Extreme Makeover, Eckles Style (or is that Slow Makeover, Extreme Edition??)
So the story began on April 19, 2007 when we closed and began demolition of the part of the house that would be rebuilt (see original text and videos at the bottom, which literally cover just the first week). Someday, I'll get more pictures and videos here, but here's a brief (or maybe not) summary of what's been done so far:
Spring 2010
Completed and pressure-tested the new plumbing to 80-psi with no issues, then attempted a cutover only to have my original plan to get rid of most of the galvanized pipe crash and burn rather quickly. My thought was to cut the pipe just before each of the 90s or tees that went up to the fixtures, unscrew the cut piece, then screw in a brass connector for the PEX to be attached to. After the first cut, however, attempts to unscrew it were fruitless even after soaking it twice with Liquid Wrench. The inside of the pipes (probably 20-30 years old) was also caked with scale, which helped me to further realize that there was NO WAY I was going to get them unscrewed without wrecking things. Coupled with virtually no working room in the crawlspace, Plan A was scrapped as I headed to the plumbing supply house for a repair connector to put the cut galvanized pipe back together ...
Insulated the ceiling of the laundry room and front bedroom and HUNG DRYWALL on the ceiling of the laundry room (been waiting a LONG time to use those words!)
Executed plumbing cutover Plan B, which entailed connecting the PEX to the copper just beyond the galvanized sections of pipe (a no-brainer thanks to a couple more SharkBite connectors). While it left all of the galvanized pipe in place (which will have to be removed all at once during the downstairs bathroom remodel), it enabled me to connect the new piping and remove most of the old copper.
Moved the water heater, washer and dryer for at least the forth time! The quandry that I found myself in was how to support them independently of the laundry room. For a long time now, the dryer vent, the washer drain and the electrical connections were coming through the wall framing into the laundry room, which of course now needed to be drywalled. Finally, I realized that by moving them back by the patio door, I could support everything except the hot/cold water lines. The solution is rather silly working, but it works:
the meter panel just outside ended up with two unused breakers after moving the main panel inside the house. These were reused to power the water heater and dryer.
on the left side of the patio door, I had installed a couple of switches for eventual flood lighting for the back yard - a dedicated 20A circuit that could power the washer
on the right side of the patio door, I needed to cut a hole for an eventual patio intercom station - a hole big enough to push a temporary dryer vent pipe through!
also on the right side of the patio door is the drain stack for the upper floor with a cleanout, which could be used for the washer drain
hot/cold water pipes were run up through the attic access in the laundry room and over to the water heater
With the laundry facilities now completely outside of the laundry room, I proceeded to start drywalling the laundry room. Matt, Bob and Dan came up on the Saturday before Easter and helped me drywall the front bedroom (couldn't have done that without them!).
Winter 2009/2010
Wired the front bedroom and more of the passage space and family room and put the batt insulation in the walls, just in time to make it into a temporary bedroom (complete with 2x4/2x6 temporary bedframe for the air mattresses) for the Grandparents to use during their visit in February.
Completed all of the security/phone/network/cable/multimedia wiring and moved all of our cable and Internet gear into the new multimedia panel. This included running bundles of wires in both directions from the laundry room, laying the groundwork for the eventual remodel of the rest of the original house. Installed a nice raceway in the attic space above the original house off of which to drop the appropriate wires in their respective locations. Didn't run all the wiring for the eventual addition, though, as that would be just going *too* far ... !
Extended the gas line and the HVAC duct across the front bedroom ceiling so that they are both accessible at the garage/bedroom boundary - much more easily done before the ceilings are closed up than after!
Began inspecting the framing in preparation for drywall to discover that the ceiling of the front bedroom was going to require some additional work. Fortunately, the framing was all above the 8' mark so I was able to attach new level joists to the side of the existing ceiling joists, then clamp the level to them to span the beams that hold up the second floor. The level made it possible to put shims and blocks in exactly level with the rest.
Moved the zone board from the HVAC system from the "outside" closet to the laundry room, greatly simplifying the wiring and putting that control in the "nerve center" of the house with everything else!
December 2009
While this month was not one of huge progress, some significant things have been completed:
Laid out the rest of the plumbing - just need to make some final joints and pressure test. If the mild weather continues through January, we might be on our new plumbing system within a month!
