The Seventh Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me,

Seven Doggie Paws (in their tack room)		Six Doggie Cabinets (in their tack room)		Five Doggie Tiles (in their tack room)
Space for 4 Big Dog Crates (in their tack room)		3 doggie leash hooks (for their tack room)		Two Doggie view ports

and a Doggie Door into their own space.Yes, all this, and more, is in the remodel. From the smile on Bell's face as she comes through that doggie door on Christmas Morn, you can tell they appreciate it.

The 7 dog paws on the tack room floor come from an internet find by Lynn Hammerschmidt. We were looking for touches and she stumbled upon these on the internet. With our plan for a dog door, they add a cute touch. The tiles have been spaced based on Dash's gait.

The 6 dog cabinets just worked out that way. These are over the area we designed for their dog crates.

The 5 dog tiles were another internet find of Lynn's. These are set above the counter over their crates. For the center, we picked a black spanel in honor of our first Springer, Folly. To either side, we picked the dogs each of us grew up with, a Golden Retriever and a Mutt. And to the far sides we placed a Terrier and a Poodle for some other influencial dogs in our lives.

Under the counter on the same side is space for 4, #400 crates. (Dog people know what that means.) We expect dog as our guests, as well as humans, and wanted to have room. Also, should I talk Laura into that 4th dog, or breeding Riley, we'll have that little bit of expansion available!

Now, the leash hooks, those we found at our local IKEA store. When we started the project, we needed a few things for the rental. Knowing IKEA has designs that work well for small spaces, and good value for the price, we shopped there. As we headed to the check-outs, we stumbled into their pet area. And there we found this coat hooks. We had to get them as a perfect touch for the tack room. But, shhhhh. Lynn hasn't seen them yet, so they're a surprise.

We picked the front door to be dog friendly. Originally, we'd leaned towards double doors. As we evolved to the current floorplan, double doors would have been out of proportion. We shifted to a door with sidelights, and insisted that the light go low enough that the dogs would also be able to see who was ringing the doorbell.

The dog door is a gift from each of us to the other. Pretty often in the old structure, our pups would whine and scratch at the backyard doors for their doggie doorman. This will give them a self-service option, and boy, will we be training them towards that. A bonus is that we're setting up the fenced yard just outside this to be a run for the dogs. And with dog friendly tile in this section of the house, when they track in a little wet or dirt, it'll be super easy to clean.

Whew! This is getting to be a lot of description. I think we'll cut back in the following days of Christmas to just the highlights.

The Sixth Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me,

a range with 6 gas burners	five french doors...	a range with double ovens

and a massive hood to match the range.Yes, the range is so big it deserves a blog entry almost unto itself. I've mentioned the french doors as a token here, so it doesn't go to the range's head.

Laura loves to cook, and she's darn good at it. When we were shopping for houses 12 years ago, there was one we remember that had one of these beautiful, big gas ranges that looked like it came out of an industrial kitchen. Laura's been jonesing for one ever since. It was a must have item when it came to the remodel.

Getting 6 burners meant we got double ovens as a bonus. The only real choice on the range models at GE in this scope was griddle or barbeque. The range and hood together are right around 1% of the total spend on the remodel. Honestly, my first new car did not cost much more. And they are beautiful. And they are BIG , until you get them into the room.

We had the appliances in storage even before the foundation was poured. The cabinets went in almost 8 weeks ago. When I looked at the gap left for the range, I was sure it was way too small. Worried, I asked the Hammerschmidt team working on the cabinets to stop and recheck. Twice.

They did, and they'd gotten the cabinet spacing right from the start. It was just that the scale of the room was big enough to bring these massive pieces into proportion. Now, every time we go visit the house, Laura has to make a pilgramage to the range, waiting for installation. Should I be jealous yet?

The Fifth Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me,

five french doors,	four redwood gates...	two water heaters,

...and one high tech gas meter.OK, gas meter first; the doors are way more fun.

Because we demolished part of the structure, the city required not only that the meter be pulled, but also that the line be abandoned at the curb. This held off full demo for the first few weeks of the project.

