Next Inspection: Insulation

After a few minor fixes, we passed rough inspection and insulation was promptly ordered.

R-value:  the measure of resistance of heat flow through a given thickness of material. The theory: the higher the R-value, the greater resistance to heat flow, and the greater the energy efficiency of a building wrapped with that material.

The R-value is stamped prominently on the vapor barrier side of the batt insulation

Our very diligent Village Officers recently adopted the latest building energy code for our new and remodeled homes.  As an environmental & energy (low-key) activist, I find this to be very good news.  In the long run my heating and cooling bills will be lower due to less energy wasted in my warmly wrapped house.  On the flip side, as a homeowner with a budget for renovation, this was a bigger hit  than it would have been under our last code.

We live in a very cold climate for many months.  The new code requires an R value of 22 for the walls. This means that standard batt insulation does not fit in 2×4 wall framing.  Homeowners will have to make a choice of keeping the 2×4 framing and using a spray foam application or using a 2×6 wall with R22 batt insulation.  We went with the bigger walls. The R38 batts in the attic will be augmented wtih blown in insulation to make up an R49 value for the roof.

Finally, the addition is taking shape!  Looking east out of our future master bedroom.  Filling in the walls starts to give a better sense of scale.

The shape of the ceiling in the master bedroom is better defined.  The height to the ceiling is 10′-6″.  It feels grand.

The west wall of bedroom will be more defined when drywall is hung…we will not be able to see into the closet or the landing beyond.

This is the time to do a final walk through with your contractor to make sure you have outlets and switches where you want them.  This is also the best time to figure out where you want towel bars, toilet paper holders, robe hooks, etc. in your bathroom.  We all know there is nothing worse than having a towel bar pull out of the wall because it was screwed into drywall only.

This is where we want a grab bar

You may not ever need it, but it is best to anticipate a location for a grab bar in showers and bath tubs.  Secure blocking is a must!

If you know you will have a swinging glass shower door, now is the time to make sure it has something to securely attach to!

And finally, don’t forget to add chases, speaker wire, etc…while you have a chance.  This is a typical detail I use when a television is going to be installed.  There is an outlet for the TV that will be behind the unit so you don’t see a cord running down the wall to an outlet near the floor.  I also call for a pvc pipe to house cables from the TV box, the Apple TV, the XBOX, the HDMI cable, etc…that will run between the television and the electronic paraphernalia usually located in a media cabinet of some sort below the TV.

Also, this is a great time to photograph all the walls so in the future you may be able to avoid puncturing a pipe or wire when installing your future TV!

Ready for Rough Inspection!

Check out the stuff in the walls!

Finally, after many months of our sub contractors negotiating parking spots for their trucks and parading all kinds of materials and equipment through the garage and our house, we are finally ready to call for Rough Inspections!

The job of the inspector is to make sure the construction of the structure adheres to all applicable building codes.  Every village and town adopts its own codes for its residents to follow for their projects.  The codes that apply to our construction as mandated by our village are the 2012 International Residential Code, 2012 International Mechanical, 2012 Fuel Gas Code, 2011 National Electric Code, 2004 Illinois Plumbing Code and the 2012 Illinois Energy Conservation Code. Yes, it may be overwhelming, it may feel like a burden to a homeowner, and it does cost money for the inspections.  However, for the past 30 years (I know, where did the time go?) about 90% of my work has been in remodel, and I have seen some horrible results due to lack of wisdom, knowledge, or care when building codes were not applied.  I have seen an attic filled with dryer lint because the builder never brought the vent outside (a fire hazard!), a terribly out-of-level kitchen floor due to an installer who cut the floor joists for a heating duct, and many cases of mold due to poorly installed or worse — flashing not installed around doors and windows.  The worst would be one of Steve’s latest projects; a house that burned down because a previous owner covered live electrical outlets during an earlier remodel.

If I were to buy a new house, I would like to be confident that there were no disasters waiting behind the walls.

Our Rough Inspection will include electrical, plumbing, mechanical, systems.

THE DECK OVER THE GARAGE

When creating a deck over finished space below, we were essentially creating a bathtub.  The roofer installed a water-proof membrane over the sloped floor structure.  Our village code requires not just one scupper (on old buildings they sometimes look like gargoyles) to let the water drain from our “tub”, but a second over-flow scupper as well.  Yes, I know, it does seem excessive considering we have a roof above, however we do have torrential rain storms and heavy snow that does get blown sideways in the midwest.  Until the past week, rain and snow melt did end up on the floor of our garage below. Steve will be framing the finished decking to float above this membrane in the very near future!

SCUPPERS & DOWNSPOUT

Not quite the elegant box I imagined, but I am sure it will serve its purpose well

CONNECTING THE OLD TO THE NEW.

