Stairs

I put a few more hours of work in today to finish the framing for some built in shelves and some soffits. I'm just about complete with the framing I just need to box out some duct work and around the existing steel beam. After the new steps and electrical work in the next few weeks I'll be ready for inspections and drywall.

A few photos of me doing laundry... Do you use a ladder to do laundry?

Progress & Last of the Demo... finally

I made a lot of progress today and I didn't even have to go to Home Depot. I think I'm finally done with all the demolition. For now. It is exhausting and my backyard now looks like a dump.

I started with the brick wall below the window that was removed two weeks ago. I was quickly reminded how much of a pain it is to take out a brick wall. It was a hell of a workout.

Two weeks ago I took out the window above. Now it was time to remove the brick below. This will become the new connection to the back room. Phase two will be to widen this opening.

The house quickly filled with dust after I sawcut the brick.

Action shot with the small sledge hammer.

I quickly switched to the larger sledge hammer and that did the trick.

It took me about 3 hours to knock out all the brick.

Here I removed the old laundry sink. I had to smash it with the sledge hammer and remove piece by piece. I then removed the second window and finished the framing of this closet.

Its all taking shape. Phase two will remove that brick straight ahead to continue the corridor. I'll have to reinforce the opening with steel when i do that. For now it will jog through the smaller opening.

And... the steps are all gone.

How many of you have to climb a ladder (that is too short) to get to your basement? I have to do laundry too.

Stair Demolition

I had some additional time today while the plumber was working to start demolishing the stairs. I took out the wall adjacent to the stairs. The space is much more open now.

Looking down from the kitchen before.

Just getting started. Why would they insulate this wall??????

Mid demo.

Looking much better!

Opens up the space... now this post is a surprise. The beam above spans the whole way, but I think this post is supporting it at mid span. It is just sitting on the slab and I'm not sure I need it. I'll have to think about it more.

Tomorrow I'm going to take out the drywall on the brick. It is glued on... who glues drywall to brick? What a pain in the ass. I'm also going to take out the stairs. They are falling apart and need to be replaced. 

Plumbing Vents & lots more

Add one more Home Depot trip to make the total 26. I had to pick up a few more plumbing supplies. I think I have to go again tomorrow to pick up even more.

Today my plumber Mike Rich came and he just about finished all of the vents for the new plumbing. I acted as his apprentice but he didn't need much help on this stuff. I got to do a lot of work on other stuff while he was going.

Moved the washer and hooked it up to the new laundry tub. You can see the white vent pipe going up behind the dryer. This is the pipe that is coming out of the floor slab.

All the vents connecting in the closet and connecting to the existing vent above.

New vent pipe and hookup for the future vanity.

While the wall was open, I replaced the main water cutoff with a new ball valve. The will last a lot longer and the old one was not working very well. This was a pain in the ass to connect. Having the plumber here saved my ass. The water line coming from the street is slightly larger and was really hard to connect to the fitting. Mike's 25 years of experience helped me get it done. If he was not here I'd be panicking right now because I would not have any water!

I also installed the new expansion tank. Removed the original large steel overhead tank. This was in the way of the bathroom ceiling, old and not really working well anymore. The new one is much smaller and inside the boiler closet.

Supplies and Orders

Just got back from another Lowes run... make that 25 total for the project. I had to borrow Lauren's car for this one. Can't fit the 10' PVC & Copper pipes in the Passat.

On Saturday my plumber Mike is coming over to install all of the plumbing vents and water supply lines. I'm going to be his apprentice for the day. I think I got all the stuff we need (assuming I purchased the right stuff) except Lowes was out of a specific copper fitting size. I'll have to make trip number 26 at some point.

The past week has been a lot of ordering. New laundry sink, floor drain for the shower, recessed light fixtures and a few other things. I'm just about ready to order the tile. I picked it out last week but one tile is a little pricey and I'm going to see if I can find a less costly alternative.

