More of the Bedroom

Here are a few new images of the bedroom:

Because the closet system will go up along the wall at left, that wall did not get drywalled, but retained the original plaster (which was in okay shape).







The doorway and chase for the water heater vents. The box on the left-side wall contains feeds for a duplex outlet and the phone and cable lines that I ran this past weekend. The three boxes on the right-side wall (which is the bed wall) are (from bottom) duplex outlet, switch for wall sconce, and wall sconce mounting box. On the duplex outlets on either side of the bed, one outlet in each pair will be on a switch by the door that can control a bedside light.

The other side of the bedwall and the left-side of the rear wall.







The right-side of the rear wall and the other side of the closet system wall. Unfortunately, due to the tight quarters and the final location of the main HVAC trunk, it looks like I'm just over an inch shy of the dimension I needed for the 118 1/8" closet system that I had intended, and may need to downsize to the 98-3/8" system, which is the next size down. In a small house it is a game of inches, and unfortunately I may have lost this round. Though I will be left with 18-5/8", which should accomodate a book shelf, so in the end this might actually be a good thing.

What a Difference a Day (and professional drywallers) Makes!

Two Days Ago the back bedroom looked like this:

















Last Night it looked like this!!!!

Recent Activities

Here's another quick update on some of the work that's been done over the last two months:

Dodging the draft:
So I had to adjust the metal framing around the windows on the rear bedroom wall after the new windows were installed. I had apparently framed the opening too small, so had to widen the opening so that the drywall could wrap the corner and terminate at the edge of the window. After making this adjustment I was ready to insulate this wall. Between patching and sealing openings in the wall (including the one into the chimney), painting the wall with a moisture-lock paint, installing new windows, and insulating the walls, I don't think that I'll be feeling any of the drafts I felt that very first winter here!

On its last legs?
The clawfoot tub (one of the few 'artifacts' of the house that I'm holding on too) is getting a new lease on life, from the ground...eh...feet up). While I looked into having these chromed, the accompanying price tag was a bit staggering, so I've opted for now to give them a nice new coat of chrome finish paint. Pending wear I can always opt to chrome them later, but I'm actually quite impressed with the results I got with a can of Rustoleum.


In the bathroom, things are looking up!
So the bathroom skylight presented a slight problem when I installed the tub shower kit (one that I temporarily resolved by screwing through the mounting post into the side of the skylight shaft wall). But another, more aesthetic issue concerned me about this skylight -- that of the height of the shaft itself. Because of its height, the skylight seemed like a shaft with a glass ceiling -- it simply looked too tall. To help to combat that feeling I decided to extend the 'frame' at the plane of the ceiling. By creating a ledge here, the walls of the shaft are now set back, and less visible such that the height is not as noticeable. Though this closes down the skylight opening slightly, I believe that the end result should be a much cleaner opening.

Thanks, But No Tanks:












Water heater preparations: So, due to space constraints, I've elected to replace my traditional tank-style water heater with a tankless. In addition to taking up much less space (and thereby allowing me to tuck it under the uprun of the stair) it is also more efficient, as it only heats water 'on demand' as it is needed, rather than constantly heating a tank of water. I'm having a Navien water heater installed. The benefit of this systems over the others that I've researched is that can be vented using PVC piping, which eliminate the need for clearances from combustible building materials. This means that, though a chase in the kitchen and rear bedroom is still necessary for venting, that its dimensions can be greatly reduced. I'm looking forward to the installation of the unit and seeing just how well these work.

Tile Selections

Here's a quick glance at the tile that I'm using in the bathroom. I've selected a 3/4" colored opalescent glass mosaic tile called 'Vitreo' from Trend USA. I'm using a blend of 3 colors (2 white shades and a gray) on the floor and a celadon green for the wall behind the sink. As I've mentioned previously, the wall behind the tub and toilet will be the exposed brick, painted white, to produce a more clean and calm feel (in lieu of the original brick color). I chose the small mosiac tile for the floors because the original bathroom tile (of which I found a few remants) was a small mosaic tile pattern (the original was comprised of approximately 1" x 2" white rectangular tiles with a approximately 1"x1" square black tile in a 'pinwheel' arrangement -- such as seen here). While I wasn't crazy about the more traditional pinwheel pattern, I decided that a smaller mosaic tile was still an appropriate choice, and the Trend Vitreo offered the subtle reference to the previous tile that I wanted. I'm really looking forward to seeing this installed, which (fingers crossed) should happen in the next week or so).

Good Idea, Bad Idea...

So there are holes that are good to have in a bathroom floor, and those that are not so good. To illustrate:

Good Hole:

The hole that the toilet drain comes up through:












Bad Hole:

The one that the HVAC installer put in the floor in front of the toilet for a floor register. Note that, as this was certainly the ideal location for a register, the installer had no hesitation cutting through the floor joist that was in the way.











Thankfully the new subfloor in the bathroom takes care of this opening, but I also need to reinforce the joist below.

So here's the plan...

So I wanted to finally post the plans of the house so that it was easier to get an understanding of what the house originally looked like and what the end result will be. (Click on each image to see a larger view).

First Floor:










Kitchen Elevation:




Second Floor:










Bathroom Elevations:

What I've been up to...

