Patio

We had a mortared brick patio with a failing curved wall before.  We were presented with an opportunity to use cement pavers by the sub contractor doing the re-grading and seeding of the yard.

On the one hand, we didn't want to tap into the reserve budget nor did we want to make another decision now - we're "decisioned-out".  On the other hand, if we address it now then when the big reno is done, so will this - so went for it:

...the kids exploring the crawlspace.  Note the closed-cell foam used on the walls with ties into the 6-mil film underneath the gravel.  This conditioned space will have an HVAC supply and return

Heated flooring and tile

I decided to tackle the tiling myself.  This was a bit more difficult than other project because 1) I installed radiant heat floor and tiled over top in one step (without self-leveling) - doable but tricky. 2) The tiles are 8"x24"Sant'Agostino Light Series and are very unforgiving for "less-than-perfect" walls exascerbated by the fact that I not only morter-seamed the joints with fiberglass tape but also painted the joints and the lower 4' with RegGard for additional strength and waterproofing.  Of the 100+ tiles in the shower, only 6 did not need to be cut.

Radiant floor heating in family (left) and master (right) baths.  I did apply two batches of levelling cement on the family bath and may have someone else tile in the interest of time.

Catching up

Its been two months since we last posted - busy lives I guess.  Never realized how many choices we would have to make from the coordinating colors of everything (floor, roof, siding, walls, cabinets,...), to the placement of everything (switches, lights, outlet, plumbing fixtures,...), to the style of everything (molding, hardware, hinges,...).

A lot of great progress has been made.  On the top floor we decided to remove the exterior walls so they can be studded, insulated and drywalled.  Then, to address the squeaky floors, we ended up removing the existing hardwood and putting down new T&G (Tongue and Groove) plywood that was glued and screwed down and then new hardwood:

 

Subfloor insulation (especially over the garage), and the finished floor.

The great room is coming along nicely.  We decided to go with Silestone for the countertop.  Even though it was a premium over granite, Silestone is non-porous, maintenance free, stronger, and rather heat tolerant - though granite will shine here.  Countertop installation is scheduled for Tuesday by Counter Intelligence, Inc. 

One challenge we had was that since a custom microwave cabinet was not available, we were provided a kit to build one on site. The one shown is the second iteration at 24" rather 27".  That 3" difference allowed us to get a single slab of Silestone rather than having 2-pieces with a visible seam - we needed 120" and the slab in our color came in 118" lengths.

Our Silestone color will be the one in the middle, Blanco Capri (aka Capri Limestone).

The 48" wide refrigerator weighs about 600lbs!  5 guys bought it up from the garage.

Here are some picture of the great room in progress.  Before the spray foam, I wired the room for Dolby 7.1 surround sound but had to modify it with two headers so I could remove the stud that would have run have run through the center channel speaker.  I also took the opportunity to wire in cable (coax), network (Cat6), and telephone (RJ11), and a HDMI and Coax bridge so it will be hidden behind the TV.  I bought 12 guage speaker wire, wall and ceiling speakers from Monoprice.com

Good Guts

Over a month has gone by since our last post.  A lot has changed - but largely to the guts of the house so to speak.  New sub-flooring, electrical wiring, plumbing, insulation, drywall and HVAC! I'm sure other homeowners can relate to the fact that even though this doesn't go too far in making the house look good, it goes a very long way to making for a good quality of life in the house.

Rheem HVAC guts

In particular, getting HVAC  is a huge relief as the temperatures have been increasingly heading south over the past few days.  Our space heaters were doing fine for the most part until it got to down around the freezing mark.  HVAC selection and installation was not easy at all but we were finally able to install a second furnace zoned for upstairs.  In the process we learned all about Manual J and FFX county's new rules coming in March 2012 which they had the nerve to try and foist upon us and would have required us to install a lousy heat pump.  But our HVAC trade made sure to come up with a creative plan to ensure that we were not stuck with a heat pump.  Yes I understand we may not be being very green, but I'll own that one.

We also can now look forward to less squeaky floors, electrical wiring to code and enough outlets in the places we need them and rooms that don't let warm air out or cool air in.  

Plumbing guts

Spray foam and drywall

One external area that was been finished nicely since last I wrote is the siding, trim and roof.  Yay! No more peeling paint, rotten wood or dripping ceilings when it rains or worse when it snows.  Looks pretty good on the outside, huh!?!

New Siding & Roof on Front

Siding and roof on new kitchen space and office

Next week our kitchen cabinets should be delivered. Fingers crossed that we measured well.

Decisions, Decisions

I have often heard people talk about the number of decisions that need to be made when you are renovating but I definitely didn't appreciate just how many until now.  Over the past 10 days we have made decisions about our kitchen cabinetry, bathroom vanities, faucets two or three times over, kitchen sink, placement of the attic stairs, roof and siding colors and done some changes to the space.