Completed the stair on the patio extension with the exception of one trim board, which can wait along with the caulking around the new patio door trim
Completed the first of the spray foam insulation - works like a charm *except* for sound deadening. I encased the drain pipe coming from the upper floor in spray foam hoping that it would deaden the sound, but it did absolutely nothing! I'm hoping that it hasn't actually made it louder because instead of dead air between the pipe and the drywall, there is now a physical connection to transfer the vibration. Oh well - live and learn.
Started the security system wiring but have not yet had time to run the bundles both directions. Still a little squeamish about pre-measuring all of the runs as I don't want to be too short, nor do I want to waste lots of wire by having them too long.
Installed drywall between the garage and the new bedroom, *greatly* reducing the cold air coming into the house!
Thickened and straightened the stairway wall that's been open for quite some time. Drywall for this spot is sitting in the trailer and there are just a couple of tidy-up items that need to be completed before that wall can be closed!
Spent a week in Los Osos with Laurie's family - was a nice vacation that I got to go on this time! We pulled a trailer back because the weather was on our side (40+ instead of 20s-30s like it was when we left) with Grammy's china cabinet in it. Fortunately we were able to get the smallest trailer so we hardly knew it was there and it didn't slow us down much.
November 4, 2009
A banner day in the life of this project: the first generator test! I spent the day installing a fan in the tractor barn to evacuate the exhaust (so that the door can remain closed) and making the final connections from the generator to the transfer switch. This evening, I fired up the tractor/generator and switched over. The results were stellar - the generator handles the entire load (not the whole house, but the full load of critical circuits on the transfer switch) with ease. I let it run for a while and took a shower, which was 100% generator powered: lights in the upstairs bedroom/bathroom, water heater, well and septic pumps. The only issue was a small puddle of oil underneath the gearbox - not sure what that was about - perhaps it was overfilled - will investigate more tomorrow.
Since the last update in mid-October, the goals for the month were fulfilled: patio door raised, deck extended, part of the floor in the passage space raised (between the stairs and the patio door). True to form, of course, I discovered while extending the deck that the original deck boards were not parallel to the house. Straightening this out entails pulling up more of the existing deck boards than I had anticipated, but that's OK because they were nailed down to start with and I'd rather have them screwed down. I'll take my time over the winter and pull the rest of them, straighten them out and screw them down. Still need to complete the stair around the deck extension, but that won't take long. Debating about putting the bench back in - will let that settle for a little while as I'll need to put some backing in for that to be done right. I won't be able to do that until Madison is out of the temporary bedroom so we've got a little while to decide!
I'm getting a long weekend with the house empty soon - goals for this time are spray foam, plumbing cutover and preparation for putting drywall between the garage and the new bedroom. Once those things are done, we're clearly on the downhill side of this thing!
Fall 2009
FINALLY completed a project that I had started in the winter, which was to log a large fir that had fallen on my neighbor's property. Most of it had been done last Winter, but I still had a 48" x 32" section that needed to be cut into rounds and brought down the hill (without losing control of them and smashing someone's house). The final task was to push the root ball back into the whole from whence it came, which required the help of my good neighbor who borrows the Bobcat from work periodically. My tractor and a light-duty winch didn't cut it, but the Bobcat pushed it back with ease. After I split some of those large rounds and delivered a little firewood to my neighbor as a thank-you, the job was finally D-O-N-E!!
Of course, in the process of completing the above, I finished off the handle of my neighbor's chainsaw that was hanging by a thread anyway. I also stripped out one of the bar nuts trying to get the chain tension to hold. After a rather expensive trip to the repair shop, it's in much better shape now - not that I regret spending the money because (a) I'll probably borrow it again <wink> and (b) I owe my neighbor a bunch for all of the wood that I've gotten from him, Bobcat work and a few other things!
Removed the front deck to reuse the materials on the back of the house (where the deck needs to be extended outside of the raised patio door) and to enable me to move the siding up under the bedroom window that was raised. Long-term plan is also to build a 5'x6' popout for the front door, so the deck needed to go for that reason as well. We all think the house actually looks better without it!
Completed the installation of the new bedroom window, along with gluing the existing pieces of siding back together and reinstalling them. The only mistake I made on that was not paying attention to line the lower pieces up with the ones above the window, so I ended up about 1" too far. Since I had already stapled most of the old siding back in place, I was NOT going to be able to get it off without wrecking it, so reluctantly cut down a piece, got out the router and cut the lap joint and finished it that way. If you don't look too closely, you'll never notice!