This is the view of our ceiling in our relatively new mudroom.  The space between our utility room and the new addition. It’s too bad that the ceiling will be repaired and will cover up this amazing raceway to the garage. In the ceiling is the work of the plumber, the heating contractor, the electrician and our filtered water supplier.  There are copper pipes carrying water for our radiant heat in the second story floor and the garage floor, copper pipes for water to the bathroom, cables for internet and television, and electrical conduit.

NEW ELECTRIC

 THE VIEW OF THE CEILING AT THE BACK WALL

This is the back wall of the new addition at garage level.  This is the handy work of the electrician and the heating contractor.  A new sub-panel for the new addition involved moving circuits and wires from the utility room to this room. There is a smaller box to the left that will be a 60 amp circuit panel for the circuits we want covered by the new gas-powered generator.  We live in a neighborhood that frequently experiences power outages.  Some last a few minutes, others can last days.  We need to be able to keep the well pump running, as well as the septic system pump, the boiler, the refrigerator, my studio and maybe some lights.  There is also a gas line going out to the generator, the lines from the AC condensor to the AC air handler in the attic in our second story and the condensate line running from the air handler to a drainage pit outside (local code requirement).

ANOTHER WALL OF PIPING

This is the shared wall between new and old. Water and drains run across the top in the soffit, other water lines run down the wall to heating in the floor.

THE GARAGE CEILING

In the ceiling above the garage the heating contractor installed fins that will distribute heat to our bedroom floor from the hot water running in that orange flexible pipe.  The other pipe is conduit that holds the electrical wiring.  The two contractors had to work around each other…Jason waited until Bill (our electrician) was substantially complete with his piping before he would run the water lines.  This done to minimize the accidental puncturing of the water line.

NEW DRAIN

The plumber installed a new main drain to the septic system rather than tie into the old.

VIEW OF CEILING IN THE MASTER BATH

Vents for the drains, and air conditioning ducts, an exhaust fan duct, junction boxes and housings for the recessed downlights all vie for space in the ceiling.

SHOWER WALL VALVES AND PIPING

BATHROOM TOILET ROOM

We are using a wall hung toilet and bidet.  These are the support frames for the fixtures and the tank for the toilet located in the wall.

CHECK OUT THE STUFF IN THE SINK VANITY WALL!

The plumber has run new gas lines to the future generator, the new laundry room for the dryer and to John’s future dream grill on the patio (no more running to the gas station to refill tanks!).  The drain vents have all run up through the roof and have been sealed in by the roofing contractor.  All the new drain lines and vents have been filled with water for the “stack test” required by code for Monday’s plumbing inspection to make sure there are no leaks in any of the pipes.

ROUGH ELECTRICAL IN THE SOFFIT OVER BEDROOM DECK

All the exterior lighting junction boxes and recessed housings are all installed!

There is now no question in my mind, construction always takes longer than anyone anticipates!

• Weather is always an unknown factor when exterior work has to be done.
• Scheduling subcontractors is an incredible balancing act when one group of specialists can’t start until another group finishes their work. Don’t attempt to be your own general contractor and coordinate these trades.
• This year began with a huge increase in demand for residential construction in our metropolitan area.  I will have completed more projects in the first half of this year than I usually complete in a full year.  The demand for skilled labor has increased as well as the ability to find those specialists.  When the economy tanked in 2009, many in our industry either left their profession or moved away to find work elsewhere.  The lead times for delivery of materials have grown leaving the rest of us waiting longer because of the fear of stocking warehouses if demand suddenly shifts.  It’s a great thing to happen, but gearing back up to pre-recession levels is taking time.
• Inspections also slow down work.  No work can happen until the current phase has been approved by an inspector.

I have also come to a new conclusion — remodelling takes longer than new construction!

• Many operating systems have to be reworked, rerouted and reinstalled to tie into the new systems.  My entire second floor had to be rewired to accommodate the new electrical locations in the remodeled half of the second floor.
• A homeowner living in the house while construction is going on slows down construction.  Temporary systems may have to be installed (like plumbing, or electrical) in order to keep the house operating for the owner. A temporary gas line needed to be moved twice for us in order to keep hot water flowing from our gas-powered water tank.  Schedules have to be worked around.  Some owners prefer not to have contractors in the homes before dawn, but rather after the kids are off to school.  There has to be clean-up at the end of the day, tools taken away and stored only to be returned the next day.  Some trades have very large pieces of equipment (like the excavator that was the size of a dinosaur) that are better off staying on site, however, may have to be inconveniently located to still allow owner access to parts of the home.
• Even the flow of construction has to accommodate existing conditions.  It would have been so much more convenient for almost everyone involved on our site if we did not have a septic field located in the front yard!  If we were new construction, the field would have been the last piece put in place. The workers could have parked on the lawn, they could have stored material on the lawn, and they would not have had to worry about keeping that system working during the entire project!

