Home Renovation Didn't See Its Shadow - Work Creeps Along with Style

As I texted yesterday, Puff, Puff – we’re getting there. 

The heavy lifting of the outside work and infrastructure is complete. 

The front and back porch are in.  The columns need to be painted but that will come later.

Amazing how they cut the bluestone amid billows of smoke. Alas, it ends up everywhere...

And how painstakingly the masons lay the stone on diagonal

Yikes!  It went from this to... 

...to this in not too much time

  
But not before we learned the masons had taken down the drain pipes & gutters to accommodate the bigger-sized porch configuration.  They seemed nonplussed about it and said all would be ok as soon as the gutters were in.  However, the siding hadn't been completed and it rained -  which led to some basement flooding. Could this have contributed to first the washer breaking and then the hot water heater dying??   My garden design expert team had to come in and install a fitted pipe from the house out to the street!

    

The terrace is re-assembled by the masons.  Actually looks better than it did.  

I had the masons also put in a new step below the new French door.  

I will need to determine the walkway from the terrace garden – which is a charming, diminutive herb potager kind of garden – not too far from the kitchen – out to a new front garden.

There are existing pea gravel pathways bisecting the four quadrants in the garden.

I could readily extend the pea gravel to make the walkway to the front of the house. 

By the way, I am waiting for a tree expert to come and determine if he will remove/take away the specimen holly that punctuates the front garden.  I hate to lose this wonder – especially during the holidays – however, it will open up the view better for our neighbors and frankly, it doesn’t get us anything in the new, planned garden design.

I also had to laugh about the black silk netting that was put up early on to protect the garden beds. Ha.  Talk about Plant Blindness!  Good thing I moved most everything I could, as the workers just walked right through them so before too long it was a dreary looking sight.  

Back to the terrace garden room walkway and gaining access to the front.

I know my husband is not keen walking on the pea gravel and further, this will probably be a somewhat heavily trafficked walkway. 

I need to think about this later.

I want to capture the sunrise - here over Long Island/Brooklyn -Love the blues & oranges

The focus for the most part now is on the indoors but my eye is constantly observing and noting where the new light is given the new structure, seeing what has opened up or shaded.  We also are trying out different shades of colors to see how the light will hit it and how it will look... 

When it comes to the floor color, we are like CSI agents looking at the body from every angle in order to determine what floor stain works best for the kitchen & living room-that-soon-might-be-an-alternate-dining-room.  Presently, the older part of the floor is red mahogany.
We will redo this to match the newly built floor – and most important to the new kitchen cabinets.

We designed the kitchen cabinet composition and layout with the help of Eileen at Home Depot that is located in an enterprise zone – which means less tax!

The cabinets are Thomasville – in a dark walnut brown.  

The island is almond with eyebrow-thin brownish-gold color in the cabinet grooves.

We are torn between two stains.  I guess we are waiting for the entire kitchen cabinets to be completed and then will choose.

There is the sexy glass tile transition we love that will need to complement the wood floor that makes the leap over to what will be a tiled floor in the new sitting and dining area.  I love those glass tiles! So much depth and texture.  

Here are the stain choices:

What do you think?

Then there are things you never think about – like moldings.  We have to choose the moldings for every door and ceiling area and floor-mounts.   

We continue to hold up samples and ponder the look like we know what we’re doing.

We look closely, then step back and look as if the decorating demi-gods will flit in and point out sweetly, “Choose this one, darling”

We also interviewed three different tile layers, trimmers, installers, and painters.  Always best to secure minimum of three bids. And interview the candidates for more than the price.  Make certain you like their working style – do they do one job at a time; do they work with a team; are they the craftsman; will they work until the job is finished or work you in with other schedules.  How do they expect to be paid - One-third up front?

Ask about problems, successes, what it is they like to do best/best and worst experience

Do you appreciate their look?? Do you find their recommendations and knowledge something you can respect?

Think about the process as if you are interviewing a candidate for your business. You are.

Too often, there is a language barrier – meaning those who work in the service business have no clue about the labor and construction business.

Overcome this communication gap.

Determine what it is you need to get out of the relationship.

We also eagerly revisited our Azul marble this week.  Ahhh – it was good to be back in the embrace of this cosmic beauty.  It is Italian marble with blue in it – which is difficult at best to find – with whitish cloud-like dreams floating the surface and the slightly glittering, island-looking shapes. 

Overall, the drama is one that looks like the Caribbean Sea from the plane gliding above or alternately, it looks like an azure sky adorned with lazy cloud forms.

When I voiced my marble rapture to the man who came to measure the template and Lou, the cabinet install expert, they squinty-eyed challenged me, saying, “Ha. Nothing looks like the Caribbean except the Caribbean.”

“Trust me,” I confidently glared back “This does indeed channel the sea.” 

Seeing it they were chagrined and declared their agreement to its doppelganger provenance!

And the fact that the island – as in the kitchen cabinet that houses the stovetop and is in the middle of the room – faces the water – this Azul Sea Marble is just a heavenly design element… 

Our next step finally was to meet up with that lover, the Azul Marble and determine where to cut based on the template measurements.  

