The wonder of indoor plumbing, electricity and finishing hardwood floors...

The wonder of indoor plumbing, electricity and finishing hardwood floors...

March 1 - 3 -- Indoor plumbing is really a miraculous thing, and something that I have come to appreciate even more so while living in a house undergoing renovation and not having any source of running water on the first floor since June of 2013 -- about 8 months.  

So many of my friends keep asking me if I regret my decision to live in the house during this renovation.  I continue to say no regrets, and I mean it.  I have learned so much about this process.  I have met interesting craftsmen and have gained a lot of insight into the process of building, as well as acquiring a much better grasp of how building plays a central role in driving the US economy.  I did save money having to only pay a monthly mortgage instead of a monthly mortgage AND a monthly rent.  By not having to pay both a mortgage and a rent, the money that would have been used for rent is now being used for this house project - this is sort of like sweat equity. 

Although I am confident that I had a vast amount of character before starting this process, there have been many "character-building" experiences along the way.  There is also an odd ethic that has been part of this process of "earning" what will be an amazing house with luxury features far beyond my imagination (e.g., a fireplace in the master bedroom, a heated tile floor in the master bathroom, just to name a few) by making some sacrifices that came with living in the construction zone (e.g., no kitchen since last June; sleeping on the floor on a 4 inch foam pad or my "dog bed").  As I have discovered many times in my life, I always appreciate those things that I have worked hard for and even made sacrifices for, and this house will be no exception.

Living here also gave me the ability to supervise the project first-hand and that permitted me to make sure that things were done a certain way.  So, no regrets at all, even though there have been frustrations and challenges along the way.

This little bit of reflection comes as I am finally seeing just a little flicker of light at the end of a very long tunnel.  Although I am still NOT asking the contractor when the project will be done - -because the answer is that it will be done when it is done -- there is a feeling that there will be an end in the not too distant future.  This optimism could also be a function of the fact that daylight savings time is approaching next week and there are only 17 more days to the official start of spring with the vernal equinox on March 20th.

On that note, I am in wonder of indoor plumbing.  The plumber stopped by for a few hours on Friday and then back on Saturday afternoon.  

The master bathroom shower fixtures have been installed, as shown below.

The soaker tub fixtures have been installed (that weird reflection around the spigot in the photos is because of the camera flash).

Just about all of the plumbing is done in the master bathroom except for the drain in one of the vanity sinks.

The guest bath still has a lot of plumbing work that remains to be done, but there has been some progress.  On Friday the claw foot tub was moved into the guest suite bathroom and today, it was delicately placed in its spot.  As you can see, it just fits!  The chrome supply lines have to be installed to the tub in addition to installing the drain, the pressure balance rough in valve (which will be installed in the floor underneath the tub or the ceiling of the basement) and the actual bath fixture itself.

The 3/4 bath plumbing is essentially done with a functioning toilet, the sink faucet and now the shower is done, as shown below.  Of course, the bathroom hardware fixtures, such as the towel bars and other accessories will be installed when the finish carpenters return.

And, today the dishwasher, which was in a packing crate sitting in the foyer, has now been moved and installed in the kitchen, in between the sink and the double ovens, as shown below.











Such is the miracle of indoor plumbing.




The electricity to the garage comes from the electrical panel and before the renovation, the electrical panel was located on the back of the house, opposite the garage, but that is a thing of the past.  Throughout construction there has been a temporary power line to the garage, but that won't do for the final electrical inspection.  Given that the electrical panels are now on the north side of the house, about as far away from the garage as possible, the electricians had to go into problem-solving mode.  Sure enough, they have dug a trench and buried the power line from the electrical panel to the garage.

Below and to the left you can see the old electrical connections to the garage, and the three red connectors that held the temporary power line.  In addition to digging a 24 inch deep trench for the power line to the garage, they brought the power line up from the ground to the side of the garage, as shown below.  Tonight the car is parked on the street, but tomorrow morning they will complete the electrical connection to the garage and once again the electric garage door will work.

With the main electrical inspection behind us, the only thing that remains will be wiring two circuits for the greenhouse and adding a few outlets on the south side deck.

