The thorniest design issue was not where to put the detached garage but, instead, where to put the roof and floor of the addition. (Wisecracks of "over your head" and "under your feet", respectively, will not be appreciated.) Turns out that the floor of the existing garage is quite a bit lower, 21" to be exact, than the floor of the house. We have a couple of wooden steps leading from the garage to the kitchen hall. These steps gave Wagner a major headache. We could, of course, just leave the floor of the addition sunken the way it was and keep the steps. But that wasn't an optimal solution given our long-term goal of designing the renovation to last our lifetimes and wanting everything to be wheelchair accessible.
So then Wagner contemplated putting in a ramp. The only problem with THAT solution is that the drop was so large that a VERRRRYYY long ramp would be required, and that would eat significantly into our addition space. Not to mention that the prospect of a long ramp didn't push my buttons from an aesthetic viewpoint.
Option 3 was to keep the steps and install a motorized lift. My son, Isaac, was advocating heartily for this option, as he loves elevators. Nobody else was thrilled by the lift option, though, due to the expense and space involved and, again, the aesthetics of having an ugly (to me) hunk of machinery sitting around that we weren't sure we would ever need.
Option 4 was to keep the steps and just leave a space to install the lift later, if needed. This was better than Option 3 in my view, but Wagner didn't like it. He pointed out we probably wouldn't install it until AFTER a few nasty falls had occurred and it would be Too Late. He's probably right on that, given our history of home (non)maintenance.
Option 5 was to raise the level of the addition floor (existing garage plus new part) the necessary 21" to be even with the rest of the house. The only snag with THAT plan, though, is that the roof of the existing garage was firmly held in place by a large steel support beam running across the garage. So if we kept the current ceiling of the garage (which is actually our current master bedroom floor), AND raised the floor, we'd be stuck with somewhat lower ceilings in the renovation than we had hoped for. Maybe too low. And did we really want to go through all that time, effort, and money to have an addition where the ceilings were not as high as we wanted?
So for several weeks Wagner pondered the options and worked with the architect to come up with possibilities. He finally came up with a proposal that solves the step problem as well as preserving, as best as possible, high ceilings. Here's what we're doing: We're going ahead and raising the floor of the existing garage the 21" to be level with the rest of the house. The addition portion will also have a floor raised that high so that everything is all on the same level. That just makes the most sense from a livability and safety perspective and has to be a high priority in the renovation.
This means that the ceiling in the garage portion of the renovation will only be 8 feet high. However, that portion is going to be devoted to the master closet, master bathroom, and laundry room, and we decided that 8 foot ceilings are plenty high for those rooms and those purposes.
The only snag is that the big steel support beam running across the garage had to stay in place. Well, it could theoretically be removed, but that would make the job exponentially more expensive and complicated, so for all practical purposes it had to stay. Most of the time that beam was going to be hidden by interior walls, but there would have to a particular section of the master bath where the beam would be concealed by a soffitt and would have only a 7-foot ceiling. Neither Jon nor I are especially tall, so we could live with that. And then Wagner had the good idea of placing the whirlpool tub under the part of the ceiling with the soffitt. Since we are unlikely to spend a lot of time standing up in the bathtub, I think it will work out well.
So this left the question of the ceiling of the addition portion of the project, which is where the bedroom proper would be located. With the roofline being extended as originally planned, we could only have a 9-foot ceiling, and we were hoping for something higher to seem more spacious and to enable bigger windows. Wagner solved THAT problem by deciding to create a gable situation where the roof would angle up perpendicular to the rest of the house. (Hope that's not too confusing. I am learning a lot of architectural terms through this renovation process but clearly have a long, long way to go.)
The only remaining complication is that doing the gable this way would interfere with the upstairs dormer in our current bedroom. Wagner initially proposed just removing the dormer and window and plastering it up. That's clearly the easiest way to deal with the issue and would present the smoothest look from outside, but he met with heavy resistance on our side, as we enjoy the natural light and being able to open up those windows upstairs. And even if we were relocating to the new bedroom, we figured our daughter (who has dibs on moving into our old bedroom) would also want to keep the window. So this made things complicated for Wagner, but he ultimately figured out a way of doing a cut-out of the gable, in combination with making the edges of the new master bedroom ceilings a little lower than he originally planned, that should be workable. It may not have the cleanest architectural look on the exterior (and I think that bothers Wagner), but we don't care, and it's the Neighbor From Hell behind us who will have to look at it the most. Ha ha.
What this amounts to is that we will now have a multi-levelled bedroom ceiling that is 12-feet high in the middle with the edges being 8-feet high, which I think will look nice. AND all of our floors will be at the same level as the rest of the house, which I think is very important.
Adopting this design layout by necessity solved one further dilemma we were facing, which was whether to have a bank of windows or a sliding glass door to the outside in the new master bedroom. The advantage of a sliding glass door is that we could make a little patio area outside and walk out the bedroom in the mornings to drink coffee on the patio. And, of course, it would give us an easy exit in case of a fire or some other disaster. The disadvantage is that I'm guessing our cat would quickly learn that the door was there and would be scratching at the door constantly in middle of the night to be let in and out. (We let her go outside at will.) I'm a light sleeper and that would definitely wake me up. So during the initial planning stages I waffled back and forth as to what the best option would be. Fortunately the final design made it a moot question, as it didn't make much sense to have a sliding glass door with the ground so far below. And I don't think it is much of a loss not to have the door, as the back door to the house is really not that far away and we can just carry our coffee to the gazebo instead.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Progress report -- Week 3
Progress made this week:
--excavation completed for garage
--concrete footers for addition and garage poured
--dumpster moved in
--scaffolding erected, portion of bricks on existing garage wall underneath gutter removed
--dry wall and old insulation inside existing garage removed
--our lawyer has prepared draft of letter politely asking neighbor to move his shed and informing him that we will press suit if he does not
Obstacles encountered this week:
--power line damaged during excavation; work delayed one day while problem fixed
--removal of garage wall drywall reveals termite damage. Uh-oh. It does not appear to be an active infestation, and the house was treated before we bought it for termites, so we're hoping it's just old damage from the previous infestation. We have scheduled a service call for Monday to have somebody come look at it and tell us whether we need to drill and treat for termites before proceeding.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Let there be light...
Well, we had a little excitement on the job. My father and step-mom were coming in from Seattle for their first visit in over five years. (Too bad the timing was off by a few months and they have to stay in our basement, in the midst of a construction zone, rather than a nice guest apartment of their own, but we can't have everything.) The second evening after they arrived we noticed that the electricity was acting funny. The lights were fluctuating every few minutes, with most wavering between normal and quite dim, but our dining room fixture was inexplicably about 3 times as bright as normal. Lights would turn themselves on and off. The microwave was making a funny noise, and the toaster was barely toasting. When we tried to run the clothes washer at the same time as the dishwasher, it groaned and wouldn't spin. Our cable and internet were also down (hence no updates for the past couple of days).
There were only two possible explanations: (a) our house was on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, and the construction had disturbed the spirits who were bent on wreaking revenge, or (b) something had gone awry when they poured the concrete the day before and our power lines had been damaged.
So we informed Wagner as soon as he showed up the next morning, who said "you should've called me last night!" and immediately got an electrician on site. We also got the cable and internet guy out. They're not sure what exactly happened or why, but apparently a "grading spike" (whatever that is) damaged the power line. The mystery is why it didn't simply knock the power out completely. So then they called out the KU (Kentucky Utilities) people. According to Wagner, we lucked out in getting the *only* KU crew left in Lexington today (the rest were still helping to repair downed service from Hurricane Ike in Louisville). We lucked out further in that they had the *only* machine in Lexington that could "listen" to a buried power line and figure out where the damage occurred. Our whole neighborhood lucked out even further, because during their trouble-shooting they discovered that the transformer on the utility pole behind our house was badly deteriorated (a problem that apparently was unrelated to our current difficulty), and they said it was "good we got called out" because "the whole neighborhood probably would've lost power soon."
