South Slope Reno

Stair Rails

2009-05-10T16:22:28Z

Other than the final plumbing inspection, which is still bedeviling us, the stair rails that we had installed here are the last piece of this renovation. In between, we’ve laid on a few more coats of varnish to the stairs to the basement, as well as to the second floor. Our GC could not find anyone to do these kinds of rails (he’s a bit old-school) so we ran into Rich and his dad at Luna Welding ( www.lunawelding.com ). Rich is more than a contractor, he’s also an artist working in metals, and his dad is a carpenter. Rich came over and we all discussed the myriad options in posts, rails, and materials (there is a ton of choices) so as always we decided to keep it as simple as possible. Polished steel hardware (sprayed with a sealant to prevent rust), stainless steel cable, and an oak handrail to match the stairs. The price was $6600. Rich showed up with his crew in a few days and put in the posts, then came back a few days later and finished the job. He even took care of varnishing the railing for us. We’re happy with the results. Finished product above and here: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358898 A couple of more first floor shots: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358913 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358899 And a couple of shots from the second floor: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358901 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358902 And some shots my wife took during the process: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358897 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358903 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358905 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358912 During this process we were able to get all our artwork up on the walls, so it’s really feeling like home. The AC guy came by to charge the unit for the first floor, just in time for those 90 degree days, and, we’ve got our library unpacked and put away. Since I haven’t had the luxury of having it all in one place for a number of years, we took advantage of CraigsList to grab a few Billy bookcases locally. Here are some shots of the completed basement library. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358907 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358908 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358909 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358910 (We can’t close the pipe chaise until the final plumbing inspection) In a couple of weeks I’ll do a final post, detailing the screw-ups we made and things we should have done differently, and that will be it! Time to go back to reading.

The End is Nigh

2009-04-07T00:07:16Z

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.

Getting to the basement

2009-03-12T21:31:39Z

Well! The day before I was supposed to cash my refund check, twenty-seven weeks after I ordered them, the shower doors showed up from Brooklyn Kitchens. And they look pretty good, we think. (Although the master bath has a leak at a seam, so a service call will be in order). http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124471 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124457 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124474 Downstairs bath here. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124475 Meanwhile if you’ve been following along, you recall that the stairs to the second floor were too short, and didn’t completely make the platform. This was solved by putting a ‘box’ at the top of the stairs and pushing them forward. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124473 As we come to an end, one of the biggest nightmares has been the amount of dust that just doesn’t stop. I’ve realized that the basement ceiling, sheet rocked in 1968 and with many holes, has been capturing dust and debris for decades, as well as new stuff from the renovation. We decided that whether or not we had the money to do some basement finishing, the ceiling had to go. This is a perfect project for a homeowner to do to save money; not difficult or technical, just dirty, dusty, and time consuming. But we got it all down and out in the space of a few weeks. Here’s the space with the ceiling as was. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124481 I’ve taken a couple of shots of ceiling pieces as they came down, to show what was sitting on top of them. Nasty! http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124477 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/110124476 The worst spot was below where the old kitchen and bath were. The plumbing had leaked for years, the joists had to be replaced there, but they had tried to reinforce it by nailing boards under the plumbing and filling in with cindacrete. That was vile getting down. Getting rid of the debris was timed to not call any attention to ourselves. Everything went into black plastic bags, but nothing too heavy. Two bags in front of our house, and two bags in front of a just-converted rental with no tenants a few doors down. One sometimes up the block mixed in with trash from a larger apt building. Twice a week for a few weeks and no problems. We’ve now come to the point where we have to decide what to do about the basement. As avid readers and book collectors, our library is about three thousand volumes. In our previous coop, we had space for about half, and the balance was in a storage place, which is now up to $250 per month. Our plan was to turn half of the basement (500 sft or so) into a library, but only if that would not put books at risk. (The other half is boiler, storage, tools, etc.). We are two blocks from the highest point in Brooklyn, and we have been here fifteen months without the slightest whiff of mold, mildew, sewage, or water. We have done calcium chloride tests on the concrete floor, and moisture tests on the walls (thx smokychimp for that suggestion). We seem to be as dry as can be. And frankly I’d be equally afraid to try and pack a library in an upper floor of a small house without reinforcing the floor. At the same time, we are pretty broke after this reno. We asked our GC for a price to ‘rock walls and ceiling, and tile the floor as cheaply as possible. His price was $19,000. That was very discouraging as we really can’t swing that right now. We decided to see if we could do it ourselves, maybe with friends, maybe just stripping and painting the walls, so we asked for some advice about the walls. http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2009/02/what_to_do_abou_4.php#comments Thanks to that post, a contractor had an interesting suggestion, and we invited him over to take a look. To make a long story short, he quoted us less than half of what our GC did, which is manageable, and we retained him to start. Please see http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/basement for a series of pix on progress. Naturally our GC was not happy, altho he didn’t express it. But he did say, yesterday, that his office person had made a mistake and that the 19k was for the WHOLE basement. The HALF that we wanted was 11k. He would have got the job for that, but, that’s not what we remember.