After the inspection tomorrow, we will be onto insulation, sheetroock and then the finishes!  I think we should be able to be completed by the time winter arrives!

More about Siding and Trim

When we began our search for an alternate to matching our existing cedar siding, we started with fiber-cement board siding. We knew we wanted something that looked like Ship-Lap siding but had some kind of modern twist to it.  We requested many samples from many manufacturers and the company with the product we liked most was Nichiha.

A NICHIHA VINTAGE WOOD PROJECT  http://www.nichiha.com/

They have a great product called “Vintage Wood” that would give us the look we wanted with the minimal maintenance.  So off we went to find our product.  We found that the plant that serves our region is in Georgia.  After conversations with a rep, with a distributor and a retail outlet, we discovered that this particular product is not available in our region. What?  But this is what we wanted!  But we can’t have it.  Going back to the drawing board and a few months later we settled on the beautiful garapa boards that I highlighted in my last post.

We had this winter to really think about our new selection, cost was a big mind bender.  This material would more than double our budget for siding.  The other consideration was, ‘would we like it on the east side of the addition’?  The exposed side for coverage above the brick is very tall.  Would 5″ boards become too much for how much we had to cover?  Yes it would, we decided.

So we returned to a new search.  We liked the look of stucco, but were concerned about cost and maintenance as well.  We had stumbled on a lot of photos in Houzz with homes clad in fiber-cement panels.  We liked the clean lines, and the stucco-like finish. We started with James Hardie panels because we knew that Hardie board siding is everywhere in our region.  Apparently, just because one product is shipped here, does not necessarily mean that all products are shipped here. Sigh, the panels are not available in our region.  Well, perhaps, it works the same way in the Nichiha distribution.  We went back to their site and left a message requesting someone contact us.  And they did!  From their commercial product line. Not only did they have their ‘Architectural Block’ product available in the upper midwest, they had several installations in Chicago!  So we were off to the city to scope out the siding.  And we loved it!  The rep sent us the three samples of the board with their stock colors, shipping time: 2 weeks.  We could have the boards customs colored, but the wait was 2 months.  Russ and Ken were available for our project in the next two weeks to hang siding, so we chose a standard color: Tuscan Tan. The other sample he sent left us a little sad…”Vintage Wood”.  Apparently it is now offered as a commercial product and it is now available to us. It was its lack of availability that led us through a 6 month journey sourcing other alternatives. Go figure!

So the siding has arrived and the boys are almost finished with the installation. These panels are 18″ high x 6′ long.  One panel laps over the other.  There is a rubber gasket applied on the outside face side on every panel that seals the overlapping joint.

SIDING DETAIL

SIDE VIEW OF THE SIDING BOARD

The panels are installed on clips like a rainscreen application.  After each row of panels is snapped into place, a new row of clips are nailed to the sheathing to catch the next row of panels. There are no nails in the siding.

The corner boards are factory fabricated with a 90º angle made as one piece, so there is no joint seam at the corner.  There is a channel of flashing bent and installed on site between the corner board and the adjacent panels that runs vertically up the wall.

CORNER DETAIL

THE EAST SIDE OF THE HOUSE

A VIEW OF THE BACK OF THE HOUSE

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE BACK OF THE HOUSE

THE MACHINE THAT BENDS THE FLASHING

This machine was sitting in the garage for about a week before I realized Russ was bending the flashing into the unique shapes needed waterproof our siding.

We are using another composite material for the trim, soffits and fascia boards.  The soffit board has continuous venting.  The holes are apparently small enough to prevent bees from entering the soffits, and the rest of the house.  However, we took no chances, we added a layer of screen over the holes inside the soffit.  The soffit is a light color, John wanted to make sure that light reflected back into the house.  We had the rest of the trim boards colored to match the windows, we may be running out of steam choosing new finishes.

WINDOW TRIM

June 2015

The siding has arrived!

In early May we started receiving siding, soffit, and trim material!  So exciting!

Our original intent was to match the new siding to the existing cedar siding that has been on the house since 1962.  Great idea in concept, not so great in reality.  The original boards are 11″ x 1-1/8″ thick cedar planks.  Just like 2×4 studs are no longer 2″ x 4″ but rather 1-1/2″ x 3-1/2″, cedar plank siding boards are no longer milled to the old dimension, more like 6″ not 11″, and no longer a consistent width but rather they are tapered.

To match the existing would be an endeavor of immense expense to mill custom boards.  This made us sit back and analyze what we really wanted the house to look like.  If we were going to spend more than we budgeted, then we really had to love what we were buying.  We discovered that neither of us really liked the lap siding, nor the woodpecker holes and the nests of bees that the siding offered to our wildlife.

