Why Wagner has every right to gnash his teeth

Yesterday Wagner came over and spent two hours walking through the addition with Jonathan and me, pointing out what had been done so far and what was planned for the future. He may very well end up regretting having done so, as Jonathan and I managed to complicate his life greatly.

First there was me and the skylight. I was hoping the skylight would replace all the natural light we had lost when the kitchen window was blocked over. And the skylight in our bathroom had done a terrific job of lightening up that space. But when the skylight was put in the kitchen, the total effect was rather underwhelming. Even though it was probably the same size as the bathroom skylight in total area, it was skinny and rectangular in shape, and it was sitting on top of a much deeper, narrower trench, as there was more roof/ceiling area it had to go through.



The end result is that it just didn't let in as much light as I was hoping for. So... even though this skylight was already installed, with the drywall work all completed, and everything was ready for the kitchen to be repainted, when Wagner bravely volunteered "I can make it wider if you want," Jonathan and I thought it over and decided to go ahead and redo it and put in a wider skylight. As much as I hate to inconvenience Wagner and make his men come out and redo the whole thing, we figured it would be better to go ahead and make it the way we want it now, while everything is in an uproar anyhow, and before the kitchen got painted.

The only snag is that there are some roof joists in the way. (That's why Wagner put in the narrow one in the first place.) He can put in a header and cut out one of the joists, if we don't mind an off-center skylight. But if we want it centered, there are two joists that would be affected, and he didn't want to cut out both, for structural reasons. So if we go the centered route, we'll have to leave the joists in, where they'll be exposed (though we can paint them) and it might look a little weird.

Then we toured the new garage. The carpenter got stairs built to the upstairs study, so it was the first time we had seen that area. It's going to be HUGE, and very nice. We're going to have built-in bookcases along one edge, with the kitchen area on the other side. Wagner then pointed out the pull-down staircase where there would be access to the garage attic area, where he intended to put the furnace. You may remember from an earlier post that he had decided to move the furnace up to the attic to make room for a workbench area and our cars on the main floor of the garage. I could've sworn I had briefed Jonathan on that change, and maybe I did but all the ramifications hadn't been obvious at the time.

Anyway, when Jon looked up to see the space where the furnace was going to be, he realized that the hot air would be coming down from the ceiling, which bothered him. Hot air rises, so it seemed more efficient to Jon to have the ductwork and heat coming in at the floor. Jonathan also has this thing about sitting or lying down near heater vents in cold weather and enjoying the blast of hot air right next to him. It's just one of his lovable little quirks. ;-) So Jon told Wagner that he didn't want the furnace in the attic space. Wagner got his "uh-oh this complicates things a whole lot" look on his face and said, again bravely, that if we were going to make that change we needed to decide right then and there because the furnace was already ordered and the duct work was going to start next week.

We spent half an hour or so going over various options, and we ended up deciding to put the furnace back on the ground floor of the garage, where we had originally planned to put it, in the space under the stairs. That was where Wagner currently intended to put the hot water heater, which meant that we had to move THAT back upstairs. We're going to add a little closet space next to the bathroom where we can stick the hot water heater.

Jonathan realizes it will cost extra, because we're probably going to have to exchange the furnace for a new one (Wagner had ordered one designed for attic spaces), with a resulting restocking fee, and there will be extra drywall and carpentry work for the water heater closet. Not to mention essentially having to redo the skylight. And then there's the little matter of my tile and vanity cabinet choices going well over budget.

Oh well. If anybody would like to buy a narrow skylight, cheap, let me know. I happen to know where there will be a lightly used one available soon. ;-)