Knowing that gas lines are now flexible hose, our builder had hoped that the gas company would thread the new line through the prior pipe. No such luck. They required a new trench. And that was a cost adder. We're still trying to fully understand the symbol of radio waves showing on the meter mechanism.

The water heaters are way more fun. These are the on-demand, or tankless models. We have one for the kitchen, laundry and guest bath, and another for the master and hall baths. Because they're tankless, less heat is wasted by unused water cooling in a tank. They actually generate more BTUs than the heater and gas dryer.

The gates are exciting as they're an extension of the fence. Our old fence was pretty rotten. We'd held off replacing it as long as possible in anticipation of the remodel. It also was constructed such that the dogs could see movement between the slats, which of course led to much barkage. The new fence is built so that there are no daylight gaps between boards. We've arranged the gates on the east such that the dogs have a run just outside the tack room, and having a dog run was one of the things we'd dreamed of when we first bought this home.

Now the doors. Ahhh, the doors. We'd picked nine-light french doors for the back yard, as we have fond memories of the style from when we worked in France. These models have a solid lower panel, which we're hoping reduces the amount of doggie nose prints on the glass panes.

Our floorplan called for doors between the living and dining rooms, to better define each space and have an option for noise reduction between them. As we got to framing, we realized a door between the entry foyer and great room would contain wet, muddy dogs to the tile floors when needed, and so decided on that cost adder.

We knew we wanted a feeling in these of door/window to preserve an open feeling with light, even if the doors were shut. As noted earlier, the doors noted in the selection list just didn't get this feeling. We described what we wanted, and Isaac Fischer, the Hammerschmidt estimator, found perfect, cost effective compliments to the exterior models.

Our doors are not quite "5 golden rings" like in the song, but for what we wanted, these doors bring "5 classy blings" to the room.

The Fourth Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me,

four attic accesses,	three ceiling fans,	two thermal zones,

...and a big fan to cool the whole house.
Any guesses on what was planned, and what just happened to evolve?

We did plan on improving our attic access, but not this much. We had included adding a pull-down ladder to make the attic easy for seasonal storage. As we progressed, our builder recognized that shear walls cut off some access, and so two more were added. Then, the building inspector noted that the opening for the pull-down ladder was about 1" too small in one dimension to meet the code for being able to move the furnace in and out of the attic. That meant a fourth access was needed. Out of the four bedrooms in the house, only one of them has no hole in the closet ceiling!

One goal for the remodel was to have light fixtures in each bedroom. The house had been built before this was common. And, while air conditioning was also in the plan, we both wanted ceiling fans as an alternative in the bedrooms we expect to use most. At a friend's house in early summer, we found a really attractive fan model with a low profile to fit our ceilings. When we found it came in oil rubbed bronze to match the door hardware, we knew we'd found our pick for the three bedrooms in the west.

We did always plan doors between the more public great room and the more intimate living room. As we neared the final stages of planning prior to groundbreak, the heating subcontractor had an insight. He realized that with careful arrangements of the return ducting, we could have two thermal zones, increasing our flexibility for heating and cooling.

We picked up the idea of a whole house fan from our builder's other dog friendly project. That owner noted to us how using the fan in the summer evenings helps to very quickly cool their house, exchanging the warm interior air for the cooler exterior air. The idea went straight onto our design list. In our project, our builder craftily located the fan where it can draw air from both thermal zones, and remain unobtrusive.

With all the green cooling alternatives between ceiling fans, dual zones and a whole house fan, I'm really looking forward to all the benefits of a cool house in the summer of 2009, with much lower than usual power bills.

Soon and Very Soon

Soon and Very Soon, we'll be moving back into our house. (sing it with us!)

Just how soon hit us this past week when we received the weekly invoice. By Bernie's calculations, the spend rate indicates we're close to end of work in two different ways.

One way is that the total spend remaining in our fixed price contract is less than our single largest weekly payment to date. Hmm.

The other way is that the total spend remaining is less than two average weekly payments to date. Hmm.

Let's go back to that calendar of predicted completion dates from our launch party. Looks like completion will fall in between Laura's guesses for January. Who's ready now to take one of the open slots for another donation to Habitat for Humanity?

