Finally, final finishes

Welcome back.  It seems that I take longer breaks from the blog than Bill Maher takes from Real Time. 

Last I wrote we had received permission to insulate and close the walls, and that process got underway.  Since then, we’ve made some serious headway, as you’ll see from the images below.  Once the walls were closed we started looking for a final finish carpenter to take the house through the doors, floors, trim, cabinets and tile phase – and of course started buying the parts to finish things up.  Our finish carpenter is Steve Lenghel - referred by our Mason, actually.  Steve’s a great guy, hard working and reasonable.  He’s willing to bend over backwards and, as you’ll see in this post and future posts, his work is darn good. 

This post will focus on the finish selections we’ve made, and the progress towards what could be a Thanksgiving completion (or darn near one).

Kitchen cabinetry came from Home Depot.  We got a killer deal on KraftMaid’s better cabinets with funky little features like slow-closing drawers and plywood sides that should do a bit better under the weight of granite countertops.  There’s a fair amount of glass in the cabinets too, which is in keeping with our intent to keep things as light and open as possible.

Flooring came from Lumber Liquidators.  Not bad, but I’m not sure I’d go that route again.  1st floor is mahogany, 2nd and 3rd are tigerwood (no relation to the golfer).  All the flooring is prefinished solid 3/4″ x 5″ wide plank – but they sell wood with “microbevels” on each edge.  Although the bevels certainly make for a more forgiving installation on a pre-finished product,  they also create the illusion of a floor install that’s not as tight as one where the raw wood is installed, and then sanded and finished in place.  Of course this issue disappears the first time the floors are refinished, though hopefully that’s years away.

Railings and metalwork came from Security Iron Works.  Yes, seriously.  A few years have passed since Joe the Iron Guy made his way from his native Italy to his workshop in South Philly.  In those years, he’s clearly gotten pretty darn good at his craft.  At first I was a bit concerned about using someone who I perceived as being accustomed to doing more traditional railings.  Any hesitations I had, however, went away with his installation.  The railings speak for themselves.  Designed in concept by Dave (with some input from me), Joe took the principles of a more modern look that we gave him and hit it out of the park.  Again, plenty of pics below.

Tile selections all came from Avalon Carpet and Tile.  Again, with tile there’s really no good option for someone like me who wants to see everything in person and can’t pick tile from a book.  Avalon has an enormous showroom, but they’re pretty much the only game in town so they have you over a barrel.  They were willing to negotiate pricing and ended up giving us their “level 4″ rate, which is generally reserved for volume contractors.   The formula seems to be (a) we show up (b) the sales folks fall in love with Dave (c) I move in for the price adjustments and (d) they look at Dave, sigh and say “okay.”  It’s a cool effect.  Everyone should have a Dave.

You’ll also see the bar area cabinets (the single sink base and a few wall cabinets).  They came from Ikea.  This was a budget call, but in fact was a great choice I think.  The cabinets are very well built compared to the typical Ikea product.  They have the slow close feature and solid wood fronts – in fact they have better hinge systems, in my opinion, than the more expensive Kraft Maid kitchen cabinets.

One final note about the various parts not mentioned above.  It is amazing how much of this house was ordered online and delivered for free.  I would highly recommend anyone going through this process spend lots of time shopping online.  An incredible timesaver, it provides more choice than you could ever hope for.  As I mentioned before, some things (like tile) just need to be seen in person first.  Light fixtures, door handles, bath cabinets, faucets, recessed lighting trims, sinks, toilets and other less critical and more mass manufactured items are easy to get online and usually the best price comes with free shipping. 

Anyway, those of you who have been following along definitely deserve some pictures after all this waiting.  Here ya go.

Kitchen, east wall before appliances

Wall oven in place.

West wall and island

Looking north in kitchen.

Bar area and fam rm pre cabinets – good view of new flooring

Bar area before cabinets – good view of new flooring

Bar area cabinets in place. Wine fridge goes left of sink base.

Wider shot of bar and sneak preview of railings.

Long view of master bath from the walk thru closet.

Calgon, take me away.

Tile pattern in the master shower

Pebble floor in the master shower

Guest bath in progress

Guest shower

View of the third floor hallway with glass and wood in place

Close up of glass flooring

Master bedroom flooring and view

Master bedroom flooring and view

Looking up from the second floor hall thru the third floor hall

Long view of first floor with railings

Looking up at balcony from first floor

First floor to second floor stair with rail

Stair from second to third with rails and treads

Balcony railing

See the third floor rail thru the glass floor

Lookin’ like a real house

We knew that, once the drywall was in place, we’d be looking at a space that finally started to look like a place someone could live.  I’m not sure, however, that I estimated accurately the degree to which the space was going to be transformed by some simple 4×10′ sheets screwed to the framing, paper tape and joint compound.

