A Reasonable Addition

New picture - finally!

2010-02-16T20:06:00.003-07:00

We've been back in the house since 1/9/2010, but we've been so busy organizing and unpacking (with no end in sight) that I neglected to post pictures of the house now that we're done.

The spiral staircase in back was just recently finished, and we still have a bit of concrete to pour in the back yet, but that's about it in back. I'll post pictures of the finished spiral tomorrow - I forgot to take pictures before it got dark this evening.

The front will get landscaping, of course, and also a front patio of some sort.

But for now, this is it.

There go the holidays

2009-12-28T17:30:00.003-07:00

So its December 28th and we're still not back in the house. The interior staircase railings showed up completely different than we had originally discussed, so they are being re-done and won't be finished until late this week, which means that we won't be able to schedule the final inspection until early next week. Providing everything gets done on time. I'm not holding my breath.

Appliances went in last week, though, so that's some progress, and finish plumbing and electrical is happening. Finish HVAC should be happening today and tomorrow. I installed the concrete sink and steel vanity that I built for the master bathroom last wee as well - that's the picture above. Sarah and her mom have been working on getting the floor tile all sealed. The old bedrooms and bath are all done and the rest should be finished by the end of this weekend.

We're now shooting for a move-in date towards the end of next week. There will still be several things that need to be done after that, most notably the spiral staircase to the back balcony and the concrete around it, but that will all be done after the final.

Click here for updated pictures

(Not) Home for the Holidays

2009-12-14T20:40:00.002-07:00

So we won't be back in the house by Christmas. Our counters aren't going in until this Friday, and all the finish work (plumbing, electrical, HVAC) has to wait until the counters are in, so we won't be done until the week after Christmas at the earliest.

Things are progressing, however. The roof is mostly on - the rest will be completed after the solar electric panels are installed in early January. The floor tile is all installed and, thanks to a lot of hard work by Sarah and her mom, the grouting is all done as well. The shower tile is all done except for the grout, which will be completed tomorrow. The grate over the basement window well is in, which means we won't have to fish our neighbor out of there any more after his nightly "constitutional".

I'll post more pictures on Friday when the countertops go in.

Click here to catch up on pictures.

Getting Close

2009-12-01T19:27:00.002-07:00

We're getting close to finishing now. The floor tile is going in - the first floor is done and they started the second floor today.

We decided to do the grout ourselves. Our tile has a pretty serious knocked-down edge, and we didn't want the entire area to be filled with grout, so we are doing it ourselves rather than paying extra to have the tile guys to it to our specifications.

They also painted the exterior doors today - though only the outside of the front door is supposed to be blue. Oops. We'll get that fixed.

We're still on track for a completion date of the 15th, despite the amount of work that still has to be completed.

The cabinets are getting put in on Thursday and Friday, and the countertops will get templated on Monday. We're doing CaesarStone, and apparently it will take at least a week to fabricate the counters once the templates are made. If it goes over that, we'll end up blowing our completion date of the 15th.

Even if we go over, though, hopefully we'll still be done before Christmas.

Click here for pictures.

Painting...

2009-11-20T17:10:00.004-07:00

The painters have started - both the interior and exterior of the house are now primed. The paint should be completed towards the middle of next week.

Installation of the floor tile will start on Monday, and the solar water heating panels will probably be installed next week as well (we're waiting for an appointment).

We poured the concrete countertop for the master bath last weekend - I will be taking it out of the mold this weekend to see how it turned out. I'll also start welding together the vanities for the powder room and the master bathroom this weekend. We're using square-stock steel to build those.

We also met with the welder that will be putting together the railings for the front and back balconies. He is scheduled to complete that work next week.

We seem to still be on schedule to finish the project by 12/15, which would be nice, since it would give us a week or two to get moved back in before Christmas.

Click here to see primer-iffic pictures.

Update - 11/10/2009

2009-11-10T20:25:00.006-07:00

The drywall is now all up and taped, and texturing will start tomorrow.

The stucco should be finished tomorrow - All that is left is a few areas of patching.

The final approval of cabinets happened today as well - they will be installed at the beginning of December.

