building for our future

front entry landscaping

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:24:00 +0000

We’ve been enjoying our addition for a number of months now...the “hotel stay” feeling is finally abating and it’s feeling very much like “home”. That said, there is still a lot of moving-things-around work to do inside and as such, I have not been able to take any acceptable pictures (to me) of the interior to present here in this BLOG. I know that’s disappointing, but I prefer to wait until I have more things in place...we still need a few furniture additions, some area rugs and all of the art hung.

That said, I’m quite pleased to note that today I all but finished up the landscaping around and about the new front entry, following after Dan the Mason’s excellent work on our retaining wall and walkway. Both the wall and walk created a very inviting pathway and space delineation that features what I’ll call a parabolic arc with a reverse curve near the driveway end of the porch. In my landscaping design, I was able to echo that curve in the border between the planting beds/rock garden and the grassy area. It really works nicely and I’m quite pleased with the end result.

Right now, the beds have little in the way of plantings...that will come later in the fall when we are able to source and plant an assortment of perennials that favor a mix of sun and shade. Mother Nature was quite generous in providing off our property some wonderful limestone boulders and smaller rocks to give some hard scape texture. I’m just thankful that I have the big orange power tool (Kubota tractor with loader and backhoe) to do the heavy work!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the completed landscape work just outside our new front door.

we have....our CO!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:24:00 +0000

Woo hoo!! Quicky post tonight. Today, 23 April 2007...many months from when we broke ground for this project...we passed our final inspection from the township. Alison has already moved a lot of her clothing into the new master closet in celebration. (She also surreptitiously “tested” the new shower last night pre-inspection...LOL) So now it’s time to start moving into the new master suite so that I can get to work on setting up our old room for our older daughter, Nastia. And there will be more rooms to switch around after that.

I am still remiss in getting photos up, and will do that soon.

where did march go?

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:51:00 +0000

I am SO behind on keeping you up with the news and progress. Like almost a month. So shoot me. :-) Seriously, a lot of business travel and other things have taken so much of my free time, that I have not been able to properly update this BLOG. The good news is that a lot has been completed in the last few weeks. We are not done yet, but...the time is drawing near that we will be able to start moving into the addition to some degree or another. That is good because we cannot do the painting and floor work in the great room of the existing house until we can get all the, umm....stuff...out of it. And the addition is elected to receive it all; some things temporarily and some things permanently. Oh, and there is that need to build a wall to create our older daughter's new bedroom and a few other things that hinge on having the new rooms available.

The floors turned out wonderfully. Michael and a very talented fellow at the local Sherwin Williams store were able to nail the floor color so that there is a virtual match to the existing wide pumpkin pine floors in the original house structure. It is uncanny at how great they look, especially when put up against the great paint work that Graham and Dave did throughout the addition. All the plumbing fixtures are in and working and our new LG SteamWasher and LG SteamDryer arrived a little over a week ago. Outside of a small issue with the leak sensing water connections in the laundry, all the plumbing is working just great and looks dandy, too.

We had a mini-crisis with the granite counter tops when one of them for the master bath was inadvertently cut a half inch short. Fortunately, the position of the error and character of the stone was conducive to adding on that missing 1/2"...it is virtually invisible (trust me) and saved the stone company from totally re-doing the entire 4 counter job since there was no more of the same material available. Oh, and they look outstanding. This granite is NOT done with the typical shiny finish...it has a leather-like surface that just just wonderful visually as well as to the touch.

The tile work in the shower is equally pleasing. Barney and Chris did a great job...I really cannot wait to get use of that big space! Of course, we need a few more things to happen: one being the glass panel to be installed and the others revolving around final inspections and a CO. Little things, but, well...necessary things.

Jim created the wraps for the porch posts last week and they are incredible. Michael pulled out a picture from a past job with a similar porch an the post design was spot-on for our structure, including bringing that nice bead detail in the interior trim work out to the porch. Dan the mason also poured the new rear patio area a few weeks ago and that is going to really make the space so much more useful going forward. No more poison ivy and raspberries coming up between your toes as they did with the old flagstone surface and it is also properly drained. (With that done, the remaining siding that abuts the patio was also completed in the last week) Dan also repaired all the chimneys to make them both safe and attractive and the painters colored them to blend in with the rest of the structure.