The board side that faced the house had never been stained and had a smooth finish.  The rough sawn side faced the public outward side (a feature we did not care for).  The framing carpenters and our contractor assured us that our boards could be reused for covering our exposed soffits over the deck and front porch, as well to wrap some of the beams that were created to make these overhangs.  So Steve very carefully removed all the siding material last fall and stockpiled it in our garage.

The underside of the roof over the deck on the new addition

I can’t wait to let you see what this will look like finished with our recycled cedar siding!

After hours of driving through random neighborhoods and scouring the pages of Houzz.com, we knew we preferred “ship-lap” siding over the traditional “lap-siding”.  We like the smooth transition between the boards.  Our search led us to discover Wood Haven, Inc. in Perry, Kansas.  Not only did we like what they had to offer, they shipped material to our region of the country.  An important detail to consider when you fall in love with the perfect material!

http://www.rainscreenclip.com/project-gallery/

They have created their own Rainscreen Clip that creates an installation where the fasteners are hidden.  A rainscreen system provides an added layer of defense against the penetration of water into the walls.  An air gap between the back of the siding and the vapor barrier on the sheathing (1/2″ plywood or similar material) helps keep the wall dry and minimize the formation of mold in the wall.

I have to admit, our choice was based on how great the siding looks.  We chose the 5″ garapa material, a Brazilian hardwood that is resistant to rot, decay, insects and fungi.  These were important qualities for us in our choice of wood species.  Wood Haven, inc. has a great selection of wood options.  We are staining our garapa to maintain a rich reddish brown that works well with our exisitng brick.  Because this will require staining every few years, we have limited the use of this material to be used as an accent.  More later on the the products we chose that will require much less maintenance.

After installing the vertical battens that have been predrilled in the factory to accept the clips, Russ can start installing the wood siding.  One of the challenges of this install was making sure the drilled holes on the battens were completely level and lined up with each other.

These clips are drilled into the holes in the vertical battens and the boards are slid into place, supported by the clips.

OVER THE GARAGE

There will be one more layer of stain applied at the end of the project, but we love it already.  I am referring to our constant transformation as our variation on a modern prairie style.  We are seeing a faint light at the end of the tunnel!

It’s finally warm enough for exterior finishes!

After months of living with our Tyvek-wrapped house, there are signs that we may no longer be the offending eye sore on our block.  The neighbors still speak to us, but I am sure they are happy to see trucks parked in our driveway, and endure those parked in the easement along our one-lane wide street, if it means we might actually finish this project!

The masons were the first to arrive this spring!  They were also the last to leave in the fall, those brave souls working under a tent in freezing weather.

With the modifications to our roof where the old met the new, we were forced to move the fireplace chimney to the new roof. The intersection caused the chimney to be a dam that would hold back rain and snow that would rest against it.  Yes, it was almost as difficult as it sounds.  Fortunately, when we renovated the family room a couple of years ago to create my new studio space, we chose to have a sealed gas fireplace. At that time a new flue liner was inserted into the existing clay liner.  The liner, we discovered as we attempted to move it, was not only not tall enough above the new roof, it also was not thermally protected enough to run in a wood framed chimney.  We had the fireplace company come out to replace the not so old liner, with a new, taller & thermally protected liner.

The masons began the season of outdoor work by pouring the concrete chimney cap and prepping the chimney for stone. This gave us hope that the house could look great one day!

Dressing the Chimney

While the concrete set, they began work on the front porch posts.

Dressing the front porch posts

Concrete block sitting on the foundation wall, was built around the posts.

The guys sat up on the roof for several days, stacking stone around the chimney. And it was so worth it!

The awesome chimney!

The finished posts

The masons are gone for a while.  They are waiting for the front door step and the caps on the upper deck to be fabricated.  It was nice having them here and I will miss them.  But I will always remember them every time I drive up my driveway and walk into my front door.  I never dreamed I would own something so beautiful and artful!

Redesigning the Laundry Room

It’s been a long month of rough-in work on the house.  The plumber, the HVAC contractor, the electrician and my contractor have all been here.

The electrician rewired the existing second floor.  There was a time during the middle of the last century when electricians ran their pipe through the floor.  The subfloor in these mid-century homes were built from 3/4″ x 7-1/4″ planks:

I am standing in the utility room looking up at the subfloor planking.  At the end of the day, the contractors sweep up all the sawdust they created, and much of it falls between those cracks.  I have learned not to leave clean laundry in the room!

Above the subfloor, 3/4″ x 1-1/2″ ‘sleepers’ run perpendicular to the subfloor planks.  The finished hardwood rests on top of those sleepers:

In the space between the finished floor and the subfloor is a chase that is a perfect size for electrical pipe.  There is no issue with the pipe staying there if the floor is undisturbed.  If you are renovating a mid-century home in Chicago, just beware, you most likely have live electrical wires running below your hardwood floor!

