Big stuff small truck

I love this picture of Chris driving home our window trim. Each peice of trim was 16 feet long - the truck bed is only 6 feet long. But we made it work! New pictures of "trimmed" windows coming soon. They are beautiful...

The Wired House - Nerd Alert

Traditionally, an older house has many different wires strung all over the outside as, over the years, technicians install phone, cable, and other lines. As this is a pet peeve of mine, I decided to add structured wiring to the house. This means I have eliminated the unsightly external wires and now have everything hidden within the walls.

** Ahoy! Technical Jargon Ahead! **

The living room, kitchen, basement, and bedrooms will all have two quad-shield RG6 (coax) jacks and two Cat6 network jacks. The RG6 can be used for closed circuit TV, cable or satellite TV, RCA, component video, and composite video jacks.

The network jacks can handle 10GB transfer speeds for networking and streaming media plus it will be able to fully utilize Verizon's FIOS capabilities when DC finally gets FIOS. They can also be converted to phone lines or merged to create HDMI cables and other goodies. Scrumptious.

In the basement, there will be a panel with a nice clean look that centralizes the connections. And, since we will have DirecTV, I only have to run four RG6 wires to the panel and install a 16 port multiswitch to split the signal to all of the different rooms. If I get a big enough panel, I should be able to put the DSL or cable modem plus a router, hub, and electric so all of the wires can be hidden.

I will use single gang keystone wall plates for a nice clean look and compression fittings for the best connectivity of the RG6 cables.

Can't wait to get it all hooked up and making it look pretty.

You know you like it when I love talk nerdy.

Oh, the blue and black wires in the picture are the goods.

The Thing About Electricians

As a former communications technician and home theater designer, I have worked with many different electricians and appreciate what they do as a craft. I also know that their job is completely different from that of an installer/designer. For example, the wire they use costs considerably more and it can be difficult to work with due to its flexibility and size. Also, it's rather straightforward in calculating the circuits, amperage, and wire gauge needed.

I suspect that these factors contribute to the reasons I have such difficulty appreciating not what they do, but how they do it. In my installation experiences, rarely have I seen an electrician use finesse in an installation. Mostly, brute force gets the job done. Our house is no exception.

We decided to rewire the entire house and install new boxes, switches, and outlets. A good idea for the integrity of the house but a bad idea for the integrity of the original plaster walls. While I expected numerous holes to be made to run the wiring, I was not expecting those holes to be made using a hammer since I have always used tools with a bit more precision.

I believe that my disdain is similar to that of an Indy Car engineer regarding that of a NASCAR engineer. Sure both cars go but one goes way faster...and turns right.

Regardless of the process, the electrician did a great job giving us a heavy up to 200 amp service and new everything. Sure we cleaned up a lot of messes and we have a bunch of holes in the walls and ceilings but we saved a little money too.

The Weather is Perfect

We have finally had a break in the oppressive humidity and heat that is August in Washington, DC. You would think that with Congress in recess there would be less hot air here. Zing!

That said, this great weather just so happens to coincide with all of our windows (both new and old) being installed and finished on the exterior. No pictures of the new window added to the kitchen but I must say, the mason did an excellent job of trying to make the window opening look exactly like all of the others. I will try and post a picture of it tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of the others. We even removed the awful awnings today though you still may seem them in the pictures.

Oh, and did I mention that I narrowly avoided all of the special order windows being too big? What do I mean by narrowly? Well they only had to chip away some of the brick and block on the interior to get them to fit. Lesson learned on that one FO SHO!

More exterior pictures coming soon.

A Good Decision

We apologize for the lack of posts but it was odd at the house for the past couple of weeks. First, nothing was getting done and then everything snowballed into a whirlwind of activity. Now a ton of things have happened and it feels like we are getting closer to feeling like we are on the home stretch.

One accomplishment of special mention was our decision to enlarge the two south facing basement windows.

As you can see from the before during and after shots, we went from small virtually worthless windows to full size windows that not only let in a tremendous amount of natural light but also serve as a second egress point in case we ever want to turn the basement into a legal apartment.

The increase in cost was probably about 4 fold but the ability to turn a basement into something that feels like a regular living space could be worth more. The only real drawback is that we now have two giant (think bear trap) window wells out side that will need to be covered for both security and safety.

Overall, we feel we made the right choice on this one. Huzzah!!

4 weeks and counting

Friday was the 4 week anniversary of closing on the house. A lot has been done but there is a long way to go. This week was pretty laid back with me spending a majority of my time scraping wallpaper off of ceilings. All of it had been painted at least once and some of it had multiple wallpaper layers or stucco over top of it. Who does that? It took almost 8 hours to get half of the living room ceiling done. What a pain in the ass.

We also had our first inspection for the installation of the plumbing. Passed with no problems and, now that the dirt has been put back into the holes, the basement does not look so disastrous. I will post some updated pictures tomorrow.

The next couple of weeks will see things happening at a rigorous pace. Monday will commence the proper installation of the existing windows along with the new windows. Thursday, the living room floor will be reinstalled and the bad areas patched. The electrical work will be done next weekend and that will trigger the insulating of house and replacement of the roof.

Once that is done, we can close up the walls and get them ready for painting.

