Remodel Day 86 and 87 - 4/29/2011 thru 4/30/2011

I keep seeing these brackets.  I guess they are important.  They provide extra strength to load bearing walls.  I should find out more about them.

Now that the windows have arrived, it seems that the rest of the window framing continues.  This is the window in Emily's room.  The word egress comes into play again.  Remember the window cannot be more than 44" from the floor and it must be big enough to allow a person to escape in an emergency.  Because Emily's room will have a 9 foot ceiling it looks ok, but the same window has to be added to Henry's room.  His room will only have an 8 foot ceiling so we're worried about how it is going to look in there.  We'll have to wait a while to see since that room will be done last.  We're trying to keep that room intact until the end of school (at the end of May) so that the kids will have a place to sleep.  After school ends, they will move into the family room in sleeping bags.  Woo hoo!

 

Framing of the kitchen window.  Kind of uneventful.

Remodel Day 85 - 4/28/2011

Not too much work today because it was inspection day.  The official title was "stem wall and footing inspection".  We passed.  Now they can pour the concrete into the forms.

Also the windows were delivered today. It was nice to see some of the finished products instead of more wood. 



Remodel Day 84 - 4/27/2011

Rain day. 

Remodel Day 83 - 4/26/2011

This is a good shot of the crawl space in the ceiling.  This is important because it provides access to the air conditioning duct work.  It is BAD because hot air gets trapped in there and ends up heating up the house.  I know there is some kind of a reverse fan that sucks the hot air out, but I can't remember what it is.  I also seem to remember that the city of Burbank offers a rebate for installing these things.  I guess the rationale is that by drawing out the trapped hot air, but house doesn't get heated up and therefore you use less energy running the air conditioning to cool off the house.  I better call and figure this out

Now here is some exciting roofing news - look!!!  It's getting covered with plywood.  The shingles go on next!

More shots of the plywood.

And here is the reason why I will NEVER be a roofer.  Actually here is ONE of the many reasons why I will NEVER be a roofer.  I can't imagine having to be up that high let alone having to work up there.  Look at Eric (one of the construction guys) in the photo on the left.  He is up on the roof while the other guys hand him plywood sheets up to him.  I'll pass.  Not that anyone was asking.

And here is my project for the day.  Clean out the garage.  Ugh.  We will be moving into the garage toward the end of the project when they need to work on the kids' bedroom and the family room for windows, ceilings and flooring. This has been the dumping ground while we were moving out of the front of the house.  

Eventually this area will be our main residence.  I'm scared....

`

Remodel Day 82 - 4/25/2011

No work for the past three days.  It rained Friday and then nothing happened over the weekend.  But now it's Monday, so the work resumes.

  

Here is a great shot that shows the new addition meeting up with the existing house.  The addition is on the right with the lighter wood and the old part of the roof/house is on the left with the darker wood.

The work on the rough plumbing and concrete forms for the footing is moving along.  It's hard to see what they are doing, but it's noisy and they are under the house ALOT so I guess it's all going well. 

Here is a really nice shot of the closet.  Tom is so proud of himself for thinking of the new design. 

Here are the eaves on the house.  This is starting to look like a real roof.  OK, ok.....work with me......consider what we've been living in this looks like a real roof to me.  My expectations have been drastically lowered!

Remodel Day 78 - 4/21/2011

More interior framing today.  The bathroom framing contiued, but the rough plumbing has started. See that hole in the floor?  The workers cut out that piece so they can start running the new pipes for the bathroom and they also need to pour a new footing.  That means concrete. 

It seems there is also some rebar work involved.  Take a look at this next photo.  It shows the forms being created so the concrete will be poured into it and therefore will form the footing.

Remodel Day 77 - 4/20/2011

OK - a little more on the roof......WAIT!!!!  Don't close down your browser yet!!!  It gets better....PROMISE!

Today's work began inside the house in preparation for future roofing work.  See that large piece of wood in the upper left of the picture?  That is a header that will frame out the addition (the front of the house) and will lead into the family room (the existing party of the house).  It also serves to connect the old roofing to the new roofing.  Truthfully, I'm not sure how that all happens, but that's what Rob told me so I'm writing it here.  I'm just trying to pique your interest again after so many boring days of roofing. 

