Day - 76 Brick, Paint, Doors and Siding

There has been a lot of work completed since my last post on Monday. The Welcome Landing Doors have been installed (Wednesday) and they are beautiful. The Welcome Landing exterior door, and window trim is complete. The trim work here is custom and very precise. The Oleary Cole guys spent a lot of time here to get the 5 windows and 2 doors installed and you can tell because it looks fantastic. The Parking shelter siding is near completion except for the stairway bump out. The brick masons were back this week and installed new red brick on the lower level exterior and on the side of the parking shelter foundation. The red brick looks great with the white window trim and gray hearty plank. The masons also used some of the recycled brick to veneer the back wall of the parking shelter. This leaves about 10% of the brick work to complete (in the screen porch). The front gable on the main house has been retrofitted with new red cedar shingles and a new period correct vent. The detail work on the main gable matches that on the parking shelter and pulls the whole house together into one unit. The downstairs hvac air handler has been installed (they hung it from the ceiling in my shop area). Gas lines for the heat, gas fireplace insert and tank less water heater have been installed and pressure tested. The Door to the outdoor storage room was installed. Preparation for the parking shelter pad is complete. Decorative piers for the parking shelter were mortared together. Wednesday and Thursday this week we set a new goal of guys and trucks on site. I am guessing 25 or more workers and 15 or so vehicles. Wow!

Day - 71 HVAC

Anyone know what HVAC stands for? I do, and if you do too leave a comment below and show me how smart you are. Our renovation requires that we expand the existing hvac system to heat/cool the additional square footage on the main level and we are adding an additional system to handle the new square footage in the entirely new lower level. Today the guys began threading flexible duct work through the ijoists to all of the vent locations. They used some sort of white sealant at at all of the joints. Work still needs to be completed on the return duct work as well as tying it all together to an air handler and condenser which are not on site yet. It is good to see the hvac guys get a good start because... we are still trying to find a source for the shingles on our house... preferably on the east coast. Apparently, the southeast shingle factory no longer makes the color shingle we have, so we either need to find someone close who still has some shingles in stock, or incur an exorbitant amount to freight the singles in from anther part of the country. I guess a final option would be to use a new color and just replace the existing shingles. This is a tough call because the existing shingles are only 2 or 3 years old.

Day - 65, 66, 67 Shake it up

The guys are back at it! Gas fireplace insert installed and the vent hole for the fireplace was cut into the exterior wall. Exterior Trim Painted, Gable over Parking Shelter Cedar Shaked. Main floor exterior walls hearty planked. A lot has happened over the past 3 days and there are many more things to be done. I feel like a lot of people have put a lot of hard work and planning into this project and now things are falling into place quite nicely. Some times I worry about how far along we are or how we will bring our new baby boy into the middle of this, but then I just let it go, because we have good people doing the hard part for us. We have worked hard to get to this point and it shows. The next big decision for us, the homeowners, will be to choose lighting fixtures we will love AND to stay on budget. Not so easy to find a happy medium there.

Day - 62, 63, 64 Pressure is on?

Sunday is always a rest day, but I was surprised that I did not see anyone on Friday or Saturday. I did see one guy who looked like one of our painters waiting out front on Friday morning but he left after waiting 30 minutes or so. I say I no one was there but I think some one from OCI must have stopped by because I noticed a few things were moved around. At most I noticed they trimmed the overlapping plywood from the bottom of the bump out. I am not sure if this is the "slowing down" they told us to expect or not, but it seems like things have really come to a halt for a few days. I am not a builder so this just may be how it works. I want you to know that from the homeowner with pregnant wife's perspective things have come to a screeching halt. We are happy to see the guys outside working everyday. None of the noises or activity have bothered us one bit, so when it is quiet, we assume something might be wrong. I know we have a deadline and I don't know if we are ahead or behind schedule so that makes me a little nervous.

Day - 61 Plumbing Rough-in Complete

No guys from OCI today just Herb and his helper. The plumbers completed the task of venting and pressure testing the sewer lift for the downstairs. The city was also to complete the plumbing inspection today.

Day - 59 & 60 Framing Complete

Exciting news, we have stairs! Today, for the first time we can walk from the main floor and owners suite, down to the welcome landing and then down again to the lower level. Yeah, no more climbing ladders to get blog photos. Along with the completion of the stairs we now have a fully framed fire place ready for the firebox, stone and then mantle. We decided to do a hearth in front of the fireplace so the guys also built a recessed floor so that the stone would be flush with the hardwood flooring. Also completed today were the windows in the welcome landing and the stairs leading to the storage room area above the car shelter. I must say that his not so little area has really turned out to be a great bonus area. Finally I noticed the door to the private deck was hung today as well. So that is the progress from the past two days. Very impressive amount of work. Tomorrow the HVAC guys should start and we are very close to having the plumbing and electrical work completed. That's it for now I have to go back out and admire the new great spaces.

