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.

Deconstructing the deck

Wow. It's amazing that something that takes weeks to build can take just a day and a half to deconstruct. Our formerly awesome 22' long by 12' wide deck that attached our tiny 850 SF house to our 10' x 12' backyard "studio" (modern-shed.com) has now been separated into a smaller 9' x 11' low platform deck (tucked behind the studio for our future BBQ and summer lounge area) and a neat, tarp-covered stack of redwood to be used in the construction of a new deck that we will build off the back of our about to be expanded house.
Mike and I forgot about all of the huge chunks of concrete that we hid under the deck as we built the framework 3 years ago. More for our contractors to carry away after they jackhammer the rest of the old concrete landing (also hiding under the deck).

Oh, the pre-project projects!

The “pre-project” project had two purposes. One was to get rid of our water inefficient lawn and replace it with an abundance of cactus and succulents. The other was to give some of my favorite plants from the backyard a new home in front because we were expanding the house over the area where they previously lived. So on Valentines Day weekend Mike and I built forms and poured concrete each day until late into the night (he’s a camera man so we used his “movie lights” to keep the front yard lit while we poured concrete in the dark). The very next weekend we moved the plants and placed the DG, rocks, and gravel. I moved plants, added more succulents and rocks, and fussed with the layout over the next several weekends before we called it done and installed a micro-irrigation kit that I bought online (we were just finishing this outside as the 7.2 Mexicali earthquake rocked the ground for a while).

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.