The coming rains lit a fire under me to tidy up the outside of the house and paint the trim around the windows that were installed LAST YEAR! The front of the house also needed some trim due to the siding being raised, a vent being cut for the raised floor in the new bedroom and the lack of front deck. Matching blue paint and some bright white trim paint made things look MUCH better! It was kind of nice to be painting - that implies finishing!
Completed the framing for the raised floor in the bedroom - insulation and subfloor to be installed in the next few days! I had put the rim joist around the perimeter a few weeks ago with the help of my new laser level. Now THAT's the right tool! After screwing around with the framing and line levels for a while, I finally ponied up the $100 for the right tool!
Next steps are to close the wall between the garage and the new bedroom, raise the back patio door, raise part of the floor in the passage space, extend the deck under the raised patio door and put in some spray foam insulation. The spray foam is the ticket to completing the front bedroom, completing the plumbing and getting the laundry room done! The goal is to get the house closed up and (mostly) insulated before it gets too cold. I don't want to go through another winter feeling cold drafts from this unfinished part of the house!
It's also time to go get the PTO generator before we have another power outage. There was one for about 3 hours a couple of weeks ago, right about the time I was going to start working. So instead, I went over to the neighbor's house to tell them that I didn't do it ...
My wife thinks that it will be May 5th before this whole first phase is completely done. I'm beginning to think she's right as there is still quite a bit to go in addition to the "next steps" above: low-voltage wiring, laundry room finishing (and FINALLY moving the washer/dryer and water heater to someplace that they BELONG!), family room framing (new windows!) and raised floor, passage space ceiling furr-down, drywall, trim, paint and floor goods.
October has brought some cool fall weather so we've started using the wood stove again - what a great investment even if it takes several years to pay for itself! Everyone loves having the fire and David Jr. is my right-hand man handing me the smaller pieces of wood! We've made a family affair of moving the seasoned wood closer to the house - there will be no shortage of dry wood THIS year (or any other year if I can help it)!
Our garden and pumpkin patch did pretty well this year. I put net over the blueberries to keep the birds out and more net around the whole garden to keep the deer out. Of course, the deer eventually figured out how to get into the garden, but not until now. We had a good season - lots of pears, a few apples, loads of blueberries, even more beans, lots of giant cucumbers and tomatoes (from about 15 plants that got planted all in one spot!) and a few carrots. The sunflowers, peppers, peas, lettuce and broccoli didn't make it, probably because I didn't get enough slug bait out to spare them! We pretty much forgot about blackberries since I removed most of them from the perimeter of our yard. The few that we picked from back in the forest were amazingly yummy, though! We grew Cinderella pumpkins (about 50 plants) and got probably 30-40 pumpkins out of it. We made three pumpkin pies, five or six loaves of pumpkin bread and LOTS of pumpkin cookies from the first one we harvested - and it wasn't even the biggest one!
Still homeschooling - quite a bit easier the second year!
Spring/Summer 2009
Started back in on the house with a vengeance as soon as the family left town for two weeks, shortly after which I misstepped off of a step that I had cut back to make room for the newel post and nearly broke my foot. This would later cost me two weeks of sitting around with PERFECT weather outside waiting for my foot to heal ...
Completed the framing around the stairs, setting the newel post and tidying up the passage space. I also pulled the carpet off of the stairs and SHOVELED the old pad out that had turned to sand (ick!).
Completed the rewire - boy, did I enjoy taking out the old panel, removing all of the conduit off the back of the house and selling 80 lbs of scrap copper to the recycler! As simple as the three words sound, "completing the rewire" took a LOT of math, time and effort (and money - have you seen copper prices lately?). The end result is fantastic and we're now fully prepared for a generator since I put in a transfer switch. The only problem we're having is a cantankerous Arc-Fault Interrupter (AFCI) breaker that likes to trip for no apparent reason! I'm going to replace it with another brand and see where that gets us ...
Oh - and did I mention that I broke the tip of my finger and ripped off the nail trying to drive a copper grounding rod with a pole driver? How does the old saying go: if the tool's not right, the guy's not bright? That was clearly NOT the right tool, as was evidenced a few weeks later when I rented a roto-hammer and drove six 8' grounding rods in with ease!