Southwest Gas also started the process of relocating the gas meter over to the south side of the house today, so it looks like that will be done before the project ends, which is handy since all our furnaces are gas-fired.

Click here for all of the pictures from today.

More stucco and drywall

2009-11-07T04:30:00.004-07:00

The drywalling has begun, and the exterior has a complete scratch coat now. The plan is to have drywall and stucco finished by the end of next week. After that, the trim will go in and then it will be time to do the painting.

Click here for more pictures

11/4/2009: Buttoning Up

2009-11-05T19:59:00.005-07:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted an update, and a lot has happened in the interim.

The trenches in the back and front yard from the plumbing have been filled back so the backyard no longer looks like a war zone. Well, not as much, at least...

The rough electrical an plumbing wrapped up last weekend and I got all the low voltage done last weekend with the help of my brother-in-law. It was a lot of work, but we got almost all of it done, and I finished up the rest over the last few evenings.

The insulation went in yesterday, and the drywall was stocked today (and will begin going up tomorrow). The scratch coat for the stucco was also started today.

Lots of progress, and the end seems finally in sight.

Click here for lots and lots of pictures.

There goes the yard...

2009-10-19T18:33:00.007-07:00

The plumber trenched the back yard to tie into the sewer last week, so now we have piles of dirt all over until the inspection happens and we can fill it all back in. Joy.

We also decided to pull all the drywall out and insulate the exterior walls of the old section of the house, so that happened today.

I've also started pulling conduit for low-voltage cabling (CAT-5, coax, speakers, etc.). Thankfully, my brother-in-law will be coming down in a couple of weeks to help out with that effort. He has an ability to make even the most complex cabling installation look elegant, which is a very under-appreciated art form, I think.

Click here for more pictures.

We're back!

2009-10-08T19:07:00.003-07:00

So I'm finally getting around to posting progress from the past couple of weeks.

Updates:
The insulation foam was sprayed onto the underside of the roof two weeks ago, and the HVAC installation began a couple of days later.

The electric and the plumbing are both currently being installed. We are also currently working on getting bids for both solar hot water and solar photovoltaic electric systems. The south side of the second story roof will be shingled (as opposed to tiled with mexican clay tile) to accommodate the solar panels.

We also decided to eliminate the ductwork in the old hallway and raise that roof to 8 feet to match the existing bedrooms on that side of the house. The electric will also be upgraded in those rooms, as it is the old style wiring with no ground circuit.

Lastly, the windows arrived yesterday, and all the windows for the new construction were installed today. The last five will be done tomorrow - they are in the old part of the house, so the old windows have to be removed before the new ones go in.

Click here for a slew of new photos.

Framing STILL almost done...

2009-09-17T19:18:00.003-07:00

So we made a few changes to the framing, so it isn't quite done yet.

We decided to recess the area where the refrigerator goes so that it can be flush with the front of the cabinets. We also wanted to close up the old doorway into the hallway and put a new, wider pass-through in a little further down the wall.

We also wanted to expand the area of the kitchen by about 1 1/2 feet to accomodate our desired kitchen cabinet design.

...so the framing should be done tomorrow.

Here's a few more pictures.

Framing almost done

2009-09-10T19:16:00.002-07:00

The framing is nearing completion. The first to second floor stairs were finished today and look great. They will eventually get stained dark to match the new kitchen cabinets.

Here are the rest of the pictures from today.

Two buildings into one

2009-09-09T18:10:00.003-07:00

The new construction was tied back into the original house today, so the framing is almost complete. The stringers for the first to second floor staircase were also installed.

Click here for all of today's images.

a slight problem...

2009-09-08T18:02:00.003-07:00

I know what you're all thinking, but no, this isn't the result of our neighbor using our bathroom after another night of binge drinking. This time.

We had a lot of rain last Friday. A LOT of rain. And apparently the less-than-stellar weatherproofing job of one of the workers allowed rain to get into the attic where it soaked the insulation and caused most of the ceiling to collapse in the bathroom.

Our neighbor might actually be under there somewhere - we haven't heard from him in several days. If he is, I hope we get to him before the DTs set in, because THAT would be ugly.

Huzzah!! New pictures!!!

