Day 8 - 9/15/2010

Today was the first milestone.

As was mentioned in the last post, the foundation prep was completed yesterday and was for waiting the city inspector.  This morning the inspector came and approved the prep work and gave the go ahead for the foundation pour.

In the meantime, the guys finished up the prep work for the driveway expansion and the concrete pad to hold the trash cans.

Around noon, the concrete mixer and pump arrived.  They parked out front and ran a big hose from the concrete pump to the back.

Concrete is pumped from the mixer to the back of the house

Once the pumping started, there was a lot of activity.  A couple of guys handled the hose, several guys spread the concrete and started smoothing it out.

The pour begins

This DOES NOT look like fun!!

  

Putting on the final touches

The finished work:

The new foundation.  This is where the new sunroom will be with the new dining room where the old sunroom wass..  The new french doors will be located just to the right of  that white and yellow bottle.  To the right of the door will be the windows overlooking the pool.

 

Every piece of art has to be signed of course.  Here is the signature for our foundation:

 

Giselle decided to permanently leave her mark

This happens to be the new dining area.  Even though this will be covered up with flooring, we will always be remember Giselle when we dine.

 

East side of the driveway.  The grand canyon that was forming there from erosion is now filled it.  The large drain pipe will carry rainwater from the pool deck area to this pipe which will be sawn even with the concrete.

West side of driveway.  We can now access the shed without stepping in mud.

We can finally get the trash and recycle bins out of the driveway and onto this pad

There is only two small areas left that will have concrete with exposed aggregate to match the pool deck.  The crew will start demo on the inside on Thurs.  Now that should lots of fun for Andy trying to work with all of that noise.

Still hoping that the kitchen will be inspected and closed by the first week of Oct.  Then Andy can get a somewhat working kitchen in order before the Swiss contingent arrives for the wedding.

Day 7 - 9/14/2010

The second week of the renovation project begins...

Foundation work is still going on.  They finished demo on the old sunroom floor taking out the old glass wall, completed removing the ceramic tile and scraped up the old thinset mortar.  This was quite noisy and drove me to the bedroom to take a conference call.  They also covered up the opening to the kitchen with some cdx plywood.  All of this to prepare it for floating a few inches of concrete to raise it to the same level as the rest of the foundation.

Yep the ugly wallpaper is still in the kitchen.

There is now rebar and forms installed for the foundation and it is pretty much ready for city inspection before the pour.  You can see the old sunroom has been opened up and prepped for the concrete pour as well.

The patio doors are gone and the patio is ready for pouring.

Work has begun on the prep for widening the driveway.  In the area between the fence and driveway, they are laying the drainage pipe that will drain rainwater away from the pool deck.  This replaces drains that were on the old patio.

Drainpipe along the driveway

FedEx and UPS was busy today delivering packages to our house.  We got the two vessel sinks and faucets for the master bathroom and for the kitchen we got the new sink which is huge and the range hood.  Andy opened the glass vessel sinks and in one of the sinks was taped a plastic zip loc baggie.  It appeared to be empty and he was a bit confused.  After closer inspection, he noticed a very small glass object in there.  It looked strangely like a glass sliver.  On closer examination of the sink he noticed that indeed it was chipped along one of the edges.  He contacted the vendor and they will be sending a new sink in the next couple of days.

Andy installed the cabinets in the master bath for his vanity and reinstalled the old countertop temporarily.  We really have to get new countertops ordered this weekend.

Andy's new vanity... Lola can't resist a photo op

Of course, two more AWA's came in.  The first was for bricking the the rear elevation due to the city requirements $$ kaching $$.  The second is for installing interior doors and doing interior window sill and trim work.  Andy was hoping to save some by doing this work himself but there is enough for him to do with the kitchen cabinets, painting, tiling and flooring plus his other projects.  So we decided to have RHD do this... more $$$ kaching $$$.

Day 6 - 9/13/2010

The guys are back to work on foundation.  They dug up deep trenches for the foundation footings, did the base dirt work for the pour, started building the forms and marked the lines for the height of the pour.

Getting ready to pour the foundation

Also, the height of the concrete in the existing sunroom has to be raised to match the rest of the house.  This used to be a small covered patio until the previous owners put in the pool and the current patio.  At that time they enclosed this small porch to become the current sunroom.  They had to remove the ceramic tiles that Andy meticulously laid a couple years back.  That was a bit noisy as his office is just on the other side of that plastic sheet and it DOES NOT offer much in the way of sound abatement.

