Re-Building.com

Re-Building Home

November '05

December '05

January '06

February '06

March '06

April '06

May '06

Yes, It's blog time again.

Here's the nutshell version of the story:  Marie called me after she attended a lecture I gave last year, about kitchen design in historic buildings.  I came out, looked at her place and...well a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.

So I came up with a design.  And then she asked me to build it as well.  The budget is real tight, and my primary goal is to keep the whole project within the budget that we worked out.

This is Marie's kitchen:

This is Marie's bathroom:

This is Marie:

This is Marie's house:

She teaches English at a local High School.  She acquired the house this way, and has lived here for several years- and for several reasons, finally decided it was about time.

So far, I have put a few dozen hours in the design process, planning, estimating and other preparation.  I also got bids from subcontractors like the plumbers and electricians.

Here are some rough drawings of the new design:

This doesn't represent the colors we will choose, just the general layout and plan.

Here is the plan:

This is our ambitious schedule to get Marie back into her house before Christmas.   (this assumes many things happening on time - on my part and that of the subs, we'll see):

There are tons of miscellaneous jobs not listed on the calendar.  Whatever is not finished by December 21 will have to wait until the first week in January.  But hopefully the the big stuff will be done, and place will be livable, so that Marie and her family can enjoy the holidays without the dust and the mess.

I will update the calendar as we move forward.

Today I woke up with the unpleasant growing symptoms  of a bad cold.  Tonight at 6:30, my head is stuffy, my body aches, my head aches, and in fifteen minutes from the time I finish this entry, I will be in bed.

I was glad to have some help today.  My son, Tristan is working with me out on this job.  He doesn't have a lot of experience in construction, but is a hard worker and a quick learner.  He has helped me out occasionally in the past when I needed an extra hand, and when he needed a few extra dollars.

So today we picked up supplies, prepared the yard for the dumpster by removing a chain link fence, and removing some shrubbery.  We also removed the old kitchen sink, stove and old built in cabinet.

In anticipation of all the e-mails I know I will receive about tossing the old cabinet, I will only say that restoring, rebuilding and rehabilitating it for re-use, would have taken way too much a slice out of our budget.  And, I had no interest in removing the many coats of paint on the inside and out - much of which I can guarantee was lead.  Finally, I made several calls to folks who I thought might want it and found no takers.  So that's that.

Here are some pictures of today:

When we removed the old cupboard, this is what we found behind it.

Some of this bare old wiring is still live.  Every contractor runs into these "holy shit! what were they thinking" moments all the time.

Tomorrow I'll have some pictures of the bath.   I feel like crap.  Time for 12 hours in bed for me.

The cold is a little better today.  Unfortunately, despite constant hand washing, and trying to keep to myself at home, it looks like my daughter Rosina picked my cold.  Bummer.

Yesterday, Tristan and I demo'd the kitchen.  It was a dirty job, but pretty easy.  The old plaster on wood lath can down easily.

This is Tris, pretending he's working:

Today demo'ing the porch was not so easy.  We only got it about about half done.  The plaster is on expanded metal lath.  I knew it was going to be difficult, but not this difficult!.  So we worked away at it inch by miserable inch.  I used the sawzall to cut out sections in the ceiling, but we still have to peel the remaining plaster and lath off the joists by hand.  I think by the end of tomorrow, we'll have the porch demo'd.  That means, of course, we'll be working on Saturday.

Unfortunately, what we've been uncovering means that we are already going to be way behind schedule.  Hopefully, it won't run us very much over budget - if at all.  We found that when the porch was added some time in the 1930s, it looks like (it is an all brick addition, by the way), it was done on the cheap.

In a nutshell, it was all done with different kinds of salvaged brick and salvaged lumber.  Part of the interior brick wall was removed at the top and the framing of the main roof of the house and that of the porch were "cobbled" together.  The rafters do not even rest directly on the wall, but are propped up over the wall by short pieces of 2 x 4s and 2 x 6s, stood on end.

