649 6th

the end of the beginning

a rafter review

ticking off the list

best laid plans

Long-time followers of the renovation at 649 6th know what I mean when I say we put a lot of work into the design. Not castle-in-the-sky planning either. We researched building codes, considered the input of several professionals, and spent a compulsive amount of time documenting our design in scaled digital drawings (many of which grace this blog). Some of you may recall the post in which we expressed our doubts that the contractor and his engineer truly grasped what we had in mind -- a feeling that was not eased by the fact that construction plans were not updated to reflect changes to contract, eg no 2nd floor extension and no bathroom on 2nd floor.

So 2-dimensional plan was modeled in 3. Don't recall if we've specifically stated just how useful this little fella has been -- from getting the dormer ceiling raised as high as it could go without crossing over into a true vaulted ceiling (beware of change orders!) to illustrating the size/location/alignment of the dormers (thanks to the additional information conveyed by taping out the end walls in blue painters tape on the 2nd floor when it still looked like a barn up there). I fear what we'd have wound up with if framer had actually followed the construction plan. For example, he thought we were having balconies outside dormer windows on front and back, due to poorly detailed plan plus the fact that it still shows a door that would have led to roof of 2nd floor extension. As a result, he over-order 2x6s (which I really hope we can find a use for before they rot in the backyard).

In fact by the time the 2nd floor had been restored, the framer was using the model to ask us further questions about layout of 3rd floor. Had the satisfying sense of real collaboration and understanding -- a rarity in this field I'm beginning to think.

all about eave

When the guys got done on Saturday they had one small problem. It was the new front eaves-- in that there were not supposed to be any new front eaves.

All of the houses in the neighborhood have parapet roofs. The small wall that comes up a the front of the house makes perspective work much better. Don't get me wrong the eaves weren't bad. It was probably, from a purely functional perspective, the better option (less maintenance and less prone to leaking). In the end aesthetics got the better of us and we asked them to go ahead and trim the tails and build the parapet wall.

Boy am I glad we did. It works much better with all of the other houses in the neighborhood. And, with the dormer wall stepped back, it makes the third floor addition much less prominent.

As you can see the framing is almost done. It's almost 7:00 now and the they're are still here. I take this as a sure sign that these guys want to finish up today.

Roofing materials arrive tomorrow

rafters

From inside what will be the third floor. As you can see the shape of the atic room is starting to reveal itself.

rounding 3rd

Yesterday that last remaining vestiges of the old roof were cut away. The sub-floor was put down and the new 3rd floor began to emerge. The dormer walls were completed at the end of the day and this morning they are up there constructing the rafters than run on and around them. The head framer is telling that by the end of he day today the entire thing will be framed. Stay tuned for more pics!

filling the cavity

Empty cavity 9:00 AM

New joists for third floor installed 5:30 PM

The party wall solution.

monster in a box

As Michael mentioned last week the only remaining demolition we had left to do was removing the dry wall from the interior wall on the second floor that faces the street. This wall is where we are reconfiguring the rough opening to install one of two sets of matching casement windows on the first and second floors while closing up an existing window opening on the second floor.

 Removal was snappy. The reason why? A make-shift studded wall had been installed in front of portions of an existing plaster and lathing wall. In classic quick reno style someone just came in and built over existing conditions rather than bothering to deal. Behind the plaster and lathing were the studs and of course behind that was the outer sheeting coming in from the exterior wall. An interesting building construction note; between the studs was what looked like a brick fire wall-- small brick that are mortared between the studs. On the far left corner of the wall the studs were not in such great shape, nor was the “brick work” between. In fact you could say it was more or less crumbling, looks to be some sort of dry rot.

 Pause……Breath.

 The Wall is not load bearing. All of the weight of the house is carried through the floor joists that tie into the sides of the house not the front. Worst case scenario we have to totally rip off and reframe the front of the house but as we were 1) removing and replacing the exterior siding and 2) replacing the interior walls while, 3) replacing all the windows, we’re almost there anyway (it’s that kind of rationalizing that I scare myself with sometimes.)

 Way back in the logs I must have said something about the “money pit” fear. And while I’m fairly confident that what we exposed today the contractor will think about for all of two seconds before replacing the studs to construct the new wall. It still shook me to my core. At ANY moment a monster can leap out from beneath a wall demanding (as they all seem to demand) a couple of thousand dollars to go away. What’s the core shaking? Let’s just say I have a healthy curiosity for all the monsters that are still waiting to be revealed.

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signed on the dotted line

We officially have ourselves a contractor. We met with Wayne for about two hours yesterday afternoon. We explained the project in detail. We divvied up what was his responsibility and what is ours.

It all seems like a straight forward routine for him-- which I take as a good thing. The notion is he will have us permitted and ready to go within 35 days. Then, when we return from vacation in April, he's gonna come tear the roof off the sucker.