It's been about 13 years since we built this house we live in. So we decided to do some remodeling. After many many months of discussing options about what we wanted to and could do we elected to do the following...
- Reside the entire house in vinyl
- Tear out the greenhouse and replace with 3 tall doublehung windows with transoms
- Replace every window in the house
- Add a 12x16 foot addition off the dining room
- Add a giant deck that wraps from the addition all the way around to the kitchen windows (deck will also be vinyl)
- Re-roof over the entire livingroom
- oh yeah - and buy a giant hot tub for the massive deck :-)
One of the goals - maintenance free!
We spent a lot of time getting estimates and talking to people about the addition. After much discussion we decided to go with a local builder - D&J construction out of Tewksbury MA. The owner, Danny, made us both comfortable and his price was reasonable. One of the things we liked was his willingness to give an opinion or a suggestion.
December 21, 1999 - With the living room windows finally in and trimed out they finished up the siding. They also finished up some of the eve wrap that hadn't been done. After talking to 3 electricians Danny finally got a hold of his normal electrician and he came out to look at things. Nice guy, he's going to try and get it done tomorrow. So maybe by tomorrow night we'll be in it. ;-) Tomorrow the contractors will be finishing the stairs by the living room and all the other little things left to be done. I
December 20, 1999 - Well things finally got into gear again. The living room windows arrived, as did the trapezoids and the contractors were back banging on the house at 7:30am today. They got the 4 living room windows replaced and some of the outside trim on them done. I think it went a lot slower then they expected. The hot tub arrived on time and is patiently sitting on the deck awaiting electricity and water. The electrician (pissing me off) came by after repeated calls and finished wiring the addition but didn't have the stuff for the hot tub. I knew he should of done it when it was here before - grrrrrrr. Someone will be back to wire it either tomorrow or the next day. There was a lot of pictures so I seperated them into a couple of groups one covering the windows and one covering the hot tub.
December 8, 1999 - Windows still are not in and haven't seen the contractors. Tricia and I have been staining and starting to finish up the interior. Big news is the hot tub is on it's way. It's suppose to be here, with the crane, on Dec. 20th. Can't wait!
December 6, 1999 - Not much to do today, contractors sided the outside of the greenhouse, finished the latice work under the deck, and put most of the remaining slates in the deck. They won't be back again until the Living room replacement windows arrive, hopefully sometime this week. The electrician came by sometime this weekend and put up the ceiling fan and remaining outlets. We weren't here to let him in so he could finish at the breaker box. Tricia and I bought the paint/stain and will start finishing the inside.
December 2, 1999 - The contractors have been working on the trim work in the addition and on the new greenhouse window. They also put the stair railings on the deck and got a bunch of the lattice work under the deck done. Some of the little things are getting done. The exterior lights are now up and they sided the wall under the deck where the door to the cellar is. We are still waiting on the living room replacement windows and the trapezoids for the addition. Until those come they can't side living room.
November 30, 1999 - Danny didn't seem concerned about the holes in the walls. He'll also put the recesses in the outside walls for the outlets. Today the new greenhouse window arrived and they tore out the old greenhouse and put up the new window. They didn't finish the interior yet because they wanted to take advantage of the good weather out and they worked on the siding some more.
November 28, 1999 - No picture updates but the electrician came by today to put up lights, outlets, and face plates. The sheetrockers had covered one of the outlets so the electrician was punching holes in the wall looking for it when I walked in. I had a little fit and he said "oh don't worry, the painters will patch these" He also was about to surface mount the outside outlets by just screwing them to the siding outside. I have to talk to Danny about it tomorrow.
November 24, 1999 - Today the crew showed up with the sheetrock. Another crew came in and skim coated. It's starting to look like a room now. They also continued on with the siding. They are off for Thanksgiving and won't be back till Monday. We are still waiting on the replacement windows, the trapezoid windows, and the greenhouse replacement.
November 22, 1999 - The crew continues on with triming out the house for the siding although they started actually putting up siding this afternoon. They also insulated the addition. It was a gorgeous day today so the crew took advantage of that and worked mostly outdoors.
November 16,1999 - The siding goes a lot slower then I thought it would. That's all the contractors worked on today. We ordered a different type of window for the greenhouse that will be ready in a week instead of four weeks. They are actually better windows so maybe it was for the best. The configuration of them will remain the same. We've been waiting all week for the electrical inspector, from the town, to show up so they can insulate and sheetrock the addition but he still hasn't shown up.
November 15, 1999 - Although lots happen in the last few days there is little to see visually. The contractors have been busy trimming out the windows and creating a base for the siding. I'll get some pictures up tomorrow. We ordered the hot tub - going to be 4-6 weeks for it to arrive (looks like our best bet is to rent a crane to have it put on the deck). I got a call about the large greenhouse window replacement today. Although they had told us 5 days to get it, they are now saying it won't be done till the trapezoids are in 4 weeks.
