Big Reno Update

Hello everyone.

While the tariffs have been held off for now (which is good), we’re pressing on with the crazy renovation of the downstairs of the house despite the financial risks. Of course, given where we are in the process — photos below, as promised last week — there isn’t much choice.

But first, the obligatory dog update: Tinkerbelle is doing just fine. Her next vet visit is late this afternoon, and we hope to get her off the prednisone entirely thereafter, but the bloodwork is the only thing that really matters as far as making that decision. The next major dog update will be included next week.

OK… on to the reno update. This has been a week.

• The electrician has been pulling miles of wire around the house, and periodically we chat with him to make decisions about where things like plugs and switches will be. There are still outstanding questions about outlet and radiator locations as well, but we’re all at the mercy of the people doing the heat loss calculations. So no update there. Honestly, there is so much wire being pulled I wonder if the electrician owns stock in copper mines, but it turns out that the electrical code is the problem. So many things require their own, dedicated circuit now, and there are limits on how many plugs can share a circuit, etc. Add in rules requiring plugs in pointless places, and things get crazy.
• The plumber is getting close to rerouting the water lines into the kitchen, but we’re not quite there yet. He’s doing the rough-in for the shower, last I saw.
• The HVAC guys are installing the ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator), and that should be done today except for the roof penetrations, which will wait until we have a roofer available. Maybe next week if the weather cooperates.
• The general contractors are overseeing everything, answering questions, installing blocking, and (as I write this) preparing to rework the front door. The old door is badly warped, so they have ordered a new one, and we’re eliminating an interior step in the process. They’ll raise the floor behind the door, cut the old door down to fit, and then we’ll tear it out and replace it when the new door arrives in a few weeks.

I promised more photos last week, and I will do my best. These are all fish-eyed because without that they make even less sense. I’ll attempt to describe what each one shows and where you are in the house, but it’s tough to do. As an aid, I include the floor plan below. It has the locations I was standing for each photo marked with a letter and the compass points, so when I say I was at position A and the camera was pointed south, you can tell what was going on.

Right. Here are the photos.

That’s the laundry room, taken from location A, looking south. The wall you’re looking at is being plumbed to support our existing laundry machines and (eventually) two of the new, all-in-one, washer-dryer combo units. There will be a sink base cabinet on the left side with a stainless steel sink in it, and 15" deep upper cabinets over everything.

Now we’re in the living room at location B, looking southeast. In the center is the former location of the fireplace. This doesn’t look that exciting, but removing the fireplace added a foot to the inside of the kitchen and nearly that much to the width of the living room. Big win!

This photo is taken from the same place — B — but it looks east through the living room, dining room, family room, and at the laundry room at the far end. If you’re thinking that the entire downstairs of the house has been gutted, you’re right. Those looking closely will see the snow through the window on the left. That’s been a fun addition to the mix.

Now I’ve moved to position C on the map, and we’re looking north. The back wall of the kitchen is on the right of the photo. Again, not a lot to look at except for the wanton demolition.

Still at location C, now looking east. You can see the back wall of the kitchen (center) and the hallway (with the flagstone that will be covered over) going down to the bedrooms at the end of the hall. Also, you can just make out the stairs on the right. They go up to the tiny living space we are in at the moment.

Here we are at location D, looking south. That’s the warped front door and the entryway that will be raised up about 5" to get rid of the step. In addition, it provides a path for wiring and plumbing to get to and from the garage and utility room (behind the wall on the right) to the rest of the house.

Now we are inside the kitchen, at position E, looking southwest. Technically, we’re standing in what will be cabinets, but it lets me show you the entire interior of the kitchen. The fisheye effect here is very pronounced on the doorway between the kitchen and the hallway. It’s not that wide in reality! You can see the soffit framed in on the far wall. That’s new since last week.

Now we’ve moved diagonally across the kitchen to position F, and we’re looking northeast, right back at the spot the previous photo was taken from. You can see the soffit above the cabinets over there as well.

Now we’re in the new, combined bathroom at location G, looking south. The map still shows two bathrooms (one full bath and one half bath, right next to each other), but we are combining them into one larger space. I was standing in the new shower area when I took the photo, and you can see the in-wall Toto toilet on the right. At the left on the end is the back of one of the two electrical subpanels, and above the framed-in ceiling is the HRV and some of the ducting.

We’re still in the new bathroom but have moved south to position H, and we’re looking mostly up at the HRV. That box is the air exchanger that will take stale, interior air out and replace it with exterior air, keeping things warm or cool, and handling humidity too. But how it does all that, I really don’t know. It contains a block of corrugated sign plastic with alternating layers pointed at 90 degrees to each other. The air flows through that, so it can’t directly mix, but it can exchange heat, I guess. It’s a weird thing.

And now we’re in the guest bedroom (which was the primary bedroom originally, replaced by one upstairs in the 1994 reno), at location I, looking southwest. On the right is the (open) wall shared with the bathroom, and the opening on the left is the closet that we disassembled to salvage the cedar planks we used to fill the openings in the roof where the fireplace and a skylight were. If you remember the old wasp nests that were found, they were in the exterior wall of this room, just off the left side of the photo.

And now we’re in Anne’s former office at position J, looking mostly north. Here you can see the closet from the other side and the exterior wall on the right, where the main electrical panel for the house is.

And here we are in the same place—position J — looking east at the old and new electrical panels. The giant cables on the left and coiled on the floor will go from the new main panel to the subpanels elsewhere. The new panel isn’t in use yet (and is still wrapped in plastic) because we’re waiting for the power company to switch us to the new panel. Supposedly that will happen by February 11th, but given the weather, there is a chance it will be delayed.

Finally, this photo is taken outside, and so the location is not shown on the map, but it’s just off the southeast corner of the house, looking northwest at the new electrical connection from the outside. The new box and wires are much more substantial than the old ones, and everything is on the exterior, so it’s easy to access. The power company has to disconnect us from the pole, take down the old wires supplying the house, put up new ones, connect them to the new wires installed in the conduit, and reconnect to the pole. Once they do that, we’re on the new panel, and the electrician has to spend a few hours moving circuits from the old panel to the new one.

So that’s your big update on the reno. Those looking closely will note that nothing appears to have happened to the tiny bedroom east of the stairs and in the garage, but that’s not correct. The tiny bedroom has some adjustments coming to the back of the closet under the stairs because that will have electrical and plumbing wires in it. And the garage has the utility closet, where a number of changes will be made. Oh, and new radiators everywhere.

In short, this reno is impacting every part of the downstairs. And when it is done, we get to redo the two bathrooms upstairs as well. Joy!

For reading this far, I give you a cartoon about a meeting with Jeff. Enjoy!

May all your meetings go well. Or at least well enough that you aren’t happy about the end of the world!

Cheers!