Part of the rewiring also included putting in two multimedia panels for phone, network, cable, audio, security and intercom. Hopefully all of that wiring can be completed this winter.
Almost completed the plumbing - just a few more things to tidy up before that's complete. I LOVE working with PEX - what a piece of cake! During another week with the family out of town, I rebuilt the entire drain stack coming down from the second floor to get it all up in the passage space ceiling, which will be furred down only 3" instead of the 12" that it was original lowered. Using the plastic PEX pipe, I literally re-plumbed the upstairs bathroom in 1 hour just prior to everyone's return!
Summer brought some 105-degree weather, which amazed us all! I had put in attic fans during the rewire, which came in handy. Of course, our heat pump had to have a problem around that time and, after a little convincing, the contractor replaced the zone board that I was sure was nuts. We got a new one which has a WHOLE lot more features than the original one. The new board told us that the outdoor temperature sensor thought it was minus-24-degrees outside - no wonder the system was deciding NOT to kick in the air-conditioning!
Poured the footing to support the glulam that will support the 13' opening (with the second floor above) in the new family room. All the kids put their hand prints in it. Katrina arrived a few hours later for a visit, but the concrete had set up way too hard for her to get her hand print in (bummer). This footing will end up under the raised floor anyway - we'll have to make sure to get everyone's hand prints somewhere else - like in the new garage floor if/when we build it!
Installed the glulam (5-14" x 12" x 13') with the help of my buddy John Deere. Seems like there should be more to say about the three days it took to prepare for, install and finish that, but I can't figure out what it is ...
Finally figured out how to get a laundry chute in. There isn't much space, but I had purchased a 10" plastic culvert pipe with a 90-degree elbow which ended up working great. I had a "happy accident" putting it in, however, in that I cut the pipe too short at one point. This worked out well, though, as it ends up being little further from the washer than originally planned. This will actually work better because the chute is steeper and it can't possibly throw clothes on top of the washer from that angle.
Winter 2008/2009
Abandoned the idea of trying to get further on the house over the winter and moved Madison into the temporary bedroom/guest room. This took a lot of the pressure to "get the remodel done ASAP" off and has enabled me to work on things that are of more immediate priority.
Addressed multiple issues under the kitchen extension that had been cantilevered out ~2ft from the original house:
First of all, they had "installed" an HVAC duct by pointing it in the general direction of a hole under the kitchen cabinet. That worked very well to attract mice. Needless to say, I had the HVAC contractors come back and move the vent.
Secondly, the contractor who did the kitchen remodel installed fiberglass batt insulation with plywood beneath it and lots of gaps for mice to get in. Let's see, free heat, nest material and food just above - what more could a mouse ask for?! Removed the plywood and replaced the batt insulation with solid foam, caulking and spray-foaming everything into place. No more mice in our kitchen!
Third, the plumber had pointed the PVC drain pipe from the kitchen sink into an existing cast iron pipe but had not sealed it. Water spurted out when the dishwasher drained, dumping it into the crawlspace and soaking the sole plate. Cut the cast iron pipe, extended the PVC and connected it CORRECTLY (seems a recurring theme is starting to surface here ... ).
My drainage improvements worked astoundingly well! We got over a foot of rain in the space of a week or so in early January and, while lots of other people were dealing with flooding, mudslides and washouts, everything here worked perfectly. I discovered another ground-water interceptor that was protecting the older (lower) drainfield, so I extended that temporarily with flexible pipe above ground the day before "the big one". At around midnight during "the big one", I inspected everything in the driving rain to find water spurting out of the little hole at the top of the flexible pipe that I had zip-tied to the GWI. That pipe was running at nearly the full 4" of water. At the bottom of the "creek", a ~10" water column was blasting down the hill, nearly overwhelming the culvert pipe at the bottom. I can't imagine what kind of damage that would have done to the field (and new driveway) if this had happened the year before!!
Decided to remove the gas fireplace insert and replace it with a wood-burning insert, which proved to be fortuitous as we lost power for nearly three days over Christmas and do not have a generator yet. Of course, the wood-burning stove has driven the need for ... wood! Turns out that there is a lot of it available here <smirk>, so I built drying racks on one side of the yard for 4 cords of split wood and on the other side for 6 cords of "stockpile" (logs cut to 4' in length). I've been collecting wood over the last couple of months and have nearly filled all of the space that I allocated already!