The Third Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me, three pendant lights...two green gas fireplaces...and a massive hood over the rangeOK. In all fairness, we can both claim the lights and the fireplaces.

In the plans, we had called for four pendant lights over the kitchen island. As we looked at the rough electrical, that fourth light didn't make sense to us, so we dropped the fixture. Laura picked these pendants to match other lighting in the great room (which you should get to see around day nine in this series). As seen here, a couple of adjustments are yet to be made. The length of all three will be made even with the one in the middle, and we're still working out how to get them plumb and square with all the other square elements in the decor.

In the old house, we had two wood burning fireplaces. One in the living room, and another like a barbeque pit in the dining room. Honestly, we never had a fire in either one during the prior 12 years. We both wanted at least one fireplace, and truly wanted one in both the living room and the great room. But the old ones out of brick had a very large footprint and were situated awkwardly for our anticipated use patterns.

Another factor was smog. To preserve air quality, there are winter days here where wood fires are not permitted. That pointed us towards the green element of gas models. Early on, our builder, John Hammerschmidt, alerted us to a two sided model. He'd encountered this in another remodel where it was used as both an indoor and outdoor fireplace. While when compared to a single gas unit these are pricey, they are just about break even when compared to two units. And, it had a single footprint. As a plus, going this direction made fireplace selection easy: there were only two models from which to pick!

This picture of the fireplace is from the living room entry. The mantle should be installed around it almost about the time this is posted.

That leaves the range hood. This one goes to Laura. A big attraction of this remodel for her was getting a bigger kitchen. The old one in this house was honestly a big step up from the one in our first condo. That one in the condo was a galley style, which Laura refers to as a "one butt kitchen." While the old kitchen here allowed for "two butts," the work triangle and sight lines meant that there was very little room for folks to visit with the cook during preparation.

Now, picking the range hood was really a function of the range. John recommended GE Monogram and Profile models from experience. It was our (usual) good fortune that GE appliances were available to HP employees at discount. When we compared prices, we found that even our builder wasn't able to get such good pricing from his vendors. So, we picked out the GE range we liked, and once again, had to select between only two models of hoods. We liked this one as the chamfered corners give it a little bit of a French Provincial feeling when compared to the angles of the other model.

Wondering about the range? Come back in a few days...

The Second Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me, two master bath sinks...
...and one closet big enough to walk-in
Our old master bath fit a shower, sink with vanity and toilet into about 45 square feet. Jockeying for the sink and mirror routinely meant shuffling. This annoyed Laura, cramping her style when putting on her makeup. Early on, she insisted on having double sinks in the master bath.

It was an easy decision to put the new master bath in a bump out from the master bedroom. The arrangement of elements was the trick. In addition to the double sinks, we wanted a large shower as a backup for indoor dog bathing. We wanted to preserve a door from this bedroom to the back yard, intending it both for easy dog access, and with an eye towards having a hot tub installed in the future. And, Laura suggested a walk in closet to replace the linen closet which would come out along with the old bath.

A couple of arrangements didn't make the final cut. One was to have the door from the yard in the bathroom, so it could double as a space to dry dogs on re-entry. Another was to have a dog door through the wall to the closet, with the intent to have crates there for the dogs to sleep in. Once Laura agreed that the dogs would sleep exclusively in their lovely tack room in the other wing, we reached the final arrangement (and the final floorplan!).

The First Day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me, one paving stone driveway.
Every time Laura and I talked about remodeling, I insisted on a paving stone driveway. Our builder thinks pavers are a passing fad, and tried to move us to lower cost poured concrete. I held out.

I just like 'em. When installed really well, it's very hard to pick up a pattern in the stones, making the element look as unique as the property itself. They almost never show cracks (important where the ground moves), and maintenance is just about as low as concrete. While she still wonders about my insistence, this is one of the first "gifts" Laura suggested in the remodel.

Christmas - The Start

This Christmas, we're keeping gifts practical. Mostly useful household items. Things like doors and windows.

