Posts Tagged ‘remodel’

floor finishing is happening

Monday, April 30th, 2012

There may be only one in this shot but I assure you there are two swarthy dudes laying down the first coat right now…

first coat going on!

 

get your feet on the floor

Friday, April 27th, 2012

… everybody rock and roll! Think you can name that tune?

So with the ceiling now finished downstairs, the floor is in motion. No wasting time here, nuh-uh. David and Joe are gettin’ down to bidness, if ya know what I mean…

readiness starts at the knees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The floating cork planks are huge — 12″x36″ and 1/2″ thick, so theoretically the floor should go down even faster than the ceiling…

Duro cork plank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s some trimming involved to get things to fit…

David trimming cork planks to fit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But these things snap together easy-peasy…

fitting pieces together

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work began yesterday and already the boys are more than halfway done!

floor in progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

happenings

Monday, April 9th, 2012
Before we get started, I apologize for some text and spacing issues the blog seems to be experiencing. Hmmmm. Can’t figure that one out.
So here’s what you missed since I got slammed with work:

The ceiling is now completely tiled in cork (click to biggify the grandness)…

ceiling is corked, yay!
Something about it says eco-chic luxury spa, doesn’t it? The planks will get a protective finish tomorrow and the floor will be prepped for cork installation after that.

I mentioned the other day that Rob has been busy giving us light. The ceiling fixtures are in now…

first lights going in
Best of all — they actually work! Illumination. I dig it.

Also ongoing: tiling the bathroom. Our friend and fellow remodeling pro Mark Cummins has been prepping the walls, furring them out (building them up with wood shims) such that the diminutive wall tiles we’ve chosen will space out perfectly and require no cutting. That required a good amount of mocking-up and measuring. (And patience.) Followed by much re-measuring and marking, just to be safe…

marking the tiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once Mark was confident we had it right, the 1/2″ cement board went up. In the shower, it’s gone from this…

shower wall before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To this…

walls cement boarded in shower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s the hand-held shower pipe poking through on the right. There will likely be an inset section in that wall for setting soap and sundries… a complication but hopefully not an impossibility. After that, water-based waterproofing and then tiling.

At this rate we may actually have a functional downstairs by summer. Doh! I just cursed us, didn’t I? Fudge.

it’s the little things

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

A big box of electrical devices for downstairs arrived the other day…

electrical devices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll admit that doesn’t sound very exciting and perhaps not even post-worthy. But what looks like a boring box of switchplates and outlets to you looks like finally having lighting downstairs to me. No more flashlights!

Rob, our electrician extraordinaire, is downstairs wiring in the devices as I type this…

rob wiring the devices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We chose these because the cover plate snaps on — no screws showing…

one of our lutron outlet cover plates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clean. Squared off profile doesn’t hurt… there’s no beveled edge on these. Ridiculous that I even care about such a thing but there you go.

the planking edition

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Ruefully late to the meme, our remodel is finally the site of a planking…

david planking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, not that planking. This planking…

box of cork planks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Destined for the floor and ceiling, boxes and boxes of cork planks (Edipo from DuroDesign) have been waiting patiently since last summer…

boxes of cork

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David and Joe started under the stairs — an out of the way place to practice installing these for the first time. First there was adhesive…

joe applies adhesive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the planks went on, staggered…

corks goes on staggered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost done…

cork almost done under the stairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, it’s a little dim under there and the shots aren’t so great. It looks nice, take my word for it.

The reason we chose the Edipo was for its linear strips…

edipo cork plank from duro design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We want those strips to run the length of the house rather than the width, because upstairs the angled ceiling that runs front to back is a feature we want to accentuate. Downstairs, the ceiling is flat rather than angled, of course, but it makes sense to be consistent with what we’re planning for upstairs. To that end, the tiling began with a long reference line to keep the planks straight…

reference line

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first plank went up and then the boys worked their way down the hall…

first cork plank goes up in the big room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You really have to like the guy you’re working with to do this job…

david and joe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so the planking continues…

planking continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving pretty quickly now. This could be done some time tomorrow… well, hopefully.

view down the hallway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very happy with the cork thus far, I must say. How happy? Dancing on the ceiling happy!

 

the deck: where we left off

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Let’s see, what’s been going on at the homestead since I last had time to share?

Removing the siding on the inside of the deck surround…

removing the siding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

removing the siding 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turns out the wall on the west side of the deck was completely soggy to the point of rotting…

soggy siding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It absolutely reeks of mildew and was covered in slimy goo. Gross. The wood on that side is not salvageable, unfortunately. Especially once you add in the carpenter ant damage…

signs of old carpenter ants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They love wood that’s been softened up by poor drainage. Luckily we got rid of the ants right after we moved in.

So where does that leave us? The walls are temporarily covered in housewrap to keep out the spring rains…

deck walls with housewrap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now there’s a slight pause in the rebuild of the deck while we wait for the engineer to chime in. On what, you ask? Biggify this and check out the deck as the architect imagined it in 1970…

architectural rendering of our house, circa ’70 | Haynes and Associates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cantilevered. No supports.

Compare that to how it actually got built a year later…

view from the corner, post-construction | Haynes and Associates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A single post stuck in the middle. Well, not exactly the middle — slightly off-center so that it wouldn’t interfere with coming and going through the lower slider. Weird.

Compare that to how it looks now…

finished wall, February 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At some point, posts were added to either end in addition to the one in the center. David and I think this looks a little clunky and have always imagined we’d try to go back to Irving Hayne’s original vision if possible. Next week, Eric over at Structures Workshop should come back to us with drawings and we’ll find out if we can make it happen. Good man. We’ve tapped him more than once for this remodel.

 

 

when maffmaticians remodel

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

David and Joe are downstairs planning the layout for the cork ceiling…

joe with a cork tile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was math…

figuring out the math

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does it all mean?

math on wood scrap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea.

let there be sun!

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Progress, people! On the front of the house, Joe and David made and added the flashing to the upstairs windows and slider to match what they did on the lower level…

new flashing around upstairs windows and slider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now the siding is done, top to bottom…

siding finished

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait, is that SUNSHINE reflected in the upstairs window? IT IS!

The blue tarp that’s been up since well before Thanksgiving finally came down!

One…

blue tarp being removed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two…

blue tarp coming off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three! No more tarp!

no more tarp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t tell you how happy I am to no longer be in the abyss!

Next: the soffit will get closed up…

getting ready to close up the soffit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, David and Joe will turn their attention back to the downstairs. They’re going to install the cork on the floor and ceiling. Then it will be time to rebuild the deck.

I still can’t get over being able to see the view…

 

hey look, the sky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just in time for spring!

 

and the siding?

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Painting is done — shall attempt better shots. Siding is still in progress but the bottom floor is just about done. Yay!…

siding in progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That black mesh in the shot above goes beneath the siding…

closeup of cedar breather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Called Cedar Breather, it creates a 1/4″ air space between the house wrap and the back of the siding so that moisture can’t build up there. After all, it’s water that encourages paint and stain peel off the wood, causes rot and mold, and invites insects to dine. Better not to give it a chance.

Around the slider, Joe and David created and installed aluminum flashing to match what they did around the window

installing the flashing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So instead of the bulkier wood trim that used to surround the windows and doors, now we have a nice, clean metal edge…

closeup of flashing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks fantastic, boys!

finished wall of siding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really loving how the dark stain worked out!

 

sneak peek

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Downstairs painting is coming along nicely! Yesterday the tinted primer went on…

primer coat goes on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And today the first coat went on…

first coat goes on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, it’s still going on right now. It’s so strange to have someone painting for me. This is usually my job. But look how much quicker its going!