Final electrical finish work is in progress and we can also go for the final sprinkler inspection shortly. The HVAC folks got the new programmable thermostat in today and should be completing any remaining little things in the next day or two.

There is still quite a bit of work to do outside including the new front walkway and a retaining wall as well as cleaning up all the landscaping that was disrupted by construction, but that, too, will be moving along soon if things go right.

I have quite a few pictures to post, but have not yet been able to process them for web display. I will do that as soon as I can and have them in the next post. And I do promise that will be sooner than a month out. For sure. I hope...

paint, patio and p....err...sanding floors

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:55:00 +0000

Busy...busy...busy. That’s my primary excuse for once again being delayed with an update. Please forgive me!

Since the last time, the painters have been very busy getting the color on the walls and the trim and doors painted white. They did an awesome job, too. We admittedly chose some bolder colors for the multi-purpose room and the master bed room, but it turned out wonderfully. We also chose to use a new paint from Benjamin Moore called “Aura” on the walls. It’s expensive stuff, but provides a completely washable matte finish that looks very silky...almost like plaster. There is a silica additive in it that makes for a very hard surface without the sheen that you normally need for washability. If the weather starts to warm up a bit, they can also get back to putting a second coat on the trim work outside as well as getting the color on my shop building.

The floor crew started this week, too, beginning with sanding the beautiful pine flooring in preparation for color and final finishing. By this time next week, that job will be complete. Getting an acceptable color has been a challenge as pine is difficult to stain and we want the new floor dark enough that it will look at home with the existing wide pine flooring. That should be made easier, however, as it appears we are going to need to refinish the floor in the great room due to adding new material where there was none under the cabinets that were removed as well as the poor condition of the finish on that floor. Sanding it out will give us the opportunity to bring its color close to the new floor.

Dan the mason is back and working on the rear patio. The old, high-maintenance flagstones are gone and a new poured concrete service will be in place sometime next week. Unlike the old patio, this new one will be properly sloped and drained and effectively be a lot more usable for barbecue and leisure enjoyment. Removing the old was a lot of work, however...under that flagstone was a few inches of stone dust over 8-12" of old, hard concrete.

Lastly, I finished the installation of the wet bar cabinetry this evening and also ordered the glass for the upper doors and shelves earlier today. Like the bath vanities I created, I carried through the beautiful cherry “feather crotch” figure in the lower doors as a unifying effect throughout the addition. The credenza built-in for my new office will likely be handled the same way...that’s the next project on tap for me!

In the next week or so, we should see the soft-finished absolute black granite counter tops installed on the vanities and wet bar, the remaining tile work in the master bath completed and a start on the final electrical and plumbing work. Hopefully, we will be able to actually get our CO in just a few weeks and start to enjoy this new addition. And then, of course...some other work starts to make a bedroom for the older daughter out of our soon to be former master bedroom and some updating of the great room. Never a dull moment!

So, that’s where we are through today. I’ll start the pictures for this installment off with a few of the completed wet bar cabinetry.

a little trim around the edges...and the cabinets start to be installed

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:00:00 +0000

I admire folks who do excellent finish carpentry and Michael’s crew is da best. Jim and Keith got most of the first floor trim completed this week and Keith started upstairs today. As you can see from the pictures below, we chose to go with a double bead casing and a tall base with the same bead at the top. And that bead on the base flows continuously into the outside bead of the casings. This means a little more work to fit everything together, but the end result is outstanding. I’m extremely pleased with how this is working out. Once again, I’ll note that all the trim is being prepared here on-site. Outside of a few small yellow pine moldings that were provided by the stair folks to trim out the stairway, there is no stock millwork involved. It’s all custom.

The other major event of the week was moving all the cabinetry I have been building for many months from my shop to the addition and starting installation of the same. The cabinetry is my personal contribution to the project, both to provide some uniqueness and to help with the budget. Custom cabinetry like this goes for major money and given my serious woodworking avocation and shop facilities, it made perfect sense for me to do this work. I did leave installation of the base cabinets to the crew as they are experts in squeezing cabinets and stretching walls :-), but I installed the wet bar upper cabinets in the multi-purpose room as well as the linen cabinet and shelving unit in the master bath toilet room. (carrying the same into the building, however, I enlisted Jim and Keith)

This coming week, Michael’s crew will continue with the trim work upstairs, the painters will get started on the first floor and the stone folks will be in to template for the vanity counters and the wet bar top. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. Almost...

floors, doors and more...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:19:00 +0000

Yea, I know...long time, no post. Life has been busy this month. The good news is that all the great folks working on this project have really been doing wonderful stuff.

