649 6th

bitplanmap

You know that useless Paint program on your computer you wish could do more and instead just seems like a glorified pad of paper minus the mildly interesting phone call that's needed to really get your doodle on?

Well, let me tell you something about that useless program: it rocks! See for yourself. Obsessive? You bet, but much more flexible than the graph paper I almost started to use for the same job. In the original bitmap, each pixel represents an inch.

The full plan was developed over time. Initially I needed a quick way to make alternate designs for the 3rd floor. You may recognize the look from an earlier post. Once the basic dimensions were in place, it was "easy" to create another plan for the 2nd floor. These were immeasureably (pun!) helpful in working out stairway details. Then it just seemed silly not to do a plan for the 1st floor too. I thought I was done... but the bay and dormer still begged for details that couldn't be rendered in a floor plan so I did a front elevation and a side elevation. The rear elevation completes the set (i hope).

Which isn't to say all questions have been answered, not by a long shot, but for now, I'm happy to arrange digital furniture.

venting

...for those of you expecting to hear recollections of a particularly difficult chore that found Michael and I further refining our "house tension defusing" skills I won't be telling that story. I know titling a post "venting" may be a bit of false advertising, but hey, you take all the purient draws you can get in writing a blog about home renovations...

We vented the dryer today. By removing the piece of plywood you see attached in the photo we were able to work with an existing hole to get the hot moist air out of the basement. It was interesting to pull that piece of plywood off. It had been clevery hidden by a larger outside dresser like thing. I  knew it was back there but had not investigated until today.

The two things of note were:
1) It is inconcievable how many layers of siding have been piled on that addition over the years.

2) We may have found the cash hole that we've been waiting to find. We found a bit of rot on what appears to be the exterior beam. There is a companion beam joined next to it that is fine. However, it won't be many months before we'll be opening that back up to do some repair.

the door is in

After a long day of work in the basement the mason has the door in place. He is retruning tomorrow to cement everything in place. There's a bt of a problem with the top of the door not being able to swing past some electrical work, but we should be able to attend to that rather easily.

The mason has offered to slate the steps coming down to the basement (at no extra charge), to make the entrance a bit nicer. With the combo of the new door and the new entrance I'm already starting to see how it will be when it's done and I think I like the looks. I'll keep you posted-- literally I guess.

oh we gave thanks alright

Thanksgiving has been some sort of benchmark for us ever since closing on the house. Our initial renovation plan hinged on T'giving as a deadline. Would the house be warm enough to have dinner if the roof wasn't done, the insulation wasn't in place, etc? Well anyone who's been following this blog knows how little we had to worry about any of that! Instead we were able to focus on the simple holiday pleasures of last-minute grocery shopping, acquisition of roasting paraphenalia, whirlwind cleaning, and hours upon hours of food preparation.

Due to the crafty use of a huge sheet of plywood, we quickly doubled the size of our table, spread it with a new linen cloth, and mounted an incredible centerpiece. Dinner included two pork loins stuffed with sundry tasties, a honey glazed duck, mushrooms au gratin, and sweet potato souffle. Dessert lasted literally all night as various friends straggled in with sweet contributions.

Thanks to all who made the evening memorable: Rebecca, Kim, Dana, Ronda, Martin, Lori, Richard, Kate, Alex, Lisa, and John. The benchmarks we reach in the company of friends are the true records of our success.

survey sez

By overwhelming consensus, we have ourselves a winner! Thank you to everyone who cast a vote and shared very constructive advice, both on- and off-line.