Because we are rearranging the layout of the rooms on our second floor and changing floor material in the new bath and laundry, the pipes had to be relocated to a safer location.  In our case, the electric pipes for the whole second floor come up from the panel box in the utility room at the south sideof the house, the side we are renovating.  Running the electric in the floor is convenient because the pipe can run the shortest distance from the south end to any other location on the second floor.  Moving them into walls and out-of-the-way of new construction created much longer runs to the rooms on the north side of the house where we are currently living.  So, new longer wire needed to be pulled to each of the outlets, and junction boxes on the north side of the house.

Bill spent several days just rewiring the second floor, pulling new wire up from the panel box to existing outlets.  And when John came home at the end of the day, he experienced the disappointment I warned him about.  It looked like nothing had been done!

We have vent pipes, drain pipes, and new copper water pipes.  We discovered we have a small fortune in copper when the back of the second floor bath wall was exposed.  Not only the water lines are copper, but so are the drains and vents. When I asked the plumber what it would take to switch out the copper drains and vents for plastic, he thought it would take a small fortune.  Copper is not the best material for drains and vents, however, mine seem to be in good shape, so they are staying.

The view of the water wall in the second floor hall bath.

We are waiting for inspection of the “rough” plumbing, electrical and mechanical.  Once we are given the okay to proceed, we can insulate this remodeled space!

Steve was here yesterday to run the duct to vent the dryer in my new future laundry room on the second floor.

I have planning a new laundry room since the day we moved into this house almost 15 years ago.  Allow me to remind you that my mother wanted to enter my space in the utility room in an “Ugliest Laundry Room” contest.  Once we took the jump to embrace this massive renovation, I have been tweaking the design of the Laundry Room.  I had to commit to one of at least a dozen variations on a theme a month ago when the plumbers were standing in the room with copper pipe in hand asking me where the washer and dryer were going.  I boldly marked out the exact location of the dryer, the washing machine and the sink on the floor.  I was all in.

The water wall has been finished for at least two weeks now.

The laundry room will be 8′-0″ wide.  When we added a bathroom to the design, I somewhat reluctantly gave up 2 feet in width for more space in the other room for the bathroom.  I sharpened my virtual pencil, and measured, and taped out designs on the floor to make sure I had enough floor space to comfortably work in front of the dryer when I was unloading it.  I found I needed a 4′ clear space in front of the dryer.  If we kept the dryer vent close to the wall with only one elbow, and steal a few inches from my yet to be designed linen cabinet, we could make it!

So when Steve arrived yesterday he came to me right away to talk about how we were going to get the vent outside. He feels very strongly that the vent cannot go straight up through the roof with our midwest potential for great amounts of snow. Ideally he could take it straight up and out the back of the west wall, just below the soffit.  Perfect, except the vent would be about 7 feet away from our operable skylight in the kitchen, and just a few feet down.  We do open that skylight window when the temperature is above 60.  We decided, too close, and probably would not pass code. So out the wall just below the soffit on the south side was the next best choice.  However, the vent would need to run perpendicular to the ceiling joists. If you look closely in the photo above, my first concession of the day was to work with a soffit I did not plan on.  It’s okay, it’s just a laundry room.

About an hour later he tapped my shoulder and asked me to follow him upstairs.  “I can’t get the 4 inch duct into the wall where you want it”, he explained. “There is blocking in the wall that is supporting the range hood in the kitchen below.”  You can see the two open stud spaces with said blocking.  He continued by throwing the electrician under the bus, “and Bill’s pipe is in the middle of the stud space we want to use.”

He offered two options:

1. we could move the vent to the next bay, but that would require another bend in the duct, pushing the dryer out another 4″ into the room, as well as cutting dangerously into the already shortened length of duct required by the manufacturer for venting.
2. we could put the duct where we wanted it, but partially projecting into the room.  He could build a chase around it to hide it.  This would push us 2-1/2″ into the room.

How could this be happening to me?  I thought I had crossed all my t’s and dotted all my i’s.  I had already moved into that room and was folding clothes in my mind in front of the new window. I could have chosen to layout this space however I wanted and I chose the one place I could not put the dryer.  I rejected the first option, I need every inch of floor space.  The second would give me a weird break in the wall.  If you look at my design above, you will see an open space behind the washer & dryer that will be left open and tiled so I can hang laundry to dry as I take it out of the washing machine or dryer. How did we not discuss this earlier, before the electrician and the plumber had bent and sweat all their parts and pieces into place?  It’s too late to furr out the whole wall without pulling all the plumbing and electrical forward 2″.