Andy's hard work destroyed in a matter of minutes... all in the name of progress

The foundation prep should be ready for inspection on Tue or Wed.  The city has to approve the work before the pour takes place.

We received word that the city approved the new elevation of brick and received the engineer's report on the foundation and that the permit is approved and ready to be picked up.

The highlight of the day however was when the Port-O-Potty arrived.  The workers were happy about that!!  Unfortunately the yard has a slope here.  I put bricks under the lower side and hopefully it won't tip over, especially when occupied.

This arrival caused great excitement!!

For the secondary Master Suite project, Andy, after a quick trip to Home Depot, hooked up the plumbing to the sink on Monica's vanity.  With Courts' help, he unhooked and removed his old vanity in preparation for the installation of the new vanity cabinets.  Making progress slowly but surely.

Day 4 & 5 - 9/11-9/12/2010

This was a  weekend so nothing happened on the primary project. 

The plastic barriers however were a bit of a nuisance.  Having to pass through those is a pain and they really did not hold up very well to our abuse.  The two primary zippered barriers both became a bit loose, especially the one that is next to the A/C return vent.  The suction from the vent pretty much pulled a lot of it loose.  Then a barrier in the living room was no problem for the pets as they found a little space between the barrier and the wall and proceeded to make it a primary pathway.  Needlessly to say, Andy had to reinforce the plastic with extra tape, which will likely become a regular task.

Of course, being the weekend we worked on the secondary project, the master bath. 

Friday night, we looked at bathroom mirrors at Garden Ridge and found absolutely nothing we liked.  So, just for grins we checked on Overstock.com and actually found a really nice frameless mirror with some simple etching as a border.  So, we ordered two of those.

Saturday we went to IKEA and purchased kitchen base cabinets that will become the vanities.  We even found a nice granite that worked really well with our colors, but there was a minimum order of 30 sq ft and we needed nowhere near that much.  So, the search for vanity counter top is still underway.  We also purchased a lot of the bathroom accoutrements while at IKEA.  $$ kaching $$

Andy assembled the cabinets for the bathroom and started installation on Monica's side.  That was not without challenges.  Taking out the old vanity was not really much of a challenge.  However, the new sink base cabinet did not quite fit through the bathroom door.  Andy had to remove the doors and one piece of door trim before the base cabinet would barely squeeze in.  Live and learn... measure the doors to pass through before assembly. Doh!!!

With the base cabinets installed, Andy and Courts set the old counter top up to be used temporarily.  Unfortunately, the water supply and drainage plumbing did not quite work since the new counter is higher than the old one.  So, a trip to the hardware store is on for Monday.

Monica's vanity partially installed. Notice how much deeper the new vanity is compared to the old counter top.

Andy's vanity and above-toilet storage still in the staging area.

Day 3 - 9/10/2010

Day 3 started off with the first real demo of the project - the patio.

The concrete sub is handling the demo of the patio in prep for pouring the foundation for the new extension.  They guys showed up bright and early and immediately tore into pergola which came down pretty quickly.  After the pergola was down, they started cutting down and digging up the bushes from around the patio.  It was interesting to see a circular saw being used to cut bushes. 

The ornamental tree was particularly nasty to get out for several reasons.  This tree was probably close to 20 years old and had deep roots.  The limbs had grown around things like the gutter downspout, the support pole for the pergola and the iron fence.  It also yielded a surprise... a big ole' wasp nest.  YIKES!  It was sadistically humorous as the workers tried to kill them with the only insecticide the we had... ant killer.  It only pissed them off and about twenty wasps went flying and diving in all directions while the workers scattered.  Joseph and Andy took the cowards way out and retreated to the safety of the house and watched the spectacle through the patio doors.  But the humans perservered, the wasps went away somewhere and the ornamental tree with the former wasp condo was hauled away.  Then it took them a good long time to dig up the stump of this tree.  We're glad it's gone!  The patio looks so much larger without the bushes... and that will be a nice-sized sunroom in about 2 months.

The afternoon became a little noisy as they started to demo the concrete.  They first took a small pneumatic hammer to the brick steps.  Then they got serious breaking out the saw and jack hammer for the concrete.  Man, that's a lot of work.

