Now that the framing and roofing are almost completely finished, the project takes on a considerably more internal feel to it. The energy in the addition this last week or so has had a lot to do with three main things: plumbing, electrical, and final framing issues. My esteemed general contractor, Pete LaRoque, has just about gotten us ready for a framing inspection, and that's meant buttoning up some outstanding pieces of the general structure (building the wall and pocket door frame for the laundry room, completing the small set of steps when you enter the main upstairs bathroom). The photograph on the right with this paragraph is from Thursday afternoon. If you compare it with a shot from today (Saturday), it might be hard at first to see what's different. But, look more closely, and you'll notice some fascia board that might not have been there before, and perhaps a roof vent or two for the plumbing:
Pete and his crew finished out the week by tackling the thorny issues (lots of figurin' was involved!) with creating the small bit of roofing over the eating nook bay. To go along with the other two single-story bays on the house (like the one for the dining room, to the left of it), he has to create three separate planes in a poetic symphony of style and design. Knowing when it should be cut at a 51-degree angle on a 33 and five-sixteenths length of 2 x 8, and when not to, was the post-lunch joy of the guys as their week wound down.
You can see from this next picture that all the roofing has now been almost totally completed on the back half of the house (just have to finish the small bay roof). Next week, we should have enough clear days so that Pete can get the front half of the roof also replaced. I wish the light had been a bit better in this picture to really show how the two halves differ, but you can certainly spot the problem areas up around the chimney on the front half, and I'll be mighty happy to see that fixed:
Other fun things related to framing... This first shot attempts to give you some sense of the new attic space over the new 2nd floor bathrooms. Look, the house has a huge, spacious attic, and now that the crew has built this and opened it up, it makes me chomp at the bit to also finish out that area. Not that the house isn't roomy enough as it is, but what a heckuva space for entertainments! There could be big indoor movie nights, a pool table, and surely an arcade game or two. I'd better work a lot more on the road before I'll be able to make that happen, though.
This next shot gives you the view looking down onto the southwest guest bathroom. Closest to you in the foreground, with the yellow extension cord, is where the pedestal tub will go in the main bathroom. Then, beyond the wall, you'll see the shower on the right, with an angled doorway, and at the far wall under the window is where the toilet will go. A door will be cut in from that back bedroom, up at the far left.
Most of the pictures I've taken from the sides of the house don't really show the ridge that joins the back wall of the new bathrooms to the roof system over the kitchen complex, so this is looking out the huge attic window directly down onto it. Kind of neat, if you ask me.
Plumbing. In an earlier post, I lamented the struggle of choosing all these darned plumbing fixtures in a house with nine new sinks. It occurred to me this week that I'm also going to have eight showerheads (two of those are hand-held). Reckon my thinking in the planning process was all wet? In a posting from November, I had a picture of the upstairs hallway after the attic stairs had been removed, and you may remember seeing there the pedestal tub that we've salvaged from the former upstairs main bathroom. To get it to work in the new main upstairs bathroom, my plumber had me order a new faucet kit for it. That was just over nine hundred smackers, and it's not entirely just because it is a specialty item. Do any of my dear readers know what decent plumbing fixtures will run you? Gracious sakes.
So the plumbing crew has been drilling, routing, connecting, and testing the supply, drain, and venting lines. One good thing, I suppose, is that the main part of the house had no plumbing to speak of, except for the small added-in bathroom upstairs that provides current toilet and showering facilities and that will be removed when this is all done. So all plumbing will be brand-spanking new and I'm sure it's a lot easier on them to route all of it. It's also a bit fascinating to watch.
A confession: it's also somewhat worrying to reveal some of the tendencies toward decadence in this project, but you might as well see the roman tub that's going in the master bathroom. My architect Sam Binkley has set it into its own sort of alcove with a nice big window looking in on it. The first two shots are after the platform around it was framed but without the tub cut into it; the third shot shows the tub, with me leering over it. Hope that allows some perspective. I ordered the biggest one I could find. It's just a good old soaking tub...no jacuzzi mess here!
The tub in the northwest guest bathroom has also now been installed, as shown here on the right. Those three upstairs bathrooms have their own special configurations: the northwest one has a shower-tub; the main middle one has a separate large shower and the pedestal tub on opposite sides; and the southwest bathroom has just a good-sized shower. Here's a shot looking down on the main upstairs bathroom shower space, as seen from the attic space above it:
Electrical. Finally, a brief word about the other element that got started in a blaze of furious activity on Friday morning: the wiring. The electrician's crew was already well on its way before I even got my coat pulled on to go out and meet that sub-contractor. We did the very cold 30-some-degrees walk around to try to nail down where light switches and outlets and fixtures and connections should be...I'm glad I'd mostly done my homework on this. But here are a couple of shots... The first shows the gray receptacle and lightswitch boxes and wiring that popped up on the studs, and the second shows the overhead recessed cans for the master shower.
1 comment:
Whew!
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