90 degrees in the shade.....

90 degrees in the shade....

August 4th -- 90 degrees in the shade is the name of a classic cocktail that a friend (and you know who you are!) has promised to make for me, and what I hope to be drinking one day during the hottest day of the year next summer as I sit on the covered deck off the master bedroom.

The most significant event today was the framing of the covered deck -- finally, and wow is this going to be great.

The next three photos show the covered deck from the north side of the house.

Here is a view of the deck as it faces west and as you look at the back of the house.  The best architect in the world designed the deck so that it will be possible to sit outside as the sun shines while there will be enough shade  to actually enjoy a classic cocktail

While I dream of sipping classic cocktails next summer as I sit on the covered deck off the master bedroom, the amazing guys on the roofing crew continue to put in 11 hour days, doing what has to be one of the most dangerous and dirty jobs in construction.  At least there was a good deal of cloud cover today so they didn't have to work with the sun beating mercilessly down on them.  

The primary goal now is to get all the exterior framing done as soon as possible and the roof for the entire structure completed (which was why the covered deck was framed so it can be roofed, before the rest of the siding was installed).  Then, the new furnace will be installed, along with the venting required for the planned zone heating system.  Once the furnace is in, then the structural support post can be placed in the basement so that an interior load-bearing wall can be moved to accommodate at least a double-sized bed in the guest suite.

The contractor came by today for my meeting with the kitchen designer.  The kitchen designer and I have already met twice at his showroom, but this was the first time he was on site to make some preliminary measurements. Although the demolition of the original back wall of the house is not yet complete (about 2 feet of brick needs to be removed and a lentil installed), the kitchen designer and the contractor discussed important fine details, such as which ceiling joists should hold the venting for the range hood.  In the mean time, my imagination is running wild as I begin to think of the amazing cabinets, granite counter tops and new appliances that will form the galley-style kitchen....but, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The new windows -- for the existing part of the house, including the sliding glass doors (the replacement for the current double windows) that will open to the pergola-covered deck on the south side yard -- are scheduled to arrive on site before the week is over.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. John F. Kennedy

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."  JFK 

Sept. 3 -- I just returned from a few days away from the construction zone to enjoy the long Labor Day holiday weekend.  I would like to think that we've hit the half-way mark on this project, but when you're in the uber-zen mode, what is time anyway?

Labor Day is supposed to be the last official weekend of summer and ushers in the coming of fall.  With record-breaking heat, it looks like summer is going out kicking and screaming.  

Whenever I escape the construction zone for a few days, it is always amazing to see what has been going on in my absence.  There have been advances on two fronts.

 First, the members of the framing crew were still working on the siding and almost all windows have now been installed in the new construction of the house.  The doors have yet to appear on site.

This next shot shows the three windows in the new master bathroom with cedar shingles (this picks up the theme of the cedar shingles on the shed dormer to the left) and to the right are the three windows in the dormer that is the new master bedroom.  Below the master bedroom windows you can see the three windows in the stairwell that leads to the basement.  (Note to self -- ask the architect what the deal is about windows that come in threes).

The next sequence of shots are close-ups of the installation of the siding

The second front where there has been great progress is shown in this last photo as a preview -- you can see a few members of the roofing crew, to which we now turn our attention.

The pitch on the roof of the original house is, to put it in simple terms, insanely steep.  You seriously need to be a thrill-seeker / daredevil type to want to get on the top of this roof -- not for the faint of heart or me.  Yet, it was amazing to see the members of the roofing crew do their work -- some of them wore safety harnesses so that they were tethered to the roof, but others simply wore a safety harness that wasn't attached to anything!

As I mentioned in a previous post, in 1903 the original roof was constructed with wooden rafters and then cedar shingles were applied. Over the years three layers of shingles were applied.   Today, roof joists form the rafters and plywood sheeting covers the rafters, roof paper is applied and then the composite shingles go on top of the paper.  The roofers had to remove the current layers of shingles and scrape all the way down to the original rafters.  

This next photos shows one of the roofers (with no safety harness!) scraping the original roofing materials down to the bare slats over the rafters.