2009-09-08T17:55:00.004-07:00

The framing finally continued again towards the end of last week, so here are some current pictures. They will start to connect the old and new structures tomorrow, so the framing should be done very soon.

Click here for scads of new images.

Second floor finished, almost.

2009-08-26T18:48:00.005-07:00

The roof trusses and sheathing were put in today, and all of the interior walls upstairs are now done. Half of the stairs to the basement are also in.

Still to be done is the balcony at the back of the house off the master bedroom, the first to second floor staircase, and the top half of the stairs to the basement. The new construction has also still not been tied into the old house.

Click here for the rest of today's pictures

Second floor framing continued...

2009-08-25T17:04:00.003-07:00

The framing of the second story continued today. All the exterior walls have now been framed, and the wall around the staircase was done today as well.

Click here for all of today's pictures.

Next stop - second floor

2009-08-24T17:07:00.003-07:00

The first floor ceiling/second floor went in today, so framing of the second floor will likely start tomorrow. The main structural steel support posts for the second floor still have to be set as well. That is scheduled to happen Thursday.

Click here for more pictures.

Still framing...

2009-08-21T19:41:00.003-07:00

The first floor framing is almost finished at this point. The stairs into the basement have not been completed yet, nor has the new construction been tied into the existing structure, but otherwise it is complete.

Here is a link to more pictures.

Framing continued

2009-08-19T19:49:00.004-07:00

Framing continued today. The back wall went up and the floor went down over the basement.

Someone left a lovely welcome mat in front of the new phone booth in the basement. How thoughtful. They also left a rubber duck, which seems odd...

Here's a link to more pictures

Framing has started

2009-08-18T17:09:00.004-07:00

The framing started today. We have garage walls again. They also started the framing for the staircase into the basement. The telephone booth is also now in it's final home in the basement.

Click here for all of today's pictures, including a detailed shot-by-shot record of the phone booth's journey into the basement.

Half a basement done

2009-08-17T18:30:00.002-07:00

The concrete cap over the front of the basement was poured on Saturday. The back half will be framed with conventional wood trusses, since that part of the floor does not need to support the weight of a car like the front half does.

The telephone booth that is going into the basement arrived on Friday - it will be craned into the basement tomorrow morning. The main support beam for the second floor will also be lifted into place tomorrow while the crane is on site.

To see more pictures of the concrete pad and the phone booth click here.

Garage floor deck...

2009-08-13T18:36:00.003-07:00

The metal cap was installed on the front half of the basement today. The concrete cap will be poured over it on Saturday, completing the front half of the basement. Apparently the neighborhood thinks we're building a bomb shelter.

Click here for all the pictures from today.

Finishing the wall

2009-08-12T17:02:00.002-07:00

The wall was completed today, and the steel deck under the garage floor will be installed tomorrow or Friday, followed by the cement garage floor on Saturday.

Here are the rest of today's pictures.

Building a Wall

2009-08-11T18:06:00.003-07:00

The wall separating the two rooms in the basement is mostly done - they had to stop part way for an inspection today, so it will get finished tomorrow. The framing for the basement egress window is also being done out of block and can be seen in the back corner of the basement.

The short door in the wall is for access under the stairs, which is where I am planning on installing not only the AV equipment for the home theater (the home theater will be in the front room of the basement), but computer equipment as well (routers/NASs/switches).

The block wall is necessary because the entire front room of the basement will be capped with structural steel and a 4" layer of concrete. This is required because the garage sits on top of the front half of the basement, so the floor has to support the weight of a vehicle.

Click here for all of the pictures from today.

8/8/2009: Basement floor

2009-08-09T15:37:00.003-07:00

The basement floor was poured yesterday, along with the foundations under the columns on the back patio.

Click here for all of today's pictures.

Walls done, floor next...

2009-08-06T18:59:00.003-07:00

The basement walls are finished and the floor is tentatively scheduled to be poured Saturday. They came today and dug under the pillars on the back patio, since those will now be support columns for the second story.

Click here for all the pictures from today.

Gunite continued...

2009-08-04T17:14:00.003-07:00

Here's a picture from the end of the day.

