Weekend Update

We had another "cabinet meeting" Saturday morning. Our builders have been compiling pricing from the three kitchen cabinet companies we met with last month, and all three of them came in over our budget. So Dane scheduled a follow-up meeting with one of them to see what, if anything, we could do to bring the total costs down. It was a beautiful day, so we felt bad that Dane had to sit through what turned out to be 3 hours of us discussing the minutiae of door styles, stain colors, and drawer construction. (Even I was starting to get bored after a while.) But it was a good thing Dane was there, as he asked some good questions and came prepared with a set of plans. Hopefully we'll be able to make a decision on the cabinets by the end of the week.

Sunday there was a big Earth Day event on the Mall, so Josh and I took the Metro into DC to check it out. It was cooler and cloudy, but there was a decent turnout. They had a bunch of tents with different organizations handing out literature and free stuff -- mostly canvas tote bags, but also a lot of shiny, useless crap like buttons, magnets, frisbees, and bookmarks -- and a big stage for speakers and performers. I already have a ton of tote bags, so I passed those up, but I did score a packet of seeds, a pen made of recycled plastic, and a carabiner keychain. Planet Green had their own tent, and since it is a Discovery network, I saw a couple people I work with, including my boss. There was a huge line to get into the tent, but my friend Rob let me in through the exit. I discovered that Steve Thomas, host of the Planet Green series Renovation Nation, was signing autographs in the tent, so I went over to introduce myself.

I haven't mentioned this before, but the producers of Renovation Nation had actually expressed an interest in featuring our house on the show, since they were scheduled to be filming in the DC area this spring. Unfortunately, the timing didn't work out -- I think we'll already have drywall up by the time they are here, so many of the cool green features will be hidden. Anyway, I mentioned this to Steve Thomas, and he explained that they only have a 2-week window to film in any given location, so it's catch as catch can in terms of which projects they are able to include. It was quite loud in the tent as Los Lobos was performing on the stage and there was a huge speaker right outside, so we weren't able to have much of a conversation, but I did get an autographed photo:
I saw him again with the Discovery crew filming a segment in the Energy Star 'house' they had built on the mall, and Rob said he might use Josh and me as extras (he was the one filming), but he either changed his mind or we had moved on to the exhibition tent by the time he got around to it. That tent was like a graduate school science fair, with a bunch of grad students presenting their research on very specific environmental topics -- many of which were way over my head. I did have a few interesting conversations about permeable driveways and green building certifications, though. We also watched some of the events on the stage, where Chevy Chase was the emcee (sucked!), and speakers included Philippe Cousteau, Matthew Modine, and leaders of various environmental groups and government organizations. Los Lobos, moe, and the Flaming Lips performed as well. Based on what the speakers kept saying, anyone in their 20's is part of the "green generation." I must have heard that catchphrase a couple dozen times. I wonder what that makes us?

Poll answer

Here's the answer to last week's quiz. This unusual wall hanging consists of three light bulbs tied into a piece of the fabric sleeve used to cover the corrugated drain pipe for the waterproofing. We left these bulbs in the house when we moved out, and this was the creative solution our builders came up with to store them so they wouldn't get broken.

Rub-a-dub-dub

I stopped by the house on Friday afternoon to update Rob on some stair-related decisions and see how the stucco crew was doing. It was a beautiful day, and there appeared to be quite a bit of activity on the outside of the house.