Here is a view of the roof debris piling up before it is shoved off the side of the roof to land below in a tarp so that it can be carried off to the construction dumpster.

This photo provides some context:  The steep pitch of the roof, the crew balancing on the top, the roofing supplies truck with a telescopic conveyor belt that sends up sheets of plywood, roofing shingles and the like.

The next few shots give a general sense of the process involved..

 

The members of the roofing crew work until well after 6:00pm, and they make sure to cover the exposed parts of the roof in the event of showers.

At this rate, a new roof should cover the entire house before the week is over!

Two steps forward, one step back....

Two steps forward, one step back....

August 28th  -- There has been great forward progress which makes it easier to cope with  the momentary set backs that feel like a step backwards.

First, the forward progress.  Here are some photos showing the view of the south side of the house showing how the mudroom and read addition ties into the roof line and how the mudroom looks like it is sitting among the grove of 100-year-old lilacs

Here is another shot of the west-facing or back of the house to given an idea of the progress with installing the unpainted siding, the soffits, installation of the windows, and so on.

On Monday the plumbing contractors installed a new, power-vented, 40-gallon hot water heater and tank.  The water was shut off for several hours and by the end of the day the old tank was removed, the new tank was in and running.  My showers in the morning have never been more delightful.  

So far so good...that is until this morning.  The electrician was here to move the electrical panel to the northwest corner of the back of the house.  Given the past two bad experiences when all the electricity and phone lines were cut and the power-related refrigerator debacle, the contractor and the electricians wanted to get this right.  So, the electrician is following me to the rooms I am living in to ask which areas need to have power.  The upper-level office/bedroom, the main level living room/temporary kitchen, and then it occurs to me that we need to have power to the clock that runs the sprinkler system because I'm trying to at least keep the city-owned parkway green.  The sprinkler system clock is in the basement.

Behold the power vented water heater!

The electrician and I venture into the basement and there is about 2 inches of water on the floor and we quickly see that there is a significant leak with water running out of one of the fittings near the top of the hot water heater.  Just great.   The electrician is just as stunned as I am.  He valiantly attempts to find the shut-offs to stop the water.  In the meantime, my job was to call the contractor.  I called and left a voice message, and followed that up with a text.  A few seconds later, the contractor replies with his own text that reads, "I know. Plumbers on the way."  Have I told you before just how good this contractor is?

 This image really doesn't do justice to show the standing water, but it isn't too difficult to use your imagination.  Yuck.

In the meantime, I give my cell number to the electrician and ask that he call me when he is done moving the electrical panel, but before he leaves for the day so that I can make sure that the fridge is running, the computer reboots, the DSL is connected and that the land line is working before he leaves.

I'm having lunch when my cell phone rings, and instead of the electrician, it is my contractor.  He calls to tell me that the leaking water heater has been fixed and it was NOT due to any installation mistakes by the plumbers, but that when the heater left the factory it was supposed to have a certain setting in the riser, but that setting was never made.  The contractor also assured me that he would stop by at the end of the day to make sure that the fridge was running and that everything else was connected and working.  It is clear that everyone is working hard here to make sure that I don't lose power, that my Internet connection remains, and that there isn't a second round of rotten food in the refrigerator. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the sensitivity of everyone to make sure past problems are not repeated -- I am so fortunate to have such wonderful people working on this project.

When I come home to check on the electricity, I find that there is lots of framing underway on the main level.

This photo shows the framing for the the guest bathroom that is part of the guest suite.  The claw foot tub will be moved to the back wall and here you can see the wall of the guest bath.

The original brick back wall of the house has been partially demolished.  In the photos below you can see part of the brick wall that is still standing and where a good part of the brick wall is gone.  More of the brick wall below (to the right) needs to be removed, but a lentil needs to be installed first.  Once the rest of this brick wall is removed, it will be part of the galley-style kitchen and the double ovens will be located near this brick wall.

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The photo directly above shows the thickness of the original back wall of the house.  On the left of this wall will be the dishwasher and sink and to the right of this brick wall will be the double ovens.  The new galley-style kitchen will continue to the opening to the mudroom rear-entry and will include a desk/multi-purpose counter top with  a microwave and several cabinets..



