RenovProj
From Ollie's Web Site
Renovation
Diary
10/23/05 The Project Begins!
The project began a few days ago with Dan Coleman ripping out all the old plaster, lath and insulation (not much of that). It looks pretty barren! [Pictures]
10/30/05
Unfortunately, the tearout revealed some ancient termite damage, primarily on the base of the front wall of the house. Dan cut the stucco off the worst area since it was completely undercut. [Pictures]
11/1/05
Some lumber arrived yesterday. Dan started the layout of the walls and openings. Pretty exciting. Dan started digging at the garage doors to find the foundatation. He also removed the old garage doors. [Pictures]
11/2/05
Not only did he find the foundation, but he poured a new footing to tie into the foundation. The interesting part was supporting the upstairs via a set of 2x4 columns while he replaced the termite damaged bottom plate. It stayed on the temporary support for several days until the concrete was cured. [Pictures]
11/3/05
Dan did lots more floor layout. Also, he installed the copper flashing on the new concrete footeras well as the new sill plate in between the garage doors. You can see more of the termite damage.[Pictures]
11/15/05
Dan got back from vacation. He framed in the garage door openings in preparation for the new french doors. [Pictures]
11/16/05
Holy Cow! There are walls going up! [Pictures]
11/18/05
And still more walls. Note the double and triple bottom plates. This is because we are putting in a radiant heat system in the floor. After the tubing is layed for that, we will add a 3 in. layer of gypcrete over it, which will use up a large part of the extra height of the bottom plate. [Pictures]
11/19/05
Dan cut the back end off the kitchen bath, eliminating the shower. The plan is to make this a small powder room, and use the recaptured space to add to our master bath. You can now see the space for the new whirlpool. [Pictures]
12/3/05
Lots of carpentry work over the last 10 days. The bathroom is largely framed, including the new whirlpool as well as the shower. The plumber has been on site getting the pipe runs in the walls ready. Pictures
12/11/05
Dan has been concentrating on the tray ceiling. Lots of template work to make all the angles the same. Pipes run throughout the walls. The tub has arrived and the framing looks ready for it. Pictures
12/17/05
The airconditioning man put the heat exchanger in the attic. He has run ducting from there through our old bedroom down to the new construction area. The plumber is working on the drain system and has cut out the template for the tub. Dan also put up a temporary door to help keep the cold out. Pictures
12/18/05
The plumber has had an explosion of activity. He set the tub, ran a bunch more of pipes in the new bath and in the basement and layed the radiant heat tubing in the bath. Pictures
12/21/05
I met the electrician today. He suggested some changes in the ceiling lights in the tray ceiling. Also, we agreed on the switch layouts. He suggested boxing the exiting breaker box on the kitchen wall to avoid a full code upgrade to that part of the system.
12/22/05 Thursday
Amid much banging and crashing (especially noticeable since I was home sick), the HVAC guy did some more work in the attic, drilled several more holes in the downstairs closet and generally prepared for the final duct runs.
Dan looks like he has finished the termite-damage repairs. Lots of "sistered" studs and columns. He said he would fill in all the voids from the sill plate atop the foundation to the level of the garage floor (looks like about 14 in.).
12/28/06
Despite the break around Christmas, lots more got done. Dave the plumber finished largely finished laying the radiant floor heat tubing as well as hooking up pipes all over. The manifold for all the heat tubing is in place. The shower is taking shape, including the base and the rough plumbing.
Dan did a lot more carpentry, including the beginnings of the tray ceiling. Interestingly, he did all that alone, using a simple template to set all the sloped pieces. He also sealed the base of the walls at the foundation using a spray-in foam.
1/1/06 New Year's Day
Dave finished the heating piping and activated the system. Even with all the air leaks around the old doors and windows, the room warmed up. No leaks. The pictures also show some more of the termite repair and foundation sealing.
1/5/06
Today the gypcrete gets poured. You can see the laser level in the pictures.