January brought us to the point of getting the 11" wide pine flooring down. It's all in except on the two small landings on the stairway and in the master closet. This was one of the tasks where I lent a hand in between business calls, etc., on the days when Michael had to send Jim and Keith to another (very impressive) job. There were a few boards that needed more than two hands to coax into their permanent places. Laying wide flooring is a bit harder than the typical narrow strip hardwood that goes into many homes. The glue is sticky and on a much larger surface, so sliding the tongue into the groove can take a bit of persuasion at times and with wide material, even the slightest deviation is harder to adjust for. That all said, these floors are going to be "wow" when they are finished in a few weeks.

Our doors also arrived and have been installed by Jim and Keith. It's not a quick job to do it right, and these folks do it right. I'm also very pleased with the doors, themselves. We specified flat panel doors with two panes to match the old doors in the center section of the original house. The doors that Michael supplied are dead ringers. And because they are made with MDF, they are dense, heavy and will be absolutely stable "forever". The oil-rubbed bronze hardware also works very nicely.

The piece de resistance in the last few days of the month was when the green Vermont slate went down on the floors of the bathrooms and the foyer. Wow...I knew it was going to be nice, but it's beyond nice! And Barney, a master tile layer, and his son Chris really work fast. Using no special alignment aids, etc., they absolutely blew through getting the slate down and grouted and every line is perfectly aligned. Barney also did the wet bed and tile floor in the new master shower. At this point, it's very easy to imagine the upcoming wonderful experience of using that shower once this project is done. Barney and Chris will be back in a bit to do the slate on the shower walls.

Other activities this month included selection of our counter material...absolute black granite in a soft, "antique" finish. This finish is silky, NOT shiny (!) and should look super with the cherry cabinetry I've created for the baths and am in process of creating for the wet bar in the multi-purpose room. And as of this writing, the siding folks are back working on my shop building, bringing it into visual compliance with the house.

One last thing. About a week ago, I had the pleasure of visiting another project that Michael and his team have been toiling away at for some time. It is a wonderful stone farmhouse in a beautiful setting. The owners added on a major two story addition in order to make the property meet their needs in many ways. The work that Michael and his folks have done is about the finest craftsmanship I have ever seen. You cannot tell with the old and the new start/stop, both in the stone work on the exterior and in the incredible details within the interior. This just cements my contention that I picked the right people to do our job. Bravo!

And, of course, here are a gazillion pictures of the past few week's work for you to enjoy!

2008 stairing at us

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:47:00 +0000

Since my last update, the holiday season has passed us and we find ourselves into a new year. This is more or less the beginning of the third year since this project “officially” started and we have a couple more months to go until completion. (Some outdoor work may or may not be done in that time frame.

What’s very nice, however, is that we are fully engaged with interior finish work, starting with the stair railings and soon to move on to the 11" wide pine flooring and trim work. The slate for the foyer and bathrooms will be arriving in about two weeks and we recently picked out our door hardware, too.

Relative to the stair railings, Pete from Slabaugh Custom Stairs Ltd., got to work on Saturday the 29th, starting with the railings on the loft landing in our great room. (in the original house) I had already removed the old barn wood railings (good riddens!) as well as the pine floor nosing at the edge of the landing in preparation for this work. As Pete got the new newels installed, I followed behind, reinstalling the nosing so it would be ready to support the balusters under the railings.

Pete returned after the New Years holiday and has been working meticulously to get everything installed correctly and with precision. Since all these wood parts will be clear finished after dying them to color, the newels that touch the walls have to be carefully coped so that there is no gap of any kind between them and the wall. No caulk can be used...this is just plain great woodworking craftsmanship. As I write this, he has about one more day's work to finish the installation and I’m extremely pleased with the results.

Below you’ll find a number of pictures from this process, but first...a quick look at the exterior on Christmas Day after the gutters finally got up. I though it might stop raining at that point, but alas, it stayed wet for a few more days.