Steve could sense my distressand worked to find another option.  Together we worked out an acceptable solution.  He did move the duct to the next bay as you can see.  I am planning on moving the washer and dryer to the right 12″.  I lose the tall cabinet at the wall, and I will make adjustments to the sink cabinet…it will be 12″ wider.  And most important, I still have my 4 feet of floor space!  It’s just a laundry room, afterall.  It is going to be blue!

January 2015

Happy New Year!

I really don’t mean to keep bringing up ‘weather’, but the new year arrived with an impressive cold front, even for January in Chicago!  Temperatures rarely eked above zero and the wind chills brought down many school districts, including the Chicago Public schools, forcing them to close schools for three days.  I know, its Chicago, how did that happen?

Our first real snowfall (more than an inch, but less than 3) has mercifully covered up much of the construction debris and ungroomed yard.  If I block out the construction fence, I can see how beautiful the neighborhood is.  I have hope that our yard could return to the fold and our neighbors will be happy with us again!

The masons worked up to New Years Eve and won’t return again until the daytime temperature returns to a respectable 28 degrees.  They are so close to done on the front face of the garage, they need just another day and a half to finish the last few courses of stone and to break down all their scaffolding.  They will have to return in the spring to finish the stone around the front porch columns and the stone around the chimney.  We love what they have accomplished, so far!

Living in deep winter this week has brought us to accept that we are finished with any outdoor work until spring.  So now what?  Rough plumbing, electrical, heating and air-conditioning will continue.

Steve and Eric were here for a couple of days working in the second floor existing rooms finishing up framing out new spaces. A new beam had to be installed to pick up the ceiling joists that were resting on a wall that we wanted removed.  All the drywall on the ceiling has come down, bringing with it, most of the insulation in the attic.  What did not naturally fall down, every blow of the hammer encouraged the rest  to clear out of the attic. There is a patchwork of batt insulation that has been temporarily shoved into place, however, we can see the rafters through many gaps.  The end result, is a very cold space within our house.

Our heating contractor was here this week to relocate baseboard radiators in the existing space to fall into the new room boundaries. The radiators are still pumping out heat, as they are tied to the rest of the house, but are fighting the elements in that half of the house.  I feel like we are not only heating our house, but the envelope of air space around it outside!  It was a bit disturbing and very cold to walk into those rooms to talk to contractors bundled up and expelling steam when we talked.  I think we are maintaining a cool 62 degrees in the rest of the house we are occupying.

The village has given us permission to break-up inspections for the rough work.  The next group that will be here starting Monday, will focus on getting rough work done in the existing house.  Once we pass inspection for the mechanicals, the electrical and the plumbing, we can insulate!

We are officially in the most aggravating stage for the homeowner:  A lot of people will be making a lot of noise, for many weeks, but it is not nearly as satisfying as watching finishes installed.  Photographs will be boring.

It is time for me, however, to start finalizing finishes.  I have dabbled for probably years with choosing materials, colors, fixtures, and now I have to come to final decisions.  I will keep you posted on my field trips to suppliers and my final selections.  In the meantime….take a look at what part of my upstairs looks like:

View of our old master bedroom.  The hideous master bath is completely gone!

Look at those beautiful new windows!  This is the view across the new bedroom and its bathroom.

I am standing in the new hallway to the addition. We inherited this door from a client whose project I just finished.  They installed a new back door, and graciously donated the old door to us.  This will help us get into the addition without climbing a ladder in front of the garage as well as providing a barrier to the unfinished space beyond. When we are done, we too will donate this door, and the temporary steps to a worthy cause.

And finally:

In order to get the beam installed, a wall had to come down, and now we have a view into the construction.  We did discover that our linen closet has been taped into the wrong side of the construction…time to fill more bins for storage!

Mortar and brick and stone

We have had a relatively mild week for the first week of Winter.  For the upper Midwest that means highs above freezing and lows in the upper 20s!  Christmas day was lovely, we even saw the sun!

The weather and the holiday season has really put a strain on the schedule, however, Mark and Robert, the masons, were awesome braving the elements and were able to make great progress!

After a few false starts, Mark & Robert were able to tent the back and east sides of the house.  They were able to get natural gas to the heater that would keep both the mortar and the masons warm while they re-laid the brick on the outside walls.

The back of the house prepped for brick.

A peak inside the tent.

This method of having to tent the work space is not the most efficient.  Brick and stone need to be cut outside the immediate work space.  Only small batches of mortar can be mixed at time to prevent an entire batch from freezing.

Robert is mixing one wheelbarrow worth of mortar.  They are using bags of premixed mortar, not their preferred method of having a load of sand dumped at the end of the driveway and they make up their own batch.  With the drop in overnight temperatures the sand will freeze, not allowing them to make what they need.  Yes, this is more costly, but it does allow them to work in freezing weather.

