From House to Home

The stairway is arguably the pièce de résistance of this project. It’s a defining element of the house design that demands attention and clearly conveys modernity. It required much work by our architect to design, and our GC/carpenter extraordinaire to implement and build.

It’s an architectural exercise in problem solving and measurement precision. A mathematical and geometrical challenge based on existing space limitations and dynamics. On top of that, it must look pretty, and satisfy building code and safety requirements.

I cannot begin to explain (because I cannot actually explain) how it all came together. All U and I said was “we want floating stairs”, and from there, we somehow got floating stairs.

We wanted clean lines and a smooth aesthetic so are not doing the often seen wires or metal bars on modern stairs. Ours will have glass railings. The glass will sit in a “shoe” that runs perpendicular to the stairs.

The stairs are made of solid red oak which have been cut and shaped to fit snugly into the side panel thingys (no idea what that’s called). It is bonded with glue, then massive screws are placed to hold it all together. It is, to us, a piece of handmade art.

A lot of the measuring and fabricating was done by our GC in his shop and tonight he stayed late to begin putting it together. At one point he received a little assistance from a handsome fella who happens to be my husband. I can tell it was a super fun experience for U. This was a memorable moment of the project and a major milestone. C’est Magnifique!

MSI Quartz in Stellar White. I’d describe it as a subdued warm greige toned white countertop with just a touch of pizazz and sparkle.

We will use the same material for the backsplash which was measured and templated today (after they installed the countertop; see photo with weird templating thing on the wall) ). Hopefully that will be ready and installed in about a week.

And look at that 45” sink! (See photo with window wall). I was worried it was nuts to get a sink that big but our kitchen designer talked us into it and I think its fabulous. Can’t wait to soak large pots and pans in it.

❤️👍🏼🙏😘🥰🥳🤩💃🏻

Most of time I start these blog entries knowing exactly what I’m going to write. Other times, like today, I have no idea what to say or how to say it. I think the latter tends to be the case, when my mood or emotions about the project are a little low, a little worried, a little impatient, or all of the above.

Definitely feeling those emotions at the moment. There is progress, but some big line items continue to be postponed or delayed or just feel really slow. It’s looking like final completion is not a reality by Christmas, although the goal is still to have us moved back upstairs by then.

My main concerns are 1) the living room which is still skeletal (ie framing only) and is awaiting an engineers affidavit and submission for inspection and hopefully approval before hvac, insulation, plaster, and electrical can be installed, 2) the floors, which can only be sanded and finished after painting and most everything else is done, 3) kitchen countertop- these were templated last week but take ~10 days in production, and 4) all the things that still need to be built like master bedroom closet and dresser, dining room bookcase, and… my precious staircase.

The list in not short and there are not many days to count down. Not to mention the long punch list of things like lighting install and patch up work and hardware, etc etc. And I have not even touched upon the exterior siding or painting which has not begun and may need to wait for warmer weather/Spring. Looks therefore like we will be at this for a while. As they say, renovation projects always take double the amount of time and double the amount money one expects. Common advice turned into lessons learned for us.

Yes, there are bound to be challenges in a project of this scope and timeline is probably the most common one. I should’ve just been more mentally prepared for delays. But I’m doing what I can, as Christmas approaches, to see that joy can be found in the process and in the fact that being able to do this is, quite simply, a gift and a blessing. On that note, I will joyfully share some recent images. What do you think of the progress?

Above: Living room ceiling trussed, Fireplace framed, More framing everywhere, Kitchen fridge paneled, Prep for painting, Some festive decor, New Garage doors.

I’ve heard a few analogies comparing renovation projects to pregnancy. And I’m starting to completely understand why. I remember well the anticipation, and impatience, especially in the last few weeks of pregnancy. It’s a strange conflicting feeling of wanting to ensure that things take their healthy natural due course and utter antsy-ness from anticipation. A baby needs 38-40 weeks to develop fully and yet around week 34 every mother is waiting with baited breath in anticipation of baby’s arrival. Same for a house project. Our project was scheduled to take 8 month to complete and even though our GC is confident about having us moved back in by that time, I am starting to get super antsy about it wrapping up but know that the house can’t really function without a finished kitchen, living room, hvac, and all its other critical organs and body parts. You want it all to be over, but alas a premature delivery for neither baby nor house is a good thing. Yet inevitably there are times during those weeks before the due date when one daydreams and just so wishes your precious will come! So you can finally fulfill your greatest dreams and realize what you’ve been devoted to nurturing and finally be rid of all the discomfort and bills! Well, likewise with a baby.

So like I did with both my human babies, I’m counting down to the day we get to meet our house baby. Our GC has indicted that we can begin move back in the week before Christmas. That’s 4 full weeks from today.

In the meantime, here are some recent sonograms of our house baby:

We are getting there, slowly but surely. We can’t wait to meet our fully baked house baby. Hope to see you soonish.