And I just couldn’t resist “trying out” the hall table I made for this specific spot earlier in 2007...yup, it fits!

Stair work in progress:

say bye-bye to the old, rickety steps!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 02:06:00 +0000

One of the things I’ve been looking forward to is the elimination of the open barn wood steps in our great room. The new stairway in the addition replaces them and yesterday was the day for “the honorary Dr. Destructo” (me) to do the deed. It took a few hours because I wanted to be careful not to damage the floor, etc., but in retrospect, I am so happy that the job is done. Those steps were an accident waiting to happen with very poor construction and a lot of wood that was marginal in strength and quality.

After getting them down, it was time to carefully repair the barn wood wall where the old stair landing was previously located. Longer boards were needed and I was able to use the bottom railing from up on the landing for part of the filler. I did need to butt-splice two pieces, but it will not be glaringly noticeable once the room is put back together. There were three small areas to repair on the floor, but some careful dye application followed by shellac made them all but disappear.

I’m happy to say that we are now ready for Myron, the stair-master, to start his work later in the week, installing a new railing system across the loft and into the addition.

22 december 2007 update

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 02:00:00 +0000

Drywall continued through the week leading up to the Christmas holiday. All the mud work is complete, save some sanding which the dynamic duo of Chris and Chris will take care of next Thursday. In fact, the multi-purpose room is sanded and ready for paint...we need that space for the 11" wide pine flooring to acclimate and it's arriving next Thursday morning, too. The gutter folks finally started their work on Friday. I'm glad. Maybe that will stop the rain!

rockin’-a!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:55:00 +0000

I know...I’ve been remiss in posting lately. Work and business travel to China intervened with my ability to deal with this over the last two weeks...but there certainly is some nice news to share: We started drywall...’rockin...yesterday!

Last week, a lot of odds and ends were completed in preparation for the Sheetrock, including some last minute electrical wiring changes, the rough framing inspection, the porch soffit, a water line into the attic for future use for a humidifier, and so forth. Jim and Keith completed the break-through into the existing house both on the first and second floors and framed in the ceiling over the loft in the great room at the connection to the new structure. They also did some additional framing around the sprinkler tank area to provide for keeping drafts and dampness out of our home.

And Monday we got rolling on the walls...the team of Chris and Chris are excellent craftsmen when it comes to drywall. I have yet to see them bugger a single piece of drywall and they work very efficiently, too. Even with that job only about half done at the end of today, it’s been transformational for the whole project...even more so given the free visual access into the addition from our great room.

Next week, the stair folks will return to work on the railings and I expect that prior to the Christmas holiday, we will be ready to start interior finishing work, such as the wide pine and green slate floors, green slate on the shower walls and then on to painting.

In the mean time, here are some pictures from Friday through today.

thanksgiving 2007 update

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 01:41:00 +0000

Thanksgiving day this year...22 November 2007...is an extra special day as it’s also the two year anniversary of our girls’s adoption from Russia. I wrote a bit about this in our other BLOG today.

Today is also a good day to update with a few exterior pictures. It was wet and rainy when I was taking the last set, so these had to wait until it was raining only a little bit. :-) At any rate, you can see that things are falling into place quite nicely. We are extremely pleased with our color choices as they will help this structure melt into the property very nicely...it’s big and some color choices might have made it stick out a bit too much. The siding color is called TimberBark and the windows and trim are something akin to a light taupe. (Pella’s “putty” if we had chosen their products; but those windows are from Weathershield) The doors and standing seam roofing over the porches will be a dark bronze as will the exterior lighting fixtures. (Please note that the window trim in some of these photos is still primed white. The third photo provides an example of what the final colors look like)

Yesterday, the gas company was out to replace the meter so it is more suitable to our new needs. Unfortunately, the technician discovered that the folks putting on the siding hit one of the lines going to the second floor of the addition with a nail, so the HVAC folks will need to be out tomorrow to rectify that before the insulators are back on Monday. Nothing like a little more “gas powered” excitement around here!

golly gee...a new inspector...and insulation commences

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:47:00 +0000

Last week, I was in the UK on business and was pleased to come home to a lot more siding installed, a passed electrical inspection, a passed rough sprinkler inspection and a few other nice things that got done. Michael had also informed me that he had scheduled the framing inspection for Monday morning (yesterday). Both of us had major trepidation that a visit from our “friend” Frank the inspector would be a major bummer. Much to our mutual surprise, we met Steve...the new inspector. What a remarkable difference. The walk-through was a pleasure and outside of two very small and easily rectifiable items having to do with plate perforations, we are good to go. He’ll give us our framing sign-off when he returns for the insulation inspection next week after he sees that we have made the minor adjustments he requested. Wow! What a remarkable difference! (But I already said that once...)

