I would like to end our seven-month drought of blog entries by directing your attention to the item in the center of the little still-life below. Even though 99% of demolition is behind us we still discover little jewels, such as this brown peanut M&M. I have personally found at least four of these, usually intact, but this one is of particular interest because it shows that even squirrels have the sense to separate what is nutritious from what is not. The candy coating was transformed into construction debris, the peanut freed and transformed into life.
Since August 30 of 2020 when we posted our last entry....a lot has happened. I am reluctant to attempt a summary because I'm afraid it will not sound like seven months' worth of work. But here it is. The Richmond Heights Building Dept stamped our plans. We excavated extensively in the basement, had new plumbing installed, poured new footings, raised the main beam to correct height and poured half of a new basement slab. We tore out the old staircase. We sistered or completely replaced all the trimmer joists - that is the doubled joists that "trim" or define the stairwell. We redefined the stairwell and roughed in new stairs from the basement to the second floor, redesigning the 1-2 stairs to split the switchback landing and give about 7" of space at the foot back to the hallway. We refastened the entire 1st floor subfloor to the joists. We spent a long time...probably far too long...planing across joists and old subfloor, shimming up low spots and cutting down high spots, making relief cuts in old joists and jacking up and sistering, headering off where needed and just generally pulling all the tricks out of all the hats and also all the hair out of all our heads to create a floor that does not feel like the rolling hills of wherever. And then we laid 7/8" of plywood underlayment on the first floor which will provide suitable support and evenness for hardwood flooring.
Somehow, in the middle of all of this, Danielle found time to strip, de-glaze, sand, condition, and re-glaze approximately 38 wooden sashes. The pandemic has put a major damper on our willingness to ask friends for help. But Danielle's sister Kim provided very able and extremely welcome help with the sashes on a number of mornings and evenings.
We tore out ~400sf of subfloor on the second floor to permit insulating the floor of the sunroom, and to aid in the installation of two exterior beams that will support the sunroom once we remove a column that would otherwise block the new back door. We insulated the sunroom floor and also above the front porch, and the floor of the turret in front. We installed the beams. We replaced the subfloor. We began laying 1/2" underlayment, but only where needed for the plumber to rough in his stuff. We started to get serious about understanding our construction schedule and achieving a basically sound projection of a move-in date. We drafted detailed plans for power, lighting, insulation, and HVAC (plumbing was already covered) and requested bids in each area. As of March 1st, we learned that there were approximately 340 more hours between us and being "plumber ready." And we project that barring any truly bizarre and catastrophic delays, and assuming only one subcontractor working at a time (we will likely be able to stack some of them) that a move-in date is possible about six months after the plumber roughs in the plumbing.
For every step above there is one or two I have not described. And most steps have involved quite a bit of head-scratching, homework, and failed attempts. The other evening when I was not terribly eager to be working on the house but did anyway I thought, this house is being built one tiny act of courage at a time. Perhaps the greatest miracle of all is that we still, you know, like each other.
We have also gotten some good advice about blogging. For example, write shorter entries. This is good advice. I expect entries from here on out to be a mix of sorting through the tons of pictures and video taken over the last seven months, and brief descriptions and depictions of work presently underway. Like, Memento-style.
We are totally consumed by this project, in the warmest way. It will be a good house.
Here is a short video walkthrough I took this week.
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