The fancy power-outage-divining machine was able to locate pretty much the exact spot where the buried power line had been damaged, and fortunately it did not involve having to dig up the concrete footers that had been poured the day before. Phew. Even *more* fortunate, it turns out that the excavator had hit the neutral line (there are 3 lines buried, two that carry 120 amps? volts? something? each, and one that is neutral). Had it hit one of the two charged lines instead, we would've lost all power completely and the worker could have easily been killed. I don't want any deaths on my conscience as a result of this job, so that was a HUGE relief.
So as it was, we were only without power for about 5 hours while they identified and fixed the source of the problem. Then when they got the power back on I had to call the cable guy back to fix the cable/internet. Apparently the power line problem fried the cable splitter, something which the cable guy said "I've never seen it do THAT before." Always nice to be first at something.
The good news is that the power problem so distracted Wagner that he did not notice that Jon and the kids had snuck out onto the construction site (without my knowledge, because I would've put my foot down and not allowed it) and written their initials in the concrete before it hardened.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Garage detachment, Part 5
Once we settled on a location for the garage, the final decision we had to make was the design. Did we want one or two doors for the cars? How many other normal sized doors and windows? What did we want on top-- pull down stairs or walk-up? Unfinished storage space or full-fledged living quarters? The door issue was easy; we thought a two-car-door style looked nicer, and we sprinkled a couple of windows around the sides and a door leading to the walkway to the gazebo. But the height/top issue was trickier. Mindful of our neighbor Jane's objections to the massive garage being built on the other side of her, as well as the exponentially growing cost of this project, I advocated a bare bones garage, as short as possible, with minimal or even no storage space on top. I figured we had enough storage with our unfinished basement.
Jonathan, though, had other ideas. He argued that if we were going to spend this much money on the renovation, we might as well "do it right" and have "everything we need for the future." He pointed out that if we finished the space above the garage we could use it as another guest room for some hoped-for future day when the kids were coming back to visit with hoped-for lots of grandkids in tow. He also pointed out that a garage apartment could serve as a useful transition space for our son, Isaac, who has Asperger's syndrome (mild autism). Isaac is doing very well in school, and we are optimistic about his future, but it could well be that he decides to stay at home for college, and a place of his own above the garage could be a good way of helping him gradually achieve independence. And looking very far down the road into our old age, Jon and I have every intention of remaining in this house for the rest of our lives, and a garage apartment could be helpful if and when we need live-in help.
So of course I couldn't argue with that reasoning, so we told Wagner to change the plans once again (the man has been *very* patient with us throughout the entire planning process, and whenever we apologize for changing our minds he merely smiles patiently, if somewhat wearily, and says "it's better to make the changes on paper than after the concrete has been poured."). There was one little snag, though, which is that our city zoning requirements don't allow for garage apartments. Instead, there is a "one appliance" rule. You can have a bathroom and shower, and a place for a bed, but you can only have one appliance: a dishwasher, say, but not a stove; or a refrigerator but no dishwasher. We figure that whoever ends up using this space (guests, Isaac, or whoever) could probably get by using a microwave and washing dishes by hand, so we're opting for a refrigerator as our single appliance.
But because of the zoning rules, we can't call it an "apartment." Let's just say it's a "study" or "extra guest quarters" instead. ;-)
Jonathan, though, had other ideas. He argued that if we were going to spend this much money on the renovation, we might as well "do it right" and have "everything we need for the future." He pointed out that if we finished the space above the garage we could use it as another guest room for some hoped-for future day when the kids were coming back to visit with hoped-for lots of grandkids in tow. He also pointed out that a garage apartment could serve as a useful transition space for our son, Isaac, who has Asperger's syndrome (mild autism). Isaac is doing very well in school, and we are optimistic about his future, but it could well be that he decides to stay at home for college, and a place of his own above the garage could be a good way of helping him gradually achieve independence. And looking very far down the road into our old age, Jon and I have every intention of remaining in this house for the rest of our lives, and a garage apartment could be helpful if and when we need live-in help.
So of course I couldn't argue with that reasoning, so we told Wagner to change the plans once again (the man has been *very* patient with us throughout the entire planning process, and whenever we apologize for changing our minds he merely smiles patiently, if somewhat wearily, and says "it's better to make the changes on paper than after the concrete has been poured."). There was one little snag, though, which is that our city zoning requirements don't allow for garage apartments. Instead, there is a "one appliance" rule. You can have a bathroom and shower, and a place for a bed, but you can only have one appliance: a dishwasher, say, but not a stove; or a refrigerator but no dishwasher. We figure that whoever ends up using this space (guests, Isaac, or whoever) could probably get by using a microwave and washing dishes by hand, so we're opting for a refrigerator as our single appliance.
But because of the zoning rules, we can't call it an "apartment." Let's just say it's a "study" or "extra guest quarters" instead. ;-)
Why our neighbor Jane probably hates our guts
I mentioned earlier having some trepidation regarding how our next door neighbor, Jane, would regard our project. (This is our good neighbor, not our Neighbor From Hell behind us.) There were a couple of reasons for this. The first is that our two houses share a driveway. I'm sure this was originally designed so as to maximize lawn space for both houses, but there are certain drawbacks to shared driveways, e.g., guests who park smack dab in the middle and don't realize they're blocking the other person's way, etc. We knew we would be having all sorts of construction trucks and equipment going in and out to the back garage area, and I stressed repeatedly to Wagner that he had to be careful not to block her car.
But the main reason I was worried about her reaction is that some months ago, the neighbor on her other side (i.e., two doors down from us) bought a tear-down and started a huge rebuilding project even more involved than ours. They left only one wall standing (to qualify as a "renovation" rather than "new construction" for tax purposes), and even that wall conveniently fell over in the middle of one night. This job was loud and dirty. Mud was everywhere, and the crew did things like urinate openly in the yard right in front of Jane. So she was often complaining to us about the inconvenience and mess and noise, and we would commiserate while guiltily aware that we were considering doing a construction of our own to add to her distress.
The aspect of the other job that got her most upset, though, was that it became clear that these neighbors were building a detached garage that was huge, with a full-size apartment on top, AND that would butt up right against Jane's fence, literally within inches. One day Jane flagged us down, said "Did you SEE that huge garage they're building right next to my fence?! I'm calling downtown to see if there's anything I can do about it!" We still hadn't told her that we were considering a detached garage of our own, because we didn't want to get her upset unless or until we knew we were renovating for sure. Uh-oh.
So Jane did some investigating, and she discovered that the neighbors had commenced building the garage WITHOUT obtaining a permit. However, when she spoke with the building inspector, she was told that the garage was technically within code, and the neighbors scampered off to obtain a building permit, albeit belatedly.
To top things off, about a month ago the house BEHIND hers was torn down, and construction began on a new very big house, complete with a detached garage that was going to be positioned--you guessed it--right up against her (rear) fence. This prompted a fresh round of complaints and despair on Jane's part, and the poor woman did not even know at this point that she would soon be surrounded on ALL sides by construction.
In drawing up plans with Wagner, I told him that Jane would not be happy about our renovation, and he assured me that all the proper steps would be taken and that we would not do anything we were not legally entitled to do. He also promised to keep the construction area as clean as possible and to consult with her prior to scheduling anything major that would block her driveway, like pouring concrete.
In the meantime, Jane could not help but notice that something was in the works, as we had staked out the area where the garage would be positioned and had the surveyor come do the survey. So after a bit of curious questioning on her part, I invited her over and told her that we had bad news for her. I showed her the tentative plans and explained what we were going to do. She took the news quite graciously, especially after I walked her out and showed her where the boundaries of the addition and new garage would be, and she could see for herself that she would still be able to get in and out of her garage easily. She also repeatedly said that one of the things that upset her the most about the other neighbor's construction is that they had not once come over to talk with her about it. I had Wagner exchange business cards with her, and he told her to call any time she had questions or concerns. So I'm hoping that open communication will make this a better experience for her.