All today's pictures can be seen here.

Say Gunite, Gracie.

2009-08-04T17:09:00.002-07:00

Today most of the basement walls were formed out of gunite. There is still a small amount of work to be done to finish, so they will be back tomorrow to finish it up. It's amazing how much they were able to do in a single day.

The above picture was taken at about 11am.

Welcome to the 4077th

2009-08-03T18:56:00.005-07:00

The first half of the gunite gets done tomorrow, and today guide wires were installed to mark where the inside surface of the walls should be. A drain pipe was also installed in the window well so that we can install a sump pump to hook to a drain (for a sink) at some future point.

I'm not sure what purpose the camouflage cover serves, unless we're expecting a visit from 5 o'clock Charlie in the next few days.

Also, the rebar going down the middle of the basement is where a block wall will be built once the walls and floor are in. The idea is to have two rooms down there - the front room will be a home theater (eventually). The wall will also act as a support for the front half of the first floor, which has to be made with steel and concrete since part of it is the garage floor.

I took a few detail pictures of the wires that were set up today. They and the other pictures taken today can be found here.

We're back!

2009-07-30T05:28:00.003-07:00

After a two and a half week wait, Southwest Gas finally got the gas line disconnected Monday, so we're now finally able to move forward.

The rebar was finished on Tuesday and we passed the inspection for it Wednesday.

Today the concrete contractor will start preparing to shoot the basement walls (they will be created with gunite, similar to how a pool is built). The preparation will take two days, so the gunite should be going in early next week, followed closely by the basement floor, which will be poured.

I'll get some pictures of the prep work for the gunite later today.

Oh, and here's a link to recipe that I highly recommend.
(editorial note: I had to double the recipe)

July 12, 2009

2009-07-12T08:23:00.004-07:00

At this point most of the rebar is installed in the basement. The only part that isn't in yet is in the back corner where the gas line cuts across, and we're still waiting on Southwest Gas to come out and cut the gas line so that we can remove that section of pipe and get the rebar in place.

The green liner is a moisture barrier. For those of you keeping score in the home game, that's three layers of barriers. Seems a little overkill for Phoenix.

The concrete walls are scheduled for Wednesday, but that may well get pushed back if Southwest Gas doesn't get out on Monday to cap off the gas line.

Click here for all of today's pictures

Renovation - 7/6/2009

2009-07-06T18:48:00.003-07:00

Today the moisture barrier was installed in the basement. Tomorrow the rebar should start going in in preparation for the gunite walls to be shot.

A PVC drain was also installed along the lower perimeter behind the moisture barrier to catch any water that might get down that far (which just seems silly, considering the miniscule amount of rainfall we get in the Phoenix area on an annual basis).

Click here for all of today's pictures.

Renovation - 7/2/2009

2009-07-02T16:10:00.003-07:00

No new progress in the past few days. Southwest Gas should be out in about a week to cut the gas line.

In the meantime, the liner and rebar will start to go in, and hopefully the gas line will be re-routed in time to shoot the walls (they're going to be shot with gunite) next week.

In the absence of progess pictures, here's a picture of a sharp-dressed llama.

Excavation - Day 8

2009-06-30T17:40:00.005-07:00

The excavation of the basement is complete and the digging equipment has left the building. Here I am enjoying the new basement with a coworker.

I'm meeting with the engineer from Southwest Gas tomorrow at noon, so hopefully we'll get the gas line re-routed quickly and it won't slow up the overall schedule by much.

Click here for all of today's pictures.

Day 7 continued...

2009-06-27T07:45:00.002-07:00

Here is our sad tree, which is now about a foot away from a giant hole in the ground. It probably had enough of it's main roots cut to guarantee it's demise, but so far it seems to still be surviving.

Day 7 continued...

2009-06-27T07:34:00.004-07:00

Here's the back corner of the basement with the bump out for the window well/emergency exit. You can also see a cross-section of the original footing for the back of the garage.

And just in case anyone is wondering, the reason the exterior garage wall frame is still there is because we have to leave it standing in order to maintain the setback from the original house. Current code requires a minimum 10 foot setback from the property line. When our house was built the setback was only 6.5'. If we tear down the wall, we have to rebuild it 3.5' further in, which would make parking a car in the garage difficult unless you drive a Honda Z600.