Today, the insulators got started on the spray-foam. They already had installed the baffles for air flow control under the roof deck, so it was time to spray-away. And they did. By the end of the day as I write this, they have the entire roof done as well as the gables and have tackled most of the second floor walls, too. This is a great product. It provides very high insulation values...R7 to the inch, a total and complete vapor barrier envelope, has both fire and mold resistance and adds significant structural stiffness. I’ve sometimes joked that one could park a truck on top of this addition due to the overbuild, but now I guess it moves to two trucks. :-) At any rate, the insulators will be back early next week to finish the work (as long as hunting season doesn’t, umm...distract them...as it does for many of the trades it seems) and we can then move on to drywall. Once that work is accomplished, the framers and carpenters can effect the connections to the original structure after the HVAC system is able to be fired up.

Here are some pictures from today’s insulation work:

things are moving along - 11 November update

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:20:00 +0000

Ok...I’ve been a bit remiss in posting over the last two weeks. Life has been busy. The good news is that things are moving along “noticeably”. While the last of the electrical work is going on inside, the porch was built earlier this past week and the siding is now in full progress.

Regarding the porch...having that go up was a defining moment for the project as it’s the most notable exterior feature outside of the new structure, itself. In addition to the obvious functions it will play in our lives as well as providing an inviting entry to our home, the porch really helps to tie the original structure with the new and helps to eliminate the “seam” between them. The same is true for all the excellent trim work that Jim and Keith have been laboring on for some time now. At the completion of this project, it should not feel like yet another an addition was added to the home; rather, it will be much more like a single entity that fits into the landscape of our property like it’s been there for a long time.

We should have our electrical inspection sometime next week and will also be shooting for our final framing inspection in the same time period, assuming we get our “as-built” plans from the architect. (He recently had back surgery and it still getting caught up) Once that is done, the closed cell spray-foam insulation will be installed, followed by drywall. And then we can move on to opening up the new structure to the existing great room...something we didn’t want to do before we had the new areas under heat given the time of year we are now facing.

Here’s a few pictures to bring you up to date visually:

week of 22 October round-up

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 02:21:00 +0000

More progress this week was in the cards as well as a little more aggravation from the inspector. On the positive side, the front door was installed, the rebar/screen and forms laid for the porch floor and trim work moved ahead on the existing structure. Mike-the-electrician was back working and expects to complete the rough in by the end of next week...he’s been running hard with his normal assistant laid up with bad health. The sprinkler system is now essentially ready to go and the siding arrived and is waiting its turn. Once the porch floor is poured, Mike-the-framer can return and build the porch roof. And then the roofing/siding folks can start putting up that siding shown in the picture below.

On a sour note, the inspector “failed” our porch floor preparations because we were not planning to pour the same day. (who can wait around and hold a concrete truck for an inspector?) He then tacked on a little of his own creativity, demanding that we put a 6 mil vapor barrier under the porch slab. The required Dan-the-mason to return to the site again, pull up the rebar/screen, place the plastic and then re-lay the rebar/screen. His reasoning? Well, "somebody may want to close in the porch someday." Yea, right. Someone’s going to close in a featured front porch on a 4000 sq foot home in this area? Not a chance. When Michael took it to the township, they just shrugged and agreed with the logic. The inspector then basically said it was his way or the highway. Ching...ching...that was the sound of the money for putting down the plastic. Sheesh!

But we are moving along despite the local jurisdiction challenges that continue to raise the cost and delay the progress.

goodbye to “the hole”...finally...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:09:00 +0000

Wow...another week has passed. As I mentioned in my previous post from Monday, the windows are in and they look great. (The front door also arrived and it’s beautiful) Last Saturday, Jim and Keith finished up the Aztek board cap on the retaining wall and on Monday, they also got the flashing installed as well as a lot of the trim around the windows done after installing the same. Tuesday and Wednesday brought the rest of the trim work to near-completion and from an external point of view, the project is really looking nice.

