Oct 18 Post

It's been nearly a month since my last blog post. Things have been moving along but it's beginning to become evident just how extensive this project is. There are days when you can barely get into the driveway because of the cars and trucks that belong to the people who are working here. Since the last update we've done a lot of work to the heating system (new furnace(s), new hot water pipes, and new in-floor heat). There is a heating system industry magazine that has asked to feature our system in their trade magazine. It's not Home and Garden but it's pretty exciting that they want to feature us. Apparently our 2-furnace system is pretty innovative and since it's part of a re-fit I guess we're pretty interesting to anyone who might subscribe to something like that. We're still waiting to have the pipes laid in part of the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. We're currently heating the house with one propane fireplace, one wood fireplace and some space heaters. We're waiting for one part that has been back  ordered. Once that part arrives we'll be able to get heat into the old parts of the house (anywhere with the old cast iron rads). The newer parts (with in-floor heat) will be a while longer.

We've also finished the pergola and the roofing. There will be some lights to go in the pergola but right now we've got to focus on getting the kitchen finished and tight before really cold weather sets in. We have new kitchen windows which look awesome and are larger than the old ones. Between those and the pergola (instead of the roof that was there before), the kitchen will be much brighter. The bathroom is also coming together slowly. It really just looks like a studded in room with no walls and an old shower in the middle of it but a lot has been done with plumbing and electrical that doesn't really look like much yet. We have a heated towel rack to heat the bathroom and the pipes had to be run for that. When the wall go in it will start to take shape quickly. Light fixtures can go in then the in-floor heating elements. Then we're ready for the floor tiles. Unfortunately the floors were in such bad shape, there's going to be quite a bit of work to do to prepare the floors for the tiles.

We installed the propane fireplace in the kitchen area but we neglected to get a vent kit when we got the fireplace. So, even though Matt and his crew have built the chimney outcropping on the deck and the pipes and electrical have been run, we're held up until we get the vent kit.

Here are some more pics of what's been going on around here lately:

The new kitchen window are much larger than the old ones and let a lot more light into the kitchen. The new sink will be under the set on the left.

Here are our good news/bad news new patio doors. Good news because they're finally installed and we really like them. Bad news because they're the wrong doors. We ordered the type of patio doors where both doors open but, just after they were installed Matt went to open the second door and realized that only one door opened. The one you see on the left is stationary. So, it had to stay where it was - otherwise we'd have a huge hole in the wall - until the new one arrives. It will hopefully be here in a week or two.

To give us an idea of what the kitchen would begin to look like (no, that's not where the toilet goes) he used some wood to draw out the outline of the kitchen island. Even though the room looks pretty cavernous right now it's easy to see how it will start to fill up quickly once cabinets and counters and islands all go in.

The chandelier for the laundry room arrived. Mike was very excited to get it installed. The installation was supposed to just take couple hours. Then I started getting phone calls at work from electricians. Apparently laundry rooms are not usually the home of chandeliers so when the wiring was done (months ago) no one anticipated that it would need to carry the amount of electrical load that we were going to ask of it. Our chandelier has 42, 25 watt bulbs in it. That's over 1,000 watts for those of you that are counting. There was no way, with the wiring that was in place, that we'd be able to run anything else in that section of the house if we had that chandelier on too. So, the wiring had to be redone in that section of the house to accommodate our Johnathan Adler Chandelier. The silver lining is that we can turn it on and heat that section of the house pretty efficiently with just the the heat it gives off.

Mike and Bentley in our "kitchen". We're getting frost some nights now so we had to bring the plants inside. The garage has in floor heat that isn't hooked up yet so the plants are now living with us in the kitchen. The pantry door is lying up against the wall in the hallway. It was scheduled to go in a week or so ago but when they tried to install it they discovered that it needed an extra hinge. Not a big deal but time is so metered out around here these days that there simply hasn't been a chance for anyone to get the extra hinge and come and install the door. So, there is rests until there's a bit of a break in some of the mayhem.

This is the outside view of the new fireplace in the kitchen. Actually, this picture was taken a couple weeks ago. Right now all the trim is done and the little roof is shingled. When it's completely done there will be a propane vent coming out through it. This is actually the second time it was built. They built it too short (according to the propane technicians) so they had to remove the roof and raise it up a few feet and then rebuild the roof. I think I like it better at this height anyway.

This view of the new kitchen windows really shows off the increased size and how much light they'll let in.

This is another example of a lot of work that had to happen that you really can't see. Because our new stove has ten burners and two ovens it can potentially generate a lot of heat (108,000 BTUs to be exact). So to be up to code, we were required to install a ventilation system that could move enough air. However, if it were running at full blast in the winter, it would pump every bit of warm air out of the house in minutes. So, we had to install a heater in the intake vent for the system to heat the air that is being circulated back into the house. We were fortunate that the original chimney in the house has 3 flues and we were only using 2 of them. So, now the ventilation system uses the 3rd flue. The top of our chimney now looks very industrial with the wood fireplace top, the oil furnace top and now a large commercial ventilation system all sticking up out of it.

Here is one of the vent for the central vac system. Since we have no walls yet, it was a great time to get these guys in to install all the central vac piping. We also had the alarm guys come in to install all their equipment before the drywall goes up - which is supposed to happen next week.

The new propane fireplace sits patiently as we wait for the vent kit to arrive so they can finish the installation.

Here you can see the electrical box for one of the pot lights in the kitchen. There are several of these around the perimeter of the kitchen.

Here is another picture of "the sisters" in the basement. Our double furnace structure is pretty innovative - especially for a renovation. Matt's people built the wall next to the chimney to accommodate some of the equipment that will allow the furnaces to share the heating job. Although the house certainly has some chilly parts these days we're also noticing how easily the newly renovated parts are to heat and hold their heat. The TV room and laundry area stay very comfortable just with out little propane stove running. We're hopeful that the rest of the renovated areas will be just as efficient once everything is done.

Here's the finished pergola. The plan is to cut some holes in the concrete parking pad and plant some Wisteria that will climb up and over the pergola. We stained it grey (instead of painting it white) so it will never need to be repainted and once the Wisteria has grown over it we'll never need to tear it down to repaint.

Here's the opening for fireplace. You can see the insulation that's been installed and then sealed under plastic. It will make a huge difference in the way this part of the house will retain heat in the winter and stay cool in the summer.

More insulation on this wall surrounding the stained glass windows. This little section will have a desk in it and a book shelf and be a small office space.

This recessed part of the ceiling will be directly above the island. You can see the electrical boxes where the pendant lights that will hang over the island will be installed eventually.

This is an updated picture of the fireplace "chimney" with all the finish and the shingling done. Eventually an exhaust vent will come out through the front of this - about a foot or two from the top.