Pruned most of trees on our property using my 20' pole saw (bought in AZ to prune the palms!), which yielded nearly a cord of wood, greatly enhanced our views and made for a couple more monster burn piles!
It snowed again on Christmas, by the way - after snowing 14" over the two weeks prior! (See the Portland Blizzard page for proof!)
Then it rained cats and dogs (nearly 12") in January!
Other than that, the winter was GREAT!
Summer/Fall 2008
Continuing to work on the house and making slow but significant progress. Finished ripping out the old heating ducts, then brought the HVAC contractors back to do the ductwork for the remodel space and complete the three-zone layout. Re-framed part of the plenum space next to the master bedroom to fit everything in - was close, but we made the "ideal" installation by doing that. Broke out more of the stem wall in the laundry room for the new supply duct that would feed the upper floor - that was fun!
Re-thought the plumbing and decided to re-plumb the entire house with PEX (high-performance plastic pipe) instead of copper. My original thought was to leave more of what existed in place, but I found that much of the copper plumbing is the wrong size (1/2" in many places were it should have been 3/4") which explains our low water volume. Using PEX also enables the installation of a hot water recirculation pump that will give us hot water almost instantly and enlarge our hot water storage capacity.
"Finished" a guest room for Laurie's Mom by building the temporary wall that will be needed to hold up the second floor while the big glulam is put in place in what will be the family room. I replaced the old 3' square window since I hadn't gotten to reframe that wall yet. Just in case we ended up wintering with it like that, I sealed up cracks and holes with caulking, put in a couple of outlets and a light and did some quick insulation and drywall. Keep reading and you'll see why that turned out to be a good idea ... !
My Dad came to visit and we spent the week replacing the aluminum windows on the upper floor with nice vinyl dual-pane, low-E windows. Also added a little square window at the head of the stairs to provide more light and interest. They are all pretty much embedded in caulking so no, they won't leak!
Driveway!! Since it was more than a year since the driveway permit was pulled, I wanted to get it closed out. Spent a couple of months slowly but surely moving LOTS of dirt and compacting it carefully. Sixty-one yards of gravel and an 22'x40' asphalt entrance later (done by my neighbor who is a paving contractor), the "other half" of the driveway is DONE! The tractor just paid for itself.
Along with the driveway, I rerouted and buried several rainwater drainage pipes that had been above ground for nearly a year, extended our ground-water interceptor with flexible pipe and directed it into the ditch and widened/deepened the lower portion of the "creek" that I had hand-dug last winter with the new back blade I got for the tractor.
Continued to clear the fence line of blackberries and other overgrowth, prune trees and burn a monster burn pile of yard and construction debris!
Trina and Matt got married!!
Started homeschooling!!
Spring 2008
Wasn't going to raise the window in what will be the front bedroom until I realized that it was too low to begin with and would look really silly once the floor was raised a foot. Measured center of the living room window to place the new window for the laundry room and the front bedroom window. Cut the new laundry room window and re-framed the whole outer wall of the front bedroom because it was miserably done ...
Framed the ceiling of the front bedroom and began sorting out the ugly framing in the laundry room space. Kept taking out more and more wood, amazed by the amount of framing that was doing absolutely nothing (furring, drop ceiling and a lot of other over-framing)!
Continued re-framing the remodel space, taking out the rest of the lowered ceiling in the "passage" area and finally opening the remodel space up to the house so that we didn't have to walk outside to get to the washer/dryer any more.
Got a quote for plumbing that wasn't even in the ballpark, so I decided to do all of it myself. Cleaned up the ugly plumbing that was supplying the washer and temporarily moved the water heater out from under the stairs into the entry to the front bedroom. Stacked the washer/dryer and put them next to the water heater to get them out of the way too. Note that by "temporarily", I was thinking 6-months maximum, but as of March 2009, they are still there ...
Re-framed the bearing wall between the original house and the addition to create a door into the laundry room (just inside the front door). Also installed a laminated beam (aka glulam) to raise the head height of the passage from the living room into the rest of the house and to open up the lower half of the stairs to the living room.