Inside, Paul and Jim were still stapling up the duct insulation between the floor joists. They had finished the office and were almost done with the family room.
Once they got to the dining room, though, they hit a snag. They couldn't enclose the green pipes under the insulation with the radiant floor heat. Not only would that unintentionally heat up our cold water in the wintertime, but it could cause condensation. So Paul had to get creative and cut slits in the insulation to work around the plumbing. The dining room, kitchen, and living room are all going to be tricky because of all the pipes running through the ceiling.
I'm sure when they're done with this project, Paul and Jim would be happy to never see another roll of duct insulation. There is a lot of it in the house!See, I'm not kidding! Each of these rolls is about 5 feet tall.Meanwhile, John was hard at work installing the oak treads on the stairs.
He was not happy when I told him we decided on oak risers as well, since he had already installed paintable fiberboard risers on the stairs coming up from the basement. I felt awful that he had already put in so much work. I thought he might be tempted to shoot me with the nail gun on purpose this time, but he showed remarkable restraint. Rob told me not to worry about it -- they can install an oak veneer on the risers and it will look just fine. Whew!From one of the upstairs bedrooms, I got a closer look at what the stucco guys were doing. They had covered the entire north side of the house with roofing felt (I think) and were attaching a metal mesh layer on top of that.
Here's what the mesh looks like.
Rob told me our tub for the master bath had arrived. I found it upstairs in an enormous box. After eyeballing the size of the box versus the size of the enclosure they had built for it, I was concerned that it might not fit -- or that it would be nearly impossible to maneuver it into place. So I went back downstairs to find Rob.
I found him in his usual spot -- on the front steps talking on his cell phone. He seems to spend a large chunk of his day checking in with various subs and vendors to coordinate schedules, get estimates, and just keep everything running smoothly. I got bored waiting for him to get off the phone, so I started taking photos...When I finally had an opportunity to voice my concerns about the tub, he assured me that it would fit. But then he started second-guessing himself, so he recruited Paul to help him lift it into place.
It was a little tricky getting it into position, but not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.
And it fit perfectly! Rob almost climbed in to pose for a photo, but thought better of it since he had muddy work boots on. He covered it up with a piece of cardboard to keep it clean. The tub doesn't look quite as huge in its alcove as it did in the box. I'm more of a shower person, but I think I'll be tempted to take baths more often when this is all done.
Coming up this week: insulation! Stay tuned...

Backtrack

My friend Ann just sent me a bunch of photos she took when she was here on April 8, so I thought I'd add a few of them here since she was able to capture a few things that I couldn't -- like photos with me in them...

Rob is studiously ignoring us taking photos of him reseeding the front lawn.
All our new windows filled up the entire living room.
"Let there be light." Actually, I'm just explaining the layout of the kitchen to my neighbor, Ingrid Wooten -- who also happens to be a realtor.
And now I'm describing the layout of the bathroom to Ingrid.
Paul is telling us about the roof tile we selected (samples on the table).
The plumbers stowing something in the SAI trailer.

Stucco Unstuck

It was nice to see the sun today after a few cold, rainy days. That also meant the stucco guys could finally get started. Dane called me this afternoon to explain that they needed to add some kind of trim to tie together the original stucco around the bottom of the house with the new stucco, since the old stucco varies quite a bit in depth, and is mostly thicker than the new stucco will be. He was going to send me a drawing, but then we decided it would be easier for me to just go over to the house and take a look.
When I got there a little after 2 pm, they had already built the scaffolding on the north face of the house and applied a layer of building paper. John was working on securing our electrical and gas meters.
Rob explained that they had installed metal flashing around the top edge of the old stucco to prevent any water seepage, so they'll need to cover it with some simple trim to hide the transition. For the most part, this will probably be hidden by landscaping, since it's only about 3 feet off the ground.
John drew me a picture to show what it would look like. The little stick figure on the front porch represents John holding a level.
Rob mentioned that an inspector had come that morning to do the framing inspection. Apparently he was very impressed with what he saw -- which is always nice to hear. Inside the house, Jim was stapling up duct insulation between the floor joists so the radiant floor heat would be reflected up to the rooms above. Rob thought that spray foam would make the system difficult to access if it needed repairs -- which could happen soon enough if someone accidentally puts a nail through a tube while the hardwood floors are installed -- so he came up with this idea. It's a good idea, but very labor-intensive. Jim spent most of the afternoon cutting rolls of insulation into strips, and only managed to staple a few pieces up before it was time to call it a day.
I wanted to check out the back yard, but both sides of the house were blocked and the decking on the porch was gone yet again, so I asked Paul if there was anything we could stick on top of it so I could get outside without having to balance on 2 inches of wood. He found a long board about a foot wide and nailed it down for me so I could "walk the plank" out the back door to the steps. The whole back of the house is covered with scaffolding, too.
I checked on my rosebushes, which had been pruned and relocated to the far corner of the back yard, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were still alive. I just hope they can handle being moved back again when the house is done.
Here's what the window well looks like from the outside. When we re-build our driveway, we'll have to move it over a foot or so to clear the wall.
These were the original windows from the living room. They were the only windows that were in decent enough shape to re-use -- all the double-hung windows fell apart when they removed them. These are casement windows, but had been painted shut for many years, so they were in better condition. We were hoping to re-use some of the original windows when we re-build the garage, but I'm not sure these will work unless we install them sideways...
And here are the bricks from our back patio, neatly stacked and ready to be re-used to create a new patio. Despite all the work it requires, I miss having a yard, especially now that it's springtime and the weather is warming up.
It will be interesting to watch the stucco installation process, which could take several weeks. I'll try to take lots of photos.