Thursday was a banner day...with our foundation approval finally awarded, the porch was backfilled, drainage pipe for the down spouts and patio was installed and a good part of the backfilling around the addition was accomplished. Goodbye to “The Hole”! (Jim and I filled in the side near the patio and fish pond manually on Saturday morning as the larger machine could not access that area)

On Saturday, in addition to the aforementioned manual backfilling work, Jim and Keith took off the old “canopy” roof over the kitchen door and replaced it structurally with something more balanced and attractive. The original roof was certainly functional when it was first build, but when the previous owners added the bay window above for a bathroom remodel, the result was a strange combination that needed improvement. Discussions with Michael and our architect, Jim Gray, came out with re-building a new canopy roof that is wider with a lower pitch and centered under the bay window above it. Trimming it out the same as the addition will help to tie the old with the new visually, even though this entrance will become de-emphasized once the addition is “open for business” in a few months. We’ll also re-trim the two first floor windows to match, too.

Today, Sunday, I installed the conduit for an outlet near the pond pump house so we can do away with the temporary extension cord strung from a tree to the house. The electrician will cut it in to the new structure as part of his finishing touches. I also cleaned up the backfill material (which was somewhat muddy from the heavy rain Friday night) and put more stone down on the driveway to keep things clean during continued construction.

Hopefully, this coming week will bring completion of the electrical and sprinkler system and I suspect the stairs are not far behind, either.

winders!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:26:00 +0000

This is a busy week for me due to some “business business” for me, but I was very pleased to come home last night and see...WINDOWS! And they look great. Here’s one quick picture...I’ll get more posted later in the week from a time when it’s not dark outside. (This time of year, the sun disappears way too early for my tastes!) The crew has also got a lot more of the exterior trim work done and Dan the mason did an outstanding job on the finishing steps for the retaining wall.

“landing” the stairs...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:17:00 +0000

Michael’s excellent carpentry crew was here today to build the intermediate stairway landing and do a few other odds and ends. The HVAC contractor is all but finished at this point, finalizing the gas connections and making some adjustments to the dryer vent. We had hoped that the windows would have come in, but they are still on a truck from the manufacturer. And, of course, it’s been raining. I suspect, however, that the rain is because I took the mower deck off the tractor last weekend...

Oh, and the big news is...the inspector finally approved our foundation and we can now backfill the remainder of “the hole”. That’s certainly a nice thing as those open areas outside of the foundation are quite deep and safety is alway a concern.

Some pictures from today’s activities:

today was a “gas”...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:47:00 +0000

So I was driving up the road to pick up Michael for our appointment with the stair man and had to pull over to allow a speeding fire truck to pass going the other way. ’Didn’t think much of it since it happens once in awhile. I arrived at his house and we were off to pick up Alison at her office not too far away when Michael’s phone rang. It was the HVAC contractor. They had nicked the gas line coming in from that street...and guess what? That fire truck was already at our house “just in case”. Sheesh!

Now, “PA One-Call” had been engaged to mark the position of the supply line from the street that crosses our lawn to arrive at the meter just outside the house. A nice yellow paint line. Unfortunately, the actual position of the thing was about a foot an a half off that path and the end result was a bit of a leak. No matter, PECO took care of things and the new line between the meter and the addition got buried. Unfortunately, the gas was still off when I arrived home with a note to call in to arrange for restoration of service. With a four hour window, that meant no gas until nearly 8pm. We survived.

Today was also our visit at the stair shop up in Quakertown. Myron Slabaugh, while a little intense in person, is a great craftsman and already had a good handle on our job. In fact, he had done a site visit about a week before while I was away and had the exact measurements necessary to produce our stairs in-hand. After a few questions about some details he needed to finalize the structure, it was time to pick materials. There are so many choices, and we needed to take care of both the new stairs as well as a new railing across the existing great room once the old stairs come out. Interestingly enough, we stuck with yellow pine that matches the wide pine flooring that will go down in the addition (consistent with the current home) and a relatively simple design with square balusters and newels (the latter with a nice built-up cap) and a basic railing that features a small bead on the side. In order to break things up a little, Michael suggested that we dye and glaze the newels and railing a little darker than the balusters, treads and flooring...adding a little aging to the railing, in particular. That was a fine idea and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

Here are a few pictures around the gas line installation.

saturday, 6 october 2007 update

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 01:02:00 +0000

Ok, I admit that I have been extremely remiss in posting over the past week, but I was traveling on business and didn’t really have access to my photos or to first-hand knowledge of what work was in progress. That said, things are moving along on our project.

