week 10: january 9-15, 2012

this week, the work on the parlor floor was limited to repairing the cove ceiling.  the crew sanded and patched the ceiling in the southwest corner of the room.

on the garden level, more HVAC work continued in the family room.  vertical ducts were put into place on the north and the south walls and overhead between the beams in the ceiling.  the crew also began to work on the bathroom's ceiling exhaust fan which had to be vented outside by snaking its way behind the two closets and existing cabinetry on the kitchen's south wall and then out thorough the family room ceiling.

the HVAC overhaul continued in the cellar too.  the ducts that had concerned hubby in late december because they were hanging lower than expected were relocated just slightly and now fit between the ceiling beams.  more ducts were placed in the ceiling and along the south wall in both the rear room and the southwest corner of the cellar.

during the week, we coordinated with anastasia to decide upon the location of the electrical panel (southeast corner of the family room opposite the exterior door) and flat screen tv (centered on the family room's north wall).  mike and anastasia also recommended adding 4 new floor outlets in the rear room of the parlor floor so that we could eliminate the existing, illegal baseboard outlets already in place.  since the family room ceiling below is open, it should be relatively easy to do.  we also decided to replace the existing exterior kitchen window.

lastly, after consulting with the plumber, mike recommended that installing a sump pump in the cellar should alleviate the flooding issue as it is designed to turn on when water collects in the pump pit, so we agreed to move in that direction.

week 9: january 2-8, 2012

during the first week of the new year, work on the plumbing in the new powder room continued.  the waste pipe was placed in its southeast corner and a new pipe was installed for the sink.  in the southwest corner of the rear parlor, the crew also continued to repair the cove ceiling where the old bathroom was located.

on the garden level, some new copper pipes appeared in the southwest corner of the family room that were related to the powder room plumbing above.  in the opposite corner, the old bathroom window was removed and the resulting hole was quickly evened out with new bricks.  since the new window was now going to be centered on the western wall, the crew reinforced more of that wall with additional steel lintels and did work on the exterior too.  the cable guy had to come out and relocate one of their boxes from its existing location since it interfered with the new window placement outside.  the wood beams in the interior also got new studs which would be used to level the new family room ceiling in the future.

the plumber put in the pipes to supply the island bar sink in the kitchen.  in the garden level bathroom, some plumbing went into the floor related to the toilet.  i placed the order for both sets of bathroom fixtures on tuesday, and the majority of it was delivered by thursday.  the tub and a couple of additional items would arrive in approximately two weeks.

in the cellar, another duct was installed on the south wall to the right of the furnace and in front of the waste pipe.  the plumbing was also connected for the island bar sink and a portion of the duct in the middle of the south wall was connected. finally, part of the brick wall between the main part of the cellar and the rear room in the southwest corner was demolished in order to create a large enough opening for additional ducts to pass between these two spaces.

 

anastasia sent over a 3-D rendering for us to get a better visual of how the new, open family room would look with the centered window as well as the necessary modifications for the relocated garden level bathroom.  we were happy because the brick in the pantry area was also in decent condition, so we would be able to leave some of it exposed just as we had contemplated when the bathroom was to be located in the rear extension.

week 8: december 26, 2011 - january 1, 2012

we returned from our christmas travels to significant progress on each floor and it continued throughout the rest of the week! in the rear parlor, new drywall had been added to the south wall and the crew had begun to repair the cove ceiling in the southwest corner of the room.  the rough plumbing for the sink and the wall hung toilet in the powder room was also beginning to take shape.

on the garden level, the crew didn't waste any time with the bathroom relocation.  the pantry contents (food, groceries, cleaning supplies and the shelving!) had all been removed and placed in the dining room while we were away (cue another home workout to temporarily move the contents upstairs to the fourth floor kitchen).  the control freak in me had to laugh at the speed with which the crew was moving -- they emptied the pantry before i could do it myself.....and i survived!  the dry wall and the ceiling inside the pantry came down and the beginnings of the new plumbing for the bathroom sink and toilet were evident.

in the kitchen, the first pipes for the sink that would be located underneath the interior window were put in place.  in the family room, the framing for the bathroom came back down (again!) and the remainder of the framing along the south wall was completed.  the crew demo'd the rest of the ceiling and the drywall on the north wall.  in the southwest corner, the waste pipe and some of the plumbing related to the powder room above were also installed.

downstairs in the cellar, a closer examination of the waste and other pipes had revealed rust, cracks and other decay earlier in the month.  the old ones were replaced and some of the new plumbing connections required for the garden level bathroom were put up.  in the southeast corner, the plumber got to work on one of the major issues we hadn't been able to resolve to date.  from time to time, we had slight to significant flooding, usually in the southeast corner of the cellar.  replacing the cracked pipes seemed to alleviate part of the problem.....but also revealed that there might be something else going awry in our neighbor's adjacent property or perhaps underneath our foundation.  the plumber dug up some of the concrete and excavated part of the buried waste pipe to start to attack the problem.  but it was becoming clear that more significant measures would likely have to be taken to ensure that we wouldn't have a flooding problem in the future.

we had an all hands on deck meeting with mike and anastasia on thursday morning, primarily to discuss some design challenges related to the powder room plumbing.  because the vertical drain stack from the toilet extends into the southeast corner of the family room below, we thought there would have to be a 6x6 bump out in the area where we wanted to put our breakfast table to conceal the pipes.  after reviewing the options, mike told us that it could be buried in the wall if we framed the room a little bit differently -- problem solved!

i attempted to submit the order for the first floor bathroom and powder room fixtures but the contact in the showroom was out for the holiday break, so it would have to wait until the following week.