But under the circumstances, I'm glad I got overruled on the position of the detached garage, as my initial preference would've put it right next to the OTHER side of her yard, which I am sure would have contributed greatly to her distress level. She was quite relieved to see the outline of the garage over by the gazebo and farther away from her property.
And, Wagner is going out of his way to make things nicer for her. When we had to take down part of the fence that separated our properties, he had his crew relocate her wood pile that was leaning against it for her. At the end of each day, he puts his tools and equipment away in our garage and has his crew wash all the dirt off the driveway. He goes over to talk to her every time he sees her and constantly asks if everything is okay with her. So I am confident our job will not be as annoying as the job on the other side of her, but there is a certain amount of noise and inconvenience that is inevitable.
Given that one of our main reasons for renovating rather than moving is that we love this street and our neighbors, it will sure be ironic and disheartening if we end up alienating everybody on the block. :(
But the main reason I was worried about her reaction is that some months ago, the neighbor on her other side (i.e., two doors down from us) bought a tear-down and started a huge rebuilding project even more involved than ours. They left only one wall standing (to qualify as a "renovation" rather than "new construction" for tax purposes), and even that wall conveniently fell over in the middle of one night. This job was loud and dirty. Mud was everywhere, and the crew did things like urinate openly in the yard right in front of Jane. So she was often complaining to us about the inconvenience and mess and noise, and we would commiserate while guiltily aware that we were considering doing a construction of our own to add to her distress.
The aspect of the other job that got her most upset, though, was that it became clear that these neighbors were building a detached garage that was huge, with a full-size apartment on top, AND that would butt up right against Jane's fence, literally within inches. One day Jane flagged us down, said "Did you SEE that huge garage they're building right next to my fence?! I'm calling downtown to see if there's anything I can do about it!" We still hadn't told her that we were considering a detached garage of our own, because we didn't want to get her upset unless or until we knew we were renovating for sure. Uh-oh.
So Jane did some investigating, and she discovered that the neighbors had commenced building the garage WITHOUT obtaining a permit. However, when she spoke with the building inspector, she was told that the garage was technically within code, and the neighbors scampered off to obtain a building permit, albeit belatedly.
To top things off, about a month ago the house BEHIND hers was torn down, and construction began on a new very big house, complete with a detached garage that was going to be positioned--you guessed it--right up against her (rear) fence. This prompted a fresh round of complaints and despair on Jane's part, and the poor woman did not even know at this point that she would soon be surrounded on ALL sides by construction.
In drawing up plans with Wagner, I told him that Jane would not be happy about our renovation, and he assured me that all the proper steps would be taken and that we would not do anything we were not legally entitled to do. He also promised to keep the construction area as clean as possible and to consult with her prior to scheduling anything major that would block her driveway, like pouring concrete.
In the meantime, Jane could not help but notice that something was in the works, as we had staked out the area where the garage would be positioned and had the surveyor come do the survey. So after a bit of curious questioning on her part, I invited her over and told her that we had bad news for her. I showed her the tentative plans and explained what we were going to do. She took the news quite graciously, especially after I walked her out and showed her where the boundaries of the addition and new garage would be, and she could see for herself that she would still be able to get in and out of her garage easily. She also repeatedly said that one of the things that upset her the most about the other neighbor's construction is that they had not once come over to talk with her about it. I had Wagner exchange business cards with her, and he told her to call any time she had questions or concerns. So I'm hoping that open communication will make this a better experience for her.
But under the circumstances, I'm glad I got overruled on the position of the detached garage, as my initial preference would've put it right next to the OTHER side of her yard, which I am sure would have contributed greatly to her distress level. She was quite relieved to see the outline of the garage over by the gazebo and farther away from her property.
And, Wagner is going out of his way to make things nicer for her. When we had to take down part of the fence that separated our properties, he had his crew relocate her wood pile that was leaning against it for her. At the end of each day, he puts his tools and equipment away in our garage and has his crew wash all the dirt off the driveway. He goes over to talk to her every time he sees her and constantly asks if everything is okay with her. So I am confident our job will not be as annoying as the job on the other side of her, but there is a certain amount of noise and inconvenience that is inevitable.
Given that one of our main reasons for renovating rather than moving is that we love this street and our neighbors, it will sure be ironic and disheartening if we end up alienating everybody on the block. :(
Friday, September 19, 2008
The saga of the neighbor's shed, cont.
My last blog entry on the problem with our neighbor's shed, the one that was sitting on our property, ended with his immortal words "I'll see you in court." We didn't do anything for a couple of days, because--quite frankly--we were hoping that once he got over the shock of our intention to move the fence, he would realize that we were being fair about the situation and come to his senses.
Well, that didn't happen.
So Jonathan started making some phone calls to various city offices and Kentucky Utilities. We were hoping the electric company would enforce moving the shed, as it was also on top of the utility easement. No luck there; turns out they only care about easement violations if they interfere with access to the power lines. Shucks.
As for the Fayette County Urban Government offices, they mostly told us to call some other department, but after a total of nine phone calls, Jonathan realized they were all saying the same thing: This was a civil matter, and we would have to file suit.
So then Jonathan called the previous owners of our house to see if they knew of any relevant history. Turns out that they have tangled with this neighbor over the property lines before. Same ol' story: they did a survey, realized the property line went 46 inches back, and the shed was in the way. So they asked the neighbor nicely to move the shed, and he refused, just like this time. But the previous owners let the matter drop, which may be why the neighbor figures he can stonewall us this time, too. Apparently the neighbor ALSO ripped the survey stakes out and threw them away the last time this happened. So far, he hasn't touched the new stakes we had put in with our recent survey... but Jon and I poked around and took lots of photographs showing them (and the shed) just in case.
So.... it doesn't look like this neighbor is going to be reasonable, darn it. So we called our lawyer, who recommended that we start off by writing a polite letter and informing the neighbor that we will indeed file suit if he does not let us move his shed off our property. Our lawyer also said that if we had to go to court, it's not clear that we would be awarded legal fees. Jon and I are both pretty stubborn, though, especially when we know we're in the right.
Garage detachment, Part 4
The next decision was where to place the detached garage in the back yard. I thought there was only one obvious choice--the far left-hand corner--that would involve the least loss of yard space. When I voiced that opinion to Wagner, though, he got that disconcerted look he gets on his face whenever I suggest something that ends up not being practical, and he started mumbling about easement restrictions, fire breaks, and concerns about the turning radius and getting the cars in and out of the garage. The latter concern was no doubt exacerbated by my confessing to him that reverse was not my best gear. (Years ago I memorably put a gouge all the way down the side of my father's mid-life crisis Datsun 240Z while attempting to back out of a garage. Oops.) Wagner then said "we don't have to decide right now" and that he would "work up a few sample layouts."
When he brought back drawings of the various options, I still liked the far left-hand corner placement the best, turning radius be damned. But Jonathan opted for another option which would plop the garage (with doors facing sideways) essentially right next to the gazebo we have located outside our back door. There is a covered walkway leading from the house to the gazebo, and Wagner proposed putting a covered walkway from the gazebo to the new garage. While we would not be sheltered from the cold with such a design, at least we would not get wet or have to trudge through snow/mud.
So I was overruled, but the more I think about it, the more I agree this is the best layout. Yeah, we'll lose more of our yard, but the kids spent virtually all their play time in the front yard rather than the back yard anyway. And, yeah, when we look out our (new) bedroom windows, the side of the garage won't be that far away. But we'll landscape the patch of land in between and put in climbing vines or tall grasses to make it look better. And we'll have a shorter distance to carry groceries in, and we won't get wet. Last but not least, this layout would probably prove more palatable to our next-door neighbor, Jane, whom we feared was not overjoyed about this project to begin with-- more on which later.