In this photo to the right and above, you can also see the framing for what will be a 3/4 bath with an entrance from the gathering room.
 

This view shows the original kitchen cabinet that will remain and will be near the entry to the pantry and opposite the entry to the main-level laundry room.

This view is from the future kitchen looking west to the gathering room.  The framing will be part of the enclosure for the new refrigerator.

Two steps forward and one step back....so even though the fridge is working and there is no spoiled food, the electricity is on to the areas where I'm living, there is hot water, the microcell is working so my cell phone is smart, and I am connected to the Internet.  However, there is one slight problem (or step backwards).  There is only one active phone jack now in the house.  I really need at least two jacks -- one for the DSL and the other for the cordless phones.  I buy a splitter to input both lines, one for the DSL and the other for the cordless phone, into the single jack.  Immediately, the mircro cell signal icon starts flashing which means that the signal for DSL is weak.  So, it looks like I have to choose between DSL or cordless phones -- this is easy -- DSL wins. 

By the way, if you want to talk to me, try e-mail or call my cell, but not my land line!

Stairs, windows and siding....oh my!

Stairs, windows and siding...oh my!

August 26th  -- There is so much progress that even these photos are out of date!  

You might remember the big debate about whether to lower the windows in the southwest corner of the gathering room addition.  The issue is that the overhangs were designed to block the blistering sun from the west at the end of the day in the summer, but to also bring in the light...and the verdict is...yes, lower those bad boys.  In this photo you can see how the framing was cut on the bottom and filled in on the top to lower the windows about half a foot.  This will make for a better view -- I won't be looking at the overhangs -- and still meets the purpose of protecting against the heat of the day while bringing in the light.

Here are more windows in the mud room rear entry

These photos show the progress with the siding on the back of the house.  The siding is thinner than usual in an attempt to mirror the width of the bricks on the rest of the house.

You can also see the soffits and how the overhangs are less deep on the north side of the house compared to the south side

To the left is the view of the mudroom rear entry, which is really shaping up.  Today the contractor and I talked about the type of door that will be installed.











Here is a good view of the southwest corner of the gathering room addition with the deep overhangs and soffits.

This view is looking at the south side of the house and the back of the mudroom entry.  Soon the double windows will be removed and a set of sliding doors will be installed that will lead to a deck and pergola. 



 The same view is shown below with a bit more perspective.

And now a brief break for a tomato update.....

Here are the bloody butcher heirlooms

In this pot we have the black cherry tomatoes..

                                                      And, last, but not least are the celebrity tomatoes that are green and looking a bit water-logged.

Back to business...The next three shots provide views of the west-facing wall of the original house.  To the right is the old kitchen window (partially obstructed by a box that contains the new power-vent hot water heater), to the right of that you can see the electrical panel (that will be moved to the northwest corner of the addition), and in the center is the door that now leads into the kitchen.  Pretty soon this entire wall will be demolished!

  

Remember how freaked out I was about the brick foundation that the original house was built on?   Well, it is still pretty freaky, but it turns out that the wall is more than three-bricks deep and much sturdier than it initially looked.  Of course, it is still a brick foundation, which is not the most stable foundation to build a house on, but has stood the test of 110 years.

I was also able to finally venture down the new stairs to the basement.  Although a ladder was left by the crew and will soon be removed, this photo shows the opening into the 3.5 foot high crawl space under the addition.  Eventually this will be cleaned out, leveled, a vapor-barrier will be installed and it will be a nice storage space.

Finally, this photo is a bit dark, but here is the view of the new basement stairs from the basement.

Let's close with a little game of Q & A:

So, what is the most frequent question I have been asked and what has been my response?


Question:  "Given everything you're doing to your house, why don't you just level the entire thing and start over by building a brand new house?"


Answer:    a.  "You clearly are not a glutton for punishment."
                  b.  "You do not understand the thrill of renovating an old house."
                  c.  Deep sigh, followed by an eye-roll.
                  d.  All of the above