The Stair Issue

2009-02-20T18:32:57Z

The bad news is that things have come to a screeching halt because my GC had to go into the hospital for a new heart valve and a couple of stents, and the day before he fell off a ladder (not here) and shattered his kneecap. The good news is that we are so close to the end that we are living comfortably, with only the stairs having serious issues. And we need railings shortly thereafter. Also, we were able to arrange a final inspection from our PE, who will sign off everything subject to stairs and railings being finished. THAT means we were able to get rid of the second floor kitchen, thank goodness, and turn it into my office. For the last few months, my computer stuff has been hooked up in the unheated basement, gathering tons of dust to boot. I’ve already had to replace two case fans and a WD Raptor HD, all failing, I presume, because of dust. I took the computer over to Park Slope Computers, on 19th and Prospect, and they did a great job cleaning it out, before I moved it up. Cleaning out my printers and scanners and so on was quite a task also. The upstairs temporary kitchen is here. Hard to believe we actually ate and cooked in here for a few months! http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380116 But we are leaving the plumbing as is, after capping everything off. This gives us or future occupants the option to turn this back into a 2-family easily enough. We were able to shut off Keyspan service as well, that knocks $20 a month off the overhead. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380115 Here’s the room almost finished. Yeah, my wife has to stick a plant everywhere, even if it’s mostly dead! http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380107 And then that leaves my good friend Brian Ackerman at Brooklyn Kitchens aka Garfield Kitchens. He did manage, almost on time, to take care of everything needed in the kitchen. There were a set of spice drawers that had to be made over–thrice. The third time the grain was running in the wrong direction, but at this point, we’ll just pretend we liked the contrast. However, we still have no shower doors! That’s twenty-three weeks and counting! I gave him an ultimatum on a Monday that if he didn’t get them by Friday I wanted my money back. He asked for the next Wednesday, which I gave him. I didn’t call him and he didn’t call me until late Wednesday, when he called me practically in tears begging for more time because he just lost 80k due to a cabinet supplier that just went under with his deposits. Allegedly. Against my better judgement, I gave him until 3/3 provided he gave me a post-dated check to be deposited on that date if there are no doors. For your amusement... http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380105 Back to the big hold-up, the stairs. We’ve been through two sets already and it looks like we’re cruising for a third. We wanted a set of oak open stairs. We liked the first set when it arrived. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380109 There were a few things we didn’t really notice at first. But when we did... First is that the stairs seem to be made by a Chinese robot. They were routed out and wedged from the back. This would have been fine if they were to be covered underneath, but they’re not! http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380108 Then there was some more sloppy stuff, like magic marker here and there, and glued labels, all of which would have been a bear to sand off. It was the GC who opened his mouth first, and told us he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if he left us with the stairs. So he had a pow-wow with the stair guy, who agreed to replace them. This time I sketched out in Corel Draw exactly the way I thought the stairs should be. When we started the job, the GC offered to replace the rickety stairs to the basement for $700, new pine. I told him we’d deal with the basement after the main work was done. It struck me that these oak stairs would be an upgrade to new pine, so we offered to pay the $700 for the oak stairs installed to the basement. This way everyone got a little something. The stair guy probably breaks even, the GC makes a few bucks, and we get better stairs to the basement. In fact they have been installed and we’re in the process of varnishing them now. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380113 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380114 The new proper oak stairs were delivered. By this time the GC was in the hospital. These are gorgeous, massive stairs. I had to help the three guys get them into place. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380112 One little problem, however. They’re too short. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380110 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/109380111 The stair guy came over and suggested some smooth ways to fix them. I told him I can’t agree with anything unless the GC approved. The GC is finally out, came over last night, and we will have to have another meeting with the stair guy. That should be interesting.

New Year's kitchen edition

2009-01-05T16:21:41Z

We now have a almost-completed but definitely working kitchen. We are missing some trim pieces for the cabinets which Brooklyn Kitchens has promised in a week. We’ll see, because we’re still waiting for these glass shower doors, now sixteen weeks and counting. As soon as we get the trim pieces we’ll be done with Brian Ackerman except for the shower doors. If we don’t see them shortly after we’ll demand our money back and if not forthcoming sue. Photos show the progression of the kitchen first with the counters (Caeserstone) and then the glass tile backsplash. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/kitch2 We’ve had our share of problems, all resolved or in the works. The big counter slab facing the dining room was not cut square, which I didn’t notice until after it was installed. Therefore it doesn’t overhang the cabinets properly. They’ll be back this week to rip it out and fix it. Another Brooklyn Kitchens sub-contractor. I find not being able to cut a piece of stone square to be rather appalling in this day and age. The other fiasco was the dishwasher/waste disposal installation. The insinkerator was installed a few days before the dishwasher was hooked up, as the plumber always seems quite busy. When the dishwasher was finally connected, it wasn’t draining. Furthermore the motor was giving off a burning smell. Everyone seemed to agree (plumbers and master plumber) that there was something wrong with the washer and I called Bosch to schedule an appointment (after complaining that it was highly unlikely a defective motor would have left the factory). Then the foreman of the main work crew (who’s not supposed to know about plumbing) wandered over and wondered out loud if the plastic tab in the insinkerator had been removed. As he explained, there’s a tab in the dishwasher inlet that needs to be removed if in fact there’s a dishwasher. I ran to my computer, downloaded the installation instructions for the insinkerator, and the foreman was correct. The tab was removed and the dishwasher is working fine. We have a toilet and shower in the downstairs bathroom, but no sink yet. The reason is that we had to return it to Brooklyn Kitchens because it wouldn’t drop into the vanity. Because the clips were way too large and messily installed. I don’t know where Brian gets his sinks made but it seems to be somewhere local. Three sinks have had to be returned four times for repairs. Sloppy, sloppy work. Pictures when complete. The last big piece of this job is replacing the stairs. My feng shui guru (alexstark.com) had suggested that instead of the stairs going straight to the exit doors (your money flies out the door, as it has, lol) you should bring the stairs into the living room. Because we’re keeping this as a legal two-family house, albeit using it as a one-family, we want to have the option of having the stairs go either way, so we hit on the idea of bringing the stairs to a platform, and then having the last two able to be configured into the LR or straight to the door. The old stairs: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/107826622 The new open stairs: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/107826608 Cleaning up by the stairs and door. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/107826620 After a couple of minor problems, we have passed the plumbing inspection in the cellar, and are ready to finish up in the next few weeks.

