exposed pipe in the kitchen above the cabinets
exposed beam and plywood floor between the kitchen and dining room
the old back door and view of the mudroom
mudroom with plywood floors and insulated walls
The Kitchen
When the washer/dryer was installed upstairs, the previous contractor ran the drainage pipe down the wall in the kitchen, but didn't cover it up. These guys framed the pipe, so that we can come back and add sheetrock to cover it up.
exposed pipe is boxed in and ready to be sheet rocked.
The Dining Room
Similarly, the previous contractor left the ceiling open when they took down the old wall between the kitchen and dining room and installed the new beam - which is also open and ugly. These contractors framed it, so that we can come back and add the sheetrock. They also replaced the plywood filler that covered the spot where the wall used to be with an actual wood transition.
exposed beam is boxed in and ready to be sheet rocked
new transition from the kitchen to dining room floor
The Halfbath & Mudroom
The majority of the contractor's time was spent in these spaces. First, they fixed the plumbing so that it vents all the way to the roof, instead of just inside the wall. Second, they added wiring for new outlets and installed overhead lights. Third, they added some framing so that they could sheetrock and mud it.h Last, the plumber added hookups for a new radiator to heat the spaces, which they will come back and install once we do the floor.
new view from kitchen to mudroom
half bath all sheet rocked
new jellyfish light in mudroom
radiator hookups - ready and waiting.
The Sleeping Porch
We decided not to have them finish this space in order to reduce costs, but they did have one small project up here. Because the halfbath toilet needed to vent properly, they installed a new pipe going up from the halfbath, through the middle of this room, and up to the roof. Eventually, this pipe will be covered the wall that will separate the office from the master bathroom - but for now, we're just going to have to try to cover this up and make it look less ugly.
new vent pipe through the sleeping porch. mmm.
The Add-on Project
So, every time we use a contractor for any project, we negotiate and edit the contract down in scope to get it as small as possible, and then inevitably, as soon as they get started, we realize we need to add more things and expand the scope. (I'm sure they just love this). So, this time, we opted to do the demo ourselves to remove the old back door, window and fan. As soon as we did, we realized that we wanted all of the brick removed so that it could be as open and breezy as possible, but removing walls of brick is really beyond our abilities. At this point, they had already started framing the mudroom for sheetrock, so it wasn't the best time to add additional demolition work. But, in the process of taking the door out, we realized that the header supporting the brick overhead wasn't really supported anymore, so it needed some additional work that was beyond our scope. Thankfully, this only added on an extra day or so - and it looks so much better. The mudroom area already feels infinitely more connected to the house, and the kitchen feels more open.
after we took out the doors and windows - realizing there was still brick in the way.
they remove the rest of the brick and add this nice beefy support
The Electrical and New Discoveries
We have a 100+ year old house, which means that whenever we do anything, no matter how small, there's a really decent risk that we'll discover some other problem or break something. One day, the team was working on removing the electrical connection for the old fan above the kitchen door, a relatively small electrical project, when our tenant alerted us that some of his outlets were no longer working in the basement. About half of the house, including appliances on their own circuits, no longer had power, during one of the hottest heat waves of the summer. Several days went by, and the contractor was unable to figure out what had happened, leaving us without electricity to most of the important parts of the house (no oven, no washer/dryer, no air conditioning). We were not happy about it, but doing our best to remain flexible and work around the situation as best we could. Eventually, an electrician was able to determine that we were part of a neighborhood-wide power outage, which blew out one of the two lines that feed our house - meaning that it was not at all related to the renovation and just completely coincidental. The power company came out and fixed it quickly.
...
Similarly, since the contractor was going to be sheetrocking in this formerly-exterior space, we pointed out that it sometimes leaked during heavy rain, and asked him to check it out. Turns out that the exterior wall has a massive hole in it, just above all the new sheetrock and framing. We could never see it because it's right on the property line. Now that we know it's there, we need to find a cement specialist to fix it, but hopefully it can wait a little longer.
big hole in the cement just outside the mudroom wall. grim, no?
Lesson learned - always leave room in the budget for additional projects that might pop up, either because you realize you want something else done, or a problem arises.
just a reminder of where we started.
Next Steps
So the contractors are essentially done now, and it's our turn to finish these space off. We're going to finish the mudroom floor so that they can come back and install the radiator. After the mudroom and half bath are done, we'll come back and finish up all the remaining sheetrock and painting.
No comments:
Post a Comment