From Our Perspective
- May 5, 2020
- 8 min read

Construction Begins Days 51-94

Updated: Jun 13, 2020

5/1/2020 - Day onnnnne-ish?

A few days have passed since the last update. We have had some pretty good progress. Enough progress in fact that it has transitioned from the demo phase and into construction phase. This week HVAC has started, and the plan are to finish that up by 5/6/2020. Followed by plumbing, and Electrical. So in the next three weeks we should have some real interesting progress. 90% of the framing has been completed, and the last bit of DEMO in the now bathroom is the last real demolition left. I have also been working my ass off sanding down the old fence and resetting the planks so they match the neighbors. It will also add a lot more privacy. But I have decided the time is not worth the cost of replacing the boards. I was taking me about 5 hours to sand down the boards. I was also spending money on sand paper, and having to replace several boards that were snapping during sanding. In an effort to accomplish the fence refresh without spending a month sanding it will just be easier to replace the boards in about a day.

Until Next Update,

D&E

360 Photos of the Framing

Living Room - You can see where Elizabeth is standing is the framed out closet

Utility Room - Camera is showing where the powder room, and the laundry are framed out

Stair Landing - Camera at the turn of the stairs.

2nd Floor Hallway - Camera shows the hall way entrance to the bedroom, bathroom and linen closet.

The HVAC going in has uncovered a few issues. There was a huge squirrel/wildlife nest in the ceiling. Also in 1996/1997 there was some work done or someone with a real problem hid a bunch of tall boys in the ceiling. One was used for bowl so smoke some weed/crack. I was a little concerned this morning when I walked in the house and saw that there were a bunch of smashed empty beer cans. I thought DAMN its Tuesday, at 12pm and someone working here is 6 beers deep. It was not until later when they told me where the found them. I picked one up and looked at the date. 1997. So they have been there a while.

HVAC - Installation brand new duct lines!

Remnants of the Wildlife nest, beer cans, crack pipe, and fence repairs.

Construction Continues -

5/16/2020

It has been a few weeks since the last update, and we have had some progress but more set-backs too. The timeline was HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Inspections, drywall, paint/tile, and move in. Since the last update we have gotten nearly all of the HVAC, and the plumbing just passed inspection. Monday 5/18/2020 the electrician is scheduled to start. We are moving along, but not without a few issues.

The last update on the demo page has the information about the bumble bees. Which is not the best thing to happen but not the worst. The re-framing of the house has made it apparent that the original structure floor and the addition floor are off by 3/4". We thought since the bathroom floor had several holes from all the pluming we decided it would be best to pull up the sub-floor and lay down new sub-floor this will fix the uneven floor. This has created a few other issues. The ceiling height with the fix now does not meet code, and the ceiling joists do no have the space to raise the joists and re-insulate to the correct R-Value. This may require us to have to spray foam the ceiling. $$$

HVAC moved into the loft

The next big step in the process is the plumbing, during the demo we uncovered that the house is plumbed with cast iron plumbing. Cast iron piping corrodes from the inside out and is hard to tell when there is an issue before is becomes a real problem. Because of the renovation we have been able to re-pipe the house and all of the piping is brand new all the way to the street/main-line. That is one less worry for years to come.

SON-Of-A-B(&^%

There have been so many uncovered renovation issues during this process, and because we know that the last big renovation was in the 80's. We believe that is when all of the shit ass work was done. Well wouldn't ya know it, while fixing the bedroom sub-floor it was deemed better to just replace the entire floor. After pulling up the sub-floor more poor quality work was found.

There is a saying in construction when it comes to framing "The center is sacred" There are a lot of specifics on notching joists to fit plumbing and other mechanical, BUT the undisputed rule stand. YOU DO NOT CUT THE CENTER. What do you think we found? God damn idiots. What makes this SO unbelievably stupid is all of the weight that was in that room. a 40 Gal water heater, a sink, a toilet, washer and dryer, and a tub/shower. ALL on a compromised structure. I do not know how the house did not have major failures during the last three plus decades.

I think that is all for now, until the electrician starts on Monday and some more 40 year old mysteries are uncovered.

Until Next Time,

D&E

Electrical Starts 5/18/2020

We are so excited to see movement this week, the electrician began pulling all new wiring. Yesterday (Monday 5/18/2020) was a planning day. We walked the house with the electrician and plans to game plan. We made a few tweaks to the plans and finalized the billion new switches and lights and outlets. The electrician finished the day pulling old dead pot lights from the ceilings, worn outlets, and broken switches.

Today Tuesday 5/19/2020 they went to work. Elizabeth and I went by the house late today to finish the installing new planks on the fence but also to check on the work. WHOA! I do not know how much is left exactly with the 2nd floor electrical, but gauging the work completed, it cannot be much. The estimated time left on electrical work is Tuesday 5/26/2020. The beauty of this for us really is in the fact that this is the last trade to install mechanical. That means by the end of the week next week we should have inspections from the city done. Then the finishing materials can start then it starts to become a home again.