Thanksgiving Edition

2008-11-28T19:08:33Z

Making great progress on the first floor. The floors are entirely in, only to get covered with masonite to protect painting and further work. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453885 All the photos at http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/kitchen1 Still waiting for the upstairs glass shower doors from Brian at Brooklyn Kitchens and Baths. Twelve weeks and counting. We made it very clear to the GC that we wanted at least a stove and hood in by Thanksgiving, so we could use the dining room and the multiple ovens. We made sure that the appliances were here when needed (btw we bought all the appliances from Appliance Showroom, behind Costco’s. They met Drimmer’s prices and were a pleasure to deal with). Here we are just finishing the taping in the DR. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453883 We’re doing the priming and painting, so there she is, doing it up. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453886 The raw kitchen and DR, primed. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453887 Here’s the DR, mostly painted (BM Linen White) with the speakers installed. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453888 We didn’t expect to have plumbing in by Thanksgiving, as plumbing inspection was Monday. Indeed, we didn’t. We didn’t think we’d have cabinets either, as they were coming from Brooklyn Kitchen as well. Given the source, we were hoping for Thanksgiving 2009. However, to our surprise, they showed up Monday and were installed Tuesday by our GC. Of course, you may be wondering where the doors are. So are we. Supposedly they had QC problems so Brooklyn Kitchens says we should have Monday or Tuesday. We’ll see. There’s a whole sequence of photos in the main gallery showing the crew chief inspecting the kitchen cabinets. Here’s one of the better ones. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453892 Here’s how the kitchen was on Thanksgiving (those are a couple of trim pieces posing as counters). http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453899 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453900 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453901 The eagle-eyed will see the turkey in the bottom of the unplugged wine cooler, where it was placed to warm up while also being safe from the dog and cat. We heard some people complain about these Wolf stoves. Here’s one who actually likes it! http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106453902

Eye Candy Edition

2008-11-18T02:25:22Z

We’re moving right along on the first floor. Taping and spackling. Seems to go on forever. We’re looking for a semi-functional first floor by Thanksgiving, and it seems we should make it. Plumbing inspection is a few days, which is what will make or break us. Still waiting for the shower glass upstairs from Brooklyn Kitchens and Baths. Ten weeks and counting. Pix here: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/appliances But you know you’re making progress when the eye candy shows up. In our case, that’s the 48" 6 burner Wolf stove. Six hundred fifty pounds of beauty. This is what it’s all about, baby! (And that's the refrig in the background box). This, plus the hood, is all we need for Thanksgiving! The hood should be up any day. We were worried about the hood conflicting with the AC duct, but there’s enough room for both. The kitchen floor is tiled and ready to go. I know a lot of folks feel wood is the way to go in a kitchen; experience tells me differently. What can we say? Photos at: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106060127 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106060134 Meanwhile we’re moving ahead on the bathroom. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106060117 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106060133 We used more tile than we thought on the second floor bath, and the 4" square tile we need for the walls has been discontinued (we apparently used too much on the second floor). But we’ve arranged to have some 13" square tile cut down to the size we need. It will just take a few days. The first floor has no room in the ceiling for AC ducts, unlike the second floor, so we’re doing soffits. And we’ve decided to put the air handler in the basement for the first floor. So we have some rather large ductwork happening. The supply and return ducts will be routed in the same soffit in the DR, next to the kitchen. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106060122 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106060124 Here’s the AC ducting pretty much boxed in. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/106060150 The oak floor was delivered today and should be completed in the next couple of days.

