So much has changed over the past seven months

A lot has happened in the past seven months. Here are before and after pictures of the outside from the backyard. The orange line on the ground in the before picture shows the location of the new foundation walls for the addition.

And here's the after picture; the orange line has been replaced with the actual walls.


Since announcing that I'm pregnant last month, we've had a few people ask if that's the reason for the addition. It's not, although I'm sure the extra space will be even more appreciated once the baby arrives next May.

Inside work has begun on the second bedroom

If you've been wondering what the addition looks like from the inside, you're finally going to find out. Until a week ago, the inside of the house looked fairly normal. There were some new electrical outlets, a few new windows, and a couple of windows that had been removed, but nothing exciting or picture-worthy.

Last week we broke through the old gable wall in the second bedroom (that's the one in the front of the house, which was set up as a guest room/office). Now when you walk into the bedroom from the hallways, you can go from the existing part right into the addition.


If you head towards the addition part, you can even look to the right into what will be the new part of the master bedroom.

We're hoping to have the second bedroom finished by Christmas, and will move on to finishing the master bedroom after that. I'm also hoping to reclaim my dining room for at least a few days to host Christmas dinner (most of the stuff that was in the second bedroom has been temporarily stuffed into the dining room).

Catching up, part II

The front wall of the house was the second to be completed finished (after the gable wall). With all of the soffit, facia, and siding installed, the house looks basically finished from the front (except for the window stickers, various construction items and lack of landscaping/shutters).
We had been accessing the addition from the outside by leaving the last small window (as wells as the sill and crip) uninstalled. In order to get to a point where we were ready to close up that access and break through the old gable wall, the insulation for the addition had to be installed. The rough electrical for the two bedrooms was also completed and cuts were made for the new heat/air conditioning vents in the two bedrooms. The rough wiring for phone jacks is even completed.

Deciding on the placement for the outlets and vent meant a lot of time spent bent over the plans, staring at them and trying to envision possible furniture arrangements (with many breaks while I ran to measure a piece of furniture). It was reminiscent of when I made the decision on what windows I wanted and where.

Once the rough electrical and insulation inspections were passed, the last window (the small one to the right of the scaffold in the picture below) was installed and the back wall was finished.

Landscaping and shutters will probably not happen until the Spring. Landscaping for obvious weather reasons, and the shutters because we're still debating color. I had originally suggested the idea of blue (a darker blue, but not as dark as navy), but Chuck wasn't sure how that would look. So I suggested black, and he was amicable to that. Unfortunately, his mind reading powers weren't working that day, and he didn't realize that I intended to match the color of the front door to the shutters. As it turns out, he doesn't like the idea of a black front door. So we're back to blue. Which means I have to find the shade of blue that I have in my head that's available for shutters and a door that I like. That could take a while.

Time for a catch up post (or several)

How many entries can I start with a statement about how I haven't blogged in a while and I promise to be better about updating in the future? I wish I could say this is the last, but we'll see.

Anyway, a lot has been done over the past two and a half months, but for now let's start with some of the things we got done in September:

On Labor Day weekend we disconnected the electrical service, relocated everything to the new gable wall, and hooked it back up again. No one got electrocuted, none of the food in the fridge/freezer spoiled, and I was even able to make it to a friend's birthday celebration that evening (albeit a little late). The phone service was relocated a few days later. Because no post is complete without pictures, here's a shot of Dad on the scaffold working with the electrical lines:

A few weeks later, the house got a new roof. We realize that we would never be able to match our 15 year old shingles (which have discolored over time), and that we (meaning I) would never be happy with an eight foot stripe of not-quite-matching shingles on the roof. And really, no one wanted to hear me complain about it for years to come.

So we ended up hiring a roofer to re-do the entire roof. It was money well spent, and they completed the job in one day. If you're looking for a roofer in this area, let me know and I'll happily give you the contact information.

Of course, a new roof meant that we got to pick out any color shingles we wanted. Or, I debated over the color choices while my husband said he was fine with whatever I wanted and my father reminded me that I needed to make a decision and let the roofer know sooner rather than later.