Since we have not yet ordered kitchen cabinets, I get the feeling the house will be almost completely finished before the kitchen is installed. But that's ok. Rather have things paced then cascading into a whirlwind of crazy.

After 14 straight days of long hours, I am looking forward to the next 7. If my estimates are correct, I think the majority of the house will be finished in 6 weeks. If things go very well, we could be done in 8. Just in time for the wedding. Huzzah!

It's Electric - Boogie Woogie Woogie

The electrician started work today. Somehow managing to wire almost the entire basement while dodging dirt piles and chasms. Impressive.

He will be back tomorrow to do a heavy up to 200 amp service and to run the major appliance wires. I cut open a bunch of walls for him and I'm looking forward to having all new electric in the house. (Plumbing too, if you've been keeping abreast of things.)

We are also adding dual RG6 (Coax) and Cat6 jacks to each room as well for all of our future entertainment needs.

Sweet.

Erected wood meets big hole and other juicy tidbits

Since I have not posted in awhile, I decided to encapsulate this one with innuendo and debauchery. No sir, we will not have the usual clinical descriptives of progress but a stress releasing play on the joys of home ownership.

This past week was rocking when I got wood on Monday. It was even better when that wood got erected into a framed basement, kitchen half-wall, and other projects. Then the guys dug the huge - 36"x42"x60" - holes for the enlargement of the basement windows. I even loaded up the truck that is on loan from my dad and hauled a bunch of stuff to the scrap yard. Then it all came screeching to a halt.

As you know, I have been partying with the zany 'Poo-Poo Pipe' which lead to giving the house a colonoscopy after performing invasive surgery. Needless to say, the house looks like a f---ing (Steph censor in effect) disaster. There are three gaping channels that were jackhammered open to reveal clogged and disintegrated pipes partnered with giant piles of soil. I would post a picture but I assure you - it does not do justice to the situation.

The good news is that the scoping of the remaining pipe revealed healthy innards. The bad is that, because the pipe appears to have broken some time ago, all of the waste was just going into the soil under the concrete of the basement floor. The image of that is much worse than it really was but the side effect was that it eroded a few inches of soil from beneath a large portion of the basement floor. This means that we will either have to jackhammer a larger portion up to re-pour the floor or find another method to fix the gap issue. We'll know more in a couple of days.

Indiana Jones never had an adventure like this but mine is still better than the last movie. For sure!

Yet another plumbing problem

We have a separate, outside entrance to the basement. There is a drain at the bottom of those stairs. Turns out that it is broken too. That brings the total to all - all waste related pipes in our house are broken. All I can see is dollar signs. Adding up everywhere.

What I hoped would be a mostly cosmetic renovation, is turnout out to be more a gut and replace job.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed today.

Problems with the Poo-Poo Pipe

So yesterday was a plumbing disaster. Turns out the waste pipe that is running under the house has exploded. Apparently, years ago the pipe cracked and disintegrated, and since that time, raw sewage has been seeping into the ground under the house.

The bad news: almost the entire basement floor had to be jack hammered and torn up, to get at bad pipe. Six hours of jack hammering into the cement.

The good news: we found the problem now, as opposed to a few years later when our toilets won't flush and our basement had been finished. Also good news, since the house has been vacant for a while, it appears as most of the sewage has drained away. There was no smell when they dug up the floor.

The unknown news: They are scoping the open pipe today. We may get lucky and only have to replace the short piece of pipe that runs for five feet in the basement. Or we may hit the unlucky jackpot and have to replace all the way to the street. If the latter, we're looking at $5K in extra expenses.

No matter what, we're fixing the plumbing. Better to do it now than later. And when we finally move into the house, we'll know that all the major systems are not only working, but updated, corrected and frankly: WARRANTIED!

Pictures will be coming....

Decisions Decisions

Prior to this house renovation, I thought I was decisive. Sometimes I would waffle on what to have for dinner, but overall, I was fairly efficient at getting the "decision making job" done. Oh for the days of simply deciding what is for dinner (fresh Alaskan salmon from costco, if you're interested).

Now I wake up nearly every morning with a list of things to decide. Ponder, pick and buy flooring for the kitchen and half bath. Design and buy materials for the 2 full bathrooms. Paint color, oven type, refrigerator size, flushing capacity of the toilet. Ahhhhh! I believe I underestimated how many little bitty things have to be decided to tear down - and then build back up - a 1500 square foot home.

Today's decision: The large wall in the basement is south facing. There are two small basement windows at the top of the wall that are going to be replaced. We have the option of enlarging both windows to full size by digging out a window well, chopping into the basement cinder block wall, and installing big windows. Do we do it?

The positives: more daylight in the basement will make it a much more enjoyable space to be in. Who doesn't like a "bright" basement. Full sized windows in the basement will enable us to create a legal apartment downstairs if we decide to keep this house as an income property. And finally, the price difference to dig out the windows is probably $1000; not a deal breaker.

The negatives: We'll probably be one of the only houses in the area to have larger windows. As previous posts has indicated, our neighborhood is not crime free. Bigger windows mean more opportunity for forced entry. And it feels like we are constantly over-budget for everything! Electrical, appliances, termite damage. It's only $1000 - but that's another $1000!!!!

I dunno... and I need to make a decision. Today. Chris and the contractor think yes. I think..... I'd rather decide what we're having for dinner.