Home Theater Edition

2008-11-10T13:04:00Z

Over the course of this entry we’ve insulated and sheet-rocked the downstairs, built the A/C soffit, and begun taping. We’re still waiting for the glass for the upstairs shower from Brooklyn Kitchens; nine weeks and counting. If you recall my last entry, some of the windows were found to not have any brick under them, so the first thing we did is install the brick. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755175 Insulating comes next. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755173 When the insulation was finished, the crew chief came down and had a look. He likes things nice and warm, so he approves. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755176 Here we’ve been ‘rocking and taping, and the A/C soffit has been roughed out. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755181 I’d like to call this the ‘home theater’ edition, as most of the problems that have arisen have been coordinating the installation of what I’d call a modest home theater, and a couple of speakers in the back of the house that will carry music into the dining room/kitchen from my main music system in the living room. I’m fairly good with wiring electronic equipment, so we’re doing this ourselves. The goal is to have all the wiring and speakers buried in the wall. Guys don’t mind wires, wives to, so this is to keep the wife happy! I’m certainly aware that installing in-wall (as opposed to freestanding) speakers is supposed to result in sonic compromises. We’ll see. I did say a ‘modest’ home theater! First problem here, the GC is really an ‘old-school’ guy who has no idea about HT technology today, so I had a hard time explaining the whole concept. The electrician, otoh, is much more up to date on HT, but he’s only here intermittently. The HT is to be located on the wall that is common to the L/R and bath. The left, right, and center speakers will be installed on that wall, around the TV, and the two surrounds in the ceiling. The plan is to install all the components in and on the walls (which means we have to sheetrock the front–living-room side–but not the back–bath side.) Then, we have to test everything, then remove all the components, sans wires, so we can tape, prime, etc. The wires to the HT receiver will be left hanging out of a gang box and then brought into a home theater wall plate. I’ll wire some short leads and banana plugs to connect to the amp. The first thing we did was to reinforce the wall with 3/4" plywood to make sure we had a stable place to hang the TV and bracket. And naturally, we placed an electric outlet there. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755174 Next we hung the TV bracket, which was fairly simple given that we had access to see where all the studs were from behind the wall. The tricky part was getting the hundred pound TV up on the wall, since it was just my wife and I. A quick check of the BluRay player and we had a picture and sound from the TV speakers. Now that we knew exactly where the TV went, we installed the speakers around the TV, as well as the ones in the ceiling. We brought up the home theater receiver from the basement, wired up all the speakers (except for the ones in the ceiling–they had already sheetrocked the ceiling without running the speaker wires). Here’s everything in place. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755177 The two round holes in the ceiling are the surrounds. This is an all 1080p system and the sound was much better that I had hoped for, even without the benefit of surrounds and sub. Then we got to remove everything and put it all back in the basement! Now we’ve done some more taping, there’s an AC vent in the same wall, and the electrician managed to snake those ceiling surrounds without too much trouble. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755180 Here’s a view from the back, inside the bathroom. We’re going to insulate that wall to help with the sound. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755178 You’d think installing a pair of in-wall speakers in the dining room would be easy. The electrician ran the cable and left it hanging in each corner while I placed the speakers. Then the sheetrock guys just came and did their thing and left it hanging there. The below pic is pretty funny; you can see the wire hanging in the corner while the speakers are in the wall. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755179 Sure enough they had to take down some sheetrock and route the wires properly. See http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/105755182

First Floor Demo

2008-10-24T11:48:21Z

Now that we’re somewhat comfortably nested upstairs, with AC, heat (finally), a couple of nice rooms, (one bedroom and one guest bedroom that’s being used almost as a L/R), it’s time to start the first floor. Of course ‘comfortably’ is still relative; we have no glass shower enclosure, thanks to Brooklyn Kitchens taking seven weeks and counting, so we have to mop up every morning. And to call our temporary kitchen/dining arrangement ‘comfortable’ is stretching it. But it’s been worse. Photos of the downstairs demo all here: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/demo1 The GC brought in a different demo crew this time and they had some issues taking direction, apparently. The plaster wall along the detached side of the house was supposed to remain, as it did upstairs, and to get covered with 1/4" sheetrock and plaster. However the demo crew started tearing it out. I stopped them when I came home that day around 2PM, but the damage is too severe so the GG is just going to remove it all and frame it out. The bad thing is we’ll lose another 2" of width in a 16' wide house. The good news is that it will all be insulated. Photos here: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828552 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828562 We certainly won’t miss the old bathroom. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828565 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828567 Bye bye dumpster, baby! http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828557 I always thought that a total gut reno like this is easier and better then trying to maintain historic detail in a historic house (which this is not). One reason being that you don’t get banged up by ‘hidden conditions’. Nevertheless we managed to find one. Seems that the bricklayer ran out of brick in a couple of places under a couple of windows, and just let the plasterer cover it up when the house was built. This must have cost owners a pretty penny in energy costs over the last eighty years. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828554 The partitions are now up. Simple set-up; in the front we have a long L/R and ‘seating area’. That will end at a small bathroom. On that partition, we’re planning to build a modest home theater with all the speakers except the sub in walls and ceilings. Coordination will be a challenge. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828559 On the other side of the bathroom, we’ll have a kitchen that is open to the dining room behind it, across a counter (partition in photo). From the D/R you can exit the house to the garden. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828558 Unlike the upstairs, were there was room in the ceiling, on this floor we’ll be building a soffit to carry the A/C duct and other services. Part of our deal with the boiler guy is that we insulate all the Fostapex tubing carry heat and hot water around the house, so that’s the wife handling it (inside the bathroom) http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/104828560 The electrician and plumber are working away. We’re looking for enough completion to have a decent Thanksgiving dinner!

