South Slope Brick House Reno

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://bstoner.wpengine.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.