This is the patio at the end of Day 3.  The cut going left to right will be the edge of the new addition.

The sprinkler guy came and capped off the irrigation pipes from around the patio and modified the zone around the driveway in preparation for it's widening.  Pat and Joseph spent some time in the house sealing off the war zone from what is left of actual living area.  This consisted of putting plastic sheeting over doorways.  Two of these have zippers and flaps to facilitate our traversal of the house. 

One of the zippered barriers we have to negotiate.

The animals are quite confused with these plastic barriers.  The cats are beginning to figure it out but Giselle, the dog, hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  These barriers will hopefully minimize the dust and dirt getting into the living areas.  We'll see.

Ryan, our architect, worked on some new rear elevation ideas so we can meet the silly city rule to have 75% brick on the rear elevation.  He even called the city to clarify the requirement and to see if there is a way around it.  The only way around is to petition the city council for a variance.  The council only meets once a month and there is no guarantee that they would approve a variance.  So, we pretty much have to add the expense of additional brick instead of good ole' hardie board.  Ryan looked at various options, like placing brick only on the lower level but that didn't get us to the required percentage so it looks like we will have to brick the entire real elevation. Waiting for the AWA from Joseph: $$ kaching $$

The new rear elevation using brick for the new addition.

UPS brought us our new kitchen faucet.  It is one of those Delta Touch 2O faucets that you, in theory, can just touch to turn on and off.  We also ordered the kitchen sink and a few things for the master bath project that Andy is doing.. yea, not enough havoc with one construction project, Andy has to have another going on concurrently...well, actually it has been going on for quite a while.  He's cheap labor but he is really slow.  We ordered new sinks, faucets and mirrors for the master bathroom.

"Party Patio" - In Memorium

Our patio has been the crime scene of much merry-making over the years and was deservedly known in various dubious circles as the "party patio".  The party patio is no more.  Today we come together to remember and to celebrate the life of this cold slab of concrete and exposed aggregate.

Party patio, you did not go easily.  They had to first remove your pergola, board by board.  Then they cut down and dug out your pretty vegetation and capped your irrigation pipes.  When they started chopping out your brick steps, well I just couldn't take it any more and had to leave.  Then the saws started.. YIKES, it was horrible!  They hauled you out of here in hundreds of broken pieces.


Your  life was dedicated to much enjoyment of young and old.  It was not a life without travails though.  There have been many spilled beverages, broken glass, not to mention the expurgation of various gastro-intestinal fluids onto your surface.  You were constantly exposed to the elements; the searing sun, the driving rain and the pelting of baseball-sized hail stones.  But you looked really nice in a thick blanket of snow.

Through all of that, you persevered to share many the many good times.  Birthday celebrations, graduation celebrations, Halloween celebrations, New Years celebration, cookouts and parties just to party. And the numerous games of beer pong.

Oh, the stories you could tell.

So long our dear friend.  Your spirit will live on in the new sunroom where the celebrations will continue without regard to heat, cold, rain or snow.  Some day it just might live up to the high standards of partying you set.  And we will raise our glasses in a toast to remember the good times spent with you.

The Contractor

The scariest part of any big remodeling project is choosing the contractor.  You hear so many horror stories about bad contractors that it really becomes a huge worry.  Is the contractor up to the job?  Will they get your down payment, start work and then move on the next "down payment"?  Are they using your money to finance their last project?  Will they cut corners on labor and materials?  Will they be onsite supervising?  Will they return your calls?  Are they low-balling the bid?  So many things could go wrong outside of the normal problems encountered in a major remodel.  Finding a good contractor is not necessarily easy but they are out there.

Please count the number of times we mention cost in this post.  Wanna guess?

We've chosen RHD Construction based in Garland, TX (http://www.rhdconstruction.com). The two main guys on our project are Pat Petino who is the president of RHD and Joseph Bratton who does all of the estimating, scheduling, permitting and who knows what else.

There were several reasons that we chose RHD:

First, is the fact that Ryan, our architect, already had a professional working relationship with RHD and a recommendation from a trusted source is huge. 

Second, they were the only ones that responded to each and every one of the three iterations of our bid without a complaint and in a timely manner.  Except for the first iteration, but there were extenuating circumstances with surgeries and key folks on vacation.  They have been very responsive otherwise.