Since I'd never been crazy about the gray shingle / yellow brick combination (I know some people love gray and yellow together, but I'm not one of them), we ended up going with Shakewood. Here's a picture of the roof on the day it was finished:

In the picture above, you can also see that we finished the Tyvek on the front of the house, and finished installing the new windows in the front. You can get a much better idea of the layout of the new windows now that the last old window is gone. The triple window on the far left is almost nine feet wide and fairly heavy, but installation went very smoothly. Same thing for the new double window that's to the left of the front door.

More to come in the next catch-up post.

Soffit and Siding

The siding and soffit on the new gable wall is more than halfway done.

In the picture below, you can see that there is just a small space at the top of the new gable wall that still needs siding. The good news about being this high up the wall is that it's above the living space so there's no need to put insulation between the tar paper and the siding. However, almost every piece needs an angle cut on one end of the other (both when we get high enough), which takes a little longer.

You can't see much of the finished soffit in the picture above (just a tiny bit at the bottom near the front yard), but the one below shows that one entire side is complete. Solid and ventilated pieces are alternated for better ventilation in the attic.

Tar paper, Tyvec, and two windows!

We passed the sheathing inspection and have begun installing the tar paper, Tyvec, and windows. The new gable wall is the furthest along in this process, with Tyvec, tar paper, and both windows installed. The front half of the roof has also been tar-papered.

Almost done the sheathing

We're almost done the sheathing, and if things go well finishing it up, we might be ready for the sheathing inspection as soon as Tuesday.
Once the sheathing is done, we can tar paper the roof and put tyvec up on the exterior walls. What you see in the photos below on the roof is black plastic, which is a temporary measure to protect everything in case we get rain before we are able to get the tar paper down.

The fly rafter went up yesterday

Pictures of the fly rafter on the new gable wall:

Window rebate!

Our window rebate arrived from Andersen this week, right on time (six weeks from the date that the windows arrived at Heath Lumber). I am really happy that I shopped around, even if it meant losing an hour of my life that I can never get back at Home Depot (which I normally like). I hope I'm even happier when we do our taxes and figure out what kind of tax rebate we get.

We have rafters

We have rafters! I took this picture after 8pm so it's a little dark, but it shows the progress that's we've made despite the heat last week. Thankfully today the weather was gorgeous, so Dad did some work throughout the day, with Chuck helping him in the morning and me helping when I got home from work.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy 70th birthday Dad! Without your expertise, help, and patience, this addition would still be just a thought bouncing around in my head.The picture above is of our initials in the exterior parge coat of the foundation: mine, my husband's, and my Dad's.

Windows have arrived

The windows were delivered this morning and are now stacked in our sun room until we're ready to install them.
There are seven boxes here; six windows and one box containing all the screens. One of the windows is actually three double-hung windows joined together (the whole thing is just under 9 feet wide), another is made of two joined double-hung windows (about six feet wide) , and the rest are single double-hung windows (most of these are the boxes at the front of the stack that you can see in the picture).

Ceiling joist progress pictures

I am a bad blogger...

I have no good excuse for my lack of posting; other than work and normal life stuff I haven't been particularly busy (sadly I have not been away on a spectacular vacation and thankfully there has not been a crisis).

Since I last posted, Dad and I put up the interior wall for the addition (also the support wall, so it's kind of important) and installed the ceiling joists. At some point I will even get outside during daylight hours to take pictures so I can post them.

The windows arrived exactly as scheduled (June 15th) and will be delivered tomorrow.

Dad has been out of town on a trolley move for the past two weeks (but he should be back this weekend), so there's not much else new to report. With the heat and humidity that we've been having, it's just as well that we haven't been outside working. Cross your fingers for me that it will cool off starting this weekend.

Sheathing is halfway done on the walls

Dad came up here three days last week and worked on the framing for the two shorter walls of the addition, so today we finished the last of the framing on the front wall and installed about half of the sheathing on the exterior walls.

You can see where the new front window will go below (circled in orange). The window that's circled in blue below will be removed (the other half of it is already gone). The window that's not circled is going to stay in the location it is, but we will be replacing it with a new and more efficient one.

