Remodel Day 118 - 5/31/2011

Today I went to look at the fake walls (ok - tub enclosures) for the bathroom.  Actually I should not say I - because I had my entourage in tow.   But they were good.  I can't complain.  I did resort to putting them all on the flatbed trolley so I could keep track of everyone.  You do what you gotta do to get through the day.  Know what I mean? 

Here they are doing a Conga line through Costco. 
Yes, they came with me to Lowe's AND Costco. 
And they were well behaved in both places.  It probably didn't hurt that I bribed them with the proposition of ice cream if they behaved.  Once again....you do what you gotta do.

OK - back to the subject of the bathroom. They were not as bad as I thought. Maybe I can live with it. But I don't like the white walls. Maybe I should go with an off white. But then do I need to go with off white sinks and then do I need an off white toilet?  Do I need to match the walls to the floor?  Maybe I can cover them up with a really nice shower curtain?  I'm confused.  I need to go home and think about this some more.   

I have enough to do at home.  I should start on the laundry.  But the water has been turned off for most of the day, so it keeps piling up. 

I think I'll take a nap.  When I can't deal with things going on in my life, I take a nap.  It works for me.......what can I say? 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.................

Remodel Day 115 - 5/28/2011

Today was the day we talked budget.  Or shall I say how much we are over budget.  I know, I know, everyone said to add 25% to our original plan.  We counted on a few changes, but now we need to take a look at what needs to be cut.  We've made a number of changes/additions and they were all worth while, but now we need to face the reality of what still needs to be done and how much money we have left. 

Some of the changes were:
Change Order 1 - Tankless water heater and replace mainline.
Change Order 2 - Additional permits needed to replace mainline.
Change Order 3 - Raise ceilings to 9 feet.
Change Order 4 - Move walls to accomodate new closet design, move stairs, skylights.

We decided to do the interior painting ourselves and also are considering cuts in the kids bathroom.  I'm going to look for a vanity I can order as is instead of a custom cabinet and also to look into those fake walls to go around the bathroom tub.  I'm not thrillled about that proposition.  Rob suggested cheap flooring in the bathroom too instead of tile, but I totally refuse to do that.  I've lived with cheap linoleum floors for too long and I'm all done with them. 

Time to head out to Lowe's to see what I can find.  More later. 

Remodel Day 112 - 5/25/2011

Time to pause from the regular subject of this blog for a special day. Emily is graduating from elementary school.  She's been at Roosevelt Elementary school for the past six years and now she is heading off to Luther Middle School to start 6th grade in the fall.

Congratulations Emily!



Remodel Day 107 to 111 - 5/20/2011 thru 5/24/2011

This post is going to be a long one.  So get something to drink and get comfortable. 

We have spent MANY days and MANY hours discussing the electrical plan.  Tom's attention to detail has paid off for the electrical plan, but I now find myself trying to escape into the crawl space under the house to avoid any further discussion on this subject. 

The reality is that this was a much needed upgrade to the house.  The area of the house being remodeled was part of the original house built in 1937.  With the original wiring.  It was not good.  When we turned on the microwave the lights in the old living room would flicker.  We would joke that the ghost of Fairview Street was visiting us.  I guess the ghost will have to find a new place to live. 

OK - back to the remodelling update.  Have you ever just sat back and thought about where the electrical plugs and light switches should be in a room?  I never have, but BRAVO for you if you have!  We have been faced with the quality problem of having one large empty box (i.e. the addition/great room/kitchen/dining room/free for all room) and now we have to design where/how/what/why the lighting should function.  We started out by guessing and also had to keep in mind some of the code restrictions.  Such as having outlets no more than 4 feet apart and also the GFCI requirements when there is any sort of electrical near a water source.  It's exhausting, but Rob and Rich seem to understand it all so I guess that's all that counts.  Here's the link if you'd like to read up on it yourself.

http://www.ci.burbank.ca.us/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2691

One night after the kids went to bed Tom and I took flashlights into the addition and pretended to walk through the front door and then into each room and marked each light switch.  Then we had to go back because we didn't remember that we had to figure out which lights should be turned on at each light switch.  Then we did it all over again the next day with the electrician and Rob.  If nothing else, Tom is thorough.  Or annoying.  It depends on how much time I've spent with him as he continues to talk through the project.  But I digress.....so after MUCH discussion, we think we have covered all of our bases.  Here's hoping. 