When he brought back drawings of the various options, I still liked the far left-hand corner placement the best, turning radius be damned. But Jonathan opted for another option which would plop the garage (with doors facing sideways) essentially right next to the gazebo we have located outside our back door. There is a covered walkway leading from the house to the gazebo, and Wagner proposed putting a covered walkway from the gazebo to the new garage. While we would not be sheltered from the cold with such a design, at least we would not get wet or have to trudge through snow/mud.
So I was overruled, but the more I think about it, the more I agree this is the best layout. Yeah, we'll lose more of our yard, but the kids spent virtually all their play time in the front yard rather than the back yard anyway. And, yeah, when we look out our (new) bedroom windows, the side of the garage won't be that far away. But we'll landscape the patch of land in between and put in climbing vines or tall grasses to make it look better. And we'll have a shorter distance to carry groceries in, and we won't get wet. Last but not least, this layout would probably prove more palatable to our next-door neighbor, Jane, whom we feared was not overjoyed about this project to begin with-- more on which later.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Garage detachment, Part 3
The prospect of changing the proposed plan radically and putting a new detached garage in the background solved a lot of potential problems, but I was still a bit uneasy. When we lived in the country, we had a detached garage some distance from the house, and I grew tired of the long walk carrying in groceries. After we bought this house, I got spoiled by the convenience of the attached garage. It was literally no more than 10 or 12 steps from the car to the kitchen counter. We never got wet or cold going to or from the car.
Would I/we miss that convenience? Did the convenience of having a first-floor master bedroom and laundry room outweigh the inconvenience of a detached garage? I think it does, but I will confess that this is the one part of the project I feel the least confident about.
...okay, I had written a whole lot more, but Blogger is acting weird and not saving stuff right. I'll sign off for now and finish this post tomorrow.
Would I/we miss that convenience? Did the convenience of having a first-floor master bedroom and laundry room outweigh the inconvenience of a detached garage? I think it does, but I will confess that this is the one part of the project I feel the least confident about.
...okay, I had written a whole lot more, but Blogger is acting weird and not saving stuff right. I'll sign off for now and finish this post tomorrow.
Progress report -- Week 2
Progress completed this week:
--Portions of concrete floor in existing garage removed in preparation for footers and installation of floor
--Excavation for footers completed for addition area (i.e., adjoining area outside existing garage)
--Excavation begun for detached garage but not completed (see "obstacles")
--Landscaping removed and gravel put down in area for dumpster (which will later be paved over to provide backing-out space when we exit the new garage)
--Rebar put in footer area in addition space to prepare for concrete pouring.
--Sump pump for addition installed
--Cable company replaced TV/internet cable with one that has lots of extra line so we can route it around new garage
--New refrigerator brought in for crew. Morale restored.
--Negotiations begun with neighbor regarding relocating fence. (How's THAT for a positive spin? See "obstacles")
Obstacles encountered this week:
--Dump truck too big; we got a smaller one.
--Job foreman no longer on job. Wagner described it delicately as a "personality conflict" when I asked about it. He is currently looking for a new foreman and in the meantime doing all supervision himself. This is okay because right now our house is the only job he's got active. But in November he starts another job for the VA, so we need to get another foreman before then.
--Because of Hurricane Ike, Kentucky Utilities (the electric company) is busy restoring power to the homes that (still!) don't have power, so they can't come out and mark the power line for us. This means we can't excavate everywhere we need for the detached garage portion of the job.
--This means we can't get the building inspector to approve the footers of that section of the job, which will delay us a couple of days.
--Any way you cut it, the prospect of having to initiate legal action in the second week of a home renovation is Not A Good Omen (re: our discovery that our neighbor's shed sits on our property but he refuses to move it; see the "good fences" and "bad fences" blog entries for detail).
Summary: All in all, I feel like a lot was accomplished this week. Wagner is not as happy and said "home construction operates on a different time scale than commercial construction." But we don't have control over delays like those caused by hurricanes, and if I start getting stressed out over things like that, it's going to be a LONG six (or eight... or ten...) months.
--Portions of concrete floor in existing garage removed in preparation for footers and installation of floor
--Excavation for footers completed for addition area (i.e., adjoining area outside existing garage)
--Excavation begun for detached garage but not completed (see "obstacles")
--Landscaping removed and gravel put down in area for dumpster (which will later be paved over to provide backing-out space when we exit the new garage)
--Rebar put in footer area in addition space to prepare for concrete pouring.
--Sump pump for addition installed
--Cable company replaced TV/internet cable with one that has lots of extra line so we can route it around new garage
--New refrigerator brought in for crew. Morale restored.
--Negotiations begun with neighbor regarding relocating fence. (How's THAT for a positive spin? See "obstacles")
Obstacles encountered this week:
--Dump truck too big; we got a smaller one.
--Job foreman no longer on job. Wagner described it delicately as a "personality conflict" when I asked about it. He is currently looking for a new foreman and in the meantime doing all supervision himself. This is okay because right now our house is the only job he's got active. But in November he starts another job for the VA, so we need to get another foreman before then.
--Because of Hurricane Ike, Kentucky Utilities (the electric company) is busy restoring power to the homes that (still!) don't have power, so they can't come out and mark the power line for us. This means we can't excavate everywhere we need for the detached garage portion of the job.
--This means we can't get the building inspector to approve the footers of that section of the job, which will delay us a couple of days.
--Any way you cut it, the prospect of having to initiate legal action in the second week of a home renovation is Not A Good Omen (re: our discovery that our neighbor's shed sits on our property but he refuses to move it; see the "good fences" and "bad fences" blog entries for detail).
Summary: All in all, I feel like a lot was accomplished this week. Wagner is not as happy and said "home construction operates on a different time scale than commercial construction." But we don't have control over delays like those caused by hurricanes, and if I start getting stressed out over things like that, it's going to be a LONG six (or eight... or ten...) months.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Big Dig
Today a new (smaller) dump truck was moved in, and the bulldozer had a busy day digging out the foundation for the new garage and smoothing out the construction area. Gravel was also laid down on a section where the dumpster will stored.
We also scheduled the cable guys to come out tomorrow. During the excavation, the crew had discovered that our TV/internet cable had only been buried a few inches deep, and there was not enough slack to either bury it deeper down or route it around the new garage. So we need to get either a new longer cable or an extension spliced on. I had a very difficult time trying to explain this to the cable company. First, there was no button to press on their automated menu to correspond to "press here if you need a longer cable," so I went with "repair" as the better alternative than "pay bill" or "sign up for new service." But the real live technician I eventually got to talk with kept asking what was wrong with our internet and seemed flummoxed when I told him that it was working perfectly; we just needed a longer cable. He eventually decided to send a technician out, just to get me off the phone, I think.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Bad fences make bad neighbors
Well, Jonathan went to talk to the neighbor behind us this evening (the one whose shed is on our property). I urged him to wait for a time when Wagner could go over with him, but he thought it would be hard to catch the neighbor at home during the day when Wagner was around.
Jon was gone about 15 minutes, a time span Athena and I spent nervously listening for loud shouts or, worse, gunfire.
He came back with a wry look on his face, and the first thing he said was "I didn't yell at him." Apparently all proceeded calmly at first, with the neighbor conceding that the property line ran through his shed--at which point Jonathan offered to shoulder the entire cost of moving the shed and rebuilding the fence. From our point of view, that was an exceptionally fair and generous offer made in a spirit of neighborly compromise, and the conversation should have ended then with a group hug and singing of "Kumbaya." Instead, the neighbor said flatly, "I ain't moving my shed." Jonathan pointed out that the shed was in fact on our property and the law was on our side. The neighbor then said, "I'll see you in court."
Uh-oh.
Jon was gone about 15 minutes, a time span Athena and I spent nervously listening for loud shouts or, worse, gunfire.
He came back with a wry look on his face, and the first thing he said was "I didn't yell at him." Apparently all proceeded calmly at first, with the neighbor conceding that the property line ran through his shed--at which point Jonathan offered to shoulder the entire cost of moving the shed and rebuilding the fence. From our point of view, that was an exceptionally fair and generous offer made in a spirit of neighborly compromise, and the conversation should have ended then with a group hug and singing of "Kumbaya." Instead, the neighbor said flatly, "I ain't moving my shed." Jonathan pointed out that the shed was in fact on our property and the law was on our side. The neighbor then said, "I'll see you in court."