If you’re wondering how we are doing 5 months into a renovation project… 5 months living with 4 people in a 2 turned 1 bedroom space…. this is how we are currently doing:

When we first moved to our new space I remember thinking that it was so nice and cozy. I admit to wondering at the time why practically anyone needed more space than this.

Now, 5+ months in, I can convey that the main reason it’s essential to have more space is for collective familial sanity. Having more space means you have somewhere to go when you are about to blow your top because your kids won’t stop asking for more dessert when you’ve already given them 3 servings. Space is essential when you’ve given them 3 servings of dessert and they are on a sugar high and winter is coming and it’s cold and the days are darker and there’s no other rooms to send them to and it would be child abuse to send them outside in the cold dark night on a sugar high. You need more space cause when your kids say they’re bored for the 100th time, you can’t completely blame them because there’s no space for any of their toys which you’ve stored away anyways cause.. there’s no space. More space is essential when your kids have been arguing because they are bored and have no where to go to be away from each other, and when you have had enough of the arguing a “time out” is in the same room you’re already in.

So after a few weeks of the space feeling like it was shrinking in on us, we were quite glad for an opportunity to stay in a hotel room for a few nights. We needed to get a hotel room because our remaining bathroom, closet and storage space needed to be accessed for tiling work. So we spent 3 nights in a suburban Marriott in the next town. Well, for those 3 nights we realized how much less space a 2 bed single hotel room is compared to our current arrangement. Sleeping in the same room as your kids makes you realize what a luxury walls and doors are. Silver lining is that returning back to our 1 bedroom space was actually an upgrade after a few nights in a hotel.

I clearly needed to vent. All done now.

No pain no gain, right? Well we have had some nice gains. The tiling work is almost complete. They still need to grout everything but the tile has been laid and we love it. Also, the kitchen is starting to go in and we are thrilled with how it looks so far. In theory we are sprinting towards the finish line. Our GC has always said that our project would be completed by mid-December and he is still standing by that timeline for our move back upstairs. That means we have 6 week to go. And looking at the long list of to-dos I’m anxious but hopeful.

Here are some in-progress shots of tile and kitchen.

Thanks to my lovely wife for letting me write a little guest article on this blog.

Upfront disclaimer – my writing isn’t going to be as witty as what you might have gotten accustomed to by now.

You might be asking, why have there been so few posts as of late. Or why is U writing a guest post. What is happening?

Quite a lot actually and I will go into that in a short while. The reason I am writing is in part because I am stuck in the lounge at Logan waiting for a replacement flight for the one that Lufthansa canceled on me. It is a long story and a bit sad – but details might be more fitting for a “air travel nuisances blog” rather than this one.

So – what is happening on the 11 Aricia front?

Well, since the last post where the blueboard had just gone up, we had plasterers in the house for several days. It was a rather messy affair, but the end results is really cool. And some of the equipment they used was even cooler – stilts!

Will paste a video of that in here once I figure out how…

The end result of the plastering really brought a first sense of what the place might actually look like in the end. See for yourself!

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Once plastering was done, our GC mentioned that it will take some time to set and get the moisture out, meaning not much action at 11 Aricia for a few days.

This afforded us a chance to enjoy the beautiful New England fall and enabled our GC to start mapping out the built-in cabinets and shelves.

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Once dry, our GC jumped on the opportunity to have painters come in and begin priming. Also, we finally got our front door, which C was super excited about.

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And just yesterday and today, the tile guys started their work on the bathrooms. We are really thrilled to see the bits and pieces come together and while it is quite a while before we can call our place home, we are definitely getting closer.

Ok – still over three hours until take off…oh well…

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The action has definitely picked up on our remodel project!

First, we finally landed on a major decision on how to remediate the leaning tower of living room. After consulting with an engineer and analyzing various options, we’ve decided on a plan that will add two beams across the living room and trusses along the ridge line should. This should all come together to hold everything in place. The ticket price is not insignificant. Suffice to say, we will be going into the financial contingency space, but it’s a have to do and I’ve also gotten to comfort over time with the idea of beams. Even kind of excited about it- hopefully it will add some intimacy and character to the large open space.

Next, we have decided to rip off all of the brick on the facade and replace it with siding to match the rest of the house. Originally, the plan was to paint the brick to match, but the old brick has started to fall off. Plus, aesthetically it’s just more aligned with that 1970’s split look and feel. Hopefully the simple switch to siding will update and modernize the house a bit more.

To grade the front lawn to the new entry area of the house, our GC hired a digger to remove some of the cement. To all of our surprise, “some cement” turned out to be a a few tons of cement. Check this out:

Why was so much cement buried under the previous front door?!?!

Last but not least, bright and early this morning a big truck of blue board was delivered. And a crane also arrived to lift the boards into the house. The boarders were super efficient. When we got home our house had walls! Tomorrow they finish the boarding and then the plaster begins. Onwards!

Over the past few weeks, the focus of the project has been on mechanicals and electricals. Or as I think of it, all of the “insides” and important functional elements of the house that are usually hidden behind the walls. The old electrical wiring was an absolute mess. There were wires tucked into insulation in haphazard and potentially hazardous ways and required a lot of reworking and rewiring but is finally complete.