 

Here's another angle of the same area.  This will be the view when you walk into the house - except it will be open and you will see out to the backyard and pool.  It should be cool.  Right now you see a temporary wall in the background.  Rob the contractor (hey.....I should call him Rob the builder!) built that temp wall to keep us protected from all of the construction dust and to serve as a barrier from the outside.  It makes me feel safer having it up. 

Remodel Day 76 - 4/19/2011

Sorry, I lied.  Still roof.  It's going to get more exciting soon.  I guess roofs take a long time.  Remember what Rob the contractor told me......

vertical beams=fast,

horizontal beams=medium fast,

diagonal beams (aka roof)=sloooooooow

I see now he was right.

Remodel Day 75 - 4/18/2011

Roof.  Not alot to add. Sorry. Just more roof.  Don't desert me yet....I'll find something interesting to blog about soon.  Promise!



Remodel Day 72 - 4/15/2011

Some interior framing as well as continuing with the roof framing.  Take a look.

The framing of the infamous closet. (see post from 4/13/2011 for details) The kids' temporary bedroom is on the other side of the white wall in the background.  They still think it's a kick for all four of them being together in there.  Now don't get me wrong - they fight, for sure, but they are still treating this whole experience like an adventure.  These are the types of things that take me by surprise.  I thought this remodel and consolidating into a small corner of the house would be so hard to handle....but everyone is doing their best to cope....kids included.  I'm very proud of them.

Here is a shot of the scaffolding the contractor built for his guys to put up the roof.  I don't like heights.  I would not enjoy being up there. 

Here's a shot from the end of the day.  Looks like there is more wood added to the roof.  That's about the extent of my technical explanation for today.  More wood added.  I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Remodel Day 71 - 4/14/2011



Framing, framing and more framing.  The next few posts will cover the before and after shots for this phase.  Things are starting to move along quickly.  Tom is happy now that the room sizes and closet depths have been fixed.  Onward and upward!  Here's the BEFORE shot.



And here's the AFTER shot.  Look how much got done today!  You can really see the roof.

Here is yet another photo op by Catie.  If nothing else she is consistent.  Hopefully she'll remember the little people when she is famous one day.  Not some day......one day.....I have no doubt.

Remodel Day 70 - 4/13/2011

Today was a combo demo/building day.  The middle bedroom (where all 4 kids are sleeping now) has a closet in it behind that white wall.  The closet needs to be demo'd and the wall needs to be moved.  The closet will be rebuilt though.  But here's the snag.  Tom looked closely at the plans and found that the architect had drawn the closets 24" deep.   Supposedly that is a standard size.  Tom was VERY unhappy. He had wanted them to stay the depth we have now which was 28" to 30". 

If we started making the closets bigger it would impact the room size AND more importantly the added closet size would interfere with the placement of the window in Henry's room.  After many nights of reviewing, revising and agonizing over this oversight, here is what he came up with. 

Here was the original plan drawn.  Henry's room is the one on the left and Emily's room is on the right.  Note that the two closets are staggered. 

Now look at Tom's plan.  He aligned the closets and increased the depth of both to 30".  So now the closet space that took up a total of 48" (2 closets, 24" each) is now a total of 30".

So after alot of discussion and a wall that was moved, the closets are in place and are 30" each.  The 18" gained by this change was redistributed so that Henry and Emily will have rooms that are about 11.5' x 11.5'.  Not big bedrooms, but at least they will have their own space. Emily is thrilled......and Henry.....not so much.  He likes being with his sisters.  At least for now.

The picture on the left shows the inside of the room with the new wall.  The picture on the right shows the outside of the room.  It will make more sense once the closets are framed.   

Remodel Day 69 - 4/12/2011

This was another exciting day.  I've been told that this framing phase is the most dramatic and quick and then things start to slow down.  I'll take it!  It has been alot of fun to watch the actual structure come to life.  Today the horizontal beams started going up.  These guys work quick!

