week 6: december 12-18, 2011

the HVAC equipment started to arrive this week -- two fan coil units and lots and lots of ducts and connectors.  the first ducts were placed along the south wall between the meters and the furnace, and then across the ceiling from east to west to the north wall to the right of the staircase.  it fit perfectly between the ceiling beams and hubby was thrilled.  another section of ducts was also installed in the ceiling in the northeast corner.

anastasia tweaked her preliminary basement layout to show more storage space and new mechanical, electrical and water heater closets.  they would be located in the east end of the cellar which would also allow mike to conceal the new steel columns that would be necessary to support the charred beams in that area that were damaged by the earlier fire.  she and mike were also looking into stacking some of the ducts along the south wall (instead of dropped soffits parallel to the ceiling) in order to maximize the ceiling height in that section of the basement.  we would need to give additional thought about how to best utilize the entertainment areas of the cellar, and anastasia suggested flipping the gym to the east side and the screening room to the west side.  that decision was less time sensitive though since that work wouldn't begin until all of the other renovation was completed.

on the garden level, the last little bit of drywall and plumbing were removed from the northwest corner of the kitchen. attention then turned to the extension and preparing for a new floor.  the original floor boards had been covered by tile and carpet in the past and weren't in good enough condition to salvage.  the sub floor was next and was installed everywhere except in the area where the hot water heater sits and where the new bathtub would be located.  a portion of the ceiling in the southeast corner was also removed.

by the end of the week though, the room had been transformed and hubby and i found ourselves standing in the space that sunday night.  with the old bathroom walls down, the openness of one continuous space was starting to look more appealing than we had anticipated.  when we first thought about renovations, we considered moving the bathroom into the pantry but initially decided against it because we thought the extra effort and expense weren't worth it.  we were planning to put a breakfast table in the corner opposite the bathroom door, and use the remaining space in front of the window for seating and tv watching.  but a new configuration was looking more and more interesting the longer we stood in the family room, and we decided to investigate the idea of relocating the bathroom with anastasia and mike over the next week before going away for christmas.

earlier in the week, anastasia took me to a manhattan showroom where i was quickly overwhelmed by the multitude of faucets, shower heads, and finishes from which to choose for the bathrooms!  it was fun to see the different options in person, and eventually i was able to give her a better idea of what we would like to incorporate.  for the powder room, i was leaning towards oil rubbed bronze levers for the faucet.  in the garden bathroom, we wanted polished chrome, wall mounted, cross handle fixtures to go with a single basin washstand anastasia had identified earlier.  the tub was proving to be a bit of a challenge as we needed to find one that was 54 inches long, which is 6 inches smaller than standard.  i pulled the trigger and ordered the washstand, with the intention of finalizing the remaining fixtures decisions (and the actual bathroom location!) with hubby early the following week.