1/6/06
Here are first pictures of the new gypcrete. All seemed to go well with laying it, and the heating system is keeping it nice and warm. Lot of moisture being liberated as it dries -- if you sit on it you immediately get wet, though it looks dry.
1/7/06
Work continues on top of the new gypcrete (it set in only an hour or two). The pictures show the new kitchen vent duct, as well as the bales of insulation ready for next week. Note the beautifully layed out wiring and piping -- a really professional job by Ken and Dave. Later in the day, Chris and Anna visited along with Brutus.
1/10/06
The rooms are getting closed in. You can see the insulation in place, now. The difference in sound is pretty remarkable, too. Hunter and Aria are happy to sit by the radiator.
1/12/06
Dan has finished the carpentry on the tray ceiling. The sheet rock was delivered, as well as the related supplies.
1/13/06
In a marathon session yesterday (they left at 8pm), the sheetrockers got all surfaces covered. They left Dan with a big cleanup project.
Sue was impressed with the new shower and tried out the bench. The old bathroom off the kitchen finally has walls again.
Dan also cut away the loose stucco on the front of the house and added good sheathing.
The joint tapers did their job during the day. Amazing how finished the rooms are starting to look.
Dan indicates that the windows and doors will go in next week, followed by painting and trim. Then the tiler does his work.
Unfortunately, we had our first (and hopefully only) accident of the construction: Sue tripped and fell, hitting her head on the floor. She got pretty badly banged up and shows two big black eyes.
1/25/06
Things slowed down a little, with the doors and windows taking a slow boat to New Jersey. In the meantime, Dan started painting. Our color consultant (Leslie) did us proud!
1/28/06
The windows arrived! In the course of a day, Dan got all 6 replacement windows installed. All of a sudden, the drafts almost disappeared. That will help the gypcrete in the floor finally dry so the tilers can get on with the floor. Note the penetration in the back wall of the house for the yet-to-be installed air conditioner compressor package.
1/31/06
Here are some shots of progress in the bathroom and shower.
2/1/06
The rest of the tiles arrived. Sue picked really large tiles for the floor, so the installation has progressed pretty rapidly.
2/7/06
In just under a week the rooms have taken on a finished look.
- The floor tiles are largely in, save for a small area in the sitting room where the thicker gypcrete over the old floor drain is taking longer to dry.
- Dan installed the closet system (thanks to Howard & Loretta for pointing out the Container Store.
- The French doors finally arrived. Dan installed them yesterday. Now the rooms really are air tight!
- The elliptical window arrived, too, and can be seen stored in our bedroom. That should be in by later in the week.
- The tilers finished their work in the bathroom.
- The washer/drier was delivered today. Dave the plumber will install it and all the bathroom fixtures tomorrow.
3/19/06
It seemed like things were at a halt for a couple of weeks, but a lot of little things were under way. Now, all of a sudden, we are pretty much done.
The electrical work was largely completed, though one of the outdoor lights was broken, as was its replacement, we only have three lights up. Similarly, the plumbing was done except for a tiny little adapter that was needed to make the shower faucet handle work with the valve. That too took two tries to get right, but now it's fine.
Dan finished all the carpentry and the Paul did the painting, so at long last the inspectors came through last Wednesday and signed off on everything.
Sue took a celebratory jacuzzi, only to find that our hot water heater was inadequate to the task, so Dave the plumber put in a new 75 gallon, fast recovery model (the old was 50 gallon). No hot water shortage now!
We moved all our furniture in yesterday, even though there is still some construction material around. I also installed the new blinds from Smith & Noble on the windows. Kudos to Smith & Noble for beautiful looking and easy to install shades. We still have to get some kind of draperies for the french doors.
As can be seen in yesterday's pictures, I also got a lot of clothing into my closet. This is a great improvement over the old system (stashing stuff in little closets everywhere).
I think it really looks great. Wait till we put in the patio outside the french doors!
Planning
Here is our planning page for the transformation of our garage to a separate apartment.
Click on the topic below to go to those pages:
- Bathroom including fixtures, tile, colorscheme, etc.
- Bedroom
- Sitting Room