Over the course of the last couple of months we’ve had fits and spurts of progress.  Our electrician came through to tidy up the wiring, the plumbing was finished up and the insulation was installed.  Once that was completed the long awaited “closing inspection” happened.  A note here on how incredibly stressful the lead up to this final inspection was.  We went through and made sure every wire was just so, the plumbing was up to the city’s antiquated specification, there was insulation in every nook and cranny and the place was framed out to the hilt.

When inspection time came, the city inspector showed up with his cell phone to his ear and, while having a conversation with someone, glanced – literally – through the house and barely looked at anything at all.  Inspection was over, he said “Go ahead and close the walls.” And that was it.

So in comes Carlos, our drywalling maven.  Carlos is a trip.  I know more Spanish thanks to him, but purely out of necessity.  I don’t think he knows more than about 100 words of English.  He just smiles, points and works his ass off.  The Friday the drywall showed up he had a crew there to take it off the truck – all 209 sheets – and distribute it through the house.  The crew, which ranged at any given time from 5 to 15 guys, scored, snapped, glued and screwed all but 8 of those sheets through the 1st through 3rd floors and the basement ceiling.  They were done by Sunday night.

In contrast, the taping involved one person.  Carlos.  No one else is allowed to touch the tape or spackle.  Just him.  Not even me.  Just Carlos.  He worked from 7:30 to about 4:30 every day for six straight days, including the 4th of July, and on the seventh day he cleaned.  The finished product as well as an updated shot of the facade are below in the pictures.  Enjoy.

Our friend Steve Wilson checking out the kitchen drawings while standing in the future dining room

Looking toward the front door and living room from dining room.

Looking toward the 1st to 2nd floor stair from the front door

The future kitchen and powder room (door on left) from the dining room

Second floor guest room

Second floor bedroom behind me, the guest bath on left, then the closet and the family room

Standing in the bar area, looking toward the 2nd floor family room and balcony area

Standing in the balcony area, looking through the family room toward the wet bar

3rd floor office and/or other spare bedroom

Standing in the office doorway, looking down the hall toward the master bedroom

Looking into the master bath from the main closet. Shower is straight ahead.

From the center of the master bedroom. Door on right is to closet, door on left is to 3rd floor hallway.

Looking toward the office and laundry room from the master bedroom

From the master bedroom doorway, looking toward the windows.

The view from the master bedroom.

Updated facade shot

3rd floor windows with limestone banding above

New exterior stair, limestone water table front door and windows

Better Than Botox

Getting geeky, just for one moment, may I call your attention to Botulinum Toxin.  Sausage poison.  Botulism.  One of the most potent neurotoxins known in nature – a small amount in the wrong place will render one, uh, dead.  But administered carefully, it does a lovely job at erasing wrinkles (by paralyzing the muscles of the face).   Just a little shot’ll do ya. 

This post is so named because I was thinking of how incredibly drastic the change in the look of 1234 Reed is.  This is no Botox.  This is a full on chin lift, cheek lipo, laser treatment and hair implant.  The limestone at the bottom and the front stairs aren’t in yet, but I couldn’t wait anymore to post this.  

Also included, a picture of Davie working hard on the telephone line for the kitchen.  You go Davie!

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Window, Window, on the wall…

So hey.

I’ve been laying down on the job again, failing to update the blog- but will make up with it with this post.  It’s an exciting time at Reed Mansion (ok, it’s only 2000 sq. ft, but compared to our current house it’s big). 

Since I last wrote quite a bit has happened.  Infrastructure-wise, the interior framing is complete.  The bathroom layouts are all figured out (tho no plumbing is in yet).  The HVAC ducts, wires and chiller lines (also a pain in the butt to figure out logistically) are completely roughed-in.  All of the electrical junction boxes are located and mostly installed, with about 30% of the wiring complete.  Ceiling lighting is installed on the third floor.  Plumbing rough-in starts within the week.  HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical permits are all either completed or being processed and will be ready for pickup soon.  Framing inspection should happen next week!

Once the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical – both line (outlets, lights)  and low voltage (cable tv, phone, ceiling speakers, networking) are all roughed in, the walls will be ready to be insulated, sheetrocked, taped, spackled, primed and painted.  Once that happens, it’s gonna really start looking like a house.

But the big story is the facade!  In the course of a week the front of the house (see early pictures) was torn down and re-framed.  The work started on Monday April 28th and by the end of the day on Friday the framing, sheathing and two top floor windows were installed.  This Monday, May 4 the remaining windows and front door will be installed and the new brick starts going up on Tuesday, May 5 – Cinco de Mayo!

