Framing progress

East view of the house. See the icky electrical panel on the left.


West view of the house. Notice how they're duplicating the curved eaves (left side of photo) -- without even being asked! Our contractor also agrees that the beadboard detail on the underside of the roof overhangs should be repeated. Mmm.


The future bay windows, below: kitchen (left) and sitting room (right).


This is framed so low because the homeowner (that would be me) insisted on a bay window that you can actually sit in without feet dangling.

(later note: I wish this bay window were normal height now!)

This will be a nice touch: this space under the stair landing will be used for storage. On one side, it will be accessible through an opening in the back of the sitting room closet. On another side, it will be accessible through an opening in the back wall of this slanted utility closet under the stair case. Kids will have great fun crawling through it.

Contractor expects water-tight by Sept. 8th. I believe him! I've never seen a contractor work this way. He plans out milestones from the first day of demolition, and keeps everyone, including and especially us, on schedule to meet those milestones.

Sheathing

The exterior of the house is almost sheathed now. Our contractor is keeping things moving and on schedule, despite just about every surprise upgrade possible (electrical, plumbing, framing, subfloor).

No doubt the most difficult thing to keep on schedule is those flaky homeowners coming up with new ideas and changes at the last minute. Such as: will fiber-cement shingles work for the 2nd story siding?

One bummer is that the new electrical panel will have to go right in this east view (with the new dormer), on the right side of the door opening. Surface-mounted, to boot. Ug-lee!

The east view.


The west view.


Unfortunately, the upstairs windows had to be removed after all, disturbing all the fine and expensive interior finish work around them (stained trim with integrated shutters). The entire upstairs will likely have to be painted too. Many design decisions were made around not disturbing the upstairs, but it was inevitable with all the problems found when the walls came down. Whoever heard of floor joists whose ends are hanging in mid-air, completely unsupported?

The scope of the project is daunting, even without the numerous extra things that have come up, each of which is a project in and of itself. I'm holding my breath.

Framing started

Framing has started! The east-facing dormer is starting to take shape.


Underfloor radiant heat is in. Additions have insulation and subfloor too.

Still have an issue with the south wall along the property line -- does the entire wall, including the existing, have to be fire-rated? No overhangs within 3' of property line though, so the original south-facing overhang was torn down. Bummer.

We do have to order a new kitchen window, as the 45-degree bay we ordered will project within 3' of the property line. Our window guy is looking into a 30-degree bay, or maybe a 15-degree bow.

New problem with entry door. The custom door company's CAD drawing is considerably different than the door we were trying to imitate, an IWP (formerly Jen-Weld) model we hacked up to add glass area.


Re-order, start over. Another 10-12 weeks.

Bathroom fixtures

Met with architect/interior designer today to work out bathroom design and bathroom fixtures, as rough plumbing will go in soon. In theory, it's as simple as choosing a brand and installing their rough valves and choosing trims later. In practice, you might decide on a different finish later and the exact trim you wanted doesn't come in that finish and so you pick a different thing that doesn't fit right in that rough-in location.

Other details such as wanting a shower spout at above 6' (so no one has to duck) affect the tile design -- it's going all the way to the ceiling now, so never mind that cute cap molding you found.

So it's best to plan out the whole bathroom now. It's nervy, but I'm going with a trendy oil-rubbed-bronze column-spout faucet in one bathroom. Rad.

Concrete poured

Concrete for the extensions poured!


The corrected plans have been submitted to the city (and lost and resubmitted, grr), but a new issue has come up. The 6'5" mistake on the plans included sufficient setback for a bay window on that side. The actual 4'-ish setback doesn't. Actually, anything closer than 5' must be a fire-rated wall, but the bay window will be in an existing section of wall that fits into the older 3' code. The 17" protrusion of the bay window goes into that 3' allowance, but by just 5". Or so -- the house isn't set quite square to the property line, which could mean a few extra inches.

Our worthy architect is trying to find a way to set the bay window in juuust enough. Worst case, we have to buy another window, either a 30-degree bay or a bow, that won't stick out more than 12". But with a $2500 window, that's a pretty bad worst case.

Setback setback

A setback setback! Seems our house measurers mistakenly pur our house at 6'5" from the southern property line (and fence), but a measuring tape and a glance says it's clearly less, about 4'. Within allowed setbacks, but the city's concrete inspector checking placement of the forms insisted on a property survey (!) to verify. Work ground to a halt.

Surveyors came today, and set two points on a 2-foot offset to the property line opposite each building corner so the inspector can measure it himself. Our ethical architect paid for this herself, as it was a minor mistake on the plans, which will be corrected and submitted tomorrow. The inspector said a site survey is SOP; but neither our architect or contractor have ever been asked for one (and it wouldn't have come up save for a minor typo on the plans).

Exterior demolition complete

Just returned from a trip back East, much happened in the meantime. Most original fir flooring had to be removed, and most of the downstairs subfloor will have to be replaced. Footings for new concrete are in place, concrete pour expected next week. Exterior demolition appears complete, there are entire walls missing on the exterior now.


The sort of thing you find in an older house when you tear walls down: almost none of the downstairs windows were framed with headers.


Concrete forms are in!