Spring Clean-Up

It felt like spring yesterday so we spent some time in the yard.  Our side gardens, which flank the patio, have been overrun with weeds and invading grass so while we were cutting back the grasses and flowers and trimming the shrubs, we went ahead and put down landscape fabric.  Hopefully it will kill off the weeds and then we can throw mulch over it later this season.  In another couple of weeks, weather permitting, we'll start tackling the front of the house, where we need to tear up the old walkway, lay in the new pavers, and regrade the yard.  There will be lots of work to do but we're looking forward to getting outside again!

Concrete (and back) breaking

We're getting back into the construction routine here after a bit of a lull - and spent Saturday tearing up more of the basement floor with a 60 lb. jackhammer to get ready to install drains for the full bathroom and add a sump pump.  Regular blog readers may remember the Flood of Fall 2011, when our basement was inundated with water after several days of heavy rain.  Most of the problem was caused by the other hole we had already opened up in the floor to move the main plumbing stack but we also had some very small leaks from a couple of cracks in the concrete walls.  We think it was just a fluke issue - our neighbors reported 30 years of dry basements preceding this one storm - but it seems worth it to install an insurance policy in the form of a sump pump just in case.  Breaking concrete is no easy task and Brian handled about 95% of the jackhammer work (after letting me try my hand at it for awhile and declaring my progress to be too slow!) while I was in charge of collecting and hauling away of the concrete chunks.  We now have about a dozen heavy bags of concrete to feed into the Arlington trash system over the next several weeks.  We'll tackle some more work around the house today but will probably take it a little bit easy as well - I feel like yesterday was enough hard labor for one weekend!     

(No) Snow Day

View of our backyard - these small traces of snow shut the city down today

Old wall

New wall with door framed

Old wall

New wall, with extra framing

We had an unexpected day off today when the threat of snow shut the city down (but unfortunately, very little snow actually materialized) and took advantage of the opportunity to do some work on the first floor bathroom.  With most of the electric done, it's time to tackle the two remaining bathrooms and get started on the plumbing but first, we needed to fir out the wall to accomodate the HVAC and drains and create a new doorway for the bathroom.  The old bath had the door in the hallway but we're changing the orientation so that it will now be en suite with the new bedroom/den.  Not a big project but one that's good to get done.

Lights...but not much action

We're here!  I hadn't quite realized how long it had been since we posted until I looked at the prior post's date and saw that it's been almost a month - oops!  Brian has been working on running the electric and we have the lights up in the basement and new rooms on the first floor now but we also took the last 11 days off for a wonderful vacation - four days in Istanbul before hopping over to Delhi to celebrate my friend's amazing three day wedding.  We're a bit jetlagged now and working our way through a significant pile of laundry but we'll get back to the house construction next weekend - with more posts, more regularly, to follow.

Walls and Wires

New wall with window framed in

More walls

And yet more walls, with new lights behind it

Old basement section without walls

And same section but with new walls and more lights!

We missed posting last weekend but we're here!  We've been working away at framing in the basement and are close to finished for the moment so Brian has started wiring up new lights and circuits.  It certainly is handy to be able to install electric when and where we want it!  The basement will be open for the most part (we're thinking pool table and media room) but we'll also have a full bath as well.  As has become a bit of a pattern around here, we were happy with the bathroom layout on the original plans but when it came time to start building it, we reconsidered.  As a result, we spent a good deal of time last weekend rethinking the bathroom location and layout.  After a few hours of talking it through and a number of draft drawings, we finally figured out a layout we like and got the new walls up.  Next step, renting a jackhammer to take up more of the concrete floor to run the bathroom drains.  We may tackle that next weekend and then we'll have to replace the concrete and build the last few walls.  Followed by more electric and a whole lot of plumbing.  In short, we're not closing these walls in anytime soon but every day brings a little more progress!

Winders n walls

Pretty sure I bought these windows over a year ago. Not sure why we didn't install them sooner, but they needed to get done before we framed that section of the basement. We only put in a half day of work today, but two windows completely installed and some more framing ain't too shabby! The big opening in the framing is where we are going to put our giant tv when it's finished. We wanted to squeeze a little more room out of the finished space but didn't want to do a full bulkhead down the length of the wall.

New vents

Before picture with vents in the center of the basement

After picture with vents moved to the far wall

Start of framing in basement

We're back to the non-photogenic part of construction as we move the mechanical around and continue with framing.  Having done a fair bit of HVAC in the early stages of this project, we decided to call in two guys we've worked with before to relocate and install new runs and vents for the basement and first floor.  Although it's a bit hard to see in the photos, the old main vent used to run right down the center of the basement.  The height of the room with the vent was around 6'4" - by moving the run to the wall, the ceiling height throughout the basement will be closer to 7'2" even once we put in the ceiling and carpet.  While it's still a basement, the extra height makes a big difference in how it feels so we figured it was worth the extra work.  The timing worked out well too, as I came down with a winter cold this weekend so my "contribution" consisted mainly of staying out the way the past two days while Brian took down old electric and planned for new and helped the guys out with the installation.  They finished everything up today and we started with the first wall framing in the basement.  Still a good bit of framing to do but we'll get back to it next weekend!