Finished brick on back of the house.

The new brick on the addition extends the line of the brick on the existing structure.  We made the height break at the new back door.  The brick will wrap around the east side of the addition at this new height.  Because there was not enough existing brick to wrap the entire new addition and because we wanted to tie the new and the old together by sharing some of the same elements so the addition did not scream, “this is an add on!”, we dropped the height of the brick on the east side so we could use up as much brick as possible.

Finished brick on the east face of the new addition.  It’s about 3 feet high.

The masons did a great job of matching the existing grout and joint lines with the old brick that is remaining in place.  I think their installation is far superior to what was already there!

After wrapping up the brick work, the masons moved on to the stone work on the front face of the addition.

Prepping for stone.

In addition to the Tyvex house wrap, a layer of felt paper was added as extra moisture protection.  We are using a veneer stone that averages around 2″ thick.  It does significantly reduce the cost of material over using a 4″ to 6″ stone. With this application, a wire mesh is installed over the felt, and then a scratch coat of mortar is troweled on over the mesh.  The wall is ready for the stone to be adhered to it.

On December 18, Mark and Robert showed up ready to start the stone work, promising they would be finished before Christmas eve on the first column of stone.  They were concerned that the front steps they would be covering with their tent, would be gone for any guests coming to visit for Christmas!

Our house looked like this for 6 days.  At least it would make the neighbors think we were making progress!

What I enjoyed about this tent was that it covered the work space right outside my office window!  I took the screen off the window, opened the sash and sat on the window sill to observe up close the meticulous work the masons were performing!  The veneer stone, is still stone.  It does not come in several exact sizes, there are many shapes and sizes that have to be carefully chosen and placed so the stone maintains a level line as it moves up the wall.

The view from my perch!

Mark and Robert were so kind to let me watch and ask my questions.  I really did not know very much about stone work until now.  I am amazed how much artistry and patience is involved.  Because they were working in the cold and damp, there were extra steps needed to make the wall of stone. Had it been warmer and drier, the mortar would have naturally dried out on its own as the water evaporated into the air.  With our weather, the mortar at this stage above is very soupy and not able to dry out.  Mark has this amazing blow torch (Aaron called it a ‘Flame Thrower’) he is using to dry out the mortar.  He can not go on to the next step until the mortar is much stiffer.

Striking the joints.

With what looks like a dental tool and a brush, the masons are striking the joints…getting rid of the excess mortar and creating even depth mortar joints.  They had to have spent several hours each day on this piece of the process making the final work of the day look perfect!

End of Day 2.  This is slow, tedious work.

End of Day 3.  I can’t talk to Mark anymore, he has moved up the scaffolding!

December 23…the reveal!

The masons were able to move their tent and scaffolding off the front stairs before Christmas eve as promised.  The wood block is the space left for the light fixture that will be installed when the electrician starts his work.

There are still many elements needed to complete the exterior, but we are so happy with the outcome of the many hours of labor put in by many of our trades people.  We hope they have had a wonderful holiday with family and friends.  We wish them a happy and prosperous 2015 and look forward to working with them in the New Year.

December has flown by!

I can confidently claim that December is my busiest month of the year, as well as for all the subcontractors who would normally be working on my project but are busy elsewhere.  From mid November to the day before Christmas Eve or Hanukkah (sometimes even the day of) designers, contractors and owners are rushing to finish the project they started earlier in the season before the extended family joins the client for the annual holiday meal.  I have a kitchen remodel project wrapping up for a client that still requires the services of the electrician and the appliance installers arriving the morning of Christmas Eve to install the range hood!

The last three weeks have seen many days when the thermometer peaked above 32 degrees giving my mason and my contractor, Steve, to accomplish some significant projects!

Last week Steve and Eric moved the windows from the temporary storage in the garage into their permanent locations in my exterior walls:

The windows arrived the week after Thanksgiving

18 windows and 1 French door arrived intact!

While I was working in an architecture firm in New York, we had several projects that fell under New York City historic preservation rules.  One issue was always the windows.  How do you replace old historic windows with new thermal double pane glass and still maintain the narrow width of the muntin bars that created a true divided light?  One problem was the seal at the end of the glass was too wide to be covered by the molding of the muntin.  The other was making the muntin strong enough to carry a heavier piece of glass in such a narrow piece of moulding.  As a custom firm, we were well suited to design custom windows to accomplish the guidelines set, but at a cost to the client.  I do not remember how we started using Marvin windows, but their design and efficiency was acceptable to the Historic committee.  With an option to be totally custom, we were able to specify them and I became a fan of their quality and flexibility in design.

