It's distorted because I am nearly all the labor, but for this room, entry hall and the family room about $60K in materials. That includes everything needed to rebuild the floor and structure below it, doors (ordering 5 because there's a price break at that point but only three are in this area), and the dehumidifier that serves the whole house. I still don't have actual numbers for the cabinets yet but $20K is budgeted for that. Appliances are $15K but we already have a nearly new fridge.

I honestly have no clue what it would all run if we had to find a designer and contractor to handle this. Between the two areas it's a bit over 1,000 sq ft.

quote:

---

There's a 16 foot LVL running through the middle of the room that will be staying. I'll have to find a way to make it look nice.

---

Clad it with a finish wood, stain, and poly it. You can easily make it look like this beam in my living room:



That's a solid doug fir beam, but you can easily find boards and put them up to make it look like that. Mine was rough-hewn when I bought the house. I've sanded it, applied a danish oil finish, and then a couple coats of satin polyurethane.

(And no, my christmas tree is not still 'up', it's just waiting to go back in it's box.)

That's exactly what I was thinking about doing.

I meant 16 inch tall LVL, but the exposed portion is easily that length too. Where would wood to cover it up come from - probably a local lumberyard? I don't think the nearest friendly big box sells anything that wide/long.

[This message has been edited by The Fife (edited 1/13/2014 1:15p).]

You could probably find rolled veneers to fit pretty easily online. For actual lumber, you'd need to check with your local yard or use something without a distinguished grain.

We've got wood.

quote:

---

Where would wood to cover it up come from - probably a local lumberyard? I don't think the nearest friendly big box sells anything that wide/long.

---

You might have to drive for it. I'd look for a local specialty lumberyard or order it online.

In my case, in College Station, I go into Clark's in Houston usually when I need something that's not offered locally.

Today was a HUGE day. First there was a framing party.


Then we went to go get the wife a car and here's where we ended up at the end of the day...

View towards the kitchen:


Looking at the peninsula and breakfast area:


And from the kitchen side:


More from the kitchen




Looking towards the entertainment center


Words can't describe the huge change between now and a couple of days ago, let alone before things started. The area no longer feels claustrophobic and the size of the space feels proportional now. Beforehand it was a big, low cave.

Tomorrow the framers finish everything up. 2x8s are going in to sister up the rafters for support. It's designed to be strong enough for solar panels since the roof faces the southwest. Also we may have a deck on the roof at some point because there's a great view of the river and downtown Charleston from up there.

Once they're done it's up to me now to finish everything. There's a lot more work to do now that the bottleneck is opened up so progress should be a lot faster now.

[This message has been edited by The Fife (edited 1/14/2014 6:35p).]

wait, you went to get a wife car and you ended up with a half-torn up kitchen?

Think you got the wrong end of that deal.



Looks good. Can't wait to see the finished product.

~egon

Sweet!

Your wife looks amazed by the change.

Thanks, she and I were both surprised. When we left the LVL was starting to go in and on the way home she and I were talking about all the wood in the living room I was going to need to clean up and get out of there that evening. I expected it to be halfway done, still shored and looking like a huge mess so it was not what we were expecting.

I still need to figure out the location of the A/C registers that are now homeless + a couple of returns that are going in but will probably do that on another thread since that's a separate issue. If I can get that and the lighting squared away I'll be able to drywall up the holes around the perimeter of the room and close that area back up.

how the heck do you find time to do all this with a normal job?

You just do it... it helps that I go in early, get off work around 2:30 and have about a 10 minute commute. Yesterday I worked for about 4 hours replacing 3 more joists and demoing out the hardwood and subfloor for another two.

I'm starting to tear out areas that are a lot more solid now - I'm actually able to walk on the subfloor after removing the hardwood flooring without fear of falling through. If I'm lucky I may only have to sister in new wood on the yard-facing side of the center beam through this room instead of replacing it all.

Getting off work before the unions explains it.

I can get off early too, and I get an extra/required day off every third week due to our oncall rotation. But I still work an 8 hour day most days (usually 10-12 if I don't have something else to do...)

It still takes an admirable amount of motivation to get yourself up off the couch when you get home and do heavy lifting. Then you go to bed and get up early and do it all over again.

I work M-F 6 to 2:30 but leave at 4 on Monday because I have staff to run, and two weekends on / 1 weekend off from 5 to 1:30. Mondays we get together with a bunch of other people our age and Friday is date night except when some other kind of get together is going on. I'll wrap up building or researching whatever detail needs to be figured out (doors... Casing... How high should the stub out for the kitchen drain be...) around 7-8 most days and the rest of the day is time to relax.

Except for this evening, we're checking out this beach bar around the corner that just opened up.

Construction related... I'll be framing the peninsula completely from scratch this evening. Termites to up the framing back there. No big deal. A new drain is going in because the original copper line wasn't sloped right and it's corroded from buildup.

This weekend was a fun one. The wiring for the family room ran over the ceiling that's no longer there so I had to find a way to relocate it. I thought I was going to have to fish a lot of new wire but instead of doing that I was able to route in channels in the rafters for the wiring to go through. Next was the a/c ducts. The two registers taking the place of the three that were in the ceiling were pretty easy to deal with but the duct I had to lengthen and reroute through the remaining attic was a nightmare. In order to get to the register I had to cut holes between rafters through the old roof and then crawl through one of them to get to the area where the register is so I could retrieve the duct. Headroom there is about 24 inches. Bad times, but it's done now.

I still need to frame the two new returns and cut more holes through the old roof where the ducts will go but other than that I'm finished with any rework caused by the ceiling going away.