Uh-oh.
Temporary (I hope) setback
This morning we were harkened bright and early with the sight of a bulldozer and enormous dump truck pulling up to the house, to my son Isaac's great delight, to begin the serious excavation of the addition and garage area now that the laborious hand-excavating part has been completed.
I drove off to take the kids to school, but when I returned the bulldozer and dump truck were... gone! Turns out that the truck was too big to safely navigate the driveway and turn around the garage, and we will need to bring in a smaller truck. It also turns out that several of our (and the neighbor's) trees have branches hanging too low over the driveway, and we will need to get those trimmed before bringing the truck in.
Ah well. Fortunately it hasn't slowed work any, as there is plenty they can do in the meantime. Right now they're taking a jackhammer to the concrete floor of the garage to make the holes they need to install the supports for the new floor.
I drove off to take the kids to school, but when I returned the bulldozer and dump truck were... gone! Turns out that the truck was too big to safely navigate the driveway and turn around the garage, and we will need to bring in a smaller truck. It also turns out that several of our (and the neighbor's) trees have branches hanging too low over the driveway, and we will need to get those trimmed before bringing the truck in.
Ah well. Fortunately it hasn't slowed work any, as there is plenty they can do in the meantime. Right now they're taking a jackhammer to the concrete floor of the garage to make the holes they need to install the supports for the new floor.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Progress report -- Week 1
Progress completed this week:
--Fence and landscaping removed as necessary
--Command center established (okay, so that really just means a table and some chairs set up, along with the mini-refrigerator and porta-potty. "Command center" sounds better.)
--Lines drawn all over the garage showing where to put the footers
--Excavation begun. "This," Darryl (one of the workers) said to me as he mopped sweat off his brow, "is the fun part." It involves the laborious shoveling of dirt right around where the master closet is going to be. They have to do it by hand because that's where all the power, telephone, and cable lines enter the house, so they have to dig very slowly and carefully until they hit a line and then ever so gently pull it up without damaging it.
Obstacles confronted this week:
--Steady downpour of rain and thunderstorms one day (wouldn't you know? we haven't had any rain for the past month), which halted all work.
--Refrigerator for "command center" broke. Morale of crew threatened.
--Part of crew has to attend day-long OSHA training. Work slows. I don't mind because Safety Is Important. They don't mind because they get paid to sit in an air-conditioned seminar room rather than digging for our cables in 90 degree heat.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Garage detachment, Part 2
Around the same time I started feeling discouraged about getting a variance for the problem with the addition jutting too far in front and back, other issues popped up that were even more discouraging. The rough plan the previous owner had given us was just a line drawing and didn't show how the front of the house would be affected. As Wagner was drawing up his more detailed plans, however, it became obvious that extending the garage into the front yard would create some logistical and aesthetic difficulties.
Our house currently has beautiful curb appeal, in my opinion; it's one of the reasons we bought it:
The circular driveway that loops across the yard has proven to be an unexpected delight. I love having a convenient place for guests to park, as well as being able to get close to the front door when unloading heavy packages. The kids also use it extensively, riding their bikes or scooters round and round in circles. Also not shown in the photograph are two enormous trees in the front yard (the photograph was shot level with and standing between the trees). These trees are some of the few on our block that survived the bad ice storm about 5 years ago, and they're two of the tallest and prettiest trees on the street.
If we went with the original plan, we would have to close off half of the circular driveway and reroute it. If we had the garage door facing sideways, we'd lose most of our front walk area and landscaping, and the house would look lopsided. If we had the garage door facing the street, we'd have to shave off a large portion of the semi-circle front lawn and pave perilously close to one of the trees, possibly damaging it. In either case, it became rapidly evident to us, the nice balance and attractive facade of the house would be negatively affected.
This, along with the variance issues, was creating all sorts of misgivings in us. Then one day Wagner asked, "How important is it to you that the garage be attached? We could solve all these problems and leave the front of the house unchanged if you simply put the garage in the back yard."
And with that simple suggestion, things began falling into place.
Our house currently has beautiful curb appeal, in my opinion; it's one of the reasons we bought it:
The circular driveway that loops across the yard has proven to be an unexpected delight. I love having a convenient place for guests to park, as well as being able to get close to the front door when unloading heavy packages. The kids also use it extensively, riding their bikes or scooters round and round in circles. Also not shown in the photograph are two enormous trees in the front yard (the photograph was shot level with and standing between the trees). These trees are some of the few on our block that survived the bad ice storm about 5 years ago, and they're two of the tallest and prettiest trees on the street.
If we went with the original plan, we would have to close off half of the circular driveway and reroute it. If we had the garage door facing sideways, we'd lose most of our front walk area and landscaping, and the house would look lopsided. If we had the garage door facing the street, we'd have to shave off a large portion of the semi-circle front lawn and pave perilously close to one of the trees, possibly damaging it. In either case, it became rapidly evident to us, the nice balance and attractive facade of the house would be negatively affected.
This, along with the variance issues, was creating all sorts of misgivings in us. Then one day Wagner asked, "How important is it to you that the garage be attached? We could solve all these problems and leave the front of the house unchanged if you simply put the garage in the back yard."
And with that simple suggestion, things began falling into place.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Good fences make good neighbors, we hope
As part of the renovation project, Wagner recommended that we pay for a survey of the property to settle where the property lines were once and for all.
So we did. And what we discovered, much to our surprise, is that the property line along the back of the yard actually ran 46" beyond the fence. (And the surveyor discovered the pins from a past survey buried exactly where he expected them to be, so we know that our measurements are correct.) Forty-six inches is a lot! And we were concerned by this, for a couple of reasons. First, our vague understanding of real estate law is that if you let a neighbor encroach on your property long enough, he de facto owns it. Second, our renovation was going to use up a lot of the back yard for the new garage, so we needed all the inches of lawn we were entitled to.
So Jonathan decided we should move the fence back 40 inches to reflect more correctly the actual property lines. This would no doubt prove unsettling to our neighbors, who would presumably be dismayed to discover that a nearly four foot ribbon of what they thought was their back yard was actually our back yard. And the news would no doubt be even more unsettling because that particular stretch of their (really our) back yard contained a neatly groomed flower garden and a big chunk of a garden shed.
Uh-oh.
We haven't dealt with the problem just quite yet, and neither of us is looking forward to telling the neighbors that they're going to have to move the shed and lose a chunk of their flower garden. (Erm, I really hope they haven't stumbled across this blog...)
Since we're both chicken, we're going to make Wagner tell them. There's gotta be some fringe benefit to hiring a contractor, right? ;-)
So we did. And what we discovered, much to our surprise, is that the property line along the back of the yard actually ran 46" beyond the fence. (And the surveyor discovered the pins from a past survey buried exactly where he expected them to be, so we know that our measurements are correct.) Forty-six inches is a lot! And we were concerned by this, for a couple of reasons. First, our vague understanding of real estate law is that if you let a neighbor encroach on your property long enough, he de facto owns it. Second, our renovation was going to use up a lot of the back yard for the new garage, so we needed all the inches of lawn we were entitled to.
So Jonathan decided we should move the fence back 40 inches to reflect more correctly the actual property lines. This would no doubt prove unsettling to our neighbors, who would presumably be dismayed to discover that a nearly four foot ribbon of what they thought was their back yard was actually our back yard. And the news would no doubt be even more unsettling because that particular stretch of their (really our) back yard contained a neatly groomed flower garden and a big chunk of a garden shed.
Uh-oh.
We haven't dealt with the problem just quite yet, and neither of us is looking forward to telling the neighbors that they're going to have to move the shed and lose a chunk of their flower garden. (Erm, I really hope they haven't stumbled across this blog...)