November 12, 1999 - Tricia managed to be up before the contractors showed up this am, I crawled out of bed as the pounding started. Today they spent a lot of time doing prep work for the siding. They did manage to get the siding up on the addition and below the livingroom windows. They can't complete the front of the addition till the trapezoid windows come in.
November 10, 1999 - One of us was up before the contractors arrived this morning - I think you all know who that was ;-) The contractors spent most of the day working on the two sets of stairs and finishing up some trimming of the deck. They put the ridge vent in the addition and started bending the wraps for all the eves. Not much physically changed in looks so I only took a couple of pictures - I'll post them with tomorrows pictures.
November 9, 1999 - Tricia and I were up and gone before the contractors showed up this am (A rare event) I had to travel today and Tricia went into work. The vinyl decking is almost completely laid and about half the railing system is in place. The siding should be here tomorrow and they should be starting on that. I'll get some pictures in the morning and get them put up here. I can't wait to see the deck in the daylight tomorrow it really looks nice. The greenhouse replacement window we ordered should be in the middle of this week. The trapezoids are on order but probably will be 3-4 weeks before we get them. We'll probably order the hot tub tomorrow although I'm not sure how we're gonna get it onto the deck.
November 8, 1999 - Today they finished putting the posts in on the footings they poured the other day. They framed a small deck on the livingroom side of the addition and put stairs at both ends of the deck with small concrete landings. They rebuilt the retaining wall under the deck that got destroyed when digging the footings for the addition. They also put up all the railing posts and laid down a half dozen of the vinyl deck planks. It's gonna look great.
November 6, 1999 - The electrician came today and wired the addition, also ran cable and 4 runs of CAT5 for the phones and computer network. He'll be back once the walls are closed up to finish.
November 5, 1999 - We managed to get up before the contractor showed up this am. A lot of visual stuff got done today - All 5 windows and the two sliders were put in the addition. The addition was roofed as well as the entire livingroom roof. The Electrician came by to discuss wiring, they will be back in the am to do it - Ordered the Trapezoid windows and the greenhouse replacement window.
November 4, 1999 - Thursday the contractors showed up around 7am - Tricia and I were still in bed as they started ripping off shingles outside our bedroom window - we should probably get shades ;-) Today progressed well, they managed to get the roof of the addition finished and tied into the current roof. They also built the new roof over the greenhouse. Windows and doors are here. They should be putting those in tomorrow and doing the roof shingles.
November 3, 1999 - Wednesday the contractors showed up about 8am - It had rained over night and things were just starting to dry out. Today they raised all 3 walls of the addition and put up the roof rafters. They also finished framing the deck (It's gonna be HUGE) and dug out and re-poured the misaligned post supports. We can actually start to see what this is all going to look like. Good news - we like it!
November, 2, 1999 - Tuesday they were back bright and early again. They managed to get a lot of the deck framing in place. Rain was forecast for that eve so they didn't want to tear into the current house roof yet. About 6 of the post supports are off, they will need to hand dig and re-pour those. Tricia and I helped layout exact window and door positions. We moved the slides further out from the house so that they aren't part way under the eves.
November, 1, 1999 - Monday the entire crew showed up at 6:30am. They finally finished another job they were on and can now devote all their time to this project. By Monday afternoon they had the entire floor system for the addition in place, they started on the deck framing and replaced some rotted sill plates on the house.
October, 29, 1999 - Things finally started with the contractor a few weeks back. It hasn’t been a pretty. The first day the contractor showed up with a bobcat. The bobcat had 2 attachments for the back of it, one a backhoe and the other a auger for drilling the post holes. While changing the attachments Danny some how managed to get his hand caught in it and lost a finger. They took him to the hospital. I’ve seen him since and he’s doing as well as can be expected. The auger wasn’t capable of drilling the holes for the posts (it moved around too much because of the large rocks in the ground). They did manage to set about 4 of the 16 or so posts, unfortunately rain the next day destroyed most of those.
I asked my father in law if he wanted to come over with his backhoe and dig the holes. Of course he did. He loves this type of thing. It took about a week to get this seemingly simple task completed. Between bad weather, the contractor not showing up, and a break down of the backhoe it’s seemed like months. I don't think they are being very accurate where they poured the posts - they didn't appear to think it will be a problem.
Oct 7, 1999 - Danny showed up with the architect plans for us to review - He was heading off to get permits from the town.
The destruction starts
Here you can see the killer bobcat - They
eventually gave up trying to use because it moved around too much - My Father in-law came
to the rescue and did all the digging (10/29/99)
Looking like something
Stepping back to view the progress
(11/12/99)
A little under 2 months
complete - minus landscaping
(12/23/99)
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