Check out these pix!

5/31/2020 - We can see the tunnel

Well it has been a little while since our last update. Thankfully work has been busy and unfortunately the work that has been done at the house is not as flashy as demo, tile, and cabinets. It is just as exciting but not very photo worthy. The electrician did finish on the 26th as planned. We subsequently had our inspections on our mechanical systems. All of those passed which means we are one step closer to moving in. We can finally see the tunnel, we are not quite in the tunnel to see the light, but we can see it up ahead.

I have put up a little slide show with some photos of some of the work done. My Nephew Jaden and I did some work at the house. We dug a trench and re worked the gutter downspouts and installed surface drain to have better flow and dryness. I also put Jaden to work installing the TV and Internet lines. The 8 years at AT&T came in handy while installing the smart panel and COAX/CAT5 lines.

Tomorrow we will start the insulation work, this will later have an inspection I assume sometime hopefully at the end of the week. We have also decided to proceed with spray foam, in the guest bedroom and around the band board on the first floor. Since we do not have the head space in the guest room to obtain high enough R value with traditional insulation this will help tremendously. We have also decided to spray foam the band board to seal/insulate the space between the crawlspace and the living space. We also had the house termite treated. There was evidence of prior termite damage done to some of the framing. Also because the grade is only about 6" below the floor joists. We thought this was money well spent.

Photos below... There are little arrows on each side of the slideshows that advance the images.

Gutter downspouts with surface drains, general construction, and Electrical work

Tile for the mud room/utility room laid out to get a feel, and all the COAX/CAT5 Lines

6/2/2020 - We are entering the tunnel

What a difference a few day makes. Today we walked the house with Raul from Federal Contracting to get a good snapshot on where we are at and what is next. We had a few little issues to finish up with basic construction details, patch this, cap that, plug this, move that. BUT generally we are done with the construction phase. The last puzzle piece before we move to drywall, cabinets, paint, finish materials, is insulation.

Today we had wall insulation and spray foam installed. As I mentioned before we did not have the head space above the guest bedroom for proper R value. The solution is spray foam. Great R value for the volume. We also had the band board "sealed" around the crawlspace with spray foam as well. All of this went off without much trouble. As usual Elizabeth and I went down and check things out after dinner. And sans a few little things that need to be buttoned up we will have an inspection tomorrow from the city for the insulation. Without any unforeseen issues drywall will also begin tomorrow.

SO the next week will prove quite interesting and should really make the house look like a house again.

Until Next Time,

D&E

6/4/2020 Drywall?! Whaaaaaat!?

Today was the official start of the finish materials. I know this was expected but it is super exciting to see the drywall going up. It is officially turning back into a house. More good news, the cabinets should be here next week. So things are moving right along.

Until Next Time,

D&E

6/6/2020 - Final Construction Phase

Hello everyone, it has been a little while since I have posted 360s of the space. Since we are getting close to finishing the construction phase I figured I would post the latest images. BUUUUUT I think the hosting service I use for the website has either changed code or limited my ability to embed the images directly into the post. I will have to post clickable links that will redirect to the 360s. Pain I know but that seems to be the work around for now.

If you want to make it somewhat easier if you are on a PC right click the link and open in new window.

Until Next Time,

D&E

Living Room and Kitchen from the bottom of the stairs

Mud Room, Powder, and Laundry

Transition on stairs going up

6/13/2020 - Drywall Nearing Completion

Hello everyone! It has been a few days since the last post. It seems as though the drywalling has been a slow process. It has been a 7 "work" day, span and 12 day total timeline for drywalling the house. Now They have been very thorough with the mudding/taping. Some areas have had 3 layers of mud to make it smooth and even. When they brought in 189 5 gallon buckets of joint compound, we thought "that seems like a lot", but now we appreciate the effort going into making the walls smooth and consistent.

At the end of this post I will add the last round of 360s for the drywall. Monday 6/15/2020 the rest of the drywall should be complete. We currently have scheduled for interior door delivery on Tuesday (6/16), and our cabinets are being delivered on Thursday (6/18). I do not think that the cabinets are being installed on Thursday unfortunately. Raul also asked for paint selections so I assume this might be the last post on the "Construction phase".

Lastly with this post we had a landscape company come through and clean up all of the awful overgrowth issues. They removed the awful shrubs in the front, and worth every penny, they pulled all of the IVY and deep routed bushes from along side, and the rose bushes. They laid down weed screen, and a ton of new mulch. It looks soooo much better its unbelievable. Here are the before and afters and 360s with drywall after the photo break.

I think the next post will be a whole new thread, be on the lookout for the that one tracking the finishing materials.

Until Next Time,

D&E

Before Landscape -