More foundations. Well, the trenches at least

Stopped by the house last night to get the mail and it looks like they have finished digging the foundations. The rebar and the framing materials are also on site, so we might get concrete this week, who knows! The soil is almost completely clay. Surprisingly, it drains very quickly. It also seems really stable. But man, when it's wet, does it stick to your shoes!

Foundations

They have started digging for the new foundations. Here you can see the progress on the one for the dining room. Exciting! Now we can really get a sense of what the back yard will feel like when the expansion is done. I'm think we made a good compromise between adding space inside without eating up too much of the yard. The space where the new patio is going to - which is where the hot tub was - will be really nice.

I uploaded a few more pictures to the photo album too. They have dug down in the bathrooms to completely expose all the old cast iron plumbing. I'm assuming it's all going to go pretty soon.

Also, we talked briefly with the architect about the kitchen. If what she is suggesting works, it will be nice. I'll try to post a sketch of it sometime, but basically, it would move the stove the middle of the wall where the microwave was, put the fridge where the stove was, a pantry to the left of the stove and then cabinets wrapped all the way around. To do this though, we would give up the open cabinets where the spices & pots and pans where. She thinks we'll gain enough new cabinets that the space will be the same or more than before, and we'll have opened up the passage way to & from the kitchen. The only bummer is that because we have to have a shear wall there, we can't center the window. It will just have to be a place for Dick Keyes original :)

That's it for now....

Gettin' Legit

Almost two months into the project, we finally got our permit. Very glad about that! It's pouring down rain today, but as soon as they can, they are going to start digging for the new foundations. All the old concrete is gone, time to make way for the new stuff!

The flooring and windows are decided so now it's time to make the final decision about the doors. We know the style of doors we want, and we know the company. We just have to figure out what wood. Mahogany is the front runner for the exterior doors right now, no idea bout the interior doors yet. All three of the exterior doors will be single pane French, with the front door having reeded glass and a lite next to it. The other door from the living room & the dining room will have clear glass.

We are also going to start looking at kitchen cabinets. They are going to have to be on the budget side, so we'll probably start at Home Depot and get a base prise and go from there.

Kitchen, what kitchen?

So, here’s the kitchen. Ok, it was the kitchen. We made the decision to steal 12” from a short wall in the master bedroom and incorporate it into the kitchen. It squares things up a bit, and will allow us to have a bigger cabinet next to the stove, which will be nice.

In other news, things continue to progress quickly. All the siding is off of the house, and they are in the process of removing the patio concrete. Apparently, it’s really, really thick. The new windows are framed in for the bedrooms – they are going to make a huge difference. Speaking of windows, they are getting ordered on Tuesday. We have a few configuration decisions about the bathroom windows but otherwise know what we are doing. We are going with white vinyl, but a more contemporary frame. They have thinner site lines, which we like. We are using Milgard windows, which are made at several California factories and both the window store & the contractor say they really do arrive 10 days after order, so that’s good.

We have flooring picked out too. We went with a Maple, but one with a bit of variation in the wood. I’ve put a photo of the sample in the photo gallery, which you can now access via a link on the right hand side of this page.

That’s it for now, thanks for stopping by!

"Can I use your bathroom?"

Sure, except we don't have one! This is a view from the guest bedroom looking into what used to be the guest bath. This is actually the space both bathrooms were in. The drain on the left was the guest shower, and you can see the toilet stubs for the master bathroom as well. Wow. This, like the rest of the demolition, happened very quickly. Like in one day. So, to answer the question "are you going to do anything with the bathrooms?" I say....yes!

But not only did they do this, they also started taking off the siding. Click here to see the updated photo album.

The view north

This is where I've been walking the dogs. If you follow our street down to the water, it's about a 10 minute walk. There are awesome views looking north toward Cayucos (this view) and to Morro Bay in the south. It's a nice a walk, and a decent workout because of the hills.

We met with the contractor for a couple of hours this morning. Lots of decisions to be made, but the good news is we may have a permit this week. All of the siding is going to come off the house. It is abestos, so it will cost a little to get rid of it, but the contractor feels strongly it should go. It will also allow them to put more shear panels on the outside walls. Apparently, the house is tilted about 1 1/2 inches toward the water. It will be nice to straighten it back up and make it sturdier.

We continute to dither about floor choices, and just to confuse things even more, are getting pricing on polished concrete floors. We have to decide on the kind of windows (bronzed, anodized aluminum or white vinly) in the next few days. We know what sizes we want - just have to figure out the type. Pros and cons to each. We have the interior doors picked out, but not the type of wood. We are doing mahoany doors for the exterior doors.

Some good news: the contractor says we will save enough by not doing the roof overlay to do "three kitchens." So, looks like we may end up with new kitchen cabinets too. And, we are going to do a new shower in both bathrooms. We'll do a corner shower in the guest room which will really buy us some space, and are going to do a tiled shower in the master bath.

No progress was made on the interior this week, but i've got some older pictures added to the online gallery for you to peruse, if you want. You can check them out here. Thanks for stopping by :)

Flooring & kitchen counters

The wood here is Hickory, and the granite looking material is a terrazzo like material called Eco Terra. It's made from recycled stone chips from other projects and bound together with a cement like material. The small darker gray material is a similar product, and the black on the right is called Paper Stone. It's actually made out of compressed, recycled paper bonded together with something Eco-friendly. It's really cool and supposedly bullet proof. This is the kind of color palette we are thinking of for the kitchen. All these products are from a local store that only sells environmentally friendly materials. We may not use the Hickory for sure, but we are leaning toward lighter colors like hickory, maple and beech. Maple is nice, but is expensive. We'll see.

I'm calling the contractor tomorrow, and we are committing to the sheet rock ceilings. It just makes the most sense, structurally and economically. Now, lets hope he hasn't come up with some reasons why we shouldn't do them...

Termites

This is a close up of one of the studs in our bathroom. It's the 2x4 that has probably the worst termite damage in the entire house. It feels like cardboard, and you can pretty much crush it with your fingers. Lovely. Fortunately, extreme damage like this was limited. The carpenters continue to make good progress. All the sill plates that needed replacing have been replaced, the closets have new foundations and have been re framed, and the majority of other wood in the house that needed replacing has been replaced. We are going to have the house tented once all the work is done and the furniture is back in place.

We are still trying to figure out which flooring we want, and have changed directions a bit. Now, we are leaning toward something lighter, like Maple, Beech or Hickory. No hurry to make up our minds, but we have plenty of other decisions to make, so it be nice to have this one done.

Also, no decision on the roof. We are going to meet with the contractor and hopefully, he'll have some numbers about rigid insulation vs. the beams & footers vs. sheetrocking (is that a verb?) the ceiling. I think I know which way we are headed...

I have to say, so far we are holding up pretty well. We manage to get the dogs out for walks, are enjoying the deck on our temporary digs, and are encouraged by the quick work the carpenters are making. The decisions are a bit tough, but we can live with that! More and more, I can picture the house when it's done, and it really excites me!