Mike the plumber has finished all the rough plumbing and the HVAC folks are just nailing down a few odds and ends...like the gas supply for the furnace, hot water system and dryer. The sprinkler people were in last week and blew out all the work in the living space areas and the electrician got started on his tasks. Michael’s excellent finish carpentry crew (Jim and Keith) have the exterior trim on the addition nearly complete and will move on to replacing the same on the existing structure. (what’s there is in poor condition and replacing means an easier job when it comes to painting later) Oh, and Dan the mason was back last week and has the rest of the retaining wall built and ready for filling...which he will be doing on Tuesday.

Tuesday also brings a trip to the stairmaker’s shop to choose what we want for railings and balusters on both the new stairs and along the edge of the loft-library above the existing great room. We seem to have picked out a front door, too, and the windows should be arriving later in the week. Completing that thought, the James Hardie siding is on the dock of the supplier “as we speak”.

While there is still visible work to do on the exterior of both the new and old structure, things will soon start to “slow down”, relatively speaking, especially after the spray foam insulation and drywall gets in place. At that point, it’s a lot of detail work for a couple months. Should be fun!

Here are a few assorted pictures from the last two weeks.

week of 24 September update

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 01:59:00 +0000

It was a busy week...so busy that I just have not had the opportunity to work with the pictures I took. But in general, the rough plumbing is completed and it appears we may have gotten inspection approval on that. Mike the Plumber did a wonderful job and if I ever need to call a plumber, he’ll be the one on the other end of the phone. The HVAC team is nearly done with their work, too, and Mike the Electrician starts on Monday with his work. The stair specialist will also be stopping by to see what’s in store for him! Oh, and the septic folks completed their work on Thursday...I’ll do a full post on that when I get the opportunity. (Work is going to keep me running for a few days, unfortunately)

Michael’s carpentry crew started on the exterior trim work on Thursday and wow...incredibly good work. They essentially set up a workshop in the driveway (coincidentally just outside my own workshop) and got cracking on the fascia boards, returns and soffits. Rather than use cheesy moldings to hold the soffit material, they literally put a groove to fit in the back side of the fascia boards for an outstandingly clean look. Here’s just one picture of that work now...more to follow later.

friday is “wasted” successfully

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:28:00 +0000

Mike the plumber has now finished up the waste lines and spent the latter part of the day doing pressure testing. He’s confident that the work will pass inspection once we are able to get one. I have to say that his routing and neat work has been a asset to this project. The HVAC folks were also back and have the majority of the work in the crawlspace completed. Once they are able to build the stacks up to the attic, they pretty much will not have to go back into the “depths” other than to run the gas line from the existing structure into the new one.

He and I were also talking for awhile about the possible route(s) available for getting the cold water line up to the second floor laundry room where our tankless water heating system will be located. The local inspector is loath to let any of the micro-lam beams have even small holes in them, so we are going to need to use some creativity to get from point A to point B and C beyond in an efficient manner. But if it can be done...Mike will figure it out!

Alison and I also visited the plumbing supply today to pick out our bathroom fixtures. Two toilets, one prefabricated shower (for the guest bath) and a whole lot of “chrome” should begin arriving in the near future. And we did it in about 45 minutes...not something that happens with all of Michael’s clients apparently. While we did go to a local tile place afterward, we pretty much have settled on green slate for the bathroom floors, master shower room and the foyer floor. The cost is actually about the same as ceramics and the natural character is well north of mundane! Assuming we give the go-ahead, it will be ordered direct from Vermont where it is quarried and will be installed by the master tile crew that Michael uses on his jobs.

