649 6th

hidey ho, everybody

Got a question about the Kohler Greek Tub t'other day, and since the response was sooooo long and sooooo informative, I thought to myself "share the wealth." Plus I took a couple pix, and nothing goes together better than pix and posts.

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Glad to share more info regarding our experience with Kohler's Greek tub. For us, the dimensions are great. As you already know, it's short; when sitting bolt upright I can just barely extend my legs full length. Some people have questioned the comfort of a short tub -- but when's the last time anyone sat so rigidly while soaking in the tub? If I want to extend my legs, I prefer slouching down and propping my heels on the edge.

And the depth more than compensates for length. In fact, its depth is the more important factor for installation considerations because it results in more volume than standard tubs, so there's more water weight. We considered consulting a structural engineer to calculate the load, but since bathroom was a gut reno we just sistered the floor joists before putting in new subfloor.

Water weight was also a factor when I caulked between wall and tub. I'd read a trick about filling tub with water before caulking and draining it only after caulk has cured, but for whatever reason I ignored that advice -- and had to rip out the caulk a few days later when gaps formed at both of the surrounding walls. For the re-caulk, I filled tub and seal held, though after several months I noticed a small gap and will need to pull the caulk on that edge again. I'm guessing the new gap has to do with structural settling, ie not much I can do but monitor the situation. Small price for a great tub.

Our decision to side-mount the fixtures was based on rain-type shower head. In my experience, shower heads are end-mounted because of the angled spray and the accommodation of tub length to adjust location of spray on the body; with rain-type shower head that's not a factor. I also feel like the end-mount orientation is contrary to the body's orientation while showering. By that I mean my wider dimension (side-to-side) spends most of the time while showering in the tub's narrower dimension (also side-to-side). Placing the rain shower head on side wall means I can stand "sideways" in the tub, which gives me more sense of room.

And it made a lot more sense to run the supply lines on same wall as shower fixture, rather than running at least one line around the corner. Could have end-mounted the shower and run a longer arm, perhaps with a ceiling support -- but I didn't. And I really am happy with the side mount. We've made several unorthodox decisions in the design/renovation of our house; some people questioned the wisdom, but I've been happy with outcome in every case.

One more tip: insulate the tub! We wrapped some spare fiberglass insulation around as much of the tub as we could reach after it was installed but before we closed up the deck. I can only compare to all the other tubs I've used that seemed to lose heat faster than I wanted; definitely not a problem with this tub. Insulating tub body is probably a good idea no matter what tub you get. I think I got the idea while reading about building a deck for a hot tub installation and made sense to apply same wisdom to standard tub.

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'K, that's all for now. Oh, and I quit my job a month AND didn't do a lick of work on the house besides wash dishes, do laundry, tidy, and make meals. What WILL it take to kick this project back into gear? I'm thinking warmer weather.

fall

Fall comes and we find ourselves firmly planted in year two of our renovation. Not a lot of words as of late mainly because house work has become so routine it's sometimes beyond comment.

Work is happening. Maybe not at the rate we had planned, but it is happening. The big plan had us finishing the kitchen by Thanks Giving-- that's not going to happen. One step at a time.

After our late summer flurry of reconstructing the back wall of the house and roofing the kitchen the task at hand was putting it back together. As you can see from the photo we used standard fiberglass insulation. Now you may wonder how this jives with our "green" building approach. Well, it doesn't. Here's the problem (and it's so lame I can't believe it's my alibi) getting green materials in the small increments we need for this house is nearly impossible. We found it out with the Hardi Plank exterior and were right back there when it came time for insulation.

There's gotta be some sort of collective buying power that the Home Depot 2 blocks away has that it could package greener options and still make a profit. In fact I have a whole new integrated marketing plan worked out for Home Depot. If any of you out the know or are the CMO please drop me a line (if I were prone to emoticons I would insert a winky here.)

As you can see from the photos the kitchen is beginning to come back together. The soffit framing has been installed and all of the ceiling insulation (well let's say "most") is up. Electrical is the next thing. The schematic has been designed. It looks like we will run a sub panel off of the main to run the kitchen and bathroom. We did the same thing with the second and third floors. In fact the only thing left on the original electric is the dining room and basement. I expect before it's all done we will rewire that too.

After attempting to use the bathroom sink to do dishes we realized what a wrong headed notion not having a kitchen sink was. We got the old sink out of the backyard and made this nifty 2x4 stand and were back in business. To drain I rigged up a funnel with a piece of tubing (think beer bong) and we were back in business.