This week's to do list is mostly to get started on long lead time items. The cabinets will probably take 4-6 weeks and I waited on ordering them just to make sure no surprises came up with the wall removal that forced a design change. I also need to get the flooring ordered because that needs to be in + two coats of finish before cabinets can be put in place. Doors will also be important soon. This is the design we like most:
http://modernhomeluxury.com/Dominika-Interior-Door-Wenge-Finish-ID-004.htm

So far we like this hardware best:


Other than that this week I'll mostly be working on the peninsula and all the plumbing and electrical that go along with that. I'm debating how to add an outlet to the column, whether I'll need to build out so a box will fit or if there is some other solution like putting in an outlet that pops up on the countertop perhaps?

[This message has been edited by The Fife (edited 1/20/2014 6:43a).]

quote:

---

Other than that this week I'll mostly be working on the peninsula and all the plumbing and electrical that go along with that. I'm debating how to add an outlet to the column, whether I'll need to build out so a box will fit or if there is some other solution like putting in an outlet that pops up on the countertop perhaps?

---

If the popup style is what I'm thinking it is, I'd advise against that for a kitchen countertop. No matter how flush you get the edges, food will get caught in the outlet, plus if a liquid is spilled, that could cause more issues. I think I'd box the column, myself.

This is the style I was thinking of - they have a gasket around the part that pops up and between the receptacle and countertop. There are a few types to choose from.

http://www.cupboardsonline.com/2012/01/genius-moment-carlon-pop-up-receptacle.html

Putting an outlet in the column would be easy but I think it would double it in width in order to accommodate the wall box and another framing member outside of it.

Ok, not the style I was thinking it was. Looks like that one would be ok.

that's a pretty spiffy looking popup. i was thinking it was something like i would find in my office conference rooms.

The peninsula is framed in now and its electrical work is almost complete. There will be an outlet in there for SABC #2 near the end that I still need to figure the details out for. Besides that all that's needed is to drill holes and plumb in the drain, then I can drywall it. SABC #2 is the last circuit to be added for the kitchen but there are still a few more details like pendant lighting that have to be taken care of before the electrical work is complete.

I'm also trying to get in touch with the cabinet and insulation companies that were recommended to me by the builder across the street but they're slow to respond. I have a feeling that cabinets will be the next big delay we run into but that's still a while from now.

I really like the unfinished plywood look for the flooring. You should totally keep it like that!

~egon

I agree with Doc Doc. Your choice of the blue electrical boxes really compliments the unfinished plywood decor. Modern, yet rugged.

When we refinanced last spring I seriously thought about staining the plywood in the entry hall... I ended up chickening out and put down some cheap linoleum remnant instead.

If you are still deciding on the counter outlet, they make slim wall boxes, so you'd only need to add 1.5" plus whatever sheathing.

Interesting... ideally I'd be able to mount it in the column and keep the up to $400 that it would cost to do a pop up outlet. I'll ask the CE their opinion about whether some or all of it could be installed in the actual column. 1.5" would probably be doable though.

Weekend update... I managed to finish off the vapor barrier under the part of the family room I had to dig out the old patio from. The center beam is also built and raised into position. I'm having to do a lot of rework with all joists I installed in this room because of the way the addition was built.

The sill underneath the double doors continues about 7 feet into the family room and joists hang off both sides of it. Another center beam picks up about a foot over from where that one ends and carries through the center of the rest of the addition. At that location the two beams are not level with each other; they're maybe 1/4-1/2 inch off. I don't think it's from anything settling unless it happened very early on in the construction because there are double doors and a window in the area and they both work fine, and there are no indications in the drywall or ceiling of anything either.

When I started replacing joists from the kitchen into this room I had no idea that the beam I was attaching things to wasn't level with the rest of the room because nothing else was exposed yet, and it's difficult for me to tell 1/4 inch from 15 feet away. The beam I added yesterday under the center of the joists I replaced, in addition to exposing the right side of the family room and finding the other center beam from the addition pointed out where the problem was. The good news is, it's easy enough to remove the joists from the low end, add a shim at the joist hanger and re-nail it. And maybe we'll get a snow day on Wednesday that I can use to catch up with.

I am disappoint.

You can't tell a 1/4" drop from 15' away? ALL of the regulars on H.I. can!

Good luck with the flooring. My only experience with that was a crazy landlord who wanted to cut a 12" 100+ year old beam under his rental house to solve a 1/4" drop over 20' span. Oh and he had recently leveled his house, so it was more of his own failure in leveling.

~egon

I'm nearly finished straightening everything out now. Yesterday evening I moved a couple more joists up and shot some frickin laser levels around the room, and confirmed the higher beam I mentioned is the same exact height as the sill for the old rear wall and the (exposed) perimeter of the family room. I have no idea how this managed to get screwed up - the two beams sit on top of the same pier. This is 2002 construction, not the old days.



All of this was completely impossible to tell beforehand because the hardwood was in poor condition and the previous owners had a massive marble topped bar in the part of the room I've already reworked that deflected the joists, plus the other joists were in generally lousy condition and not level with each other anyway. The previous ones had a pool table in the area to the right of where I took these pictures. Maybe that also had something to do with it.



Either way today I'll finish leveling out the new joists, get the subfloor in the area surrounding the peninsula and finish wiring up SABC #2. Cabinets have been a challenge lately because no one seems to be able to get horizontally oriented veneer. I'd like to another cabinet maker but I doubt they're at work today because the whole Charleston area is under about 1" of ice. There isn't a lot going on today aside from one of the neighbors loading up his golf cart with kids and spinning around on the ice covered streets.

I hope he's got an umbrella policy!

Welp, sounds like you need to buy a pool table and marble-topped bar.