In hindsight, it does seem a bit obvious, though I think I'll always wonder what it would have been like with stairs prominently running through the (narrow) livingroom and winding into the (narrow) bedroom...

design features:
- the floor-to-ceiling window on landing, banister, and bedroom door on same center line.
- 8' closet has a walk-in feel, creates bathroom buffer zone, and could be reconfigured (open into bedroom or passage into bathroom) without much trouble.
- relatively big bedroom with lots of available wall for furniture placement.
- location of bathroom fixtures may change as plumbing considerations are weighed.

ajudication

After latest meeting with architect we've come to terms with not attempting to relocate the chimney (duh!). Now we've got two basic approaches to locating stairs from 2nd to 3rd floors and need your help. Spent most of today drawing with the results below. We're eager for input at this point cuz both plans have their appeal. If Toby and I have to continue discussing this between ourselves we'll NEVER make progress.

• landing approx 4' x 5' and features long window that spans 2nd & 3rd floors
• railing overlooks stairs on 3rd floor passage to bathroom
• location of closet, toilet and sink are up for debate
• bedroom and bathroom closets are unlabeled.

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• the longer stairs coming up from 2nd floor will most likely contain shelves or some such finishing details
• bathroom fixtures pretty well nailed down.

happy anniversary

The appliances are in! The mason came yesterday to clear back a bit of the rubble to widen the door to get them in. Sadly it was just not quite enough. However, I was bound and determined not to send them back again, nor put them on the frst floor (coming in the front door).


To be honest it was kinda fun to smash things up a bit. The (what I have taken to calling) fieldstone crumbled a bit more than i would have liked and for a spilt second I thought the entire basement wall might crumble. In the end I smashed out enough of the rocks to get clearance. Next I got to use my trusty new reciprocating saw. You will note in the picture (as I know there are a few newbies out there today, click pic to enlarge) that the door has been removed, and I basically sawed off the door jam at just enough clearance to get the washer and dryer in.

Thought we were good to go-- but no. We get to the small passage into the laundry room and realized it is a half inch to narrow. We stripped away the drywall, did a bit of futzing, and they slid in barely. The delivery guys hooked them up and turned them on and presto! The one thing that was a bit concerning is  I think the people who had the house before us vented their dryer into the basement. They must have had some sort of closed vent thingy that uses water or some such to pull out particulates. Anyone ever heard of such a system?

As you can see Michael is... hmm I'm not exactly sure what he is in this photo. Ah, the domesticity of having a washer and dryer delivered on your anniversary

never gonna happen

The mason showed up today, unpacked the much belated door and realized the steel had not been drilled for the locks!

He took it back. Now he's saying Friday he will get it back. The up shot is he's gotta make sure that the new washer/dryer fits through the basement door on Saturday morning. I don't care if he has to come and remove the existing frame and replace after they leave.

[argh!]

that chimney

Last night we met with Dan the architect. It seems that sizing down the chimney and putting in a low profile exhaust for the boiler might be a bit trickier than expected [read: costly]. Meaning, we may need to leave the chimney "as is" on the second floor.

Michael did the sketch last night (remember by clicking any image you can open them). I think I made it big enough you can actually read his notes.

go time?

Well after many months of slowly plodding along it looks like we might get a bit of action this week. The door has come in and the mason is ready to get started. He is sceduled to begin Tuesday morning. Speaking of Tuesday, we also have an appointment with the architect to get the filing plans in motion.

Funny story about the architect. I was at my dentist the other morning, and he asks "didn't you formerly work with Lisa?", she had just been in "she just took a job in California and is moving in a couple of weeks". Here's the catch the ex-coworker is the girlfriend of the architect. Immediately I think "gee that's funny Dan hasn't said anthing to me". later that day when I spoke Dan he said to me "I assume you heard the news" and all I could reply was "yes, but you never guess from where"....but I digress.

After speaking with Dan we still may need to make a few modifications to the planning the Michael and I have been honing the last few months.  It could look more like this earlier sketch as we are not sure about how much "roof" they are going to let us have up top. I think in the same line of thinking (being able to to file more easily) we may consider taking the bath back to a half bath. I really want to pursue that one as much as possible though as it would be acceptionally nice to have a shower up there.

Finally, if all else goes well, the washer and dryer will fit into the newly crafterd basement door next Saturday when they are re-delivered... we shall see.