"After"

Sorry for missing two months ..... but had to finish up and move in.  We are still getting settled in but I wanted to show some "After" shots.

Entry Way to Back

Entryway to Front

Entryway to Dining room

Dining room to Entryway

Family room to Back

Family room to Front

Messy Playroom, but contained

Family room to kitchen

sun room to kitchen addition

Family room to kitchen addition

kitchen addition to sun room + Hayden

Kitchen from sun room

kitchen from kitchen addition

kitchen

kitchen

Downstairs powder room

hall bath vanity

hall bath shower

master bath

Countertops

The cabinets are in and it is apparent they look very different depending on the light.  To highlight this here are two different kitchens (NOT MINE) but with EXACTLY my cabinets.

In direct light (dark brown)

In shadows or with ambient daylight they look espresso

There are stainless steel appliances and a tile floor that is a very light grayish-beige.   So, what countertops?

Here are the three main contenders that I can get.  I also like Imperial white granite ... but that won't happen since the Indian government shut down the quarry (or something like that)

1. Kashmir white granite

Mostly white with grey speckling.  There are some brown spots as well as slight tan undertones in the white.  My main concern with this one is that there is too much grey and too much speckling.

2. Sea Pearl granite

Mostly white with grey streaks ... and a little but of green undertones.
My main concern with this one is green where there is not other green in kitchen.

3. Hanstone "Sandcastle" Quartz

Plain grayish/beige ... very close to color of floor.  Slightly darker than floor.
My main concern with this one is that it is too plain and will become dated quickly.

Pics below:


KASHMIR WHITE GRANITE

SEA Pearl Granite

Hanstone "Sandcastle" Quartz

Custom Builtins

Sometimes the right cabinet or piece of furniture just does not exist.  Fortunately I have a talented father who works for beer and can guide me through a design.  Lots of dust but the opening below is for a wall over and microwave.   It will not be a combination unit.   Combo unit = $2600.  Separate microwave plus wall oven of same Whirlpool line:   $1400.

The header creates a little challenge because it limits the cabinet size.  The basic idea is that we must fit a wall oven and microwave with trim kit.  The other priority is a large drawer on bottom for pots and pans.  Whatever is left can be a cabinet on top.  There is additional space behind header (see below looking up into cabinet space) so even if we have small doors there can be a pretty large cabinet.

Below is a rough sketch of the idea and it's relatively simple stuff.  Cabinet on top will have shaker style doors with a full overlay.  The top sides and bottom of cabinet can just be sanded oak plywood sheets attached directly to framing.  On the bottom is a basic base cabinet design with just one large 16" drawer and a 4" toe kick.  The primary kitchen cabinets will be a dark maple.  However, this cabinet will be painted white to give the it some neat contrast.

Plan B:  Do not use a trim kit around the microwave.  Basically it could just be a regular microwave placed in a cutout.  That will add 5" to the cabinet doors above.

Plan C:  Ditch the microwave and add two drawers below the wall oven, thereby moving the wall oven up some more.  Then use an "over the range" microwave above the cooktop and get rid of the range hood.  This design is the most practical and the most cost effective, but it does not look nearly as cool!


Another builtin we need will be for the entertainment center.   The photo below shows the space we have to work with.  The fireplace is to the left.  Above the fireplace will be the TV.  You can't see it but 8 speaker wires distributed throughout the lower floor all come out the wall in the corner.  I'm thinking of maybe some shelves that fit the same footprint of the removed drywall on the back wall.  So, the builtin would extent above the window about 1ft on each side. I guess the stereo, DVD, and cable box will need to go to the left of the window next to the fireplace.  Not ideal, but don't know what else to do.  Can't angle them because the space to the right of the window is not big enough.

Drywall

Infrastructure is done!  Time to close it up an make this look like a house again.   $3500 quote was disappointing when I first heard it.  I knew it would be about $2K to do the entire downstairs celings.  What I really forgot to budget for was the kitchens and bathrooms.   All walls needed removal just because of all the plumibing and electrical that needed moved.  Further, there is the master closet, the pantry, new powder room, and tons of patch work.  It adds up now, I just forgot a some stuff on my original budget.  I'm probably at about $1.80 per square foot which is a solid price.