Third, they do not ask for any money up front.  They invoice only as work items complete; for example after demo, after framing, etc.  We have yet to pay a red cent to them even though they are already getting things done, sending out subs, pulling permits, etc.  Actually our first payment will be for the AWA to widen the driveway... AWAs are invoiced as they occur.

Fourth, they were more than happy to work with us to save money by Andy wanting to do a lot of the finish work.  They had absolutely no problem with that.  In fact, they have been very accommodating on a number of requests.

Since we have a wedding coming up in Oct with a gaggle of folks from Switzerland descending on us, we asked if we could have a somewhat functional kitchen before the wedding.  They are going out of their way to make this happen.  They are even getting the city to do a partial inspection on the kitchen so they can close it up in time for Andy to do his work (install cabinets, appliances and get at least a temporary countertop installed) before the Swiss hordes descend.

Another example: Andy, being the nerdy kind of guy that he is, wants a lot extra A/V, data, speaker,etc wiring to some of the rooms.  They will drop one basic RG6 cable where specified in the plans but he will run all of the other cables himself.  No problem for them.. in fact, they will give him a heads-up to allow him some time to do that before they close up the walls and ceiling.

Another example:  The workshop (ie: garage) only has one electrical outlet which is not enough for all of Andy's power toys...um, tools.  So, they will run extra electrical wiring in the common wall between the garage and kitchen so he can punch through and add outlets when he gets a chance to compete his workshop.

Fifth,  We just plain like the guys.  Well, Monica hasn't met them yet, but Andy gets along well with them.

If you have a remodeling project and are interested in seeing how RHD performs feel free to follow along.  We will tell things simply as they are.  We expect that the road on a project like this will likely have a few bumps.  The real test of a contractor is in how they handle issues and the unexpected things that crop up.  At this point, we feel confident that RHD Construction will be great to work with.

By the way, RHD knows We're doing this blog and we have their permission to use their name.  That tells us that they are not afraid of folks looking over their shoulder, at least virtually, to see a real live remodeling project as it unfolds.

Day 2 - 9/9/2010

It's lunch time in Dallas and the activity for today has been completed.  So, the animals get another afternoon of freedom.

The electrician came back in and removed various electrical components like light fixtures, switches, etc.

Will be able to "re-purpose" these fixtures.  The florescent fixture will go in my workshop (ie: garage).

The permit is still being processed by the City of Carrollton but should be issued any time now which means, in governmental terms, whenever they darn well feel like it.

Things should get exciting tomorrow.  The concrete guys will start demo on the party patio which should   yield some interesting pics not to mention lots of noise.  Fortunately, Friday is not a big day for conference calls so I'll just put in some earplugs and turn up the music while I work.

The contractor will be out to cordon off the war zone from what's left of the actual living area.  We'll have to open zippers to pass through plastic walls to get from one place to another.  The pets may revolt against losing their freedom to roam the house as they please.

Tomorrow they may start doing some of the indoor demo taking out sheetrock, cabinets, etc.  Since there is still a chance for some rain over the weekend they will wait until Monday to begin the real demo to rip off the roof where the second story will go.


Interestingly the first first Additional Work Authorization (AWA) came in.  While the concrete guys are here I wanted them to widen the driveway by about 3 feet, add a 4x6 pad for the trash cans and add some drainage pipe underneath.  Let the bleeding begin..$$$ kaching $$$.  More AWA's to come.


Update:  Just received word from the city that there are a couple of items on the permit that need to be addressed.  First, the city requires that the back elevation be 75% brick. So, will have to replace some of the hardie-board siding with brick... $$$ kaching $$$.  Second, the city requires an engineers report on the foundation to ensure that it will support the additional weight.  $$$ kaching $$$.  But Joseph and Pat have it in hand contacting the architect and the engineer.  All we have to do is sit back and wait for the AWAs and invoices to roll in.  Gotta take it in stride with a smile... these are the things that happen in construction projects.

Day 1 - 9/8/2010

Thanks to tropical depression Hermine it was really storming in Dallas with lots of rain, flooding and even some tornadoes. We're extremely thankful that they haven't removed the roof yet.

