Archive for the ‘projects’ Category

tues a.m. progress report

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

It’s not even 9:30 in the morning as I write this and the giant hole David and Joe drilled out the other day is already filled with concrete. It pays to hire professionals. Who start work at 7:30.

Joe mixes the first batch of concrete while David dampens the hole. I can’t believe I just wrote that…

pr2

The big hole takes the first load. I can’t believe I just wrote that…

pr3

David’s job is to — well, you can look at the pictures and apply your own innuendos…

pr4

pr5

pr6

pr7

And now, coffee break while things harden up. I can’t believe I just wrote that.

FYI: COMMENTING ISSUES ARE FINALLY FIXED! HAVE AT IT.

wknd progress report

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

Yesterday David pulled out the sink cabinet so that it wouldn’t be in the way…

pr_1

Because today he and our good friend Joe, owner/benevolent monarch of Providence Restoration, had a mess to make. They donned their dust and noise gear (that’s Joe paying me not to blog about him)…

joe and david get ready to make dust

And then they removed a big chunk of wall…

pr_wall

And cut a 36″ x 36″ x 18″ hole in the concrete floor in order to make way for a footing for the soon-to-be new column…

pr_drill

pr_x

pr_3

pr_4

pr_5

pr_7

pr_8

Four hours later they found Vito “Fat Fingers” Marietti under the foundation with a perfectly preserved cannoli in his fist…

pr_9

I didn’t get a picture of Vito, sorry. Respect for the cannoli and all that, ya know.

Waiting in the wings are 18 bags of concrete because Tuesday, the boys will mix and pour the footing…

pr_10

And I will likely make another run to Seven Stars in order to ply them with baked goods and lattés.

fri progress report

Friday, February 25th, 2011

UPDATE: In yesterday’s post I reported that David was about to launch into concrete cutting. So exciting. But not so fast. Instead, he’s building walls that aren’t in the plan…

new wall

Support needs to be added to either side of where the new column/footing are going in on the right. You know, so the livingroom above doesn’t crash through. Although it looks like a crazy man is building errant walls in the middle of the room, that’s not actually the case. It’s just necessary construction before the necessary construction. Got that?

A termite update coming as soon as I can get it whipped up!

thurs progress report

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

You’ve seen what the downstairs used to look like. And you’ve seen the plan for what it will look like. So here’s what it looks like today.

The kitchenette cabinets are down. We need a professional to come and deal with the plumbing so we can 86 the lower cabinet now…

kitchen cabinets are down

The sheetrock is all down and the trim is off. In fact, the trim is being picked up right now by some enterprising DIYer who saw our Craigslist posting for it in the “free” section…

the sheetrock and trim are down

The doors are out. Also being picked up by the same Craigslist troller…

the doors have been removed

The hallway seems so much larger without doors…

the hallway seems bigger

Is it too late to put in a bowling lane?

David is hanging plastic to keep the dust from migrating upstairs…

dust prevention

Because next up is concrete cutting so that we can verify for the engineer that there’s actually a footing for the column we want to put in…

concrete floor marked out for cutting

Expect noise. A lot of noise.

scenes from the destruction

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Step into the dust mask zone with me.

All the trim is coming off…

destructomess1

The sheetrock is coming down…

destructomess 4

Kitchen cabinets being pulled out…

destructomess6

My fabulous wallpaper wall…

destructomess2

It came down. *sniff*  *sniff*…

destructomess5

Wait a second… what’s that in the far corner?

uh oh... signs of termites

Ugh. Signs of termites!! Old or recent? We’ll find out tomorrow when New England Pest Control stops by. In the meantime, wood for the construction arrived…

the wood arrives

Hey, termites… LUNCHTIME!

wood at the ready

downstairs: before

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

So. I broke out the plan for downstairs not too long ago but I’ve never given you the tour. My dear, dear friend, invaluable running partner and talented interior photographer Ellen Connery dropped by to capture the mess downstairs before we started tearing it apart.