Since we're both chicken, we're going to make Wagner tell them. There's gotta be some fringe benefit to hiring a contractor, right? ;-)
Garage detachment, Part 1
In an earlier post I mentioned that the previous owners had drafted a plan for a master bedroom/laundry room addition but had decided instead to move. Their plan consisted of adding onto the front of the garage, creating a new attached garage in that space (so that cars would enter and leave from the front of the property rather than driving around to the back, the way it currently is), and extending the current garage in the back and converting that area to the bedroom space. And this was the rough plan we first handed to our contractor, John Wagner.
When he saw the plan, he had a few concerns, the first being that the proposed addition would jut into the front yard quite a bit. Apparently there are zoning restrictions that govern where the front line of a house can extend on a piece of property. "No problem!" I replied, as I had a distinct memory of the previous owner explaining something to that effect and assuring us that they had in fact already obtained a zoning variance for their plan.
So Wagner went to work adapting and polishing up the rough sketch. He needed a copy of the platte for the house, so I went downtown to obtain it from City Hall. While there, I decided to pop into the building inspection office and see if I could verify that a variance had indeed been granted and was still valid. The clerk searched the computer archives, and then she searched the hard copy files, but they could find absolutely nothing on our property. Not only had a variance never been granted, one apparently had never even been applied for.
This confused me, because my memory was very clear that the previous owner explicitly stated the variance existed. But if there was no variance on record, there was no variance, so I soldiered on. Plopping the rough plan down in front of the clerk, I asked if a variance was required and whether it would be likely to be granted. The answer to the first question was a quick and definite "yes." The answer to the second question was not so definite. The clerk then pointed out a second problem with the proposed plan, which is that it involved creating a long wall on the left-hand side of the house (where the new garage and bedroom would extend). Apparently there is a limit as to how long of a stretch of wall you can have on a home, and the proposed plan exceeded that by quite a ways. If we wanted to go with this idea, we'd have to submit a formal application for a variance, letters would be sent to all our neighbors describing the proposal, and it could get hairy if there were any objections to the plan. At the very least it would take a fair amount of time and hassle.
When he saw the plan, he had a few concerns, the first being that the proposed addition would jut into the front yard quite a bit. Apparently there are zoning restrictions that govern where the front line of a house can extend on a piece of property. "No problem!" I replied, as I had a distinct memory of the previous owner explaining something to that effect and assuring us that they had in fact already obtained a zoning variance for their plan.
So Wagner went to work adapting and polishing up the rough sketch. He needed a copy of the platte for the house, so I went downtown to obtain it from City Hall. While there, I decided to pop into the building inspection office and see if I could verify that a variance had indeed been granted and was still valid. The clerk searched the computer archives, and then she searched the hard copy files, but they could find absolutely nothing on our property. Not only had a variance never been granted, one apparently had never even been applied for.
This confused me, because my memory was very clear that the previous owner explicitly stated the variance existed. But if there was no variance on record, there was no variance, so I soldiered on. Plopping the rough plan down in front of the clerk, I asked if a variance was required and whether it would be likely to be granted. The answer to the first question was a quick and definite "yes." The answer to the second question was not so definite. The clerk then pointed out a second problem with the proposed plan, which is that it involved creating a long wall on the left-hand side of the house (where the new garage and bedroom would extend). Apparently there is a limit as to how long of a stretch of wall you can have on a home, and the proposed plan exceeded that by quite a ways. If we wanted to go with this idea, we'd have to submit a formal application for a variance, letters would be sent to all our neighbors describing the proposal, and it could get hairy if there were any objections to the plan. At the very least it would take a fair amount of time and hassle.
Why not do the work ourselves?
Well, *this* will be a short entry. ;-) With shows like "This old house" and mega-stores like Home Depot around, one might ask why we didn't consider doing the renovation ourselves. On the Piano Forum (where I spend huge amounts of time hanging out), mr_super-hunky (don't ask) had several long posts showing us these absolutely gorgeous homes he and his wife built from scratch and explaining in detail how you could do the work yourself and how much money you could save.
Alas, neither Jon nor I are particularly handy when it comes to home maintenance or carpentry-type stuff. Jon is better than I am at such things, but that's not saying a whole lot. It took us several weeks and multiple attempts and tools (including safety pins, twist-ties borrowed from a bread wrapper, 3 pairs of needle-nose pliers, and eventually a set of bolt cutters) to fix a flapper in our toilet. Seriously. Multiply the toilet flapper adventure by an entire house addition and garage, and it will be immediately obvious why we wouldn't even consider tackling the renovation ourselves.
Alas, neither Jon nor I are particularly handy when it comes to home maintenance or carpentry-type stuff. Jon is better than I am at such things, but that's not saying a whole lot. It took us several weeks and multiple attempts and tools (including safety pins, twist-ties borrowed from a bread wrapper, 3 pairs of needle-nose pliers, and eventually a set of bolt cutters) to fix a flapper in our toilet. Seriously. Multiply the toilet flapper adventure by an entire house addition and garage, and it will be immediately obvious why we wouldn't even consider tackling the renovation ourselves.
Photos, After 1st day
Okay, so basically we just got the fence taken out.
And they did some other stuff that's not clearly visible in these photos, including blocking off the windows in the garage with plywood, prying up and removing the concrete steps in the grassy area, and setting up much of the equipment and tools they'll be needing for the job. Athena was much impressed (as was I) with the tool box they shipped in, which is the biggest tool box I've ever seen. (We initially thought it was a dumpster!):
Photos, Before
Before we broke ground, I had a brainstorm: What if--in an inspired burst of sheer internet plagiarism--I took a photo of the renovation site every day and, when the job was done, created a photo montage video that I could upload to YouTube, just like Noah Kalina did in his famous "Everyday" video that showed nothing but himself, a photo a day over the course of six years? (If you haven't seen that video yet, you definitely should. Here's the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B26asyGKDo )
So I will try to do that over the course of the renovation, and I'll post of few of the photos here as they come in.
The pictures above show what the site looked like before construction started.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Why not move?
A logical question many people asked us (especially our realtor) was why go through all this hassle of renovating? Why not find a house that already has everything you want and move?
The answer is that we found ourselves becoming increasingly picky. We loved our neighborhood and we loved much about our house. We weren't willing to go through the expense and hassle of moving unless we were certain it would be a meaningful improvement. This meant finding a house that (a) had every single one of the desirable features we liked about our current house, and (b) none of the undesirable features.
This was not easy to do.
So we kept our eye on the house ads, browsed the multiple listing website for possibilities, and went to open houses whenever something popped up on the market in our neighborhood. The snag is that every house we encountered had some significant flaw. The street was too busy. The driveway was sloped. (Jonathan had an anathema for sloping driveways. He was sure the kids would lose control of their bikes, rush into traffic, and be killed.) The kitchen lacked a walk-in pantry. (Our current house has a large walk-in pantry, which I absolutely love and refuse to be without again.) The house next door had a loud barking dog. It didn't have a good room for my piano. (Pianos need to be located away from direct sunlight, fireplaces, kitchens, or heating/ac vents.)
I realized the odds of us finding a house on the market that we would want enough to move into were very small when we attended a few open houses of some extremely expensive homes ($1.5-$1.8 million!) and found ourselves concluding that we still liked our current house better, flaws and all.
The closest we came was a house we found for sale just a few weeks ago, right when we were approaching the final decision to proceed with the renovation and I started having some cold feet about all the hassle involved. This other house was hugely expensive ($1.5 million) and farther away, maybe no longer in walking distance for Jon. It had a contemporary, open floor-plan look, with wood beams and stone walls. Gorgeous kitchen and first floor master. We actually went to look at it twice, raising our realtor's hopes cruelly, but ultimately decided against it for a variety of reasons. (On my part, because the garage was on the basement level, and I did not like the idea of having to carry groceries upstairs the rest of my life; on Jon's part, because it "just didn't grab" him enough to be worth the cost.) The realtor, and our children (who were excited by the fact that it had an inground pool), were quite disappointed, but we decided to pass on it.