I’m attaching some photos of the exterior and will try to get some interior pics done today to add to the collection.  You can see the layout of the front pretty clearly – a 3′x8′ door and two 3′x6′ windows on the first floor, and three 3′x6′ windows side-by-side on the second and third level.  Between the first and second floor there will be a row of smaller “transom windows” representing where the 2nd floor in the front of the house “used to be.”  At the moment the Tyvek home wrap is sort of hanging down in front of where the transoms will be, so it’s hard to see that feature. 

To explain the part about where the second floor “used to be” : In the final interior floor layout the first few feet of the second floor will be removed, creating an open air space on the first floor and a second floor balcony in the front.  The transoms are situated where the floor joists were as a symbol of the original layout.

Thanks for visiting!

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Shows the area where the limestone blocks and entry stairs will be. Basement window on the right side.

Clear shot showing the 2nd and floor windows in place. Tyvek is draped down over transom windows but you can see where the first floor door and windows will be.

Second and third floor.

Bricks and Sticks

It’s been a week or so since the last update, and things are still moving along at a good clip. I named this post Bricks and Sticks because that’s where the big news is.

First, Bricks. Those who have been following along might recall that the construction started with the removal of the rear of the house. We took down a one and two story brick structure that was in less-than-great shape and 3′ narrower than the lot would allow. Although we replaced some of the floor joists and roof in that section, we reserved the better part of the bricks for re-use in the yard. Check the photos below and you’ll get a sense of what we’re doing with those bricks. The yard walls are being veneered with the salvagable bricks from the back of the house. We’re also going to re-use a steel I-Beam that was originally part of the rear structure. The I-Beam will become a shelf mounted in the brick, about 8′ above the yard, for plants and such. The images below show the start of the veneering process, which has managed to impress even our mason who is not the type to be impressed by his own work. It’s shaping up quite nicely. The work shown reflects only one day of laying brick. We won’t have enough bricks from the back of the house to do the whole veneering job, so we’ll be collecting a bunch of the bricks off the front of the house to finish the yard and the patio.

In other news, we’ve selected the brick for the front. It’s the Charleston series by McAvoy.  We picked up a few samples and Jamus made us a mini-wall of the brick and a piece of limestone, which will be the basis for the bottom of the facade.

As for “sticks,” interior framing is at 95%.  We’ve completed the powder room and closet on the first floor, the second floor is pretty much complete and the third floor just needs the 2×6 wall that seperates the bedroom from the hallway.  Framing went blazingly fast.  Dave and I went through the house last weekend, marked out where we wanted all the walls to go and the guys went to work.  In three days the whole thing was done.  Below are pictures featuring the framing (I’ll post some floor plans later that show the updated layout as it’s now built).

Next up, mechanical rough-in and the facade removal.  Facade will come down brick-by-brick, so it will take a bit longer than usual but care is required.  Once it’s down, the new facade framing starts and within two weeks we should have a finished front!  Woo Hoo!

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These are the panels that will eventually become the hallway.

Looking up from the second floor, through the third floor hallway, at the four skylights in the roof.

Looking through the kitchen door at the yard, a bit of a mess at the moment, but well worth it as the “new” walls go up.

A better view of the bricks re-used from the original rear of the house to create clean rear yard walls.

Our nephew Philip is visiting us this weekend so they thought they’d try their hand at laying brick. Ha. If only.

Back door behind me, looking north from the kitchen at the two “rooms” on the first floor. Really just a closet in the kitchen and our cozy 3′ 2″ x 5′ powder room.

Looking south from the living room through the new staircase with the tempoary treads.

Looking north from the guest room at the HVAC closet, bedroom closet and oversized stair landing. Guest bath, bar/family room and hall closet are in the distance.

Looking south from the family room, through the bar. Dave is “sitting” where the toilet will be and Phil is standing where the shower will be.

Plans Unposted

Due to concerns that the plans may be used nefariously (and the fact that we’re moving all kinds of interior partitions around now that we have actual space to work with), generate lawsuits, etc., we’ve taken the plans out of public view. Once we have the final floor layout done we’ll re-post unscaled renderings…. or better yet actual photos of what we’ve done!

If you want to see the plans let me know and I’ll share them in person.

Nice behind!

… that is to say, the behind of the house…

So it’s been a while and y’all deserve more updates. So here goes.

Since we last spoke a great deal of work has been completed. We now have a fully framed building envelope. 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors are framed on the edges (the room partitions are not yet done), subfloors are down, stairwell openings and glass flooring openings have been established, skylights are in, one sun tunnel is in, the roof is fully in place complete with drip edges, the back wall has been fully framed, light junction boxes on the back wall are in, both rear bay windows are fully installed, the kitchen sliding door is in place and the transom is set. The back wall has been stuccoed, the back yard has been raked clear of debris, ash and other plant-unfriendly material and the siding on both the new east and west walls are installed. Whew.