Day - 58 Stick Work

The guys began work on the vent on the gable of the parking shelter early this morning. They are recreating the look of the existing house gables with the addition of a cool vent that we will duplicate on the main gable over the porch of the existing house. Lots of cutting here and precise work to make such a neat design. The guys were joined today be the plumbers, the electricians and even the painters. The painters put up the first coat of primer on the trim on the front of the car shelter. The electricians began work running wire on the main floor of the addition and the plumbers continued work on the vent pipes and also on the supply line for the ice maker that will be in the kitchenette. Finally you can see from the photos that the guys are preparing a scaffolding to use to install the siding.

Day - 55, 56, 57 Inspections, Then Quiet Weekend

Friday the inspectors were here checking out how the plumbing was going. Friday night I did a little hand planing and fixed the bathroom door that has been sticking since the big lift.
Saturday was quiet. Saturday afternoon I did climb into the attic and completed some work on a condensation drain from the upstairs air conditioner.
Sunday is always a rest day (unless something really really has to be done).

Day - 54 Plumbing with Herb

Herb is a great plumber. He just does everything as expected, quietly and orderly. You hardly even know he is here. Look folks, if you are going to spend money on a good plumber look him up. I will have to ask the OCI guys the name of his company because they are the ones that recommended him. The guys finished filling big red #2 today. I don't know of many contractors who finish the day by sweeping the floors, but they do. Very tidy. We had our weekly meeting today and there were no major issues or decisions. That is good because it means that the guys can just concentrate on getting the job done. The inspector will be by tomorrow to check out the plumbing and make sure there are no leaks. I learned something about windows today. Any window within 24 inched of a hinge must be tempered. Whatever that means. Just kidding, I think it means that if it breaks there are no sharp pieces. We did discuss a set of bookshelves that we are trying to figure out how to afford that will go on either side of the stone fireplace. Better put some things on eBay because I think they would look great. Oh, and Levi remember when you said make sure Caleb doesn't get into the blue protective paint on the shower...well lets just say those are not my footprints in there. Good thing it is latex based, because someone here also has a blue hand.

Day - 53 More Windows

The guys installed the windows in the bump out today. The bump out is where our new claw foot tub will sit and it will be an oasis in the new owners suit bath. The guys also put up the trim for the windows on the outside of the house by using a catwalk type scaffolding. This is not a job for those who do not like heights. Work also continued tying the stair tower roof into the existing living room roof. This is definitely an area that needed work before we started the project and now it looks great. The guys also began work on the vent gable over the parking shelter. More work to be completed there tomorrow.

Day - 52 Let there be Light

Today the crew from OCI installed a 30x30 skylight in the stair tower above the welcome landing. They also removed a beam that was previously installed and designed to help diffuse light from the sonotube which we had originally planned for. The skylight is installed on the rear slope of the gable (per Design and Preservation Commission guidelines) above the cricket. The light affords views of the towering trees on the rear of our property. The guys also worked on the mini porch roof on the exit to the owners suite, to the privacy deck. Can you tell I like making up official names for each area of the renovation? We decided a nice touch for this area would be to install bead board on the ceiling to match to front porch ceiling material. Trey, also suggested we use this same bead board for the ceiling of the car shelter. Finally the guys spent some time on the bump out window framing and then finished up the day preparing to repair several roof joists that were destroyed and then repaired incorrectly by a roofing company a few years ago. Thank you very much for that. I have been asked several times by readers if we are on schedule. My answer is, I don't know. It looks to me like things are moving very quickly and we have not heard of any delays from any of the subcontractors so I am not worried.

Day - 51 Windows

The vapor wrap was stapled to the last few vacant spots of wood today on the exterior. Next up was window installation. We chose windows that have the same look as our original windows and they are made of wood to blend in with the character of the existing house. Each window takes some time to install because the trim work and sills are much more complicated than in a new house. The trim is matched to the existing and the sills are larger and consistent with the existing. They look very classy. The exterior door from the family gathering area to the back yard was also installed today. They delivered more lumber today along with the 30x30 skylight we will be installing in the stair tower. Over the weekend the plumbers installed hot and cold water lines to the shower, tub, vanity and toilet in the owners suite.

Day - 48, 49, 50 Out of Town

We are enjoying a few days at the Coast of South Carolina.

Day - 47 Vapor Wrap and Drains

The plumbers started the main drain line today and the guys from OCI worked hard installing the vapor wrap. We departed for Vacation today so this is a short update and you will not hear or see any updates for a few days.