Finally, after having sat in the back yard all summer it was time to clean up and reinstall the radiators. We wire brushed the multiple coats of paint off of them revealing the natural metal color. The surface was finished with a clear mat sealant and they were reinstalled (carrying those things up nd down stairs makes you realize exactly how heavy they are). Just in time too the cats are very happy to have them to hug as the evening temps begin to drop.

the ceiling, part 2

The time had come. After weeknights and a few weekend days of insulation it was time to move on. In the end I'm glad we went ahead and did so much acoustical insulating. The wall here is R19 bats; much more than neccessary for an interior wall, but we had it around (slight case of over estimating material needs) and 2x6 framing was plenty deep enough. The acousitcal R13 on the ceiling doesn't have the craft paper vapor barrier and is solely for diffusing sound. Without it, the slightest touch on the 3rd floor thundered on the 2nd like a drum. We were even considering installing those additionally sound dampening clips that the drywall hangs from, but after a few sounds checks we decided this was enough. We're not building a sound studio after all.

Next step: Drywall. I'm pleased to say that we have finally broken through to a new category-- Finishing! Last Saturday I went down to Dykes and bought 66 sheets of 1/2" sheetrock. Granted 5/8" is more fire resistent, and in row houses you might want to go for it, but as I rationalized 1) there was another entire drywall wall behind the new wall on Tracy's side of the house and 2) Ella's side has a fairly extensive brick fire wall. There are some "holes" where you can look between ceilings and roofs and not only see into Tracy's house but a couple of houses beyond hers as well. I think those are the fire stokers we should me more concerned about closing up.

I hired a few guys off of Craigslist to go to the lumber store, pick up the sheetrock, bring it back to the house, and then carry it to both the second and third floors. Molly was here when they were delivering it. Seems it was a much tougher task to get it up the tight winder to the third floor than they had anticipated. The job they thought would take about an hour's took more like 5. Again New York proves you can hire people to do just about anything. And as always with trades guys, the deal is never the deal -- they always want a little more in the end.

We are planning to hang most of the drywall ourselves. As is the case on just about every Friday night of late-- we went down to Home Depot to pick up a few supplies. We wanted to get a magnitized dry wall screw socket to go with the the cordless drill we had planned to use to install the drywall. For once there was a Home Depot employee that not only knew what he was talking about he actually walked up and asked if we needed help. After a bit of back and forth he convinced us that a drywall screwgun (corded) was the way to go. The motor constantly runs and the tip only engages when pressure is placed on it, so less chance of burning out the switch from constant use. Also comes with an adjustable gauge to sink screws to the perfect depth with ease.

....well, once you figure it out.

kxxxkxkxxx... calling, Prof Screwgun... kkkkome in, Prof Screwgun... kkxxxxxkxkx

Prof Screwgun, here! What can I help you with, son?... You're what?... Ok, gotcha: you're trying out your new Dewalt Screwgun... And you've been driving samples to set the depth guage. Well, you're on track so far... But you're having trouble because it takes all your weight to drive a screw?... No, no, I don't think it's the amps, my boy. Sounds to me like you're trying to drive those screws in reverse! You've got to run it in the other direction, see?... Yes, just flip the switch next to the trigger... Unh-hunh, go ahead, I'll wait... hmmm, hmm, hmmmm... Yes, still here... Well, that's swell!... Yes, it really IS a wonder tool... You're very welcome. Now go hang some drywall. And be careful on that ladder!

So once we figured out how to USE the tool, we faced further hurdle of working out how to best hang the sheetrock. On the first run we started in one corner and worked across the side wall. This approach was wrong for a couple of reasons: 1)  the front wall is parallel to the joist and the sides are not perpendicular to them and 2) by starting in the corner we were not on the 12" centers so the butts of the drywall were not meeting at a joist. Luckily we were patient enough to take it all down and start over again. On the second try it looked a lot better.

Hanging dry wall on the ceiling was a pain. It was just the two of us and two ladders working three hands as a tripod to hold sheetrock against the joists and with free hand pass the screwgun back and forth to get it set.

Today Jeff came over and with three people it was like night and day. We hung what remained of the upper level work so we can chip away at the lower, "easier" level over next few evenings of the week.

At the end of the day we joined up more pine planks with bisquits to make patches for the second floor. And what was the contractor doing all this time? Try "NOT ensuring that the siding guy was here to finish the job this weekend, like he's been saying would happen since LAST weekend when the guy essentially disappeared leaving the job undone."

the ceiling, part 1

so long my sound-dampening heat-keeping friend.

professor screwgun

The DeWalt screw gun, who knew?

getting the hang.

parting glances

For those of you that follow the blog I will probably fill in some of the back story around this strip tomorrow and update this post. For tonight, that's all I got left.