked the framing, so my ceiling will be as I have seen it in my mind for the past year!

So what are we doing on the new second floor?  We are adding a master suite.  We rationalized, if we were going to go through all the trouble of fixing the driveway which resulted in a new garage, we may as well continue up and get a fourth bedroom.  The suite will include a bathroom that both of us can share at the same time.  I will not miss our powder room-sized bath in the current bedroom!  Of course, a walk-in closet as well as a hallway to the new deck over the garage door!  The hall will include cabinetry with a sink and small refrigerator.  Who wants to walk all the way downstairs to get a cup of coffee when we can pick it up on our way to enjoy our coffee on the deck?!

 

 

 

 

 

Steel Arrives

That’s a huge crane!

I heard the truck with the crane coming before I saw it lumber down my street.  Did I mention that the roads in our neighborhood are single lane?  The only casualty experienced while the crane and truck carrying the almost 26 foot wide flange beam negotiated the narrow access was my neighbors’ mailbox.  Lucky for us we are very good friends!

Our framing construction came to a halt while we waited for the steel to be fabricated.  After many dimension checks, the beam and 5 columns were delivered!

Steel was required to span the 25′-8″ width of the garage without a center post for supporting the upper floor and roof loads bearing down on it.  It was quite awesome to see this heavy mass swing in an arc from the road to the garage.

The beam is swung into place

Is amazing how the men are able to gently tap the beam and it moves so easily!  It would have taken many men to do the lifting.  How did the ancients do it?  Slave labor, perhaps.   The crane is a great solution.

Once the beam and columns are in place, the framers can hang the garage ceiling joists where they come to rest on beams running the width of the garage.

sliding the beam into the pocket on the new east wall of the garage.

 

sliding the beam into the pocket created in the existing wall on the west side of the garage

 

making the pocket fit the beam.

After a bit of nudging, shaving, and pushing, the beam finally settled into its new home!  Now the framers can return!  I have to remember to get up early!