The electrician came by and started cutting electricity to all of the affected rooms. Unfortunately the kitchen lights and the living room lights are on the same circuit so we are without overhead lights in the living room for the duration. In addition, the living room outlets are on the same circuit as the dining room lights. Fortunately they left those hot and will work around that. So, at least we can use some lamps and, most importantly, the TV is still powered... whew!!! Gotta find out who wins America's Got Talent. We're rooting for the 10 year old opera singer.

Tomorrow, the electrician will come back and take out light fixtures, switches, etc.

The Architect

Embarking on a major remodeling effort can be very daunting.  Admittedly, we were very naive about the entire process.  Do we hire a contractor first? Do we need to have plans before hiring a contractor? Do contractors even do plans?  If so, how do you compare contractors that come up with different plans?  And, do you have to pay all contractors for the plans up front?

So we decided to work with an architect first.  Fortunately for us, Monica has a teacher friend at school (shoutout to Kara) whose husband happens to be an architect.  His name is Ryan Conway and his firm is Ryan Conway Designs (214-251-5742).  We even went to their wedding in Syracuse, NY a few years back and were treated like family!  So, it was an easy decision!

A quick plug for Ryan.  Every contractor commented positively about the quality of the plans that Ryan drew up for us.  If you need an architect in the Dallas area, we highly recommend Ryan.


For us, hiring an architect was probably the best thing we could do.  Having an architect allowed us to explore and create independent of any contractor.  Then, when it is time for bids, all contractors work from the same plans.  Of course, each contractor will still make their own interpretations and assumptions based on that plan but at least they are all working from the same base ideas.  This makes it easier to compare bids.

It seems to me that being an architect is a constant "exercise in patience".  We kinda had a hazy idea about what we wanted to do and had absolutely no idea how to go about it.  Except for the kitchen.  Most of the kitchen design was already set in concrete since we had already purchased the cabinets.  So, Ryan had a challenge.

During the first round of planning, Ryan came up with several concepts that we refined over time and ended up with a set of plans for the second story that we sent out for bidding.  Then the bids came back!!  Wow... sticker shock!!  Man, was it expensive.  So, on to plan B.

Ryan patiently worked with us on Plan B which did away with the upstairs and just enclosed the patio and reconfigured the core of the house.  He turned those plans around quickly as we really needed to get them out to bid so we could perhaps get finished before the wedding in Oct (more on that in an upcoming post).  Back out for bidding and, again, sticker shock!  Plan B really wasn't all that much less expensive than adding the second story.

So, after our minds stopped reeling, we decided to do the only sensible thing that we could.  That was to throw common sense out the window and just go for the big kahuna.  We, (when I say we, I really mean Ryan) combined Plan A and Plan B to add the second story and to enclose the patio.  As it turned out, combining these two was really a wash compared to Plan A by itself.

Having an architect to make sure that things are designed correctly is indispensable.  There are a thousand little details that have to be accounted for.  Ya know, like the roof and how the addition will affect that.  Structural supports to hold up a longer span that supports said new roof.

In any case, you will be paying for the plans whether you do that through the contractor or whether you hire an independent architect.  I say go for the independent architect.

So our thanks to Ryan for helping us through this process.  And to Kara for sacrificing Facebook time to let Ryan hog their computer late into the wee hours of morn to work on the may iterations of our plans.

The Plan

After several months working with our architect through several iterations, we finally ended up with this plan.

Here is the original layout of the house.  The area highlighted in pink is the area that is being gutted, walls removed, roof taken off, rooms reconfigured and where the second story will be added.  The room just inside the entry is the current dining room which is really a bit small  To the right is the kitchen whose shortcomings were noted in an earlier post.  Connected to the back of the kitchen is the breakfast room and to the left of that is a sunroom that used to be a back porch that was enclosed before we bought the house.  The wall between the dining room and the sunroom has windows as well as the wall between the sunroom and the breakfast room.  Looks really weird for an "indoors" sunroom to have outdoor walls and windows. In the "U" is the current "party patio".  No more!!

The "old" house

 

 

Here is the plan for the new downstairs.  Now the entry way leads into a foyer with the staircase where the old dining room used to be.  The dining room is now where the old sunroom used to be.  The kitchen has been enlarged to include the old breakfast room and is open to the new dining room.  The old patio is enclosed becoming the new sunroom which is open to both the new dining room and the new kitchen resulting in a nice open concept great room.  The old office is now a media room which is a fancy word for where our big screen TV and some comfy sofas will be... and where we will likely spend a good bit of time in front of the ole' boob tube.