I for one am absolutely exhausted and didn't quite anticipate the hours and hours of internet research and endless discussions with spouse.  But I might as well get used to it, there are selections to be made for lighting, hardware and more on deck. I can't imagine what this must be like for folks who are building a house from the ground up!

New kitchen wall

It is beginning to take shape though and the contractor is moving quite swiftly.  This week the walls of the new kitchen/great room space went up and most windows went in.  The electrician has rewired much of the bedroom floor and the framing upstairs is just about done.

The contractor is also putting finishing touches on the roof on the entire house.

Exterior of new kitchen/great room

Facing old kitchen

And we did decide to work with Cliqstudios.com.  Our kitchen designer Jayelynn was wonderful.  She came up with a complete design for the kitchen and pantry in about a day each.  I shared with her my inspiration pages from houzz.com and she knew just what we wanted. Corey and I met her for a virtual appointment where she shared her screen through Adobe Connect which allowed us to make and see the adjustments to the design in real time. No abstract or time consuming discussions needed!

And here is the design:

Kitchen Design

Pantry Design

Don't steal the ideas - they were courtesy of Jayelynn working with us :) These are just renderings of the basics of what it will look like and not an exact reproduction. Thanks Jayelynn - we look forward to receiving the cabinets in about a month.

By the way, cliqstudios.com had their cabinetry featured on a recent episode of Kitchen Crashers on the DIY Network which I just happen to be watching as I blog right now. See Cliq's blog for more details on catching the episode in reruns. The designer on the show picked the same cabinets we did!

This ain't SO bad

So spouse asked today when we were going to start roughing it. It's true, we really aren't living too badly *yet*! Yes it is inconvenient to be basically limited to two rooms for living, to go to Starbucks rather than work at home once a week and to have a steady flow of contractors through your home. But hey, our two rooms are big, I get to earn more Starbucks points on my Gold Card, and I have a good excuse for my house looking like a hot mess.  Plus, we do have a bathroom, separate sleeping areas for us and the girls and, so far, still have the use of our kitchen. It will get worse, I'm sure, but so far so good.

So, as we have had to make some selections of materials so far, I thought I would share some of the resources we have found.

We have ordered quite a number of appliances through a local outlet that we found and actually ordered through Ebay.  Appliance Builders Warehouse have saved us about 40% on new appliances over those bought new in store.  Delivery confirmed that they are brand new in box and warrantied.

We were quite impressed with the quality of the materials from an online cabinetry company cliqstudios.com. We think the benefits of using cliqstudios include benefits of using them is that they are quite transparent with their pricing, offer a good amount of savings by eliminating some of the middle man purveyors of cabinetry, and offer completely free kitchen design.  They don't have a very wide selection of styles, but we understand that they will be introducing more colors in the winter according to our cliqstudios designer.

I'm showing here one of the cabinet styles from cliqstuidios.com that we like.  We are not sure that we will choose cliqstudios yet, but they are definitely on our list for consideration.

We also found Thos. Somerville Company to be a wonderful specialty showroom in bath/kitchen fixtures and cabinetry.  Hard to believe, but Thos Somerville has been in the DC area in some form  for 150 years!  We ended up ordering two BainUltra bathtubs through working with Henry at the Falls Church location.  We were only going to order one for our master bath, but the girls noted that they would end up in our bathroom all the time if we denied them the chance to have their own therapeutic bubbles!

Finally, I just thought I would share my favorite website for house renovation inspiration - Houzz.  What do I like about it? Well their pictures are stunning, the designers that post their creations often respond to member inquiries about their selections and styles, they let you gather ideabooks with the pics and accumulate others from around the web, and their content is constantly refreshed. Check it out through the link or the gadget on the right.

The end of the second week

Two weeks in and we've had a fair amount of changes. After the old breakfast nook was gone, the foundation work had started. The hole for the footings were dug then days of rain delayed the whole process:

...but a couple of days later we had a foundation wall with matching antique bricks

Meanwhile, BTF Construction told us that if we cleared the upstairs sooner, they could start that work in parallel - sounds reasonable...until you have to clear 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 4 closets (2 unaffected ones remained sealed shut):

A new 'upset' (on the same level of the joists rather than below it) LVL beam to support the ceiling joist after widening the MBR. Then, calling an 'audible' to accomodate a 5' bath rather that a 4' deep soaker and removing a hallway closet to open things up:

Homework this weekend: make a final tub selection and final modifications on lighting/electrical plan for the top floor. Oh, and shower and tub plumbing fixtures so the plumbing locations are set.