Enough talk now.....let's see some pictures.

Here are more recessed cans that will be in the great room.

And here is the electrical wiring being run.  The blue tape shows where the electrical outlets go.

The fuse box in the hallway.  It will be nice not to go outside to deal with a blown fuse.

Circle being cut for placement of the lights outside the front door.

Adding lights to the closet ceilings.

Now, onto the discussion of the air conditioning.  There were two different issues we had to deal with. One was how we were going to "equalize" the air conditioning throughout the house.  Some rooms were freezing and others were really hot.  The existing family room where we spent most of our time was always hot.  The middle bedroom was always cold.  So we needed to add another vent into the family room and make sure the air duct placement would not overpower any one bedroom.  Or at least we are hoping that's how it will all pan out.  I guess we won't really know until the end of the project.  Also we were surprised that the vents are placed in the ceiling and not in the walls. 



Here's a better picture showing the air vent placed in the ceiling rather than in the walls.  Well here's hoping you made it to the end of this post.  It was a long one.  If you did thanks for hanging in there.

Remodel Day 106 - 5/19/2011

Not alot of new things to report. Mainly a continuation of yesterday.

Here's one interesting tidbit.  This is what the top of the skylight looks like from the roof.  The roofer needs to come back and inspect the installation.  He must sign off on how it looks otherwise his warranty on the roof becomes null and void, since we made a hole in the roof after he put it in. 

We also added a skylight in the bathroom.



And finally, the electrical work is about to begin.  Here is the placement of one of the recessed lighting cans.  More tomorrow.

Remodel Day 105 - 5/18/2011

The exciting news of the day, in Henry's view was the delivery of the shingles.  This truck arrived bright and early and used a large crane attachment to deliver the shingles and deposit them on top of the roof.  That's brilliant.  Why should the contractor have to lug up huge pallets of shingles up to the roof when this can do it for them?  We watched for quite a while.  Since Burbank is not know for it's large lot size, the delivery man had to go through alot of maneuvering to get the shingles placed on the roof.  First the dumpster in our driveway blocked his truck and then the tree in our neighbor's front apron didn't help either.  He did it though.  Bravo!

Starting the shingling.  Is that a word?  Katya?  Your thoughts?

  

Here is another section looking done.  No, I didn't climb up there.  I am still afraid of heights.  I asked Eric (one of the daily workers) to take my camera up there and take pictures.  I am shamelessly bossy.

On another note, let's talk skylights.  Since all of the roofing has started Tom and I started getting concerned about the lighting in the front room/great room/addition (whatever you want to call it).  Remember that the lighting in the old living room was a problem.  It looked like a cave.  We really wanted to avoid that.  But now as the roofing went up the room started looking dark again.  This was not good.  In addition, the front of the house was being expanded closer to the street which meant closer to the big tree in our front apron.  Again, less light.  So we started asking about skylights.  We were hoping for a 2' x 3' skylight placed above the island.  The architect nixed our request.  Something about the structural integrity of the roof.  So here's what Rob came up with.  It's a tube skylight. It is a round skylight that has a flexible tube.  So even though the skylight is placed (see the cut out in the roof) the placement of the light in the celing is flexible after we set the lighting and the island.  The facia of the skylight will look similar to a recessed light.  I'll post a picture after the skylight is unpacked.

Remodel Day 103 - 5/16/2011

It's all about windows today. 

Jessie and Catie's bedroom window.



Dining room window, where we will sit and wave to the Staubs.



Bathroom window high enough so you can still be in the tub/shower and have privacy.



Kitchen window.



Kitchen window.  We ran into a little snag with the fence.  It will have to be moved about 5 feet closer to the street to accomodate the window.  But that will just give us more room in the driveway.  It's all good.

Remodel Day 99 - 5/12/2011

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Interior framing today. 

Here is the far wall of the kitchen. To give you perspective in reference to the old house, when you walked in the front door you saw a wall on the right and an open area on the left.  This is being reversed.  The wall on the right was demo'd along with the fireplace.  The open area on the left is now being closed up and will form the far wall of the kitchen.  This way when you walk in the front door you will have a clear view into the family room and then the backyard and pool.  Before the view on the left gave you a view of the garage door.  Not so good.