Naina and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Yesterday was a Very Bad Day. It started out with my slamming my fingers in the kitchen cabinet as I was making breakfast and went downhill from there. I learned that several of my co-workers at Discovery had been let go, including the person who originally hired me for my current job. Some of them had been with the company for a long time -- and even though I mostly work from home, I have gotten to know them well enough over the years that I was utterly devastated when I heard the news. I had a hard time concentrating on my work -- as did everyone else I work with, it seemed -- so I went over to the house for an hour to focus on something else.

The crappiness of the day was enhanced by cold, rainy weather, so the stucco guys still hadn't been able to get started. Rob, John, Paul, and Jim were the only people there. John was working on the stairs and wanted to know what kind of newel posts we wanted. He suggested that if we couldn't find pre-made ones that worked, he could just build one for us, and proceeded to sketch out some ideas on the work table.
When he saw me trying to take this photo so I could show Josh, he found a scrap of cardboard and drew a new one for me to take home. I really need to get them a big pad of paper. I also went over some of the details of the back porch with Rob. They are planning to build it with Trex, which is a composite material made from recycled plastic and wood, so we needed to choose a color and decide what kind of railing we wanted.

Meanwhile, Jim was just finishing up all the phone and cable wiring. Here's all the wiring that runs to where my desk will go in the office.
And Paul was framing out the doorway for the new closet in the office. This is where our bathtub used to be! Because the ductwork runs through the wall here, the closet will be a little smaller than we originally thought, so Rob was suggesting we could just have one door instead of two. That seemed like a good idea, especially since we need to budget for an extra door for the linen closet. I asked Rob and Paul to stand in the closet so I could get a better sense of scale in the photo. The were happy to oblige, but initially had their backs to me. I should have just taken that one anyway, but I made them turn around.
Aren't they cute? Rob was joking about potential captions for the photo, so I suggested "Rob and Paul come out of the closet." Rob laughed that I had set them up for that one, and Paul pointed out that he was still (literally) in the closet, and remained there -- working -- until I left.

I had to rush back home to dial in to an all-hands meeting to discuss the latest round of layoffs and restructuring within my group at Discovery -- the presenter was painfully upbeat. I also got an email invitation to an "After-Work Get-Together (previously known as 'Happy' Hour)" at a dive bar in Silver Spring, MD to say goodbye to all the people who had been let go. I hadn't been in the office since January, and I wanted to see all my friends one last time, so I hopped on the Metro and headed up there. I'm really glad I went. I'm still heartbroken over what happened, but it was therapeutic to be able to share that with my co-workers -- and we had some good laughs, too. They are a great group of people, and it's going to be tough to lose some of them.