Really. While our financial reserves were slammed by the stock market plunge, and our cash flow is pinched since Bernie's division at HP was shut in September, this remodel is something we both have eagerly anticipated for years. Laura joked that we should get some ribbons on close out, then stick 'em on the features each of us, uh, demanded, clearly marking them as 'gifts'.

So this morning, we headed over with all three dogs. After a yummy picnic breakfast on our gi-normous kitchen island, they had a frolic in their tack room and their soon-to-be run in the side yard. That took enough out of them, that we were able to grab a quick snap of the pack:

And then another spark hit. We could extend Christmas to the full 12 days. And, we could share these gifts via this blog, spreading our joy even further.

Ready to see what the First Day of Christmas brings?

Merry Christmas!

From Santa Dash and his Woofy Elves

Since Dash came to us in 2000, every Christmas we've taken at least his portrait in seasonal attire (Laura has a long history of Doggie Dress Up). The girls have dodged it a few times, but not Dash.

Traditionally, we took the shot in our kitchen, with the massive bricks of the double fireplace as the backdrop. Those bricks were removed as part of the remodel, and finish surfaces on the new fireplaces are still in process. While this shot is Dash's 2007 portrait, we think that by the 12th day of this Christmas, we'll have a new backdrop, a new portrait, a new year, and be pretty close to a new house!

Job Dog Junior

With the fence up, and finish choices to be confirmed, Laura and I brought our youngest pup, Riley, by today for her shot at job dog.

While Laura and I went over the 5 or 6 finish choices open from Friday, Riley explored. From her behavior, we could tell she didn't quite recognize the place. She did greatly appreciate that the crews had left some crumbs around for her to snack on.

After making our choices, we started socializing Riley to the dog door. Once she recognized that the game was "get inside through these flaps, get a treat," she lost her initial concern. And when we went to photograph her in the nearly complete tack room, she demonstrated her utter joy by sprawling across the room and showing her tum.

Whack

By the time I arrived for this Friday's regular meeting with the Hammerschmidt team, the guest bath door was already reframed.

The place was also swarming with workers. Electrical fixtures have gone up all over the house, inside and out. Plumbing fixtures were going in. Backsplashes were getting some finishing touches. The washer and dryer were placed, the dishwasher was in place, and the refrigerator was staged in the great room.

We spent today's meeting going over a bunch of choices. Grout color for the tile surround on the living room fireplace; height of the dining room chandelier, the kitchen island pendants, the front entry pendant; and height of showerheads. Even after three hours, there were more choices Laura & I will wind up finalizing over the weekend.

Vanity, Vanity

The Guest Bath Vanity has consumed the past few days. Laura spent multiple hours digging up narrow depth vanities via the internet. Bernie spent multiple hours mocking them up in the space using masking tape like you see here. Lynn Hammerschmidt also recognized that this door framing did not match plans. We'd planned for it to be off center, but none of us had caught that the framing was centered on the hall.

Even the narrowest depth vanities and hip sinks will project into the doorframe as currently framed. That made the choices either to have the door off center, or to have folks walking around the sink, or to seal off this hall door so access was solely through the guest bedroom. Today, Laura & I decided to spend time together in the space.

Once Laura personally saw the arrangements, we quickly decided on reframing.

A Stake from the Ground

Fencing started. And I'm glad I went by to check status.

As part of our green build, the contract was drawn to salvage materials from the west fence line. When we moved in, our neighbor on the west side was the original owner of that house. Before he passed, we got to learn several bits of history about the properties. One was the story of this fence.

The fence was original with the construction of these two houses in the 1950s. The original owners split the cost of the fence in a unique way. The owner of our property paid for the installation, and our neighbor wrangled the materials. He went to Napa and salvaged some grape stakes to use for the fence boards. To me, that was interesting, and worth preserving.

When I passed by to admire progress, I noticed that these fence sections had been loaded up by the fencing sub, ready to be hauled away. Not what I'd asked for. A quick call to Sean at Hammerschmidt started the correction. It turned out to be doubly fortuitous. The lockbox for the keys was attached to the old fence on another truck. While Hammerschmidt got the fencing sub to put the sections with grape stakes back, that lockbox was relocated and saved from its imminent demise.