Finishing the master bath

2008-10-02T22:57:28Z

The master bath is about finished. We await only the shower glass, (another week, but we are using the shower) and the rads (also next week). A series of photos starts here: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/morebath There were a host of minor issues as the bath moved along. Many of those issues relate to mistakes made by my vendor, Brooklyn Kitchens aka Garfield Kitchens aka Brian Ackerman. He is poorly reviewed on Brownstoner. In fact I should have known better, as I used him previously for a kitchen, and two bathrooms, and had major delivery problems. Nevertheless, I thought that maybe the devil that you know is better than the devil you don’t know. It maybe that I made a mistake on this score, as everything I’ve ordered has been a minor disaster. Still, I have to say that I have been generally happy with the items I have received, and the prices for same. But this guy seems to thrive on drama. When you are unable to sleep at night, threaten to cancel all your orders, promise to hire three kids from East New York to wreck his showroom, and to jump across his desk and lay him out, well, then he seems happy and gets you your stuff. Sometimes. Take the vanities, for example. We liked the Ronbow Juno he had in his showroom. http://www.ronbow.com/product.php?s=CC1098&cid=6 He said, ‘good choice, I have fifty of these in my warehouse at all times’! A month before I estimated that I would need them, I asked for them. Actually, it took twelve weeks for them to show up. He, or his wholesaler, ordered them direct from China. No warehouse. It so happened that we failed the plumbing inspection and so lost eight weeks, so the vanities showed up almost in time. When we opened the box, there were no tops. We had assumed that when we ordered what he had in his showroom, the same vanity tops would accompany them. Silly us! Instead of using the twelve weeks while the vanities were on the water to get the tops or ask us to pick them, we just wasted that time. But Brian would make it up to us by giving us whatever top we wanted, no extra charge. So we chose some nice Carrera marble tops, which we were assured were made on Union Street, and would be available in a matter of days. The day after we ordered them I had a bad feeling. I remembered that we had ordered from Brian (and had in our possession) a faucet assembly that requires but a single centered hole in the vanity, but that a common layout would be a three hole setup. I wanted to remind him we needed the single hole configuration. I stopped by the store and reminded him in person the very next day. I’ll spare you the details but it took three weeks of drama to get the marble vanities. When his associate delivered them, of course they were drilled wrong. They were drilled for three holes. Rather than refuse them, I agreed to accept a different faucet/handle configuration, which I have to say I got in a couple of days. Then he went to drop the tops into the vanities. The sink clips were on the wrong part, and the tops wouldn’t fit. They had to be returned. When I got them back in a couple of days, the old pins weren’t completely cut down, and I had to finish the job with a Dremel. And then, in contradiction of what I said earlier about how the products were OK even if delivery wasn’t, the back top side of the marble backslash was not polished. They too had to be returned. This whole fiasco set me back about two weeks. Meanwhile, the tub. The plumber, way back, had a hard time reading the drain diagram, and asked for the actual tub to lay out the drain. More of the usual Brooklyn Kitchens drama. Eventually the tub showed up, the drain was cut, and the tub sat around until we could pass inspection. Meanwhile we ordered the faucets, which were clean modern versions that exactly matched the original sink faucets (but three holes). When the plumber opened the box he saw that the tub was drilled for the old clawfoot style (two holes) but we had a three hole setup. Back to Brian for a replacement. It’s a lot harder to get a modern style in a two hole tub. Kohler makes one but it’s $1500 discounted. Here’s what we ended up with. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/103986197 We’re thinking of getting rid of that whole hose assembly and just capping it off. Meanwhile our lovely shower plumbing didn’t seem to be working very well. Flow was low (even after removing the flow restrictor) and the HW temperature was just barely adequate. I complained to the GC, who made a whole host of suggestions. I decided to take matters into my own hands, and I opened up the shower body, as well as inspecting the shut-off valves. Turns out the HW shut-off was partially throttled. I opened the shut-offs to full capacity and re-balanced the shower body. Now, my wife, who loves it hot hot hot, is happy, and I who love it cooler but with more flow are both happy. Except we have ordered a extension for the shower head from Brian. He says it’s on order, I say we never see it. Then there was the issue of the light over the tub. I could wire the fixtures, but it’s the electricians’s job, so we let him do it. When I went to turn the fixtures on, the one over the tub (three halogens) had problems. The bulb on the right was not working. I replaced it, still not working. We did a circuit test, no power. To my great disgust, I envisioned having to drive back to the Bowery (btw, all the light fixtures came from newgenerationlighting.com) just to swap out the defective fixture. I took it down and all that was wrong is that the electrician had forgotten to add the pair of wires from the right bulb to the other bulbs! Now it’s working fine. But it all works now. We’ve moved upstairs as demo starts below. Our temporary kitchen/DR is working OK. In fact with what’s going on we’re glad to have maintained the option of being able to separate the top floor out and rent it if need be. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/103719485 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/103719486 (If things are OK this will end up as my office) PS: The tub really looks foreshortened in these pix due to the use of a wide angle lens.

