Week 8 (11/16/09)

As we're closing in on the original completion deadline (Nov 30) I'm realizing that we're not going to finish on schedule. To those who have done renovations on old houses this will come as no surprise! Even the general contractor who has stayed relatively close to his schedule will not hit the target date. The schedule has caused me a lot of headache over the past few weeks due to our loan committment deadline. However this week I was able to negotiate out of it (which is doubly good as rates have come down even more) and will re-lock our permanent loan after Thanksgiving. This means our construction loan will close early next year.

Loan locks and deadlines notwithstanding work moved steadily along this past week. The contractor shingled the entire roof, installed skylights in the sunroom, finished interior trim, and finished the porch floor. On our end we cleaned the cottage in order to finish and wax the floor--we decided to have a finished concrete floor rather than the less durable laminate floor option--and we also began painting the .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weeks 6 and 7 (11/2/09 and 11/9/09)

Trim and finish-type work continued this week in earnest. The sunroom / family room (we still haven't decided what to call it) received batton strips and window trim on the exterior; the interior was drywalled. On the front porch the roof plywood and ice shield were added.

 

 

 

 

 

Since the roof was added to the front porch we've been really happy about the amount of light still reaching the current dining and living rooms. We were initially a bit worried (particularly about the living room) being dark, especially now that the days are really short. However the porch ended up being set up high enough so as not to block too much winter daylight. Next week two skylights will be cut into the roof of the sunroom directly in front of the living room windows which will add more light back into the living room.

So overall the contractor is making good progress and is, for the most part, on schedule. On the other end of the spectrum, the tasks that we have taken on--the cottage upgrades and entry / bathroom--are dragging! I'm not sure if this is because we're running the show (as compared with the contractor) or because we encountered several unforseen conditions; lots of sill rot in the cottage and the large hole in the entry room. Whatever the case may be, the cottage is finally nearing the 'trim out' stage where I can get moving on the kitchen and where we can paint the walls.

Week 5 (10/26/09)

It felt like lots of work got done this week. Monday after work I tore off part of the front siding in anticipation of the porch framing going up. Much of the back siding also came off in order to repair rotted trim around three large double windows.

 

 

While the massing of the porch was changing the feel of the front of the house, the contractor began working on many of the details at the back sunroom. Radiant tubing was placed in the floor before pouring the concrete; wood beadboard was added between the exposed rafter tails; and 4x10 sheets of Hardi-board siding were installed (eventually they will add batton strips for a board-and-batten look).

 

 

 

Weeks 3 and 4 (10/12/09 and 10/19/09)

After the foundations and block walls were placed last week week 3 saw the walls framed and the roof rafters and roof sheathing installed. This gave us the first sense of the enclosed space we had designed.

 

The joy didn't last long. On Wednesday the contractor discovered that they had set the roof height using a small bathroom window at the back of the house. As they continued to frame the roof around the side and to the front of the house, the top of the new roof (where it connected to our existing walls) would have covered over the lower windows at the front of the house.

After considering a few options during the rainy days at the end of the week (Thursday and Friday) the contractor started Week 4 by tearing off the roof framing and starting over. This week was kind of a drag all around--for the contractor because he was doing re-work and for us because I got a week-long flu bug (likely H1N1). In hindsight, removing and replacing the roof was definitely the best option we considered. By the end the week the contractor had not only re-framed with roof all the way around the side but had also installed the windows. It was starting to feel like a room!

 

 

Progress: Week 2

In the flurry of activity that is our house, I have been negligent in posting updates. Week 2 of our project was actually last week (Oct 5-9), and I'm just now getting around to posting photos from then. I hope to do this week's update later today or tomorrow, mostly because the rain predicted for the next few days will likely bring the work to a halt until next week.


Week 2 was part demolition / part construction. We got rid of about 1/3 of our asbestos siding, tore up what will be the entry / play room (and found our first "surprise" there), and finished gutting the cottage. On the construction side of things the contractor started the floor and wall framing for the sunroom / family room and the cottage received new plumbing and a new closet / bathroom configuration.

Trench for family room footings

Oliver loves having "bulldozers" in his yard

 

Waste concrete from the back patio

 

Concrete for the family room footings

 

Concrete for the front porch pier footings

Side and part of back without asbestos siding

 

 Tyvek-ing the side

Side "storage room" before demo. We're not sure what

this room was used for but it definitely felt like a hunting lodge.

Side room part way through demo.

Surprise, its not slab-on-grade!

When the plumbers were trenching through the concrete to lay the plumbing and waste line (above), they discovered that the slab at the side entry room was actually suspended over a small but inacessable crawl space--not poured on grade as we originally thought (well, 1/3 of it was on grade; its the part furthest from where the photo was taken). This turned out to be good fortune as we can now provide heat and air conditioning through the underfloor space where we had previously struggled to figure out a way to condition it. After the plumbing and ductwork are installed we'll backfill the crawl space with gravel and finish the floor with radiant heated concrete.