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.
… 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.
I’ve posted the current plans under architecture.
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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