This is not the end of the world, because we were going to remove about 3 feet of the brick wall anyhow, to create a space into which we were going to put the refrigerator.  So we were going to have to rebuild some kind of framing support anyhow.  I just have to figure out how.  I will be consulting with an architect next week, and a good friend, Roger Keys, who is an expert old house restorer, will hopefully help me out with this part of the job.

It looks like I'll have to replace most of the porch ceiling joists though, because many of them are not even full spans, but just pieces of 2 x 4 nailed together.  Not a setback as far as budget, but a setback as far as time.  It'll take me a few more days to get that extra carpentry done, which means the electricians will be at least a few days behind, which means the inspections and the drywallers will be a few days behind, etc., etc..

I discovered a mistake I made in the design today.  I mis-measured the dimensions of the porch area originally, and found out today, it is two feet shorter than shown on my designs.  I will have to amend the cabinet layout slightly, and eliminate an upper and lower cabinet from the design.  However, I think I may be able to use the extra wall cabinet in the bathroom, where I was going to insert a built-in cabinet into the all over the toilet for towels and stuff.  More on that later.  Stupid me.

I also went out today and priced more windows.  It looks like we might go with Marvin casement wood windows.  I'll just have to get the okay from Maria on the style.  They're as good a quality, but a better price than the other brands I had looked at last week.

Marie is an English teacher, and I'm self conscious about my writing in this blog.  But, Marie, You'll just have to forgive me, as I usually am doing these entries after a days work, when I'm very tired.  I hardly have the energy to proof read anything.  I know you'll understand!

Bathroom got demo'd today. It took me about 5 hours.  Went home and took my first shower at about 12:30.  Back to the job at 1:30 to do some more cleanup, and back home again at 3:30, dead tired.

Did I mention, I busted up the old tub with a sledge hammer to get it out on Saturday?  It took me 40 minutes, and I was beat after that.  Boy am I out of shape!

The 20 yard dumpster is about two-thirds full.  Looks like just enough room for this job.  Lots of junk in the back yard still to load up.

The electrician came today at 7:30 AM to cut off some circuits and removed some of the old wiring.  He also put in a couple of working outlets for us in a box where eventually the kitchen switches will go.  That's the first new installation on this job. Yippee.

Tristan was sick in bed today and didn't come in to work.  I'm afraid he got my cold too.  Sorry Tris.

No more today, I'm too tired.

Here's our new schedule.  You can see we've already gotten a little behind on things. Good news is, we're running slightly under budget.

Today I ordered the window, the rear entry door (with sidelight and screen door), the whirlpool tub, and the lavatory.  I picked up the range hood and the bathroom exhaust fan.  Tristan finished removing most of the plaster on the porch and about half of the flooring (layers of old linoleum and vinyl tile).

Tomorrow, I have to start framing in the kitchen and bath to get ready for the plumbers on Monday.  I also have to start shoring up the roof for the removal of the interior brick wall, and the brick opening for the entry door.  I need to get most of the framing done before the electricians can come in.

November 18

Started framing today.  All plumbing walls in the kitchen and bath are ready for the plumbers to do their stuff.  (I just need to put in insulation and a vapor barrier into the stud bay in the outside wall, where the tub will be installed - before the tub is installed.)

We also did a little more demo - little stuff - all the nooks and crannies - cleaning out the debris and vacuuming.  this clean-up makes all the difference.

A lot of contractors leave dust and debris in the walls, between the joists and cavities throughout the house.  This contributes to a dusty house for many years to come, because, no matter how well you think things are sealed off,  moving air does infiltrate the wall cavities and other spaces that you don't see in your home, especially if you have forced air heating.

The worst thing that I've seen - and I've seen it over and over - is contractors filling joist cavities with debris - many times completely filling the joist spaces.  What an idiotic thing to do!  Are they trying to save a little bit money on disposal or what!?!  Or are they just too lazy to clean it up and haul it out?

There, that was today's soapbox.

Also, I put in some of the new ceiling joists in the kitchen.