So then the question became, why not just build from scratch? An obvious reason is that we were determined to stay in our general neighborhood, where there are simply no empty building lots. (Well, there is one, but it is overpriced and not desirable... it wasn't level, so we would run into the sloping driveway problem again, and it was on a stretch of road that got a lot more traffic than we currently get.) That would leave us only with the tear-down option. Which is, actually, a feasible option. The houses in our neighborhood are somewhat mixed, consisting of smaller homes built in the 1950s-1970s with small bedrooms etc., and larger, very expensive homes either renovated or built later on.
So whenever a small, (relatively) cheaper house in our area would go on the market, I'd run to Jonathan and say "there's a tear-down for sale on XX street! Let's go buy it!" Invariably what would happen is that we would go look at it, conclude that $350,000 or whatever they were asking for it was Way Too Much for a tear-down, and decide to wait for them to come down on the price. And invariably the house would sell within a week and some other lucky folks with a big mortgage would get to do the tear-down. Or, we would go look at it and conclude that the lot was too small, the driveway area too sloping, or neighboring houses occupied by too many yipping dogs.
The answer is that we found ourselves becoming increasingly picky. We loved our neighborhood and we loved much about our house. We weren't willing to go through the expense and hassle of moving unless we were certain it would be a meaningful improvement. This meant finding a house that (a) had every single one of the desirable features we liked about our current house, and (b) none of the undesirable features.
This was not easy to do.
So we kept our eye on the house ads, browsed the multiple listing website for possibilities, and went to open houses whenever something popped up on the market in our neighborhood. The snag is that every house we encountered had some significant flaw. The street was too busy. The driveway was sloped. (Jonathan had an anathema for sloping driveways. He was sure the kids would lose control of their bikes, rush into traffic, and be killed.) The kitchen lacked a walk-in pantry. (Our current house has a large walk-in pantry, which I absolutely love and refuse to be without again.) The house next door had a loud barking dog. It didn't have a good room for my piano. (Pianos need to be located away from direct sunlight, fireplaces, kitchens, or heating/ac vents.)
I realized the odds of us finding a house on the market that we would want enough to move into were very small when we attended a few open houses of some extremely expensive homes ($1.5-$1.8 million!) and found ourselves concluding that we still liked our current house better, flaws and all.
The closest we came was a house we found for sale just a few weeks ago, right when we were approaching the final decision to proceed with the renovation and I started having some cold feet about all the hassle involved. This other house was hugely expensive ($1.5 million) and farther away, maybe no longer in walking distance for Jon. It had a contemporary, open floor-plan look, with wood beams and stone walls. Gorgeous kitchen and first floor master. We actually went to look at it twice, raising our realtor's hopes cruelly, but ultimately decided against it for a variety of reasons. (On my part, because the garage was on the basement level, and I did not like the idea of having to carry groceries upstairs the rest of my life; on Jon's part, because it "just didn't grab" him enough to be worth the cost.) The realtor, and our children (who were excited by the fact that it had an inground pool), were quite disappointed, but we decided to pass on it.
So then the question became, why not just build from scratch? An obvious reason is that we were determined to stay in our general neighborhood, where there are simply no empty building lots. (Well, there is one, but it is overpriced and not desirable... it wasn't level, so we would run into the sloping driveway problem again, and it was on a stretch of road that got a lot more traffic than we currently get.) That would leave us only with the tear-down option. Which is, actually, a feasible option. The houses in our neighborhood are somewhat mixed, consisting of smaller homes built in the 1950s-1970s with small bedrooms etc., and larger, very expensive homes either renovated or built later on.
So whenever a small, (relatively) cheaper house in our area would go on the market, I'd run to Jonathan and say "there's a tear-down for sale on XX street! Let's go buy it!" Invariably what would happen is that we would go look at it, conclude that $350,000 or whatever they were asking for it was Way Too Much for a tear-down, and decide to wait for them to come down on the price. And invariably the house would sell within a week and some other lucky folks with a big mortgage would get to do the tear-down. Or, we would go look at it and conclude that the lot was too small, the driveway area too sloping, or neighboring houses occupied by too many yipping dogs.
Why renovate? Why now?
We moved into our current home nearly five years ago. Prior to that, we lived on a 111-acre property on the Palisades of the Kentucky River. It was beautiful, secluded (our nearest neighbor was over a mile away), and wildlife abounded, but after we had the children, the inconvenience of the long commute and worries about arranging playdates and (in the far-off future) having the children drive narrow and curvy country roads led us, somewhat reluctantly, to decide to move into town.
Once we made up our mind to move, we knew there was only a couple of neighborhoods we wanted to live in with the desired proximity to hubby Jonathan's business and being in the good school district in town. After a few weeks of unsuccessful house-hunting, our realtor found our current house. It's a 1 1/2 story brick building with two large bay windows in front, 3400 square feet, and three bedrooms.
There was a lot we liked about the house. The lot was nice and large, one of the largest lots you can find in this part of town. The street was very quiet and tree-lined. The neighbors are terrific. Not a yipping dog on the street. It was in walking distance of Jon's office and biking distance of mine. A Kroger is a couple of blocks away. The master bedroom is simply HUGE, and I have yet to see a master closet that is bigger than ours. So we bought the house for $435,000 (below its appraisal value of $465,000) and moved.
After we moved in and had lived there for a while, we started to notice some of the downsides of the house. First, while three bedrooms seemed adequate when we were searching, the lack of a guest room is disconcerting for our visitors, whom we resign to the (finished) basement on an air mattress. Second, while in theory it seems like there should be no problem for our two children to share a bathroom, the reality is a different matter, and complaints of "Athena stinks!" and "Isaac left his clothes in the bathroom again!" quickly wear thin. Third, we have no laundry room. The washer and dryer are located in a closet in the hallway connecting the kitchen with the garage. I did not initially think this was a problem and in fact was happy that I didn't have to trudge down to the basement to wash our clothes. But it has turned out to be a royal pain in the butt. The doors to the laundry closet are the fold-out kind, and if I have the laundry closet open, the door from the garage bangs into it and cannot be opened. I cannot tell you how many times my family waits until the precise second I'm loading the dryer to decide to come into the house from the garage, with much banging and disgruntled feelings on both sides. Not to mention that the washer and dryer are very noisy when running.
So while we still loved the house and loved the street/neighborhood even more, we also had dissatisfactions with our current layout and were pretty much continually seriously or semi-seriously thinking about either moving again or renovating.
Since we moved in, we have in fact already done two smaller renovations. Our master bath (in surprising contrast to the bedroom and closet) was very cramped, dark, and had only a bathtub/shower combo with floppy shower curtains. I am a shower person and hate floppy shower curtains. So I made it a condition of buying the house that we would almost immediately renovate the master bath, which we did. We put in a skylight that made it much nicer and less cramped seeming, and we tore out the bathtub and replaced it with a large tile shower with glass doors, which also made it seem bigger. I was thrilled with how it turned out, Jonathan less so, because he wasn't prepared for the maintenance involved with glass doors. Turns out you have to squeegee them down each and every time you use the shower to prevent water spots and hard water deposits from forming. I do not cut Jon any slack in squeegee duties, so he was very much interested in getting a new shower that does not involve glass doors. (We're opting for what's called a "walk behind shower" that doesn't have a door at all... more on that, later.)
The second renovation we did was the kitchen, finished recently. The previous owners had installed rather hideous looking wallpaper with huge blotchy maroon, gold, and green flowers on it, and a no-doubt-about-it hideous light fixture with about a dozen tiny maroon pleated lampshades. The cabinets were okay but nothing special, and the Corian countertop had multiple stains and scratches. We had already bought new stainless steel appliances when we moved, so for this renovation we got new cabinets, new granite countertops, a really fancy big sink and stylish faucet, replaced the hideous wallpaper with nice, simple pale green paint, and got a new light fixture. That renovation had its own problems, which I may or may not get into later, but the kitchen looks glorious now (see pics below), and that's all that matters.