The indoor plumbing and the electricity are progressing nicely, with only minor tasks that remain (the plumber will bring a gas line to the deck for a future natural gas grill and he needs to install a hose bid toward the west side of the house).  Next up, is the task of refinishing the new and old hardware floors, bringing in the finish carpenters to install quarter-round trim to the floors and baseboards, installing door hardware, bathroom towels, and a few other details, followed by the painters to do interior touch-up and then to paint the pergola, the gutters, and to touch up the exterior.  Of course, the rooms that I am living in will need to be vacated and the painters will complete all drywall patches and paint and the floors will be refinished.

This morning one of the guys from the floor company arrived.  We had a nice little chat, and he explained to me how the technology has improved so much that there will be minimal dust when he sands the floors.  He told me that the machines now are so good at sucking up the dust created by the sanding that he no longer needs to wear a mask or ventilator when he sands the floors.  All I could think about was the possibility of a worker that would not create mess that I would have to clean up.  Well, I also thought about how cool the finished and refinished red oak floors will look when they are done.

As I was leaving the house, I couldn't help but turn around to take a few photos of the floor guy's machines and tools poised on the front porch.

When I came home this afternoon, the sanded floors in the master bedroom suite had been partially sanded, as shown below.

Most of the floors in the master bedroom had been sanded, except near the edges, which will have to be sanded by hand.

All the remaining stuff (e.g., containers of screws, drywall material, etc) had been removed from the guest suite, 

and the dining room,

and the kitchen,

and from the gathering room, in preparation to apply wood filler and to sand the floors.

I am totally digging having floor machines in the foyer instead of the dishwasher, which has now joined all of the appliances in the kitchen except for the refrigerator.  Yeah, baby -- I can even begin to see the light inside the refrigerator!

Too much of a good thing?

Too much of a good thing?

February 27th -- My first 26 years of living in this old house taught me how to deal with the cold winters and hot summers.  With most of the original windows, very little insulation within the lath and plaster walls, an old roof, an inefficient furnace, and don't even get me started on the drafts, I learned how to adapt to the temperature.  During the winter, I grew accustomed to layering while indoors, including wearing a down vest, sleeping under a down comforter, strategically placing portable ceramic heaters around the house, and resorting to taking a hot shower as the only way to feel warm. During the summer, I strategically placed box fans in windows that were often impossible to open without the use of a hammer and chisel after being closed for the winter, I became the master of cross-ventilation,  and often didn't turn on the oven between the months of  late June and early September.  In late spring, after I had already turned off the furnace for the season and when the mornings were still cold and the afternoons warm, I would literally have to open the windows because it was warmer outside than it was inside!

All of that will now be a thing of the past.  Today the HVAC subcontractors returned to complete the installation of my new zone-heating system.  

First, the guys were blown-away.  When they were here last time, there were only studs and wiring and the venting that they had installed.  Whether they were just being polite, I will never know, but they were full of all sorts of compliments about how the house had progressed from the last time they were here and how great it looked.  Second, they were almost as excited as I was to see if this zone heating system would work.  On September 1st they had the new furnace up and running, but not the zone system that opens and closes the dampers that are powered by a vacuum system.  That is, the dampers and hoses to and from the dampers were set, but the control box that powers the vacuum system was not installed....until today!

Here is the control box that makes the zone system work to open and close the dampers in the heating vents on demand.

These wires go from the vacuum system control box to the four different zones, written on the duct below -- basically new construction upstairs; new construction downstairs; original house upstairs; and original house downstairs.

Each zone system operates on its own programmable thermostat that looks like this.  

This is the thermostat, located in the hallway between the master bedroom and bathroom.  It controls the heating zone that is basically the master bedroom suite.  Within this space is the heated floor in the master bathroom as well as the gas fireplace.  I'm guessing that during the winter this zone will often be off or set to a very low temperature because of the heat generated by the floor and the fireplace.

This thermostat is located in the room at the top of the stairs to the upper level.  It is one of the rooms of the old part of the house that will only have the floors refinished and the walls painted.  Because this zone includes the second upper-level bathroom and my office (the room I am currently sleeping in) it will prove to be more comfortable with heat during the winter.  These rooms have always been the coldest in the house.

This thermostat is located in the dining room downstairs.  The only construction in this room was to add the glass doors to the deck on the south side of the house.  However, this zone includes the older parts of the house, including the living room (which is now my temporary kitchen, foyer, dining room and the guest suite (bedroom and bathroom) that is a mix of old and new construction.