Let Me Call You "Sweetheart"

Josh and I met Steve W. and the crew at the house this morning to go over the design of the window seat and built-in shelving in the master bedroom, the stair and balcony railings, the phone/cable wiring, and a few other details. Since Josh had limited time before he had to leave for work, he went upstairs with Steve and John to work on the built-ins while I went over the electrical plans with Jim and marked the locations where we wanted phone, cable, and internet jacks installed.

Jim is relatively new on the scene. I met him last week when I encountered him in the front yard holding a large piece of metal. He introduced himself as "the flashing guy," and then after a somewhat awkward pause that begged for a joke I hadn't known him long enough to make, he held up the piece of metal and said, "This kind of flashing, that is." Thank goodness! Well, today Jim was the wiring guy. After we went over the plans, he reviewed them with Steve W. and then went right to work installing the boxes. From left to right, that's John, Steve W, and Jim. I don't think Steve was thrilled to have me taking photos...
It turns out Jim used to work at Discovery as an engineer, so we reminisced about the good old days and talked about the season premiere of Deadliest Catch, which airs tonight. Most of the guys on our crew are big fans of the show, so they were excited about the new season and interested to learn that not only did I watch it, too -- I'm not exactly the target demographic -- but had written a bunch of quizzes for the show's web site.

Anyway, after we had finished going over everything with Steve, Josh headed off to work and I stuck around a little longer to take some photos and see if Rob had any other questions for me. We went upstairs with Louis, the HVAC guy, to go over the placement of the air conditioning registers in the ceiling of the master bedroom. That's Louis in the black shirt.
I couldn't help giggling over the fact that Rob kept calling Louis "sweetheart," especially when he seemed a bit exasperated with him. Of course, Louis is Rob's uncle, and they're pretty chummy with one another, but still... How many grown men -- or anyone, for that matter -- call their uncle "sweetheart"? I actually asked them if I could mention it in my blog, and they both said it was fine. Rob told me that the first time his uncle came over to the house, he and Paul were working in the basement, and Louis walked right up, gave him a big bear hug, and started dancing around the basement with him -- all while carrying on a rather mundane conversation about the HVAC system. [While Rob was telling this story, Louis helpfully demonstrated. I'm sorry I didn't snap a photo -- it was adorable.] Paul had never met Louis and had no idea who he was, so he wasn't sure what the heck was going on -- and probably still didn't even after Rob explained that he was his uncle. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall...

Elsewhere in the house, the stairs feel much more light and open with the windows in.
And the big egress windows in the basement are now in, so it's nice to have a bit more natural light down there, too.
I'm sure I've mentioned how amazing it is to see how much stuff is running through the walls and ceiling -- plumbing, HVAC ductwork, electrical wiring, exhaust fans, solatubes, etc. It's like one of those creepy human body exhibits where you can see the skeleton and internal organs that make the whole organism work. Here's the mess above the master bathroom.
We also have an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) above the closet in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Because our house will have a very tight envelope when it's all done, there will be very little fresh air coming into the house when the windows are closed. The ERV is like a whole-house exhaust fan that brings fresh, filtered air into the house and helps control the humidity levels. In the winter, it uses the heat from the warm air it in the house to warm up the fresh air it brings in; and in the summer it uses a similar process to cool the fresh air. In this climate, where it is hot and humid in the summer and cold and dry in the winter, it will help keep the house very comfortable all year round -- and vastly improve the indoor air quality. I noticed we have fancy copper flashing on the roof. That will add a nice architectural detail to the house as it ages and develops a patina.
Out back, the deck of the temporary porch has once again been reclaimed for some other use. The scaffolding materials are ready to be assembled for the stucco guys, who I imagine will get started once it stops raining. Steve W. said the scaffolding will be up for about a month, since applying stucco is a long, involved process, so we'll see some dramatic changes to the exterior soon.
Out front, Ben the electrician is talking to Dane (in baseball cap and black jacket) while Rob checks in with suppliers on his cell phone.I'm trying to get more photos with people in them, but I can't do it while I'm talking to them, and I don't like to distract or annoy people while they are working on my house. I need to bring someone with me who can take some good candid photos while I function as The Distractor...