When we put siding back up on the front of the house, I plan to use white siding. It has always bothered me that all the siding on the house what white except for the front, which was green. I also want to put in a new front door in black and repaint the shudders black. The other option was dark blue (not quite navy, but close) door and shudders, but ultimately Chuck and I decided on black.

The gable wall is up

We hosted a wall-raising this morning. Everything went well and, with six people lifting, it was fairly easy and we were done in well under an hour. However, I had the distinct feeling that I should have been wearing dark clothes and a bonnet, and that my horse and buggy should have been hitched somewhere nearby along with those of my neighbors.

The gable wall into position is now secured in place with temporary braces until the smaller side walls are each built (they will each be 8 feet long, as opposed to the 27.5 feet span of the gable wall), and then we can move on to the roof.

Progress!

Dad came up today and installed the tie downs and we passed the open deck inspection. Before the storm blew in this evening he and I were able to get all but the last piece of plywood down. It was one of those thunder storms where the sky suddenly opens up and it pours, which made for great fun running around the backyard trying to get tools and lumber under cover.

If things go smoothly tomorrow and Saturday, we may be able to raise the gable wall on Monday. That also means I may be trying to cajole friends into spending a few hours of Memorial Day helping me in exchange for food and beer. Or things may take longer than anticipated (isn't that usually the case?) and then I'll be tempting people into helping with offers of food and beer another time.

Still here

I haven't written recently because we decided to abandon the idea of an addition and are just going fill the foundation with water and use it as a swimming pool. Good thing we've had a lot of rain recently.

I'm kidding.

The real reason I haven't written is that there hasn't been much to report recently. Dad is away helping one of his friends move a trolley car (restoring antique street cars is one of his hobbies), so not much progress has been made.

The tie downs came in last week, but haven't been installed yet because we need to do a bit of chiseling to the beams to make everything fit. Once that is done we can have the open deck inspection, and then we'll be able to deck the floor and begin framing.

This morning I ordered nine Andersen 400 Series Tilt-Wash windows. In addition to the seven windows needed for the two bedrooms that are involved in the addition, we are also replacing the windows of the smallest bedroom. I want to eventually replace all the windows in the house (they are from the mid 50's, which should give you some clue about their energy efficiency, or lack thereof), and since we'll have the siding off of the wall where the smallest bedroom is, it makes sense to just go ahead and replace them now. Not only does the window purchase qualify us for the federal tax credit, but Andersen is also offering a rebate on purchases of seven or more qualifying windows through select dealers.

Hopefully after next weekend I'll have some more progress to report.

Window shopping

Today I went out and priced windows from three different stores: two local building supply companies and a nearby Home Depot. Before heading out I printed a current sizing sheet with product numbers from the Andersen Window website and carefully noted exactly how many windows I needed of each size and which ones I wanted to order as a double unit and which ones would be a triple. I also knew which options I wanted, so getting price quotes would be very easy. And it was at my first two stops (the two local stores).

I left Home Depot for last, because I figured that with their buying power, they would probably have the best deal. While I prefer to support local businesses when possible, I do not have a bottomless bank account. What follows is the incredibly long and confounding story of my attempt to price windows at Home Depot. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Not only was Home Depot the highest price (at least I think so... I'll explain my confusion in a moment), but they were the most difficult to deal with. First I was informed that Home Depot cannot look up windows using the product number, but can only look them up using the rough opening or unit dimensions. I had both of these figures, but when I started reciting them, I was told that the window sizes I wanted did not exist and that I should choose new sizes. When I showed the associate my printout, I was then advised that she may be able to custom order these sizes, but it would take a few days to find out the prices.

I thought of leaving at this point, and I wish I had. Instead, I politely insisted she call Andersen because even if the windows were not in her computer, they were stock sizes that Andersen makes. After two phone calls to Andersen, she was miraculously able to find the windows I wanted in her system using only the product numbers and sizes. I'm still not sure what purpose those two phone calls served since I had this information to begin with.