I figure we can split the grape stakes with our current neighbor, and either use them in gardening, or have the opportunity to sell 50+ year old authentic Napa grape stakes on the internet as collectors items.

Opening bid, anyone?

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

The past few days have been rainy and cold. And, yes, Virginia, it does snow in Coastal California.

The gas company installed the new meter right on schedule yesterday, clearing the way for heat to return. The thrill of that progress was quickly shattered with an unfortunate discovery: the vanity for the guest bath projects into the doorframe.

Ouch.

We're scrambling on alternatives, from mocking up a 12" deep vanity with a hip sink, to reframing this doorway to keep the really beautiful Kohler vanity and sink we have. That would mean moving the door over to butt up against the frame for the guest bedroom just next to it.

Sigh.

Bird (Dog)'s Eye View

Tiles are down in the Tack Room. Get a load of what our pups will see coming through their door:


And what we'll see coming in that same door:


The shower surround is up in the hall bath. The tile floor in the east wing should get grouted tomorrow, along with placement of the final edge pieces. Outside, pavers are nearly complete in the driveway. Just in time for the rain expected Sunday.

When a plan comes together...

...it's a work of art.

The chill of the added cost of trenching for a new gas line gets very quickly overwhelmed by the beauty of the textures and colors of the cobbles going in on the front, or tiles going in the great room.

The subcontractors are really artisans, adding beautiful touches to our house. Around noon, I stopped by to grab some papers to get a gas meter release from the city. (We need the meter for heating, and heating to acclimatize the wood flooring next week.) When I showed up, the tile sub, George Garcia and his crew, wanted confirmation on the pattern for the great room.

After I re-confirmed we'd stick with the offset/basketweave we'd picked just Friday with the Hammerschmidt team, George started asking about preferences for variations on texture, color and flow of the slate patterns. I described how we expected to arrange and use the space. The only specific request I made was to try and pick tiles with low elevation changes to use around the dining area - to make it easy to move chairs back and forth to the table.

I swung by again around 4, just because each visit brings me new joy. Since the front door was blocked for work in the courtyard on the cobbles, I swung around back to peek at the tiles. When I came through the back door, I was treated to this:

Wow. As I admired this work, the guys pointed out how they'd chosen to weave in patterns of color and texture about 8 - 12 tiles apart. Far enough, that the eye doesn't seize on the repetition, and close enough that the overall effect blends into an integrated whole. Wow. We feel extremely fortunate that John Hammerschmidt has found and picked subs like these for our new home.

Month Seven - First Finishes

A month ago, fall was in full color. A month ago, our house was colored "winter." A month ago, the exterior was grey, and the interior walls were the white of unprimed sheetrock. Only some cabinets and tile surrounds in baths gave a hint of color.

Front Yard Evolution	Today's Activity

Now, the places are switched. Now, the season is grey with some mornings in fog. Now, our house has color. Now, our house is like the first sprout through snow, actively pushing forward. Soon all the finishes will be in and so will we.

Monthly Progress	Monthly Panoramas

Passing Grade

Today brought several treats. One was earth moving, the other more colorful than before.
Out front, the driveway and courtyard were graded for the pavers. Yesterday, one of John Hammerschmidt's subcontractors, Jorge, had a crew digging a trench for the gas line. Today they were grading the driveway. The bobcat activity lent itself to video:


Sean's projecting that Thursday will bring paver delivery and trench inspection by the gas company. As the trench passes, gas should be hooked up by the end of next week. That'll mean the heater can test, and be used for curing the wood floors during refinishing.

Inside, the paint crew was wrapping up. During my pass this afternoon, drying paint was fuming up all the rooms on the west side. Having even the lighter shades on the walls really makes the trim on doors, windows and floors pop. Along with the outside progress Thursday, inside the tile sub will return to start on the floors in the east wing.

Wow. Now that subs are working in parallel, things are coming together fast. Remember our pre-demo party? (And yes, some of those indelible party gifts have called for multiple coats of primer and paint.) Remember the predictions party-goers made? Take a close look at the calendar of predicted completion dates. Anyone want to offer another donation to Habitat for Humanity to take some of the slots?