I didn't them all because I need room to do the shoring of the roof, and room to put in the new header.  Also I need room to climb through into the attic space above to install the ductwork for the kitchen exhaust fan.

I installed the bathroom fan unit in the ceiling.  I'll probably do that ductwork and the kitchen ductwork all at the same time.

The porch ceiling framing is a mess.  A lot of work to do there.  It looks like they did the porch addition during the Depression in the 1030s, and all the lumber is salvaged and and pieced together.  Not a big deal, just a lot of time to fix it up.  I've seen worse.

The dumpster is full and I'll have that taken away on Monday.

Today I shored up the roof and started to remove part of the brick wall for the opening. 

Monday I'll have to rent a diamond saw to make a clean vertical cut on both sides at both ends.  If I just hit the bricks with a hammer and chisel, it'll loosen all the bricks up at the end of the wall that I want to remain.

Here are some drawings showing a few changes in the design:

Today was a productive day.

Jim (from Dan Reeg Plumbing) started this morning removing the old waste lines in the kitchen and bath.  In the kitchen he removed the whole stack - everything from the basement floor to the roof.

We also busted up and removed the old concrete laundry sink.  I'm pretty sure Marie won't miss that leaky, ugly old thing.

First thing this morning, I rented a masonry saw with a diamond blade to make clean vertical cuts on the ends of the remaining brick walls.  It was pretty quick, but a very (VERY) dusty job.  Gosh, I hope this is about the last of the dusty-dirty stuff!  I got the saw back within three hours and saved about $37 dollars on the rental.

I cleaned up a little of the old ceiling and roof framing around the opening, set some 2 x 8 bottom plates in mortar onto the brick base below, and spot-nailed the 2 x 6 top plate to the rafters.  It's all ready to install the header tomorrow.

The bricklayer, did not show up today.  I'll have to call him tonight to see what's up - he didn't answer his cell phone today.

Tris did a lot of clean-up and go-pher stuff all day, really a big help in getting things done!

A lot more framing was done today.  We installed the glue laminated beam (actually two 2 x 12 glue-lams nailed together).  Then we sistered up the rafters of the main house with 2 x 6's, because the ends of the old 2 x 4 rafters were all hacked up and there was no way to make them rest on the new beam or to nail them to it.

After that we removed the temporary shoring and began installing the framing for the area into which the refrigerator ( and an in-the-wall cabinet) will go.

While I was busy with the framing, with some help by Tristan - who also spent much of the day doing cleanup again - Jim put in about 8-1/2 hours of plumbing work.  The kitchen and bath wastes are finished, except for the tub hookup. 

He also installed the water heater and suggested moving to a different location closer to the furnace, which made a lot of sense.

The bricklayer, Harry Thompson dropped by late in the afternoon to look at the job and see what he needed to start his work tomorrow.   No plumber tomorrow, but Harry, Tristan and I will be there bright and early.  Tonight, just after we finished up, Marie stopped by and seemed pleasantly surprised by the progress.  I'm beat - no more tonight.

I stopped by the work site today, while things were quiet, to take a few measurements.  I also got some snapshots of yesterday's work:

Yesterday, Harry came in the morning to start on the brickwork.  I removed the basement window sash and frame and he filled it in with recycled common brick from the interior wall, that was removed.

Also yesterday, I spent all my time picking up materials and doing some more framing.  Also removed some of the old 2x4 porch ceiling joists, shored up part of the porch ceiling and removed the window to prepare for removing the brick.  We will put in a header for our exterior door opening, which will go in that same location where the window is now.  however the opening is not high enough, so we have to remove brick on top as well as on the bottom.

In this photo, the rectangular opening is where the 12-inch deep wall cabinet will be inserted into the same space as the refrigerator.

Tristan got the insulation into the bathroom exterior wall which will be next to the tub.  Then he started to install some 30-pound felt which will be our moisture and infiltration barrier behind the cement board, on which we'll install the tile around the tub/shower.

Here is a picture of the ceiling exhaust fan in place.  There is no light in it.  The bathroom will be lit by two fixtures over the built-in medicine cabinet (which I have yet to design).

