Approaching the finish work!

The drywall is now close to being completed (and is looking great!) and the insulated box in the basement for the furnace and hot water heater has been built. Once the drywall is finished, it will be painted, and then the heating system and baseboard registers will be installed.

We're now well underway with making our finish selections as well. We've been working on the lighting design and selecting fixtures (our goal is for all lighting fixtures to be Energy Star Certified and/or installed with compact flourescent lightbulbs). We have also have selected our window and door trim.

This past week, we visited a neat operation in Springfield called Antique and Specialty Flooring Co, Inc. The business owner, Tony, reclaims wood from old barns, refurbishing it into beautiful flooring. We are still working out our exact flooring plan, but our basic plan is to reuse the existing wood flooring in the downstairs and upstairs of the original home, to reuse the ceiling wood we recovered above the rafters in the first addition (which we may use to box the exposed collar ties, or it could be used as flooring), and to purchase a mix of Tony's red and white oak from two barns taken down recently in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. More on the flooring plan when we nail down the final details...

Oh, and as you may have noticed if you are in the neighborhood, we picked a front door color... and then we picked another one! The new one is much better we think! We are using a red called "Sundried Tomato" to paint both the front door and the coop! This work is underway...

We wish you all a happy and thankful Thanksgiving!

Before and After Floor Plans

Speaking of big reaveals, pasted above is a "before and after" comparison of the old and new floor plans (a larger picture of the new floor plan is at the end of this blog). In the old home, when you first walked into the home, directly in front of you there was a staircase, a bedroom to the left, and hallway running to the kitchen.

You can see in the new floor plan drawing that now when you enter the room, you face the living room and are in a large open space from which you can see the kitchen, dining room and staircase.

The downstairs bathroom has been moved into the newest addition, which has been divided up from a single large space into three smaller spaces: a bedroom, a bathroom with laundry facility and the family room. We also added a back exit to the home, which has a double wide sliding glass door. 

Upstairs, we started out with two small bedrooms. We took the original walls out and reconfigured the staircase to create a master bedroom suite. When you get to the top of the stairs, you enter a master befroom loft. There are two walk-in closets on the way to a nice sized master bathroom with a clawfoot tub (recovered from the original home and refurbished), a walk-in shower, and a linen cabinet, vanity and toilet. We'll post a more detailed diagram showing the bathroom and kitchen layouts pretty soon...

To create this new home layout, we considered how the home would look, feel and function for its new residents, and we're really happy with how it has turned out. This layout is the final result after many draft designs, consultations, and walk-throughs. Big thanks to all those who gave their two cents (or much more than that), particularly Peter and Henry, and also Jenn, Lisa, Matt, Jess, Andrea and Dennis!

Ta Da! (and what a week)

If you live in the neighborhood, you've probably noticed the house being painted and the siding going up. And if you don't live in the neighborhood, then is the big reveal. Nice color, hey? We also think the front door looks pretty fabulous, and we're excited about the colors we are considering for the front door and shed.

A big part of this week was occupied by dealing with all the damage from the fallen tree. Henry and his crew did a great job moving quickly to keep the damage and delays to the project to a minimum. The fallen tree was carefully removed from the roof of the shed and the newest addition, and the remaining trunk that was still standing was removed as well. Thankfully, the tree didn't do much damage to the roof - only a few small spots need to be fixed. 

Meanwhile, even though the site turned into a temporary disaster due to all the tree debris, everything else kept chugging along. Wood siding repairs were made, exterior paint was applied, the hardiplank siding went up, and foam insulation was sprayed. We had to iterate a few times on the spray foam application to make sure this very critical piece of the project was completed exactly as needed for LEED Certification. On Friday, we had our LEED inspection for the spray foam, and a few more touch ups were completed after the inspection. This morning (Saturday), we took pictures (for LEED Certification) to document the final spray foam touch ups, and we met with Henry to discuss the window caulking (sealing) and a few other small items that need to be addressed before drywalling starts next week.

So, here at the end of the week, drywall has been delivered, the site has been cleaned up, and we are ready for the spray foam insulation to be inspected by the city. A significant amount of debris has been removed from the site, the accumulated cardboard and clean wood have been taken away for recycling, and this morning the Silver Maple was being trimmed where it had suffered some limb damage. We also spruced up the site's erosion control measures (silt socks), cleaned up leaves, and removed sediment accumulated near the storm drain.

And of course, we're still moving as quickly as possible to finish all the weather sensitive work before it gets too cold...brrr