New downstairs

The second story will have a nook at the top of the stairs.  It is labeled "scrapbook nook" which is the original idea of Monica using it for scrapbooking.  However the new office should be large enough for both of us so we most likely will put the treadmill and elliptical up there and add on a home gym sometime in the future.  There is also a nice-sized storage room there as well.  Then the ultimate prize is the 300 sq ft office space overlooking the pool. Dat's what I'm talking bout.

New upstairs

From the front of the house the change probably won't be very apparent.  However, from the back (and the sides), the elevation changes dramatically.  Here is how it should look in a couple of months.

New back elevation

A little history

We've been thinking about renovating for several years now but just never got it off the ground.  We particularly hated our kitchen.  The wallpaper in there is absolutely horrendous and there is severe lack of counter and cabinet space.  In addition, the wall oven was really, really small as you can see in this pic.

Hate the wallpaper and kitchen configuration!!

So back in the Feb/Mar timeframe, we decided to do something to the kitchen.  Andy had already been playing around with the IKEA kitchen planner to get ideas for the layout of the kitchen so we had a good idea what we wanted to do there.  Basically we wanted to combine the kitchen and breakfast room into one larger kitchen with a lot more cabinets and counter space.

This will be absorbed into the kitchen moving the sink and adding a line of cabinets along the wall to the right.

We have also been purchasing new appliances over the last couple of years.  Replaced the fridge and dishwasher a year or so ago.  We purchased a new free-standing duel fuel, two-oven, 42-inch range in anticipation of remodeling the kitchen.  That went where the big hole is between the pantry and wall oven.  Andy had to remove some cabinets to fit it in. 

We really liked the IKEA cabinets for the price.  So during the spring IKEA 20% off sale, we purchased all of the kitchen cabinets as well as the granite countertops saving a couple thousand dollars.  Unfortunately the cabinets have been sitting in their flat packs taking up half of the garage (or as Andy calls it, his workshop) since then.  The granite folks have been patiently waiting for our call to measure and install the granite.  At least we knew what we wanted to do with the kitchen.

However, we also wanted to add more space and open up some of the area a little bit.  So, we figured to explore what could be done with the house to get it to where we really wanted.
We hired an architect, made many iterations of the plans, had several rounds of bidding from contractors and finally hired the contractor.  More on all of this in other posts.

In essence, we are gutting the middle of the house, reconfiguring those rooms, enclosing the patio and adding a second story where we will have an exercise room, a large storage area and a 300 square foot office overlooking the backyard and pool.

The "party patio" will be enclosed and opened up to the kitchen and the new dining room.

The second story will be above the patio extending to the center ridgeline.

Months later, we are finally getting the project underway.  We have cleared out all of the affected rooms, moved the boxes and furniture to storage, set up a temporary kitchen in the current office and re-routed coax and ethernet lines in the attic.  Monica needs her TV and Andy needs his internet connection!!

The not-yet-organized temporary kitchen in a corner of the current office.

Today is the first day of demolition with the electrician coming out to turn off electricity to the areas, removing fixtures and re-routing electrical lines to make sure we don't lose electricity in the few rooms that we have left to occupy.

Time to renovate

As you may gather from the background pic, this blog is about the renovation to our home. We've been in this house since 1997 and have made cosmetic changes over the years to most of the rooms with flooring and paint. We have saved the kitchen for last as we knew that it would be a big, expensive pain in the butt.

Earlier this year, with Anna's wedding at the end of October, we figured it was finally time to make a move. In addition to a new kitchen, we really wanted a little more space. Andy works out of a home office and Monica has a lot of scrapbooking paraphernalia. We also wanted to have a bit more open space and a larger dining room.

Do we move or do we renovate? Move! Renovate! Didn't relish the thought of either but eventually decided to renovate. Time will tell if that is the correct decision

So we find ourselves now not only updating the kitchen but enclosing the current party patio AND adding a second story addition. I'm also updating the master bedroom, bath and closet.  What the heck were we thinking?

This blog is really for us to document this project for our own masochistic pleasure. If you find our travails and ultimate reward amusing then please follow this blog.