So I've been very busy the last several months since my last post, and so I have a plethora of new images and developments to share!

In June I ended up exposing the ceiling joists in the living room (I couldn't take the swirling plaster pattern any longer!) The project created quite a mess, as you can see, and also lead to the discovery of a few artifacts. As I was tearing out the ceiling I came close to getting hit by these two glass bottles. If the numbers on the bottom are any indication, they are from 1960 (one has a '59' on the bottom and the other a '60'). I also found a 'Clark Bar' wrapper and a small 'Planter's Peanuts' wrapper, so I can only assume that this is the remains of the workmen's snack (perhaps those who installed the very ceiling that I just tore out).























In August and September the focus has been heavily on renovating the bathroom. This has been no easy feat, since the existing subfloor in the bathroom exhibited some rot and had to be completely replace. So out came the plumbing fixtures, down came the walls, and up came the floor. (This gave me an opportunity to remedy another quirky construction blunder from a previous owner, which I'll discuss soon.)
With the new subfloor down, I could now start framing the new bathroom walls. The now illustrious one wall left in the house (between the front bedroom and bathroom) received an add-on of sorts -- a 4' high furr-out that will encapsulate the hitherto exposed plumbing to the vanity. This furr-out will create a ledge that will run the length of the wall behind the tub and vanity, which will be convenient for placing items such as soap and toothpaste (as the sink is not very big). A large mirror will run from the top of this ledge to the bottom side of the custom vanity light above (more on that in a future post). The ledge is bounded in the corner by a small chase that conceals the previously exposed vent stack. On the opposite wall, where a large chase was required for the main HVAC supply duct to the first floor, I've taken advantage of otherwise wasted space by creating a niche to build in two storage cabinets that I purchased from West Elm.











After this came the header for the sliding and stationary wall between the bathroom and the landing, and the brick wall of the bathroom received a few coats of moisture-lock paint (giving me a good indication of what the final, white painted brick wall will look like).

There has been much more work that has been done, and I'll have more on that soon!

Windows 2008

Windows in a house may not at first make a huge impression, and usually it's not the windows themselves, but the light they bring in, or the views that they allow of the outside, that really makes the impact.
However, when one really starts living in a place and actually looking at using the windows day in and day out, little things start to have an impact. In my case it was the little things, like the off-white color, the small chips in the sill piece, and even not so little things, like the ripped screens that didn't go up and down properly, broken mechanisms and handles, and yes, even a pane that would only stay in if the window was locked, started to add up until I decided that now, in the midst of my full renovation, was the time to replace the windows. I was in a way fortunate that I do not live a block to the west, which would place the house in a historic district and require the installation of wood windows. Not that I don't think that the house doesn't deserve wood windows, but I didn't believe that my budget would have allowed them, given that wood windows can cost three times as much as vinyl replacement windows. I opted to use Window World -- my parent's and sister having recently used them to replace the windows in their own homes and highly recommending them. I ended up taking the advice of my brother-in-law and ordered the Comfort World 4000 series with argon gas option for energy efficiency. With this, the windows meet the Energy Star rating for energy efficiency. The installers arrived at 10 am and worked until 6 pm, which actually was a longer period of time for my mere 6 windows than for my families houses with many more windows, but I also had a smaller crew (two installers) who had to reframe the two rear windows and replace the wood exterior jambs on three other windows that were rotted. The rear bedroom windows were reframed to level out the heights of the windows, which were at different sill heights as a result of the window and door opening (below on the first floor) having been torn out and replaced at some time for some unknown reason. The end result is much better than what I started with. I'm very happy with the look and operation of the new windows. I'm actually now somewhat reluctant to cover them up with bars, so I'm opting to just reinstall the rear window bar on the kitchen window. Thanks to a lot of street presence and a front porch neighborhood, I feel confident about keeping my unobstructed views to the street as well. So it seems even my views have benefited from these new windows.

[Click on the pictures for a closer look at the before and after.]

Creating a Little Oudoor Space

With new windows on order, and while trying to settle on the scope of my electrical work, I've decided to turn my attention to the outdoors. As the backyard is not very big (a mere 12 x 20), I've been trying to take advantage of the small space and create a few small areas. The first of these is a new patio. This small area (~5 x 5) will bound the soon-to-be-built water garden on one side (the edging of which will enlarge to patio by about 8 more inches), and a walk to the back gate. The inspiration for the patio came from the images below. Though quite different in final composition, the concept derived from a garden landscape that I saw in Phuket, Thailand, where brick-sized stepping stones were placed in a field of rocks. I liked the material choice and the contrast of the small and natural rocks with the man-made, regularity of the bricks. Wanting to create more of a hardscape with a level surface for outdoor furniture, I opted to increase the number of brick pavers and use the rocks as a fill in between. To create a more modern look, I arranged the pavers in a grid. The pavers are simple concrete bricks, which are made of the same material as their larger concrete block siblings and cost a mere 41 cents each. These are laid on a bed of sand, which in turn is on a bed of gravel. I'm happy with the end result, and can't wait to get the new fence, deck, and water garden built so that I can start to enjoy my outdoor living space!