It’s somewhat embarrassing but why let that stop me from giving you showing you around, right? We tried to make this space somewhat livable knowing it was temporary. Biggify to see the full glory…

downstairs | the vintage file cabs

My vintage file cabs. These I am not embarrassed about. My first ever eBay purchase back in… ’98? Could I have bought something more complicated? I think not. Had to hire movers to get them to Providence but it was worth it. These came from DuPont offices in Delaware. Original paint. We had to stash most of our kitchen items inside and on top because the efficiency kitchen down here is so… inefficient.

We got rid of the goth paint and chose colors that would work with the crazy file cabs. Inches from the cabinets is the kitchen/dining room with David’s grandmother’s Tulip table. Thonet bent ply chairs from the ’50s. That partial wall’s coming down…

downstairs | the wallpaper wall

On the wall: Owl print  from Catherine’s Animals by Catherine Ledner. Black and white wood block (or linoleum, not sure which) prints from the Voices From the Mountains series by Katie Truskoski.

Opposite side of the room…

downstairs | sitting area

A hint of our hand-silkscreened Blackbird wallpaper by Cavern Home in kraft on the wall there. Wool Libre sectional from DWR (the smallest sectional I could find), covered in all-cotton moving blankets so the 6-year-old cannot destroy it. As much. Roost Aluminum Antler Lamp from Velocity Home. Walnut and maple credenza by David.

View down the hall from the couch…

downstairs | the hallway

That interrupting wall is coming out, thank goodness. The tiny 2′ stove is now in use upstairs for the moment. That first door with the paint scraped off it will be the wet bar. And down at the end of the hall…

downstairs | bath

The bathroom. Even Ellen can’t make that look good. Flesh-tone paint. Gross. Soon, this will gain a few more feet. It will still be small but much mo nicer when we’re done with it.

That’s it. Your 5 cent tour has come to an end. Now gimme my nickel and get out! heh heh. Stay tuned for destruction photos.

lipsmacking good

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Am putting together a little something on what the downstairs used to look like. Here’s a taste of what it looks like as of this afternoon…

downstairs

Mmmmm, yum. Dry. Dusty. Cold, cold cement. That’s just an appetizer. More coming!

time to rock

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

After less than two days, the city of Providence has given us the thumbs up!

building permit!

Got the building permit this morning. Remodel officially begins NOW!

I just realized that my very first post on mymodremod was February 1 — exactly one year ago today. What are the odds?!

and now we wait

Friday, January 28th, 2011

So it’s done. David took the architect’s plans and the engineer’s plans to the building department today.

welcome to the providence building dept

Nothing left to do now but wait. And continue to clean out the downstairs, of course. The clock is ticking!

engineering drawings!

Friday, January 28th, 2011

This is the door to our remodel actually happening…

structureswkshp

David can tell you all about it.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *

So. Made a trip over to Structures Workshop to pick up the final drawings from the engineer yesterday. Want to see what engineering drawings look like? Sure you do. (click to biggify)

engdrawing1

engdrawing2

So what does it all mean? We have to put in some pretty hefty wood to carry the loads in our house. That’s the penalty of opening things up. When it’s all said and done we’ll have a column in the downstairs that carries 14,600 pounds!

Loads are divided up into live and dead. Not what you’re thinking. A live load is temporary and moving weight like people, snow, rain, wind, etc. A dead load is the non-moving and non-changing weight of the structure itself and permanent fixtures like furniture, rugs, etc.

We have to verify that the footing shown in the original ’70s drawings actually exists under the downstairs floor slab. If it’s not, this is what Eric Nelson, our engineer, wants to see…

engdrawing3

Not an easy thing to do but without it that column will slowly sink taking the upstairs and the roof with it so….. on to (hopefully) non-destructive footing confirmation. I’ll let you know what I find

The next step is to deliver the drawings to the building department so we can get our permit and start work!