Master Bath roughing in

2008-09-12T11:11:21Z

We’re now moving quickly on our upstairs master bathroom, after having been delayed by failing the first plumbing inspection. As mentioned before, this is a 16' x 66' semi-detached brick house. There are windows all along the detached side. Because of the existence of the windows, it complicates the design of the rooms, since you couldn’t have (for example) a room that ends halfway in the middle of a window. Of course, one could move the windows, but that brings an added layer of expense and work that we didn’t want to face. After allowing for a master bedroom for us at the front (with walk-in closet), a guest bedroom/office for my wife at the back, and a small office/computer room for me, and lining up the windows accordingly, that left us with a very large space for a master bathroom. The bathroom will have two entrances; one public, through the hallway, and one private, through our master bedroom via the walk-in closet/dressing room. Therefore there is more than enough room for a tub, separate stall shower, two vanities, and space for wardrobe or similar piece of furniture. Any number of people, mostly contractors, have said in varying tones of voice ‘that’s a BIG bathroom’. One of the Mexican subs on the job went so far as to say ‘that’s bigger than my room’. Sorry! But this past weekend one of my wife’s friends came over and really like the luxury of all that space. There’s not much more to say except to bring you plenty of pix! http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/bath As of today the tiling is done, the toilet is working, as is the shower. The glass shower doors are on order, the tub is not yet working because the dealer ordered the wrong faucet configuration, and the same dealer has delayed the vanity tops. Nevertheless we hope to have this all straightened out early next week. This weekend we paint, and next week the electrician will be summoned to install all the fixtures, switches, and outlets. The tile came from A&K; the floor tile was about $7 psft, the wall tile is the same but about $8 psft, and the glass ‘peopod’ tile $30 psft, less a contractor discount for all. The tile installer liked the peopod so much he decided to use it on all the corners and not just on the top of the wall tile and shower, as was originally planned, so we had to order another box, at $300. We’ll update this when everything is finished.

Doors and Shades

2008-08-30T15:59:20Z

Our arrangement with our GC calls for us to obtain and supply all ‘finish’ items, to be installed by the GC. Appliances, tile, lighting fixtures, outlets, cabinets, countertops, moldings, faucets, are all to be purchased by us. The wife and I really didn’t have much trouble picking things out until we got to the interior doors. Then we ran into difficulty. Of course the architect has just specc’d out standard white hollow core doors, but we had better things in mind. Complicating this was the fact that we had forgotten to budget the doors altogether, so whatever we spent was over and above. And, we needed a lot of doors. Seven interior plus two sets of bi-folds. Doors offer so many choices. Solid softwood like pine? (Not for us). Solid core with a hardwood veneer? (Our ultimate selection). Solid hardwood? Then the panel style. Arts and crafts? Plain? Paneled? And, most hardwood doors are sold unfinished, so we would have to do the finishing (not a problem). Our furniture is all Arts and Crafts. And most of the furniture we have in the bedrooms (where the doors would end up) is cherry. At first, we decided to go with a Mission-style door in cherry. But remembering that we did a few too many Arts and Crafts touches in our old apartment, which were all ripped out by the buyer, we decided to stick to the plan for this house, which is to keep it as simple, classic, and as desirable to as many potential buyers as possible, rather than turn it into a Mission museum (pretty hard to do anyway to a South Slope brick house). We went to look at doors in a few places in Brooklyn. We saw some beautiful doors in the $500-$700 range, which was more than we wanted to pay. We looked on the internet, but in my opinion you need to touch and heft some things and doors are one of those things. We ended up back at Home Depot, where we looked at a custom line of solid-core doors by Jeld-Wen. And it happened that HD was having a 20% off sale on custom doors. And so we placed an order for six-panel cherry veneer doors, plus bi-folds. We paid an extra $10 per door to upgrade the hinges to satin chrome. The doors averaged out to about $350 each, including tax and delivery. Here’s a photo of the doors after delivery: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/102376120 Here’s a regular door, installed but unfinished (after the first one, we discovered it was easier to finish the door after the installation, not before. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/102376121 Here’s a door after finishing (same as embedded image): http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/102376124 Here is a set of bi-folds, before: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/102376122 and after: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/102376125 Before we got to the point where we could buy good furniture, we made do by obtaining old furniture either from thrift shops or from dumpsters and refinishing it ourselves. So I’ve learned a bit about finishing over the years, and the product that I keep coming back to is Formby’s Tung Oil Finish. It’s a rubbed-on penetrating oil finish, and it’s just about idiot-proof. It’s not a production finish, as it takes up to ten or more coats to achieve its magic (several more than claimed by the mfgr), but all you have to do for each of these coats is to pour it on a cloth and rub it in. At the end, simply sand down with 500 or 600 grit sandpaper and give one last coat. I’ve found that it works better on real hardwood as opposed to a veneered product like these doors, where it can end up slightly ‘patchy’, but that can be remedied (as it was here) by a final application of butchers’ wax, which is then buffed in by hand. A note on Home Depot’s special order practices: They have deny and obscure down to a science. We were quoted three week delivery, which turned out to be six weeks. They give you, in writing, what is alleged to be a firm delivery date. A week before you call to check, and they assure you it will be in on time (even though the website keeps showing ‘not shipped’). On the promised delivery date, they will assure you it will be coming in on ‘tonight’s truck’. The next day when you call, they express amazement that they didn’t arrive, and say they have to give it to the ‘expediter’, who of course never calls back. I actually got Jeld-Wen to help me and also made two personal trips to HD to complain. A short note on the blinds: We wanted to keep the sense of light that drew us to the house in the first place, while obtaining the needed privacy. So we went with a plain, white, single-cell honeycomb shade, that at least in these rooms goes both top-down and bottom-up. Bought from blinds.com based on past favorable experiences. http://www.blinds.com/control/product/productID,8521 Here’s a set installed. Pretty simple DIY installation that we wouldn't bother the GC to do. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/102376123 That’s it for now! Should have a master bathroom entry soon.