The mechanical/plumbing is now also finished. Once mechanical and electrical were done, the town came in for “rough inspection” which means inspecting all of the “rough” (vs finishing) work – framing, mechanical, electrical. Good news is we got the stamp of approval to proceed.

Last week was pretty quiet. There was some tinkering here and there but nothing notable. We did lose the kids’ bedroom as the new mudroom needed to be framed. Don’t get n wrong, any project progress is good news but the adults of the house are now relegated to the pull-out couch for sleeping with the kids in the larger/quieter bedroom space (for their sanity and ours).

This week the insulation went in! Along the perimeter of the house, spray foam was used. Fiberglas batts laid in the attic, and we decided to add rock wool in certain areas between the walls to reduce sound.

Next week we are scheduled for blue board and plaster i.e. the walls go up! We are anticipating a transformation worth posting about so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are two light fixtures that I have obsessed about for many moons. Crazy excited for these to go in – that will be a good day and likely mean the project is close to wrapping up.

Very exciting. Maybe I should start my own YouTube unboxing channel?!?!

The kitchen has also been delivered. Yes the entire kitchen cabinet set has arrived and massive boxes are basically just sitting in various spaces of the house waiting for the walls to go up and then hopefully be installed.

When all of these updates are consolidated into one blog post, I’m reminded that there has indeed been decent progress. But truth is we are starting to feel some construction fatigue and our little space downstairs is starting to close in on us a bit. It’s hard to maintain order when there is little to no storage space and we are pretty much living on top of each other. Single bathroom for 4 is also a logistical challenge at times. Add to all that a 4 year old who decided to jump off a table in the preschool playground, landing not on two feet, and breaking his collarbone…. a recipe for some daydreaming of a better time when everyone is healthy, and we have our house back, done and dusted.

It’s August 17, 2019- tax free weekend in the state of Massachusetts. And when you’re in the middle of a house renovation project, you take advantage of any savings you can get.

Oh we’ve been planning for this and started early. It took whole lot of the prep work with comparison shopping and selecting items that we were going to execute today with the help of our trusty credit card. Multiple months of online browsing that culminated in a list of links to online sites and quotes from local distributors.

We bought a few grand worth of tiles, lighting fixtures, interior doors, and furniture. Avoiding 6.25% in sales tax means a good chunk of change in savings. There’s still a lot more to buy that we aren’t ready to land on today – garage doors, front door, countertop stone, sink, various hardware- the list goes on. But I think we get an ‘A’ for effort and we certainly did our part boosting the economy.

We also finally got nest thermostats! Been wanting nest for years and it was even on sale today at Costco! Score!

Saving money is good stuff and I love the thrill of getting a good deal. But I have to say it pales in comparison to seeing our new staircase being built by hand. Our GC is a talented carpenter and he has begun building the stairs. So amazing seeing this process of creation and knowing it will be enjoyed by our family for many years. It’s such a nice solid construction using strong lvl lumber — no more squeaky stairs! We can’t wait to see how the side of floating stairs will be constructed.

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It seems we may have momentarily run out of the seemingly more or less happy stream of good luck on this project. A few day after the beautiful big sliding door and full length windows that face the back yard and conservation land went into our living room, our GC let us know that he discovered that this side of the room was leaning away from the roof/rest of house by over 2 inches. The previous owners had put in this space as an extension and included the high ceilings. However, when doing so, the roof was not adequately structured to support the side walls. This happens because the weight of the roof has a natural tendency to push the walls downwards and outwards, especially if there are lots of windows which means more movable hinges and less overall stability compared to solid walls.

This unfortunately means some remediation work and design changes are needed. An engineer is coming in to take a look next week and advise on options. We may need to lower the ceiling and add beams and joists to build more support. And we will likely also need to actually pull the wall back in by 2 inches. No idea how any of this works in practice but I guess we will see. The bad news is this means a few grand in added costs but we are told it shouldn’t lead to substantive delays which is a silver lining.

Another piece of not fantastic news is that our staircase architectural design needs to be adjusted. Our architect has said that the staircase is the single most architecturally complex element of our project. And she has needed to make adjustments based on the limitations of flexible options with regard to space, but still achieving our design desires and the vision for this staircase that we have been dreaming of. It means in a nutshell that the windows we originally ordered for the staircase don’t really work, new windows will be needed, and the symmetry of the windows at the house facade will need to be compromised a little. All in all not the end of the world, but still left us feeling a little downtrodden.

Well at least it’s Friday after a long week. The kids and adults are all exhausted from a full and busy week of school, camp, work, and house renovation. We are finally sitting down to enjoy a family film and we want to make sure that we spend one of the waning weeks of summer doing something fun and memorable for the kids (vs visiting tile shops or cleaning our perpetually messy “apartment”).

Here’s to hoping the incoming tide will bring more good progress and luck for the project, and for our little family.