Tomorrow (Saturday), the roofers should be back to work toward getting the addition and connector bridge fully, well...roofed. (It’s what they do I hear :-) ) That will be good because it will be a mad-house [sic] around here next week with the septic folks taking up the whole driveway and then some for a few days. I warned some of the trades today that there would likely be some very creative parking opportunities for a good part of next week.

Here are a couple pictures taken today...a slow photo day, but an important milestone, nonetheless.

two days with one post....

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:12:00 +0000

The theme continued over the past few days, with Mike the plumber getting the waste lines and vents fully installed and the HVAC crew doing their initial register and return placement and starting to get the main trunk under the first floor installed. Mike is nearly done with the waste system, only having to tie into the main line just off the future patio. He should complete that tomorrow and then begin to rough in the copper cold and hot water pipes.

The roofers should be back tomorrow and I suspect they will knock out the two addition roofs as well as the back side of the existing great room fairly quickly. My septic folks are (finally) starting on Saturday with taking down two large Tulip Poplar trees that are located where the two additional trenches need to go. Those trees will not be wasted...the trunks will be cut into 8' sections that I will have milled into lumber for my woodworking projects and everything else will be chipped and used for landscape mulch on the property. They should complete their work retrofitting the absorption field (a pressure dose system...much like a sand mound but sub-surface) by mid-week next week. Dan, the mason, will also be back next week to put up the block retaining walls that will protect the structure that is located below grade. Unfortunately, all this is also going to produce a nasty parking problem for all the trades that will be here at the same time.

We are also working hard to get some changes made to the approved plans to satisfy the township regarding our foundation drain. Sadly, there has been a real communication problem on this issue. Hopefully, we have it “solved” soon so we can back-fill for a safer site and so we can move things along.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday and today, starting with some HVAC work.

And some plumbing...

continued work on the waste lines and hvac started

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 02:04:00 +0000

Tuesday was another beautiful day for working outdoors. Mike the plumber was back and concentrated mainly on getting all his holes cut for finishing out the waste lines. A local power failure due to an auto accident somewhere did curtail some of the work time, but tomorrow he should get all the waste lines completed and be able to move on to the copper water supplies. (my original intention was to use PEX for the water lines, but the township has an ordinance, believe it or not, that requires copper...no way around it)

The HVAC folks also got started today with placing supply termination plates and doing some of the initial air return work. Michael, the GC, uses these folks on a lot of his jobs and it’s very nice to see that they know how to work well together as quite often in construction, there can be clashes between the trades over things like who gets to route what where...not a problem on this job!

we have pipe...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:27:00 +0000

Well, we can name this officially “plumbing week” as our friend Mike the plumber got to work bright and early Monday morning with a good start on getting our waste lines installed. I like how Mike works...he’s a problem solver. The “problem”? What is the best way to get our main drain line efficiently through the structure and hooked up to the existing septic system as well as how to best route the various drains and vents so they minimize disruption to the structure and other trades...such as the HVAC guys? He’s good. And a pleasure to have on-site.

Our rough plumbing should be, well...plumbed...by the end of the week, more or less. And we have an appointment on Friday to fondle fixture options at the supply house. (I hear the dollar bills dripping out of our wallets already...)

John, the HVAC subcontractor also stopped by to physically check out the structure and talk about our chase between the attic where the heating/cooling system will live and the crawl space two “floors” below. He’s equally a problem solver and I am looking forward to working with him on this project!

of mikes and men

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:25:00 +0000

Today was a down day for any work on the addition. The framers have moved on and the roofers will be back as soon as they are free. But I did have a visit from the plumber today to look over the site and prepare for his work that will be starting on Monday.

Now, you may recall that my GC's name is Michael. He has a young man named Mike on his staff working as a carpenter. The framer’s name is Mike. The plumber who was out today...Mike. The electrician? You got it. Mike. I suspect there is someone on the roofer’s team that is also named Mike or Michael. We seem to have a theme going on here! (The HVAC guy lucked out...he’s a John!) Sheesh!

And with that humorous thought, I’ll leave you with a quick picture of one of the master bath vanities. (the right side unit) They are ready for final finishing so I can move on to the next thing on my list; likely, the cabinets for the “toilet room” in the master bath. Don’t be concerned by the light and dark portions you see...some components have not been oiled yet...all will be that rich natural cherry color that appears darker in the photo.