Today Jim was here at 8:30 and got most of the water supply lines in today, and started working on the gas supplies.

Harry was here taking out the brick for our door opening and finishing up the edges.

I asked him to leave at least 4 inches of bearing on both sides for my double glue-lam header that will carry the rafters above the door opening.

My work today was running around picking up more supplies, including a tarp to cover the accumulating pile of debris in the back yard, which will be disposed of in the next couple of weeks.  I had the dumpster hauled away on Wednesday.  I got an extra bill of $50 dollars because we loaded the dumpster up with over the allotted amount of 6 tons.  It ended up at 7.08 tons total.  I also helped with some cleanup and did some more planning, measuring and figuring today.

The logistics and planning on these kind of jobs never stops until the job is complete.  There is a lot of knowledgeable and skilled improvisation involved with this kind of work.  That's the part I really enjoy.  you always have to adapt to new and changing situations, constantly having to make many small decisions to make sure that the initial design and concepts are carried through - and most especially, that every facet of the the overall project is of a high quality.

I absolutely love working with other good tradesmen.  To me, its just as satisfying as going to the symphony or opera to see great musical artists, or to a gallery or museum to see great drawings painting or sculpture.

For me, the compensation is in the challenge, and the opportunity to learn and work out new ideas.  It is definitely not in the pay.  I could make a lot more money doing cheap and fast remodels like so much of the other junk that is going on around the neighborhood.

And  I definitely won't retire on what I make from these jobs, but it pays the rent.  And it's so cool to finish the job and walk away with a happy client, like Marie, who, despite all the trauma of the dust, having her house torn apart and the draining of her bank account, ends up with something like a new kitchen and bath that far exceed her expectations.

Marie probably didn't know it when she hired me, but I take only a very few of these jobs that come my way, and never the easy ones.  Anybody can do what's easy and I don't have time for it.  As I reflect on what I just said, it sounds pretty snotty, doesn't it?  Oh well.

Blah, blah, blah.

Yesterday, at the job, Harry finished the opening in the brick wall for the entry door.  I installed the header and began framing in the stud wall on the interior.   Then I had to get it all boarded up by the end of the day.

By the way, on the inside of all the exterior brick walls, I'm constructing 2 x 4 stud walls, so that we can install adequate insulation.  That also enables us adequate space for plumbing and electric, and makes framing a lot easier than trying to attach furring to crooked brick walls, and have everything come out plumb.

I also did some additional framing inside, including the rest of the ceiling joists in the kitchen.  In this photo, the boxed in area below the framing is the basement stairwell underneath.  This wall will have cabinets mounted to it which will come out just past it, and it will not be seen.

So we're a little behind schedule.  When I put together the last schedule, I forgot about Thanksgiving.  I'll post a new schedule in the next day or two.

Yesterday (Tuesday) and the day before, I finished most of the framing.  There's just a few little odds and ends left to do.  The doorway is framed in, all the ceiling joists are in and the porch exterior brick walls are framed in.

Jim the Plumber finished practicing his work of art, and the plumbing rough-in is ready for inspection.  He also got the whirlpool tub in yesterday and Maria was thrilled.  All the supply lines in the house are new to the water meter, and almost all the wastes are new.  Jim also re-piped the whole laundry area with a new laundry sink and faucet as well.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day.  The electricians are scheduled to start and should be done in about three working days, which means I should be able to schedule my rough-in inspections for next Tuesday or Wednesday.  Then I'll need about a day and a half to lay in the insulation before the drywallers can start.

I'm also having a second, 11 yard, dumpster delivered tomorrow, since we've generated much more waste.  And, I expect the delivery of all our insulation tomorrow as well.  By the way, I suggested to Marie that since we have the ceiling open, and easy access to the attic, that we insulate the whole attic space - not just above the kitchen and bath.  The house is only about 1500 square feet, and with projected heating costs this winter, it doesn't make sense not to do it now.  Another one of those 'might-as-wells".

Go to December

Copyright © 2005  All Rights Reserved.