While she was on hold during those two calls, she started telling me that delivery fees for other companies would probably not include all the windows and how I probably didn't know the correct questions to ask since I don't do this every day. Apparently she saw the notes I had made about delivery charges when she was looking at the sizing sheet I had printed out from Andersen's website. I can't tell you how glad I was that I didn't have any other pricing information written on it.

I was finally handed a price sheet, and when I pointed out that she had keyed in a millwork kit instead of ordering the windows joined from the factory, she said not to worry about it, that it would just cost "a little more" to order them already joined. After much insistence on my part, she finally gave me a price for the double (but not the triple) so that I could see how much "a little more" would be. Then she mentioned that I could possibly save hundreds of dollars by paying a higher delivery fee to have the windows sent directly from the factory to me, but that it would take her a day or two to figure out how much I could save by doing this. I asked if she could start getting that figure so I would know in a couple of days, and she told me she would only do that if I called back later.

By the time I left, I didn't care to go through the process of finding out about the possible hundreds of dollars I could save (although I was tempted to walk five feet away from the window desk and call them on my cell phone to ask for a quote on that). I know that everyone is entitled to have an off day now and then, and I know that sometimes people are dealing with computer systems that are not as helpful as they should be, but I was more than a little annoyed by the whole experience.

Almost ready for the next inspection

Today Dad and I finished installing the last floor beam and joists as well as all the nailers. Once the tie downs arrive later this week we can install them and then call for the open deck inspection.

This leaves no actual construction work to do tomorrow, but since I have one more day off I'm going to shop for windows (and hopefully order them) and maybe take a look at another one of the bath showrooms in the area.

More progress... this time with pictures

I finally got out my camera again for some progress pictures. Dad and I finished putting the sill plate up today as well as the first two beams. We were also able to get the floor and box joists up on one side. If all goes well on Monday, we should be able to get the last beam and the rest of the box and floor joists up.


Once we have that done we need to wait for the tie downs to come in so that we can install them and then get the open deck inspection done before proceeding further. I should really take a minute and thank the local building code for requiring them despite that fact that we are not in Florida or Kansas or any other area that regularly experiences hurricanes or tornadoes. After calling around to get prices from a few places, it turned out that Home Depot had the best price, but not good enough that I didn't ask if they were gold plated (I am not crazy enough to have asked this question of store personnel... I only asked my Dad and I wasn't serious). At any rate, the pricey tie downs are due in near the end of next week.

Framing begins tomorrow

The foundation is complete and we were able to pass inspection and get it back filled earlier this week, so we start framing tomorrow. I took a few vacation days and won't be back at work until next Wednesday, so I'm hoping we have good weather and can make a lot of progress.

While I still haven't gotten around to scanning the plans, I did snap a few pictures with my camera (hopefully they are reasonably easy to read). Here's the existing floor plan of the side of the house we're expanding (if you're standing in the front yard looking at the house, it's the left side) and the new floor plan below it.


With the addition, the master bedroom and second bedroom will be shifted to the left. They will also become a little bit larger. Filling the space that they've been shifted out of will be the new closets for the second and third bedrooms, the new laundry room, new walk-in closet in the master bedroom, and new full master bath. The hall will also be extended to provide access to the master bedroom and 2nd bedrooms. The 3rd bedroom and existing full bath off the hall will remain where they are today.

Foundation walls are damp-proofed

Did you ever wonder how foundation walls are damp-proofed? With tar. Sticky, thick, black tar.

I have no pictures, as by the time Chuck and I were done applying the tar (in the sunny, 90 degree afternoon that we had today) and then using mineral spirits to remove all the splashes and spatters that got on us, I was more interested in getting a shower than taking a new progress picture.

Foundation walls are up

Yesterday we managed to complete what should have taken a day and a half.

All of the block is laid and the first parge coat complete (the finish parge coat can be done later; it's more cosmetic than anything). Chuck and I will put the damp-proofing on today if it doesn't rain, and then we should be ready for the back fill inspection next week.

The picture that shows the foundation is really complete

Our initials (my dad's, my husband's, and mine) and the date the foundation was poured:

I think my family's initials are in every slab of concrete my dad ever poured at the house I grew up in. The ones that were poured when I was a kid even include our pet's initials.