Rocking, taping, flooring, priming, painting

2008-08-12T23:42:19Z

Time for some sheetrocking, taping, priming, painting, and flooring. This is all being done on the second floor. When finished, we plan to move up here and demo the downstairs. Because it’s a two family house and we didn’t want to change the c of o, we are putting in a minimal kitchen. We’re going to see if we can finish the main kitchen downstairs so we don’t have to use this, but we haven’t discussed this with the GC yet. In any event, should we sell the house to someone who wants to rent out the top floor, or should we suffer a major financial reversal that will cause us to rent out the top floor, the gas and plumbing will be in place. The room layout is as follows in this, a 16 foot wide house. I should add that we had real problems envisioning the layout upstairs, so we were fortunate enough to be friends with a noted feng shui consultant, (I’ll give him a plug here, www.alexstark.com ), and he came over and helped us lay it out. One of the problems is that, being a 66' long semi-detached house, there are windows along the side that match up with the original layout, which included a kitchen. We didn’t want to spend massive amounts of money bricking up the windows and starting from scratch, so we had to make the layout match the windows. In the front of our house, we put our master bedroom. A door leads to a large walk-thru closet/dressing room, which in turn leads to a very large master bath. After the master bath comes a small room, which will be my computer station/office, and, in the back of the house, my wife’s room/guest bedroom which overlooks the yard. I don’t find ‘rocking and taping to be all that exciting, but there’s a collection of images at http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/rocking For various reasons, we went with a simple pre-finished white oak flooring. Mainly because we have a cat and a dog, and we were concerned about outgassing. One thing we like about our general contractor is that he is ‘green’ in that he is willing to make things work, and re-use things. So, when we contacted other flooring contractors, first about saving the original parquet, and then about installing new, they all wanted to install a 3/4" plywood sub-floor over the existing sub-floor before installing the finish floor. Our GC was willing to forgo the new plywood sub-floor and install over existing. Places that needed patching he was willing to remove old and substitute with new plywood. Here’s the MBR before floor installation. Note the patches in place. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580708 In the two rooms we have done (upstairs master bedroom and guest bedroom), we are happy. In some places where there is furniture, it doesn’t sit exactly flat, and that’s OK too. We saved the cost of the new sub-floor, as well as the weight. Here’s a photo of the MBR floor just being started: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580135 Here’s the finished floor in the MBR with just primer, getting ready for paint: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580114 We decided, as a cost-saving measure, to prime and paint ourselves. The ‘title’ image above is that of my petite wife, seemingly overwhelmed by the job at hand. We’ve painted together many times in the past, and we have the routine down. She paints the trim and detail stuff, I do the ceilings, and we share the walls as our schedule permits. For the walls and ceilings, we did BM Linen White eggshell, one of our favorites through the years, and the trim was BM Bright White semi-gloss. After a coat of BM Fresh Start primer, of course. Here are some images of the master bedroom, with the new flooring, while being painted. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580117 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580120 Here are some images of the guest bedroom: This one is with the unfinished bi-fold closet doors deliberately off track to allow for painting: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580123 Here the GBR is done with the doors finished (I’ll be doing a whole segment on doors and shades soon): http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580130 GBR facing out (tired of mp3's, had to bring up at part of the music system sans turntable) http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580132 Meanwhile, in order to be able to live on the second floor, we needed to make the walk-in closet happen. I’ve installed several closets using Lowes’ ClosetMaid system. It’s not high-end or crazy, but it works. Here’s the WIC painted with the floor in place: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580126 http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/101580128 Of course the closet was adjusted when we actually moved upstairs.

HVAC

2008-07-30T18:35:17Z

I’m kind of a infrastructure guy, in that I’d rather spend money on the bones than on the decorations. So when we looked at this house there was no question that we wanted a complete new heating and central air system. HEATING When we took possession, the heat was supplied by an old Weil-McLain boiler, making up steam and distributing it through the usual cast iron pipes and radiators. The hot water had been made up by a gas-fired water tank, but at some point it had failed and the previous owners elected to have the boiler make up the water directly rather than replace the tank. We managed to make it through the winter without any major failures, although with limited insulation and an inefficient boiler our heat bill was over $700 per month. Boiler at http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957520

