Yay! Mud!

Great news - we passed our inspections today (drywall, shower hot-mop, and exterior lath). That means that Mike and I did an acceptable drywall job in the dining room - and actually, we were complimented by the crew that helped us hang the final drywall in the master bed and bath yesterday. They were impressed that a couple of gringo kids did such a good job. Anyhow, we are cleared to mud and tape now and the stucco crew can begin the scratch coat tomorrow. Before we can get the taper on board we have a little work to do this Friday. We have to take off the Hardibacker in the shower and install a waterproof membrane on the studs, then reinstall the Hardi. Also, we need to finish chiseling out the old hardwood floor from the closet (now hallway) and old bathroom entry before we can hang the doors to the existing bathroom and new bedroom. I can hardly wait. A sheet of sheer plastic is not very good for bathroom privacy! Speaking of bathrooms, the new skylight in the old bathroom is fantastic. It's shaft is about 8' long so the light is filtered and indirect by the time it hits the area below. Because of this, its not the best replacement of natural light for the old shower window so I think I'm going to have to install a recessed can above the tub. The awesome part about the operable skylight is that the steam goes straight up and out rather than hang around and fog up all the mirrors. I took a scalder last night and no fog!

Rough

I've taken a little break from the blog (Thurs and Friday last week) because there really wasn't any work done to write about other than Sal taking some surplus lumber back to the yard for a credit. Saturday was a working day for our electrician Ron and he got to town working on the rough electrical scope. One thing that I learned that I didn't know (due to my lack of residential experience) was that you need to have an outlet every 6 feet in a room. Let's just say we have a LOT more outlets now that originally planned. I hope the inspector doesn't count them since there are lots more than the handful that I pulled a permit for! Dennis, our plumber is on site today getting his rough plumbing done. I had to run to the house on my lunch break to get one of the valves he needed out of the garage. Go Dennis! The goal is to get the rough electrical, plumbing, and framing inspected this week before the City's closure this Friday and the Memorial Day holiday.

Ready for the Roofer

I neglected to update the blog yesterday since I went out for drinks with my coworkers yesterday evening and didn't get home until it was too dark to take any photos. Between yesterday and today the guys completed the roof sheathing and will be ready for a roof nail inspection on Tuesday morning (bummer since you have to call the City for an inspection one day prior... and Lakewood is closed this Friday meaning they can't call until Monday for an inspection on Tuesday). Anyhow, we are much further along and we can actually have the exterior doors and windows installed on Monday, allowing us to have a fully enclosed envelope that is secure. The next step will be the demo of the walls between the existing house and new. It's going to be NUTS trying to keep the house clean after that point regardless of how much visquine we hang! On another note, I got the plumbing fixtures today (the faucets for tubs/showers) and the mosaic tile samples. We also got the new shingle samples (I had narrowed it down to three colors) yesterday so I put them on the roof over the garage and stood outside with Mike with our coffees this morning while we analyzed each sample until we had consensus. I wish we could have used a standing seam metal roof but due to budget and the City wanting us to "keep with the same style" we acquiesced and went with the 30 year asphalt shingle roof. For those that don't know about asphalt shingles, the 30 year is top-of-the line and has a higher profile than the old super crappy ones on our existing roof. I wanted to keep the roof as light as possible (lighter roof = cooler roof = energy saving) but the lightest color had an almost bluish tint which looked terrible with the green color of our house. The mid-range grey looked perfect so that's what we went with. Our roof (old and new) is fully insulated so it should work just fine.

California Roof

Since I'm not really that familiar with Type V construction (residential) I had yet to see a "California Roof" connection until today. Kind of interesting since in my mind you would peel the roof back and tie into the existing rafters. But not with the Cal roof... you just frame and connect right into the existing roof. Simple way to go! Anyhow, here's a couple of photos of what it looks like. Also its cool to see where they did cut the roof to start framing out for the new (and operable!) skylight in our existing bathroom. The addition of a skylight will be so nice since we will loose the window due to the addition AND will keep us from needing a bathroom ceiling fan.

Should we do it?

Welcome to our “daily diary” to document the progress of our house expansion. Our sweet little 1950’s stucco box is only 815 SF (2 bed/1 bath) and is about to become 1305 SF with the addition of a new master bedroom/bath and dining room. We would have loved to go even bigger but kept the size of the expansion to just under 500 SF to avoid additional taxes and fees that the City’s planning department would have imposed. This project is all about economy (of energy use, size and cost) and any additional costs outside our budget would have made it a bust.

My husband Mike and I are avid DIY enthusiasts, helping to save quite a bit of money with the work we plan to do. We do, however, have an awesome GC on board to complete the biggies (foundation, framing, roofing, electrical and plumbing rough-in) while we are at work all day – and to handle the multiple inspections. Mike and I will take over from them starting with drywall installation through fittings and finishes. We’ve had lots of experience with construction since we have completely remodeled the existing house (and did a ton of work to our rental condo) so we are fairly prepared. It also helps that I have an architectural/design background and manage the sustainable design and construction of commercial projects for a living. Although, everything I have heard is true. Residential is NOT anything like commercial construction.

With some great pointers from a friend who does lots of residential remodels and expansions, I created my construction docs and reviewed them with the City planning and building department for the first time on October 31, 2009. There was a lot of back-and fourth with minor changes to my drawings and then I hit a wall. I had to get my roof slop design approved by the Design Review Board before I could move any further since Planning wouldn’t allow me to do something that differed from the existing roof slope. The DRB only meets twice a month so timing had to be just right to submit my case and set the date/time. Luckily for me they were cool folks with common sense and let me have my way (after asking me lots and lots of questions about my not-so radical design intent). Needless to say, on December 18th I received plan check approval after my final over-the-counter review. There was no need to pull the permit until I was ready to start. We had only begun to interview contractors and had a lot more money to save while we waited.