Now that it's past 8:00AM, I'm off to help lay block. More pictures to come later.

Footings and mudscreen are down!

The weather cooperated and we were able to break ground today.
Here is my dad doing making sure everything is good for the footings.

By the 12:30 the excavation was complete, the moisture barrier was down, and we were ready for the inspector.
After the inspector signed off on everything, it was time for the concrete pour.
Here's what it looked like at the end of today once the concrete was smoothed out.
Tomorrow we'll be laying the block.

Excavation starts Friday (if the weather cooperates)

The orange lines on the ground in the picture above shows where we will be excavating for the foundation. If the weather cooperates (so far the forecast looks promising), excavation should begin bright and early Friday morning. As you can also see, the siding is gone from the gable end of the house, as are most of the shrubs and bushes. There are three lonely Azaleas left that I'm hoping to donate to Sayen Gardens, however their naturalist has not been by to remove them and I haven't been able to get a hold of him. I'm still hoping that he'll get here before Friday to take them, but if we have to rip them out I will.

[Mentally] skipping ahead to the new master bathroom

I happily skipped ahead to what I think will be one of the most fun parts of our renovation and visited a local kitchen and bath showroom this past week. I cannot wait to pick out all the tile, fixtures, etc. for the new master bathroom. There is an endless array of rain head showers, water tiles, colorful sinks, and faucet styles/finishes.

Sometime between admiring the rain head shower that was the size of a small tabletop and realizing that there are about a million different choices for a glass shower doors, I remembered that there is a downside to this process. I will need to make decisions and hopefully strike a nice balance between quality, functionality, and aesthetics. And let's not forget about practicality (since I haven't won or inherited an obscene sum of money and it doesn't look like I will anytime soon).

So I'll probably be forgoing the lovely Carrera marble tiles that require a lot of resealing in favor of a more practical porcelain (maybe with some glass accent tiles). I'll be sucking it up and buying the epoxy grout because despite that fact that it's expensive and much less forgiving to put in, it is impervious to mildew. I'll be shamelessly frequenting the expensive and lovely showrooms, and then hunting for bargains on the items I loved (how did we manage before the internet?).

Weather Delay

We've decided to move the groundbreaking from next Monday to next Friday. The forecast is calling for rain on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. If you have any sway with the weather spirits, hope that the rain doesn't linger and clears out of here by Thursday at the latest.

Beware idle talk about an addition... you might end up doing one

How exactly did we end up ready to do an addition? I was in the backyard the first summer after we bought our house, talking about ideas of home renovations for the future. In my head, they were for the very far future (and some were probably things that would never come to fruition).

I mentioned turning the sunroom into a fully functioning, heated and air-conditioned part of the house. Then I made a comment about how it would be nice if we could do an addition that would create a laundry room and a full master bathroom. I proceeded to walk over the the end of the house that we will soon be expanding and start to envision how it would work. After some thought I came up with a decent plan that would also provide additional closet space, and the idea took off.

Although we haven't broken ground yet, the process has already had some bumps. I worked with my Dad and he used my ideas to draw up building plans, only to find out that the current setback requirements wouldn't work with that. We ended up appealing to the town zoning board for a variance and got it (after a small mountain of paperwork, hand-delivering notices to 30 or 40 neighbors, running an announcement in the paper, and showing up at a board meeting to plead our case). After that we had to go through the standard permit approval process (more bureaucracy), and now we just have to hope we can hang on to our sanity.

The addition begins...

If the weather and everything else goes according to plan, we'll be breaking ground on a 240 square foot addition to our 1950's ranch house next Monday. I've rearranged many things since we bought our home a little over two years ago, but this will be the first time it involves actually moving and the walls (not to mention constructing a new foundation, roof, etc.).

Thankfully my father is on-hand to help. He has many years of construction experience and built the house I grew up in from the ground up. I mean that in the most literal sense. He didn't hire people to build a house; he actually built it himself.

We're planning to do most of the work ourselves (in addition to doing our regular jobs and hanging on to our sanity). This siding has been removed from the gable wall that's being moved out eight feet, and most of the shrubs on that end of the house are done as well.