Discovered that the electrostatic air cleaner that couldn't go in originally could be placed in the attic space above the hall between the kitchen and dining room, so we had that installed which greatly quieted down the return-air duct at the end of the hallway.
Finally figured out how to remove a fallen tree at the far corner of the property that was on top of three other trees and phone/cable lines. It provided nearly a cord of firewood that would come in handy later ...
Started pruning some of the trees and continuing to clear blackberries and other overgrowth (stinging nettle, holly, etc). Since we can burn on our property (outside of the city limits), I burned a large pile of yard and construction debris and we had friends over for s'mores at the end of the day.
Planted our first garden!
Winter 2007/2008
Had to find somewhere else to park the tractor (was in the garage, displacing the Highlander). After agonizing over where to build something, I finally attached a 9'x16' "tractor barn" to the side of the garage. Had fun working in the cold and around the weather because I started it in November after the rains began ...
Discovered a drainage issue that was causing huge amounts of water to flow through the field, resulting in waterfalls shooting out of the now-exposed bank. The volume of water was high enough to wash out some of the compacted gravel over the downhill end of the culvert pipe.
Hand-dug ~200' of drainage ditch down the hill to the street after finding the source of the drainage issue: Much of the runoff from the hill above us is directed into a ditch just off of our property. Problem is that they only dug the ditch down the hill even with the house and then quit digging. The result was a large volume of water left to find its own way down the rest of the hill.
Discovered a gaping hole under the stove that was allowing a lot of cold air into the kitchen. Pulled the stove and sealed up the hole but still have some draft due to the down-draft design. Can hardly wait to replace this stove with a gas range on the other side of the kitchen, but that's a later remodel project!
Got the Highlander stuck (also leaning sideways downhill) trying to park the trailer next to the tractor barn in the dark/rain/snow. To prevent it from slipping further downhill, I tied it off with the winch and 100' cable to the power pole in the back yard. The tractor got it's turnabout the next day by pulling the Highlander out.
Started working "in earnest" on the house, reframing the center bearing wall holding up the second floor and making corrections as I went (like taking out a ~1/2" sag in the existing framing).
Got snow on our first Christmas Day!
Removed a few trees and cleared a LOT of blackberries and other overgrowth. Got the tractor stuck up against the fence (leaning sideways downhill!) and had to use the Highlander to pull it out!
"Lost" the ditch along Turner Rd by clearing all of the brush and burying 150' of 12" culvert pipe. Plate compactor and cement mixer were key tools for this project, along with the tractor, of course. Wanted to start cutting in the new driveway, but this wasn't going to happen as I barely got the culvert headwalls poured before the rains!
Abandoned the permit process in favor of just rebuilding (what was) existing finished space. The best long-term plan for this space entails redoing much of the HVAC, electrical and plumbing in preparation for the rest of the remodel. Structural changes are also necessary, but now we know exactly what they are with the completed prints.
David Jr was born on September 3rd!
Initial demolition (see below)
Septic permit was approved, paving the way for us to add on and have up to six bedrooms
Moved, arriving here on May 24th. Drove a 26' Penkse truck (w/ trailer) out prior to that and another one in June to complete the move.
Obtained a driveway permit to put in "the other half" of the driveway, making it semi-circular. This also puts our exit out on to Turner Rd another ~160' down the hill away from the blind curve that people like to come flying around.
Spent a LOT of time trying to get oriented and geared up to take care of and enhance this property. Shopping list included a tractor w/ attachments, chain saw, tree-climbing spurs, gas-powered brush trimmer (weed eater), plate compactor, cement mixer and more ...
Attempted to get permits for the garage conversion, but found that engineering would be required. Worked with an engineer which took F O R E V E R, but now have plans drawn up for the entire project.
Replaced the existing HVAC system with a new heat pump capable of handling three zones and the eventual 3500 square feet.
Original text & videos
We closed on our new house in West Linn, OR on April 19th, 2007 and are TEARING IT UP already to make room for us all! The garage, family room and laundry room are being gutted to make room for three more bedrooms, a bathroom and a new family room, as well as a redesigned laundry room! This is just phase I, however: a new 3-car garage with a shop above and an enlarged upstairs Master Bedroom are being planned!
Stay tuned!
Note: these are very large movie files (30-second clips, ~20-25Mb each) that will require either a high-speed Internet connection or a lot or patience!