Excavation - Day 7

2009-06-27T07:13:00.003-07:00

More digging. Most of the back two-thirds of the basement is done now. The hole is about 11.5' deep, but it seems deeper than that in person (except to the professionals). Here are a couple pictures.

Click here for all of today's pictures

2009-06-25T17:32:00.003-07:00

The basement is now about halfway dug. This picture doesn't show depth very well, but the dirt wall there is about 10 feet deep.

Click here to see all of today's pictures

Excavation - Day 6

2009-06-24T20:16:00.003-07:00

The foundation was saw cut and removed today and the excavation of the basement started...

Click here for all of today's pictures

Day 5 continued...

2009-06-23T16:50:00.002-07:00

I hope I remembered to lock the front door...

Demolition - Day 5

2009-06-23T16:41:00.003-07:00

The demolition phase is complete now, except for the cutting and removal of the slab foundation. That will start tomorrow, followed by the excavation for the basement.

Click here for all of today's pictures

Day 4 continued...

2009-06-22T17:21:00.002-07:00

Here's a picture of the back of the house.

Demolition - Day 4

2009-06-22T17:15:00.003-07:00

A fence went up around the house today, so the front of the house started to come down. They had left the front wall and roof more or less intact up to this point for security purposes. As you can see from the above picture, the only thing left now is the front door.

Click here to all the pictures from today

Day 3 continued...

2009-06-19T17:47:00.003-07:00

Here's another angle, from the back corner of the garage side of the house.

Demolition - Day 3

2009-06-19T17:26:00.006-07:00

So this is what the back of the house looks like after the third day of demo. The rear section of the roof has been removed, and all the stucco has been removed from the garage at this point as well. Also, the patio roof over this half of the patio has been removed.

Click here to all of today's pictures

Day 2 continued...

2009-06-18T18:39:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of the rear of the house after day 2.

Day 2 - more demolition

2009-06-18T18:26:00.002-07:00

After the second day. there was nothing left of the back of the house but framing. The ceiling was out and all the drywall was off the interior and rear walls.

Click here for all the pictures from today

Day 1 continued...

2009-06-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here's another picture of the kitchen, showing the entrance into the laundry room (and the hole where the back door used to be).

Day 1 continued...

2009-06-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the kitchen, post tear-out...

2009-06-18T18:12:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of the interior of the house facing the back after the first day of renovation. The workers started at 6:30am. I asked for them to start earlier (my neighbor likes to get up early), but they said something about ordinances and politely declined. The framing in the above picture used to be the interior of a wall that separated the living room from the laundry room.

Click here for all the pictures from today

Here we go!

2009-06-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

We finally got our permits on Monday, 6/15/2009, after a several-month delay due less than competent performance by a structural engineer (What? I have to prove it works using physics? You won't just take my word for it?).

The demolition started at the back of the house. Above is the before picture.

History

2009-06-18T07:36:00.003-07:00

This is an attempt to document the renovation of our 1946 Central Phoenix home. Our subdivision was built as inexpensive housing for GI's returning from WWII. I have been told that they are the first tract-style homes to be built in Phoenix (a dubious distinction if true).

My wife and I purchased this home 10 years ago. It was our first home, and when we decided that we wanted more space, we decided to renovate rather than move, since we love the neighborhood and the neighbors.

This is our story...

Several years ago, we decided we wanted a bigger house. We originally wanted to just add a small master suite above the garage, and met with an architect to design it. After getting preliminary drawings, we decided that if we were going to go through the hassle of doing a renovation, we should probably just list out everything that we wanted in a house and let that guide the project. I wanted a basement. My wife (we'll call her Farrah) wanted a master suite. We went back through the design process and after many iterations ended up with the above floor plans.

The first time we showed the plans to our neighbor (we'll call him Gladys), he called it a monolith and lamented that it would block out the sun. I told him he didn't need sun, he got free tanning at his gym. He hasn't spoken to us much since then (though he did feel free to use the dumpster for his own personal use when it showed up - he'll be getting a bill).