This weekend I plan on finishing all the rough in plumbing on Saturday. Hopefully also replacing the main water supply cutoff too. Sunday will be demolishing the steps to the basement (which are pretty terrible) and the brick below this window:



 This will be the new pass through to the back room until phase two starts... who knows when that will happen.

Framing Day 2

Add one more Home Depot trip to the total making that 24. Needed some more screws and more wood...

Framing day two was very productive. I had Billy Price here to help out and he did a great job framing in the doors. I'm about 85% done with the framing. There is a lot of small stuff left to do. Built in shelves for the bathroom. Lastly blocking to drop the ceiling a few inches below the joists for all the plumbing.

Completed utility closet. Toilet in the bottom left of the photo. Vent stack coming out of the slab in the wall.

Action shot with my new tool belt

Action shot... Billy became an expert at framing in doors.

Shower location.

Enclosed boiler.

Toilet will be in that back corner. The door to the addition will be enclosed eventually. Now I need to break open the wall where the wash machine currently is. Hopefully next week I'll be able to move the washer and sink then will be able to cut pass through in wall.

Home Depot

OK... Make that 3 trips today to Home Depot... for a total of 23. I did break my record and got to Home Depot in 9 minutes which is pretty sweet.

And I now know that I can fit (13) 2 x 4 x 8' studs inside the Passat... not 14...

Framing Day 1

I spent the last couple of nights cleaning my house and getting ready for the framing. After two nights of cleaning the thin layer of dust throughout the house was gone... only to return today.

I have also decided today that I'm going to keep a count of how many trips I make to Home Depot / Lowes. Lets start the count at 20 (first trip was on December 24th to get some copper while in NY). Add two more today to make it 22.

John Nahra showed up at about 8:15 this morning and we headed to Lowes to get all the lumber. John has been a huge help and has some solid framing skills.

John's pickup all loaded up

Action shot

Framed utility closet... this is where I cause a problem for the electrical panel. The wall going perpendicular to the panel is cutting down the "working clearance" required by code. I'll have to deal with it later.

The first wall framed. This is the new corridor wall.

John laying out a sill plate.

This is what is taking so long. There are a lot of pipes I have to avoid. I have to add a lot of pieces of blocking below the joists in order to get a top plate set.

After 10 hours of work I'm about 1/3 done. Thank you John for your work today. 

Pouring Concrete

Today couldn't have gone any better. John Nahra & Billy Price got to my house at 8:30 to help. I couldn't have done it without them. We got to Home Depot and the concrete we needed was on sale and sitting right at the door. All we had to do was pull up John's truck and the HD employees helped us load the truck. We were in and out in 5 minutes. (31) 80 LB concrete bags.

Due to illness Amy Johnson our expert water gal was not able to join us. By some miracle we were able to quickly learn her ways and mix the concrete.

Kari Shekey showed up a little late, but played a VERY important role in the concrete pouring. The shitter would not fit without her skills.

Unloading the truck

Prepping the slab

Mixing

only 31 bags!

Success

It only took us an hour and 45 minutes to mix all the concrete. I even had some time to clean and demo out one of the existing windows.

Filling the hole

Its about 10:30 and I just finished filling and compacting the hole for the night. Its pretty exhausting. Had a few glasses of wine in me from an office happy hour which helped. I did get to meet The Art Gensler tonight, which was pretty cool. I found out he is originally from Long Island.

Here are some photos of the work.

Check out the ass kicking gloves

I swear this is going to look nice  ... eventually

Inspections

I had to take most of the day off today to wait for the inspectors to show up. They are like the cable guy. You get a three hour window and they may or may not show up when they say. It went well for the most part. I had three inspections and they all passed. I can now fill in the hole. I do have issues with the electrical that are pretty significant. Once the project is done, I will not have enough clearance adjacent to the electrical panel. I'm not sure what to do about it... I'll just have to worry about it later.

I just checked the city website and it lists my three inspections as FAIL , PASS , CANCELED... they are clearly on their game over there. I'll have to call in the morning to clear it up.