After the extension there was even more drywall work that probably would have pushed the total bid to around 5K.  Patrick and the guys spent around 2.5 days total to hang drywall the entire house.  That way they could work on the extensive amount of mill work.  I subsequently got a bid of $2600 to do all of the finish work.... which is about where I expected.  There must have been about 8 guys doing the first coat of mud Saturday AM.  They were like aunts ... everywhere!

Tree Work

Now that I understand that tree roots beat concrete:

Before.  Those trees are ugly anyway with all the ivy climbing up.

stipple ceilings

Like most of the population, I despise textured ceilings.  Of all the dirty ways builders find to save money I think this is the one that grinds my gears the most.  The savings was minimal but the remediation is painful.  Besides being unsightly, these ceilings collect dirt, dust, grease, and darken rooms by casting thousands of tiny shadows.

The downstairs remedy was easy.  Remove the ceilings and redo.  That decision was easy because most of the ceiling needed exposure given the all the recessed lights, plumbing, HVAC, and framing work that needed done.  The upstairs is a different story because (1) there is minimal infrastructure in the ceilings and (2) all that insulation is resting on the ceilings.  Leaving them is not an option ....

Option 1:  Drywall over the existing ceilings.  I don't like that option because you lose headroom and it cost about the same as paying someone to scrape, skim coast, and sand the ceilings.

Option 2:  Pay a company $2 a square foot to remedy.  eh ...  $2800 not really in the budget

Option 3: Trying sanding the ceilings myself.

Rent a pole sander from HD.  Comes with a hose so you can sync it up with wet/dry vac. Sweet

 The enemy.

So gross ....

The sander worked pretty well ...until I broke the sander.  It kept the dust down since I hooked the hose up to the dryvac.  The problem is that I tried to go too fast.  The tool is made in China and it has plastic pieces.  Duh

Attempt 2:  Orbital Sander ... Besides being way too slow because it's ... smaller,  there is no way to control the dust.  I think I almost choked myself.  The picture below was taken 20 minutes after I was done sanding.  The camera flash exposed all of the dust!

Attempt 3:  Wet and then scrape off the stipple.  I did a whole room in three dirty hours (see below)

However, as the scraping only removes most of the stipple.  I still need to sand the ceilings and probably skim coat because with all the scraping I damaged some of the drywall paper.

Attempt 1 seems to be the best way.  Time to go back to HD and rent a pole sander under a different name.

Electrical

The difference between an electrical engineer and an electrician could not have been more evident than today....   I never heard the phrase ... you can't do that it's against code ... so many times in my life.  Details to come ...

$4K to $6K is the quote.  I should have figured because after going through the house with electrician I could see nothing but $$$.  The plan calls for 30 recessed lights,  almost a complete rewire of the downstairs to accommodate the new floor plan and modified kitchen,  the sun-room addition,  all receptacles and switches replaced,  new GFCI circuits for baths and kitchen,  re-routing of cable, phone, and HDMI lines, countless fixtures, fart fans, etc. etc. etc.


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To cut costs, I scaled back the number of recessed lights, fans, and HVAC service upgrades (which are not required anyway).   After some further diagnostics the electrician agreed to do it for 4K which "sounds" good. It only sounds like good news because it was at the low limit of his bid.  I really screwed up the budget for this one by about $2K.

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First real frustration of the job.  The electrician said he would be done Friday after I gave him for the draw for the work done.  Well, he stopped answering my calls and would not return messages.  Never a good sign.  Then, I called him with another phone and he picked up.  What is this?  Freaking high school?  Says he will be done with rough in on Monday and that he just got busy.  Hmmmmm....

Ordinarily, this is grounds for dismissal.  However, given he is in the middle of the job I need to make an effort to keep the peace to get what I want.  I want the rough in done NOW so this job is not held up.   No electrical = no drywall = no tile, etc.    A few more days though and I'll have to start looking elsewhere.  That would be a pain in the ass!

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LED?   LED lights are bad ass.  Better light, low heat, great energy efficiency, etc.     Freaking expensive though.  I did find some commercial electric (HD brand) recessed trim lights for $20 each.  In case you don't know, a price that low is unprecedented.  Still, with twenty three cans I'm looking at $460.   Compare that to $8 each for a basic trim kit and halogen light ($184).  I calculated I'll save about $100 per year on lighting costs so it's only a three year payback.  Combine that with a light that last longer than your cat and I think it starts to look like a good investment.  Plus they are cool!

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-6-in-Recessed-White-LED-Trim-CER6730WH/203489880#.UomEU8RONLk