Not bad for a few weeks, eh?

Now for the details. First of all, everything has gone pretty well so far. No major problems. The building envelope was framed very nicely and the subfloors look fantastic. We did have a little bit of trouble aligning the opening sizes for the glass flooring and stairs – Craig’s drawings weren’t exactly correct. The floor heights he had were incorrect, for the most part, which messed up the stair sizing, and the glass floor openings he specified were too wide. None of this was too much to overcome, however, and we were on track after losing about a half-day going back and forth on specifics and clarifications.

The skylights are pretty impressive. I’ll try to get some photos looking up from the first floor. They add lots of desperately needed sunlight, especially to the first floor which gets very little.

The roof looks awesome. I’ve been on it and, again worthy of a photo, is the view from the roof into center city looking out over the park. The roofing material Craig specified will be great, though we’ll have to coat it in a light color to reflect some of the heat and, since it’s not a real “walkable” surface, we’ll put a deck over top of it once the rest of the work is done.

The big story really is the back of the house. A big part of our goal for the new place was to establish a rear yard where, as Davie says, “People don’t have to climb over each other to get around the table.” We’ll have room for a small fireplace, plants in the ground, a tree, a fountain, a nice brick patio and plenty of breathing room. For a city yard, it’s a nice size. What’s more, the back of the house is really something to behold. The rear windows and doors definitely serve their purpose of bringing in lots of light, but they also look awesome. The back of the house – as you can see from the last image below – is really coming together.

Next up – the stair systems from Basement to 3 get installed on Monday and then the carpenters and masons get a break while the little bit of interior framing gets done and the plumbing, electrical and HVAC rough-in starts. We’ve ordered the windows for the front wall – a total of 8 3′ wide x 6′ tall windows, and three transoms 3′ wide x 1.5′ tall. Northern exposure or not, they should let in a fair bit of daylight.

Looking north toward the front of the house, this shows the stair and glass floor openings clearly.

Our carpenter, Justin, and his father – a roofer by trade, were two of the core framing team. Justin’s dad is shown here.

2nd floor, looking north, before the subflooring was complete.

Looking toward the rear on the first floor, back wall not yet framed.

Looking toward the rear of the house – the back is framed but the windows aren’t yet in.

Justin and Jamus working on the siding.

The back wall, completed, with stucco, two bay windows, the back door and transom.

Plans posted

I’ve posted the current plans under architecture.

Current Architectural Plans

stairway to heaven

We’re back with more updates for you – lots to go over in this edition of the blog.  We’ll start with the walls.

After a few days of frigid temperatures – way too cold to do anything with cement – the guys were back on track on Saturday.  As you can see from the photos, below, the side walls are now all done- the west wall is up for the full height and the east wall where we had to add a third story to the existing structure is done as well.  Here’s a shot of the walls and the guys taking the scaffolding down.

Now that the side walls are up the guys are taking down the scaffolding.

In other news, we’re still working the budget as agressively as possible and believe we’ve found a solid alternative to the outlandishly priced Mylen staircase.  The Iron Shop, based just outside of Philadelphia in Broomall, PA., makes both straight and spiral stairs.  Suburban Steve and I went out for coffee on Saturday morning and paid a visit to the Iron Shop’s showroom.  It must be mentioned that the service and attention we were paid was absolutely the best so far.  Their prices are quite good as well and it looks like we’ll be moving forward with their product for the stairs through the whole house.  Here are a few pictures of Steve and me checking out the showroom (I had Steve pose on the staircases for fun.)

  

Suburban Steve on the open stair in the showroom.	The open stair sans-Stevie. We'll use a different style railing.	Underside of the stair showing the stringer and tread assembly.
Top plate where the stringer meets the joist at the head of the stairwell. We'll have to trim this out somehow.	Stevie posing on one of the demo spirals like what we'll use for roof access.	Sample spiral stair treads - Brazlian Cherry shown here.

 

 

 

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Another brick in the wall, part 1

With the foundation set in place, the boys started piling up the concrete blocks.  This is the progress on the new west wall after Day 1.

New west wall, a little more than a third of the way up.

The ugly building next door, barely visible in the photo on the left beyond the new wall, is an old nightclub from forever ago.  It’s slated to come down, probably before we even move in, and will eventually be something residential. 

And an update on the windows and rear door- I’ve had a call from the fine folks at Marvin Windows, who said they are ready to deliver the rear door and windows.  We asked for delivery on February 9th, which they said should work out fine.

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