This thermostat is located on the wall just outside the 3/4 bathroom and will control the heat to the mudroom, gathering room, 3/4 bathroom, kitchen, and the hallway outside the pantry and laundry room, which is mostly all new construction.












In addition to the thermostats, the heating vents were installed, along with the cold air returns, like this one located on the side of the fireplace in the master bedroom.

So, what is "too much of a good thing?"  

After I programmed all the thermostats, I started shedding clothes because this old house actually became too warm.  Yes, I know, too warm in February, how could that be?  Well, with all the new insulation, new roof, double-pane windows, high energy efficient furnace, and so on, this house is much easier to heat and retains the heat well.  This is going to take some getting used to so that I don't sweat during the winter, as I usually did during the summer.  

A theme of this home renovation journey continues to be two steps forward and one step backward.  

While the HVAC subcontractors were installing the rest of the system, one asked me a question and when I returned to my office/temporary bedroom, there was no power.   Not good.  I went to the electrical panel to see if a circuit had blown, and it did.  However, it would not re-set.  I called the electrician who suggested that I power my temporary bedroom tonight by running an extension cord from the cgfi outlet in the second upstairs bathroom (the one that I am using that will be renovated after I move into the master bedroom suite).  

So, the two steps forward is the completed new zone heating system that is very very comfortable.  The one step backward is that the computer that I am writing this blog on tonight is powered by this extension cord that is running from a cgfi outlet in this bathroom

 through a closet, 

outside the closet door,

across the floor at the top at the stairs to the upper level and into my office/temporary bedroom:

And, because half of my office/temporary bedroom is powered by this extension cord (there is no power to my lamps or ceiling light); the only light I have, besides the glow of my computer monitor, is this little florescent light that I've plugged into the power strip that is being powered by the extension cord from the cgfi outlet. 

The electrician explained that the circuit keeps blowing because the new circuit breakers required by the building code do not work well on the old wired circuits in the house, which includes my home office.  The electrician will be here first thing in the morning with a remedy that he has already figured out to fix for the old wiring - new circuit breaker problem.

Oh well, at least I know that I will be warm tonight, but I just hope I won't be too warm!!  But, in February, that would be a nice problem to have.

Electrifying

Electrifying....

February 25th -- today is a much better day than yesterday.  The electricians returned early and the plumbers were back.  I raced off to the plumbing supply house to request the missing trim piece.  I was successful last night to drop off the lock sets at a "big box" home improvement center and would need to return to pick up the re-keyed locks.  The electricians continued their work to install the remaining light fixtures and to complete the new wiring and expanded electrical panel.

I returned to find that the plumber had installed the kitchen faucet, as shown below.

The faucet had been installed in the guest suite bathroom -- this faucet was selected to match the plumbing that will be in stalled in the claw foot tub that will go in this bathroom

The light fixture was also installed over the sink in this bathroom, as shown here.

By the end of the day, the wiring was done, the circuits were no longer failing and light fixtures and plumbing fixtures were shining in the kitchen, 

in the pantry....

in the 3/4 bathroom, which also has a faucet (and only awaits the shower trim to be complete)....

The  ceiling fan, lights and speakers were installed in the master bedroom ....

The two faucets were installed in the master bathroom.

Part of the bath tub fixtures were installed in the master bathroom.

The control box for the heat coils that were installed under the tile floor in the master bath was installed and the tile floor is warm to the touch.  This control box has way too many functions, so I will need to read the manual so that I can program when to heat the bathroom tile floor!

As soon as the remaining bath tub fixtures and shower fixtures are installed, the master bath room will soon be functional.

Although we still need a few glass cover trims for canister lights in closets and over bath tubs and showers to meet code, the electricians will request a final electrical inspection for tomorrow or the day after.

The plumber is scheduled to return tomorrow to install the pot filler faucet in the kitchen and to complete the remaining bathrooms.  It isn't clear when the work will begin on the plumbing for the claw foot tub, which is currently sitting in the gathering room and needs to be reglazed. 

There are exterior hose bibs and a gas line to the deck for a future grill that the plumbers need to install, as well as the completion of the green house and the electrical circuits for it.   However, the weather has turned very cold -- temps are in the teens -- with snow, so there will be no work outside until the weather gets warmer later this week.