Week ending Oct 28 - Post 2 of 2 -- Old Kitchen Demo and Electrical

Eric Busa pushed up the kitchen demo so that the plastering and kitchen demo (with new plastering) could happen simultaneously in order to have Declan and his crew be able to finish the plastering of the kitchen addition and do the transition into the old kitchen.  That saved us time so that Declan and his crew did not have to come back.  Eric gave us enough notice to us to clear the kitchen and the demo happened in a day!

Eric enlisted the help of David to help with the demo.  Thanks David!  Welcome to the project!

Also, Eric worked with Rick the electrician to have people from his company (Sean and Mike) to do the electrical right after the demoing (same day) to update the old kitchen.  They installed additional ceiling lights and prepped for new outlets.  They also prepped the pendants for the islands.  Also, they ripped out old the old wiring and replaced with new up-to-date wiring.  Thanks guys!

See the pics below to see the process:

The old kitchen. You can see how Eric put up the temporary wall to keep the dust, etc. from invading our home up to now...  So far, we had minimum impact on our living conditions due to the addition.  I guess we'll see more impact on our days, especially without a kitchen!  That said, it just means that progress is being made!  We are getting closer to the end.

 

The lovely red counter:

 

 

David and Eric starting the kitchen demo.  The bulk of the demo really took only a few hours. 

That's David removing the temporary wall:

 

Eric looking happy:

 

 A view into the addition from the old kitchen.  Temporary wall removed:

 

Another view into the addition from the old kitchen (from the dining room):

Views from the addition into the kitchen as it is being demoed:

The kitchen after the kitchen cabinets and the walls have been largely removed.  The post you see that is holding up the original house has been a design issue from the very beginning.  Future posts will show you how we tried to deal with it:

A view into the family room:

Eric Busa working with Sean and Mike (the electricians).  Seriously, thank you Sean and Mike for the hard work in the afternoon taking care of the electrical!

Week Ending Oct 28 -- Post 1 of 2 -- Plastering, Taping, Boarding

This week, there were so much progress made that I thought it would be best to break down a couple of activities in two separate blog entries. 

First is the continued work by Declan and his company crew to board, tape and plaster.  More work from Declan will be done Saturday and possibly Sunday, and after that, we should be done with the plastering! 

The second blog entry will be the old kitchen demo and electrical.  See more on the second blog entry.

So, for the plastering work, take a look at the pics below (mostly chronological:)


The garage boarded!  Take note of the second electrical panel:

 

The family room ceiling taped up:

 

Another view of the taping of the family room:

 

The master bedroom being plastered:

 

The tub area taped up and boarded:

The family room ceiling plastered!

Second floor hallway plastered:

A view of from the master bedroom into the family room:

A view of the balcony from the family room:

Kitchen (new addition part) plastered:

Family room plastered:

Master bedroom plastered:

Another view of the master bedroom plastered:

Week ending October 21, 2011 -- The walls are mostly in

Eric Busa and his subcontractors made alot of progress this week.  After the insulation was put in and then inspected, the plasterers put up the boards on the walls and ceilings.  Rocky was one of the guys in the crew.  They got alot done!  Check out the pics below.

This week, Eric and I also met with the landscaper (John from Ieraci Landscaping) and we made some general progress on the hardscaping and softscaping for the house.  He has a website:  http://www.ieracilandscape.com/   I'll let you know how it goes.

Goal next week is to finish the boarding and plastering/skim coating and letting the plaster cure.  After that comes the priming and then the trim work begins!

Eric Busa checking the work in the kitchen area:

Work in progress, view of breakfast area:

Work in progress, view of ceiling and high wall in family room:

Work in progress, view of master bedroom from family room.  Master bedroom looking good:

View of the guys working on putting the boards up:

View of boarded master bathroom:

View of the family room now completely boarded:

View of the family room from the master bedroom:

View of the master bedroom:

View of the hallway from the existing house into the addition on the second floor:

 View of the new bedroom added and the door into the existing house:

Another view of the master bedroom:

View of the kitchen from the family room:

View of the balcony from the family room:

Tuesday, October 18 2011 -- More insulation pictures. Inspection and Blue Board

Some of you have emailed me about the foam.  Here are some more insulation pics including the foam at places -- see below.   The inspector came today and we've got the thumbs up to continue!  Awesome.

According to Eric Busa, the blueboard delivery is here today and the walls will begin to go up this week.  Can't wait to see it!

Also, we picked out the pavers for the patio -- they are called "Quarry Blend" -- which is a grayish color paver. 


The high ceilings in the family room:

The view of the master bedroom (from the family room).  You can make out the foam (light green)

Foam over the french doors leading outside and near the skylights:

More foam in the area under the master bath and over the front porch:

Week ending October 15, 2011 -- Inspection Done and Insulation In!

So, I can report that the inspection with the City went well.  Eric Busa met with the inspector on Wednesday and he reported that it went just as expected!  Which is good!

As such, we were able to take the construction to the next phase, which is insulation!

Pro Insulators (part of now National Lumber) did the insulation.  They were in on Thursday and Friday, and finished the job!  Outstanding.  Here are the pictures.  We have some regular fiberglass insulation and some foam as appropriate.  Eric recommended foam in certain areas of the construction to maximize the R factor where needed to ensure the most bang for the buck.

Insulation inspection on Monday, and the boarding and plastering are the next phases to tackle.

Another thing we accomplished this weekend is the purchasing of tile (we hope we finished).  Laundry, foyer, 1/2 bath, master bath and shower all done!  We would up purchasing from Lowes and Roma Tile in Watertown.  If anyone has questions about tiles, I have learned oh so much....  

We also picked the granite for the kitchen.  Thanks Eric for having the granite people drop off the many samples!

Also, on Saturday, it was very nice to see Eric DaSilva again!  He did some odds/ends including the flashing/roofing around the skylights.  Good to see you again.  I have a feeling we'll see more of him when the trim etc. are being done.  Eric Busa stopped by too!  

Also as an aside, I'm amazed by the world-wide reach of this blog.  It's amazing.  I've had 14 visits from Russia and 8 visits from Germany this month!