The original plan was to do radiant heat. But with new floors, subfloors, and other complications, it seemed the cost was going to get out of control. We ended up going standard baseboard hydronic system with new mod-con boiler and indirect water tank. I called a company who I know and trust, Pulse Combustion in Hicksville NY (Chuck Milan, 516-997-9681, tell him who sent you). When I was in a PS co-op, they were the only company that was able to straighten out a very messed up boiler system. I know some of the mechanics and they’re top-notch; in fact one was a steamfitter in the WTC for ten years. Pulse recommended a TurboMax indirect water heater and a Lochinvar Knight mod-con boiler, both state of the art efficient. We started by pulling out the old non-working water heater and he hooked up a temporary gas water heater so we could have hot water while they installed the permanent equipment (we started the installation in the spring to no heat was needed). See at left http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957521

We’re dividing the house into five zones; one for hot water, one for the first floor, one for all of the second floor except the guest bedroom, one for the guest bedroom, and one for the basement at some future time when we have the money to think about finishing it. In the middle of the job, it looks like this: http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957522

The boiler and tank has been working fine for the last couple of months in providing hot water. It’s not yet hooked up to the rads as we are still working on the interiors. So, for now, here it is (same image as above): http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957524

The eagle eyed may note a difference in the PVC venting in those above two photos. Neighbors, neighbors. Although the boiler was legally vented to the side of the (semi-detached) house, my next door neighbor bitterly complained that fumes from the boiler were interfering with his quality of life. Not wanting to start off on the wrong foot, I ended up spending an additional $1500 to run the vent up the chimney. During the process though, may neighbor felt I wasn’t doing it fast enough and called KeySpan to complain about my ‘illegal’ installation. KeySpan gave the installation its blessing, to his chagrin. But it was all taken care of. See http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957519

Ah yes, money. About $38,000 including the new vent. COOLING A couple of my other ‘friends’ were going to take care of the central air for me. But they didn’t. So I ended up with the GC’s guy. Don’t know the name of their company, they were a couple of Lithuanian guys. The bid was 17k, which I thought was quite reasonable. We opted, for efficiency and redundancy, to use two compressors and two air handlers, one each for each floor. Yesterday I posted a photo of some of the ducting on the second floor; here it is again. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100849964

The original plan was to put the compressors in the back yard. Then the neighbor factor happened again. He was unhappy about what he thought would be excessive noise, and wanted me to put them on the roof (where his is). After scratching my head, and noting that the compressors would really take up a lot of room in the yard, I bit the bullet. Unfortunately, this one hurt at an additional 5k to install the dunnage (steel beams), and to undo and redo the lines that had already been installed. Here are a couple of shots of the work in progress. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957523

http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957525

Here I wouldn’t mind hearing from some other brownstoners with similar experience: Did you attach the compressors to the dunnage, or just let them sit there? The contractors insisted to me that it was safe and that they would not blow over in a windstorm. I think otherwise. I ended up handling it myself by using some steel strapping and rubber scraps. See http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100957518

Anyway, we got the AC up and running in the upstairs almost in time for summer. So life is good.

South Slope Reno

2008-07-28T18:37:54Z

Greetings all: Last time I posted, to the forum, it was the end of April. Brownstoner has now given us our own renovation blog. For what happened up until the end of April, please see http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2008/04/renovation_blog.php#comments As of then, the 2nd floor had been demo’d and the walls/partitions were just beginning to go up. I’ve combined all these images into a single gallery. The last image shows the demo finished and the studs going in. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/demo Meanwhile, we tackled some of the exterior doors on the first floor. There was a door to the exterior in the middle of the house, where the downstairs kitchen was. The plan, I suppose, was to bring your horse carriage up to the door and unload directly into the kitchen. In actuality, the ‘horsewalk’/driveway is too narrow for a modern car, and the door was never used. It just took up space. So we decided to brick it up altogether. The new plans for the first floor call for a greatly expanded kitchen that would feed (moving towards the back of the house) into a formal dining room. The kitchen and DR would be separated only by a counter. In warm weather, we also plan to eat outside in the garden, so we needed to open a doorway in the back door and install a door and its associated stairs. This makes the traffic flow Kitchen –> DR–> Garden. The existing widow had to be removed and replaced with a door. Here are two images of the doors being worked on, as well as the final result. We like it. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/doors As promised, I will try and name contractors and prices where I can. The contractor who did this was Basonas Construction, president Mike Brion. Basonas usually does much bigger jobs than this. I worked with him on some serious renovations of the coop where I previously lived, so I’ve seen his work. I wouldn’t let anyone else work on the outside of my house. He charged us $9500 for closing up the one door and installing the second with deck. He can be reached basonas at aol.com, tell him denton sent you. Back to the second floor, the insulation in the previous incarnation was slim to none. There was no insulation at all behind the perimeter wall facing the driveway. The insulation above the ceiling was of the ancient blown-in (or thrown-in) variety. We insulated the perimeter wall, and the space between roof and ceiling. In the photos below you can see the walls taking shape, the insulation going in, and the ducts for the CAC on the second floor. Photos here. http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/insulating One of the things that impressed me with the GC (to be named another time) is that he was willing to try and save some of the plaster wall on the attached side of the building, rather than rip it out and rebuild. If you look at the first image (http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/100849956 ) you’ll note various iterations of a plaster wall along the right side. This has been made new with the installation of thin gypboard and plaster of paris. The GC really did a great job. Pix later. Next post I’ll do strictly HVAC. In addition to central air, we’ve installed an efficient modulating condensing boiler with an indirect water heater. Both are partially up and running.