When we bought the house, the previous owners casually mentioned at the closing that they had in fact contemplated remodeling to add a first floor master/laundry suite, and they left a floor plan they had come up with but then abandoned, opting instead to move. (I refuse to think very long or hard about WHY they decided to move instead of renovating.) During the process of the kitchen renovation, we mentioned our desire for a first-floor master and laundry room to John Wagner, our contractor, showed him the rough plan the previous owner had come up with and asked him, somewhat idly, how feasible something like that would be. In classic foot-in-the-door style, he said, "Why don't you let me take this and see what would I can do with it? It won't cost much to draft a few plans." So we thought, why the heck not?, and started the process that would lead us to this mammoth undertaking.
Once we made up our mind to move, we knew there was only a couple of neighborhoods we wanted to live in with the desired proximity to hubby Jonathan's business and being in the good school district in town. After a few weeks of unsuccessful house-hunting, our realtor found our current house. It's a 1 1/2 story brick building with two large bay windows in front, 3400 square feet, and three bedrooms.
There was a lot we liked about the house. The lot was nice and large, one of the largest lots you can find in this part of town. The street was very quiet and tree-lined. The neighbors are terrific. Not a yipping dog on the street. It was in walking distance of Jon's office and biking distance of mine. A Kroger is a couple of blocks away. The master bedroom is simply HUGE, and I have yet to see a master closet that is bigger than ours. So we bought the house for $435,000 (below its appraisal value of $465,000) and moved.
After we moved in and had lived there for a while, we started to notice some of the downsides of the house. First, while three bedrooms seemed adequate when we were searching, the lack of a guest room is disconcerting for our visitors, whom we resign to the (finished) basement on an air mattress. Second, while in theory it seems like there should be no problem for our two children to share a bathroom, the reality is a different matter, and complaints of "Athena stinks!" and "Isaac left his clothes in the bathroom again!" quickly wear thin. Third, we have no laundry room. The washer and dryer are located in a closet in the hallway connecting the kitchen with the garage. I did not initially think this was a problem and in fact was happy that I didn't have to trudge down to the basement to wash our clothes. But it has turned out to be a royal pain in the butt. The doors to the laundry closet are the fold-out kind, and if I have the laundry closet open, the door from the garage bangs into it and cannot be opened. I cannot tell you how many times my family waits until the precise second I'm loading the dryer to decide to come into the house from the garage, with much banging and disgruntled feelings on both sides. Not to mention that the washer and dryer are very noisy when running.
So while we still loved the house and loved the street/neighborhood even more, we also had dissatisfactions with our current layout and were pretty much continually seriously or semi-seriously thinking about either moving again or renovating.
Since we moved in, we have in fact already done two smaller renovations. Our master bath (in surprising contrast to the bedroom and closet) was very cramped, dark, and had only a bathtub/shower combo with floppy shower curtains. I am a shower person and hate floppy shower curtains. So I made it a condition of buying the house that we would almost immediately renovate the master bath, which we did. We put in a skylight that made it much nicer and less cramped seeming, and we tore out the bathtub and replaced it with a large tile shower with glass doors, which also made it seem bigger. I was thrilled with how it turned out, Jonathan less so, because he wasn't prepared for the maintenance involved with glass doors. Turns out you have to squeegee them down each and every time you use the shower to prevent water spots and hard water deposits from forming. I do not cut Jon any slack in squeegee duties, so he was very much interested in getting a new shower that does not involve glass doors. (We're opting for what's called a "walk behind shower" that doesn't have a door at all... more on that, later.)
The second renovation we did was the kitchen, finished recently. The previous owners had installed rather hideous looking wallpaper with huge blotchy maroon, gold, and green flowers on it, and a no-doubt-about-it hideous light fixture with about a dozen tiny maroon pleated lampshades. The cabinets were okay but nothing special, and the Corian countertop had multiple stains and scratches. We had already bought new stainless steel appliances when we moved, so for this renovation we got new cabinets, new granite countertops, a really fancy big sink and stylish faucet, replaced the hideous wallpaper with nice, simple pale green paint, and got a new light fixture. That renovation had its own problems, which I may or may not get into later, but the kitchen looks glorious now (see pics below), and that's all that matters.
When we bought the house, the previous owners casually mentioned at the closing that they had in fact contemplated remodeling to add a first floor master/laundry suite, and they left a floor plan they had come up with but then abandoned, opting instead to move. (I refuse to think very long or hard about WHY they decided to move instead of renovating.) During the process of the kitchen renovation, we mentioned our desire for a first-floor master and laundry room to John Wagner, our contractor, showed him the rough plan the previous owner had come up with and asked him, somewhat idly, how feasible something like that would be. In classic foot-in-the-door style, he said, "Why don't you let me take this and see what would I can do with it? It won't cost much to draft a few plans." So we thought, why the heck not?, and started the process that would lead us to this mammoth undertaking.
Today we break ground
Hi all,
I'm new to blogging, but the prospect of starting a six month massive home renovation project was too tempting an opportunity to let pass without sharing all the gory details with, well, the entire world.
Today construction officially and formally started on our project. We are doing an addition that will include a first floor master bedroom and laundry room. This will involve taking over and enlarging our current garage space, so we will also be building a new detached garage in the back yard. And since we were spending THAT much money, hubby Jonathan decided we might as well go whole hog and build a mini-apartment (wait, we can't call it an apartment--more on that later), that is, guest quarters or study on top of the new garage.
What I hope to do with this blog is keep y'all updated on how it's going, as well as post photos of the progress, assuming I can figure out how to upload photos here.
Although this project has been in the works for several months, including designing and drawing up plans, obtaining bids, etc., I'm calling today the official First Day of Renovation, for the pure and simple reason that this is the day I wrote the check for $48,000 to our contractor, John Wagner.
That's not the total paid in advance, in case you're wondering. It's actually just the down payment. *gulp*
So the crew showed up at 9:00. The first step was to unload a case of water and a mini-refrigerator for the crew. This is potentially problematic because the porta-potty isn't due to be delivered until Friday, two days from now.
When I left them around 10:30 am they had already set up headquarters in the existing garage (which I had devoted the last two weekends to emptying out and cleaning completely--Not Fun) and made a good head start on tearing down the portion of our fence that will have to go to make room for the new garage.
In future posts I'll backtrack a bit and explain why we wanted the renovation, why we're doing it now, and give more detail on what the job will actually entail.
I'm new to blogging, but the prospect of starting a six month massive home renovation project was too tempting an opportunity to let pass without sharing all the gory details with, well, the entire world.
Today construction officially and formally started on our project. We are doing an addition that will include a first floor master bedroom and laundry room. This will involve taking over and enlarging our current garage space, so we will also be building a new detached garage in the back yard. And since we were spending THAT much money, hubby Jonathan decided we might as well go whole hog and build a mini-apartment (wait, we can't call it an apartment--more on that later), that is, guest quarters or study on top of the new garage.
What I hope to do with this blog is keep y'all updated on how it's going, as well as post photos of the progress, assuming I can figure out how to upload photos here.
Although this project has been in the works for several months, including designing and drawing up plans, obtaining bids, etc., I'm calling today the official First Day of Renovation, for the pure and simple reason that this is the day I wrote the check for $48,000 to our contractor, John Wagner.
That's not the total paid in advance, in case you're wondering. It's actually just the down payment. *gulp*
So the crew showed up at 9:00. The first step was to unload a case of water and a mini-refrigerator for the crew. This is potentially problematic because the porta-potty isn't due to be delivered until Friday, two days from now.
When I left them around 10:30 am they had already set up headquarters in the existing garage (which I had devoted the last two weekends to emptying out and cleaning completely--Not Fun) and made a good head start on tearing down the portion of our fence that will have to go to make room for the new garage.
In future posts I'll backtrack a bit and explain why we wanted the renovation, why we're doing it now, and give more detail on what the job will actually entail.
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