April 6, 2009

The End is Nigh

On my last reno blog entry, bkny asked:

“Ok, so denton, this basement is a true basement as in a cellar? and not as in a ground floor/1st floor/garden level? i am guessing that by the looks of the small windows. Can you recap your floor plan/layout? i think it's great to have an extra bathroom in the basement/cellar? it could be a guest suite.”

Since we’re about done, let me re-cap. The house is a 16' x 66' semi-detached house, South Slope/GH. C of O as a two family although we are using as a one family. Two stories, plus basement which is probably 2/3 underground. Half of the basement we plan to use as a library, the other half is storage/laundry/boiler. We didn’t want to put a bathroom in the basement from the beginning, didn’t want the extra scrutiny. What the hell, we have a slop sink, right? But seriously we may put a toilet down there once the permit is closed out.

The second floor has the master bedroom, large walk-thru closet/dressing room, very large master bath, a office/computer room for me that also just happens to be the 2nd family kitchen right now, and another room that is my wife’s room/guest bedroom.

The first floor has a large living room, a small bathroom, the main kitchen, and a formal dining room, which opens onto the patio/garden.

We closed on the house at the end of 2007, and have been renovating ever since (a complete gut). We figured three months optimum, six months worst case, and here we are. All we have left is our own cosmetic work, and the stair railings. But much of that time was spent waiting for permits, drawings, and inspections. Probably six months of actual work.

However, to my great disgust, again, we have not passed the final plumbing inspection, which was gas pressure test, and finish. This particular inspector hates to leave without something. The gas pressure passed, and the finish passed. When the plumber showed up at the beginning, he pointed out that some of the gas unions did not meet code, and he replaced them all. But for some reason, one length of old gas pipe was not replaced. Even though it passed the pressure test, the inspector failed it because, don’t laugh, it was PAINTED. Not now, maybe twenty years ago. There was more rust than paint, but since it was connected to new pipe, the inspector stated that ALL the pipe had to be up to code. I happen to have a photo here, it’s the middle pipe.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022952
I certainly don’t have a problem seeing that pipe replaced, in fact it was silly and penny-pinching for the plumber not to have replaced it, since all the other plumbing was replaced.

The same inspector failed the boiler last time he was here, incorrectly. I should have been here to argue the point, but wasn’t. (Big mistake! Always attend the inspections, because the contractors seem more interested in being nice to the inspector for future jobs than standing up for their existing paying client.) I had to send an engineer to the DOB to get the objection overturned. Another lie I was told, is that once the objection for the boiler was overturned, the inspector will not touch the boiler again. Didn’t phase this guy, he was right back at it. After asking a highly technical question that proved he really didn’t know much about these new mod/con boilers, and I got my installer on the phone to answer, he kept up about something else, and I battled him for at least fifteen minutes. Ultimately successfully, I might add.

But the upshot is that I still am looking at this *&^%&% second floor kitchen, an ancient stove connected to a gas pipe to which the service has been shut off, and a rickety sink for which I have absolutely no use. While my file cabinet and stuff sits in the hallway waiting for the next inspection to be over.

Meanwhile, we have vanished the stairs to the second floor.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022955

And to the basement:
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022937
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022938
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022941

Therefore, the basement is done! (Well, almost. The pipe chaise was left open due to the inspection, so we will have to close that up ourselves after the gas pipe is replaced. ). We were able to unwrap our good bookcases, and set up a lil’ ‘reading area’, complete with a cheap Arts and Crafts rug from Lowes. This coming weekend, I have a truck on reserve and my kids from Da Bush lined up to move our library from storage into the house, which will reduce our overhead by $250 a month. Here’s the main area.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022940

The basement was the last major dust-producing process to be done, so we were able to lay out our rugs, and most importantly, install the turntable so we can hear music the way it was intended, as an analog waveform not a chopped salad. And the crew chief agrees, of course after screwing up the blinds. (That wall is not yet painted).
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022943

To recap, our GC had given us a price to do the basement that was unacceptable, given our finances, of 20k (he later claimed that was for the WHOLE basement and the half that we did was only 11k). We then thought we would scale down our ambitions, and maybe do some of the work ourselves, and do it cheap. So we asked the Brownstoner community for advice about stripping and painting the walls, and we heard from another contractor, Shane Deary. We liked what we heard so we asked him to stop by. He offered to sheetrock, tape, and insulate the walls, epoxy the floor, rock but not tape the ceiling, and build frames for the windows. And install the needed doors as well as replace the rotten door to the outside with a new metal door. He quoted us 8k, and he did a great job, speedy and well done (he’s a carpenter by trade). We are very pleased with the results. We taped the ceiling, added vinyl baseboard, and painted. Some pix:
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022935
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022944
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022946
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022947
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022949
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022951
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/111022957
Shane’s email is smdconstruction@gmail.com. We like him.

All we have left is the handrails (report to follow), the last plumbing inspection, painting, hanging pictures, touch ups of various kinds, and that’s it. Then again I get the feeling that a house is never done.

Posted by denton at 8:07 PM | Comments (15)

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