And here's another shot of the horizontal beams.  It is starting to look like a room!

And look here!  The roof!!!

 

One last picture for today.  They cut a whole in the floor in the future bathroom.  I'm not really sure why.  Stay tuned.  I'll find out tomorrow and let you know.

Remodel Day 68 - 4/11/2011

The framing continues, but I've failed to mention one VERY important detail.  After the demo that left us with one big empty space with no walls (see post from 3/31/2011) and prior to the beginning of the framing we decided to raise the pitch of the roof and increase the ceiling height to 9 feet and to add some skylights.  For those of you that have been in the living room of the old house you remember it had a dropped ceiling and very little light.  It looked like you were walking into a cave.  It was really important to us to remedy this with the new changes we were making and to make the room look as light and airy as possible. Hence the 9 foot ceilings.  See that big fat piece of wood at the top of the picture?  That is the main beam running through the new addition.  It is set up at 9 feet.  It is very exciting.  But this is the second of the change orders that is increasing our initial budget by $2000.  Gulp.

Here is another shot of the framing as it continues.  The north side of the house includes the bedrooms and the new bathroom.

In addition to the framing, the form for the front stairs was built and the concrete was poured.  The concrete will be covered with paver stone that matches our driveway.  Theses are the stairs you all will walk up when you cover over for the housewarming party.  Keep your fingers crossed that will happen sooner than later. 

This picture explains alot.  Actually it has nothing to do with the remodel.  It just shows that no one listens to me when I am talking.  Look at Jessie's feet......totally barefoot.  I have said a million times that no one is supposed to be in the construction area without shoes.  So much for that lecture.  Now look at Emily's feet.  She's running around in socks.  Now everytime I find yet another large hole in her socks I will not wonder why.  Sigh.  

Remodel Day 66 - 4/9/2011

It's Saturday and the work continues after being rained out for two days.  We are getting used to our 7:30am wake up calls of sawing and compression nail guns shooting.  I say do whatever it takes to get this job finished.  I'm not so sure our neighbors would agree!!

It seems today was all about framing in windows.  It was quite a job trying to figure out how to position them to allow for the best placement of furniture in the rooms.  Tom is the mastermind behind all of this.  He has planned, revised and re-planned the room configurations MANY times.  And has explained to me (in great detail!) the pros and cons of each set up.  It's a quality problem, right?  Right! 



Here are two different shots of the kitchen window. 

Can you picture a sink under it and me cooking in the kitchen?



This is the bathroom window.  The tub is right below the window so that is why the window is placed higher up closer to the ceiling.

This is the window in Emily's new bedroom. When windows became part of the discussion for this remodel, so did the word EGRESS. I had no idea what this meant and how much it affected decisions about a bedroom. The basic idea is that the window has to be no more than 44" from the floor and must have a 24" opening (not width, but openable area) to allow someone to escape from the room in an emergency. But just to put this in perspective the rooms are not very big, so placement is crucial. Or so Tom tells me......over and over and over again..... :)

Check out this link to the Burbank codes and guidelines regarding windows.  http://www.ci.burbank.ca.us/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=4290

Here is another window that is going into the girls' bedrooms.  I'm not sure how I feel about them.  Actually I do - I don't like them.  But Tom feels they are needed to let light into the rooms.  I'm not convinced.  I still don't like them. 

Remodel Day 64 thru 65 - (4/7/2011 thru 4/8/2011)

RAINED OUT AGAIN!!!  BOO!!!

Remodel Day 63 - 4/6/2011

After yesterday's disappointing rain day, we are back to framing.  It's crazy how fast things changed today. 

Our contractor explained it to us

like this:

vertical framing - very fast

horizontal framing - semi fast

diagonal framing (for the roofing) - slooooooow

Here is Jessie and Catie's new bedroom.  This all happened in one day!  This is a good shot showing their big front window.

Here is the south wall going up.  Those diagonal beams are just for support.

Here is the view from the dining room. You'll have to imagine it without the POD container. It's a pretty view of the large oak tree in front of our house.