When it came to the windows in my own house, I of course, looked to Marvin first.  We started replacing window several years ago, one or two openings at a time.  We had single pane, true-divided light (small individual pieces of glass between all the muntins) double hung, 50-year old windows badly in need of replacing.  Because our brick openings were set, standard size windows were hard to fit without adding a lot of padding around them to make them fit in the openings.

So I used a mix of Marvin standard size (they come in 2″ increments) combined with a custom size to create exactly the size and design to fit the existing opening.  Once I started this, I was committed to continuing using the same manufacturer to make sure all the windows matched.  After hours of whittling down sizes and eliminating windows, I finally arrived with an acceptable design that fit into the budget we established.  We chose to replace most of the windows with a clear windowpane, no muntins, casement type unit.  These are hinged on the side and have a crank that allows them open out, like a door.

We couldn’t get over how the replacement windows looked so much larger than the old windows they replaced.  We are very pleased!

The new window in the Mud Room

New upper windows on the front of the house.

New windows at the back of the house

A Crisp Cold First day of December

It’s hard to believe it is already December.  We began our project cleaning out the garage over the 4th of July holiday weekend.  The landscape has definitely been transformed.  Our neighbors are commenting on how much they like the massing of our house with our new addition.  They are also asking when do we think it will be done?

The weather has not been kind to our schedule.  Last week was Thanksgiving and we had bitter cold temperatures.  Although we had a brilliant 50 degree day on Saturday, most of the crew was spending time with the their families.  I imagine them taking walks on Saturday burning off the calories consumed with the holiday feast!

We did have a few brave souls make appearances until frostbite threatened to thwart them.

Al and Orlando made some headway with the rough plumbing.  This is a phase I always warn my clients about: it can be very discouraging!  Rough electrical falls into the same category.  You see and hear them, busy cutting something, hammering something else.  And though they spend the whole day, when they leave at the end of it, your inspection doesn’t seem to find anything exciting or beautiful to behold!

Orlando at work.

Orlando and his boss, Al, were here several days cutting lots of PVC pipe, drilling holes through floor and ceiling joists and cutting out whatever was in their way.

The drain for the new small bath

The plumbers were able to work inside my house more than in the frigid addition.  They spent most of their time disconnecting old plumbing and creating new connections for the Laundry room that is moving upstairs, and the new bath in our old master bedroom.  And this is what I see, new drains and vents!

Last week Mark, the mason, was here to prep for stone and brick installation.

Bricks are set up and ready to be installed!

The stone for the face of the garage was delivered. Mark and his partner lugged the bricks that Aaron had cleaned last July back to where they started!  The machine that mixes the mortar was dropped off, a good sign that they will be staying on my job.  After a few hours, they left.  It was too cold to start.  They would have to wait until Monday

This morning the temperature was 12 degrees, with a windchill of 0.  But, I have had a surprising amount of visitors!

Mark did return with the noble thought they would be able to start today.  They would need to tent the work zone so it could be heated and the mortar would be kept from freezing until it had a chance to set up.  Steve arrived to move his gas-powered heater that was keeping the new slab in the garage from freezing, out to where Mark was starting the brick installation.  A perfect plan with only one hitch, the gas line is too short to get to where Mark needed it.  Al has ordered a new 1-1/2″ gas pipe to become the permanent conduit of gas into the house and out to the future natural gas-powered generator.  It won’t be ready for Al to pick up until tomorrow.  It would have solved the problem of a too short flexible hose.  So Mark left, promising to return tomorrow with a propane heater he can use in his tent.  And Al will be back on Wednesday to install the new permanent gas line!

Bill McNutt, the electrician I have worked with for years, also stopped by today.  We chatted briefly about sleeves for the low voltage lighting and who was going to install those sleeves.  I don’t think we came to a conclusion.  I  will have to remember to revisit the topic with Mark and Steve when they return.  Bill did install electrical boxes for a future light and duplex outlets that will be on the exterior of the house, but will be embedded in the brick. They are in place for Mark to work around.  It was cold, so Bill didn’t stay long!

I also waved at Russ and Ken, the carpenters.  They were here to measure the house for siding, soffits and fascia boards. They were too busy this fall to put together a bid for us for labor and material.  But today, of all days, they found time.  They were probably wishing they had made time when it was still 60 degrees!  They were not here very long either.

Steve and Eric were also here, as I mentioned above.  Steve wanted to confirm the rough opening sizes for all the windows that will arrive tomorrow, finally!  They, too, have left.

The rest of this first week of December looks promising.  The weather report is hinting that every day this week we should top out above freezing.  Just barely, but the difference below 32 and above it is amazing!

I have come to believe I am being prepared for all future projects with my clients.  I think I will have experienced every possible delay imaginable which should make me a very empathetic hand-holder for anyone brave enough to take on a remodeling project of their own!