Here's another shot of the stairs.  Can you see how they are now cut back into the great room area?  I was trying to explain this in a prior post.  The stairs are going to start in the great room and end at the entrance to the family room.



Framing the closet in Jess and Cate's room.



Remodel Day 98 - 5/11/2011

Jumping ahead a few days.  We hit one rain day and then the weekend and then work had to be suspended until we passed another inspection.  The inspection was yesterday May 10th and was rough plumbing  and roof sheeting and nailing.  We passed. 



But the most exciting news for today is......WALLS!  We have walls.  It is starting to look like a house!  OK....just sort of....

Here's an inside view of the walls.  They put up the shear wall first and then cut out the holes for the windows. If you have no idea what a shear wall is like me, I looked up the definition.  Here it is:
shear wall: A wall portion of a structural frame intended to resist lateral forces, such as earthquake, wind, and blast, acting in the plane or parallel to the plane of the wall.

Here's a bird's eye view of the roofing. 

And here's a picture totally unrelated to the remodel.  Just another reason I love our contractor.  I got a basketball net for the kids (thanks to all of the research done by Josh Staub - thanks Josh!).  When Rob the contractor saw the boxes he asked me if I wanted him to put it up for us.  He's a nice guy.



Remodel Day 93 - 5/6/2011

More plumbing and also running pipes for the gas lines. 

Here is some crazy piping for the bathroom.  It looks like it is a part of some George O'Keefe painting.



Here are the pipes for the kitchen.  I think the black pipes are for the water and the copper pipes are the gas lines.  These pipes are on the south wall of the house that leads out to the driveway....you can see the paver stones behind it.  That's where I am going to set up the new outdoor gril. For years Tom has insisted on being a purist and would only use a charcoal grill.  Yes, yes, I know the food tastes great that way, but it takes alot of time.  And at the end of the day with all of the kids, the last thing I want to do is fire up the charcoal grill.  The new grill will be a GAS grill and will have a line connected directly to the house gas line.  I have to give my mother-in-law credit for this idea.  I think it's brilliant.  No tanks needed, no charcoal needed.  Let the barbequing begin!!



Pipes, pipes and more pipes.





Now what the heck is this?  It's starting up at the roof line.  Maybe a down spout for rain runoff? Another question for Rob.



Remodel Day 91 and 92 - 5/4/2011 thru 5/5/2011

Rain days.

Remodel Day 90 - 5/3/2011

Rough plumbing in progress.  I still didn't understand what that means so I looked it up on wikiAnswers.  Here's what I found. 

Rough plumbing: The installation of water /waste / vent and under ground piping prior to the walls closed and the finish plumbing is when fixtures are set and tested. 

So with that said, it looks like we are back to more "un-building" things than building them.  See the floor boards being cut and pulled up?  That's so the contractor can get access to the crawl space under the house to start setting the pipes.  Here are some pictures, but they aren't too exciting.  It was hard to get pictures since everything was happening in the crawl space.

Floor boards coming up.



More floor boards coming up.



Setting the pipes underground.

Remodel Day 89 - 5/2/2011

So much going on!  We started the day with the arrival of the concrete truck.  That is always an exciting event ..... particularly for Henry.  The concrete was poured into the forms for the footing in the bathroom. 

Here is the end result of the pour.  The finished footing after the wooden forms were removed.

Now this is cool.  Look at how they made our front stairs.  Toward the end of the project the front path and stairs will be covered in paver stone that matches the driveway.

First pouring the concrete



The wet concrete has been poured and smoothed out in the form.

  

Now after waiting for it to set.....Voila!  Stairs!



Here are the pipes that were delivered. These are going to be used for the bathroom and also the kitchen.

 

Now this one is going to be hard to explain.  To start with the old stairs that led from the living room into the family room are being demo'd.  The stairs started at the beginning of the family room and extended into the family room.  Tom wanted the stairs pushed back so that they START in the new great room and END at the entrance into the family room.  I know this is hard to picture.  When the stairs are done I'll show you again and it will make more sense.