And when Paula from TriState Stone tile triumplantly circled our desired template placement and wrote “Island” on it – I remarked it was very Zen. All the dots were connecting: the marble was marked by word Island on top of the islands in the marble for the island in the kitchen.

Next.  We got a dining room table!  

Home Renovation Update and Tips

Did you ever see a Taper?  They are the most curious of creatures… They look like something out of the movie, “Avatar!”

They walk on stilts in order to tape the sheetrock. 

I love the way they work: so agile and confident on those metal stilts.  There should be some kind of Olympics or Reality Show for construction trades.  I would cheer for this team.

Every trade team has their own unique work style and character. Not unlike major sports teams.

Our Garden State home renovation continues and I have more than a few observations and updates.  Crazy that all this effort marches right through the holidays. 

We are in the midst of the ongoing scenario that reminds me of the Peanuts’ “Pig-Pen” – meaning balls of dust everywhere we step, no matter what one does to ameliorate the “dust.” 

Before - and with some cleanup!

I couldn’t take the disorganization or dust a minute more, so right before Christmas – and before the sheetrock team even did their work, er, dust contribution -- I had to make some sense of it all and put what is now the home office: soon to be the water view side of the master suite back to some kind of order.  

That meant vacuuming multiple times, followed by an equal number of the companion effort of washing the wood floors. Then vacuum then wash, then…

I put some of the books and garden design tools back out from under the tarps.

After cleanup reorg

Then like some inspired, reverse-order Scarlett O’Hara, I staple-gunned sheets to the newly installed windows to create window treatments.  

We felt almost human…

Guest room temporary reorg with Scarlett drapes!

Then two days later, just like Scarlett, I had to rip them down. 

The sheetrock team was here.

And they move the rooms full of sheetrock like a shopping contestant on a timed clock.

They move muy rapido:  Sheet rock hauled into every room from where it was piled like books in the library.

I couldn’t believe this truck wasn’t going to smash into the house when the sheetrock was delivered! 

A big Wii game-like control panel, allows the delivery man, slash tech editor and manager, to expertly and adroitly take on Power Ranger arms to swing these babies inside and stack ‘em up.  

   

The sheetrockers cut the boards, a nail gun drives in the nails to secure the boards and then onto the next spot.  Almost a staccato musical with the swish, swish, zoom, zip, zoom…

Amazing time and motion study.

   

Then the aforementioned Avatar Tapers come in and tape the sheetrock’s seams.

Paste, smooth. Paste, smooth.  Repeated with skill and patience.

Avatar Tapers

At the same time, the siding continued and the front and back covered porch pillars went in and up. 

Trying to keep the workmen’s sharp objects off the newly crafted front porch was a challenge.

Here, UPS delivered the highly anticipated spray foam insulation onto the newly laid bluestone porch. 

Wouldn’t  you think the universal, yellow caution tape oh-so-obviously communicating that it was not OK to go onto the front porch would’ve prevented this drop off on this spot? 

Later, after Christmas, my husband donned a hazmet suit to spray the foam insulation into the roof of the new back covered porch.  Yikes!  This stuff is very scary.  And try “gently” peeling specs off the face – even though hats, goggles and face guard were worn.

It’s times like this one wonders if it’s all worth it.

Then you see the new front door complete xx and you get downright giddy. Especially after you receive wowsy texts from the neighbors applauding the look. 

Me trying out the key on the new front door!

Or you see the sun streaming in and making what look like illuminated floral patterns on the wall.  A magical miracle of sunshine and glass! 

We’ve had the masons complete the reassembly of the back terrace and a new step, allowing egress out of the dining room.   

The electrician has installed some lights (hello 20^th Century. We’re getting there) and the plumber visited too.

We are managing the GC work now ourselves.  We needed to part ways with the one we had due to terms that were laid out to us that we couldn’t meet.

And the relationship had turned ever so swiftly to one that was filled with ill will and recriminations and name calling, of all things, on top of some serious arithmetic errors and budget sleight of hand…. 

We have saved for about ten years to renovate our home. We knew it would be a big deal, a lot of inconvenience and loss of privacy – and money J   but we are patient, modest people.  We never expected the biggest issue to be one of lack of good, decent communication from someone who is supposed to be an advocate for us – one who is paid to work for us.  After the term demands couldn’t have been met, we agreed it was best for us to operate in a more peaceful, respectful way.

I will get a shaman to come in and remove the bad spirits and energies. Just have to find one that is local.

By the way, I do a lot of garden design for my clients utilizing the principles of feng shui and, of course, will do so for us too. I am also applying many of the good energy practices to the house/home design.  I love what is recommended for the front door alone. More on that later.

In an effort to help others pondering or embarking on a home renovation, we offer a few suggestions.

Our Tips for Choosing a GC:

• Do not just check references, but also check other work contacts. Ask the other trades. And/or the competition. Reputations are made and lost on the ability to sustain client relationships and often one or two good jobs, just completed, do not give the full picture.  Look online for reports of abuse.
• Determine the work style of the GC.  If you are the type of person who requires back up and transparency, do not just look at a finished home project to choose your GC. It may have been hell to get there.  Too often homeowners look at the finished pictures in a portfolio and do not gauge how the GC manages the process of the work.  Those of us accustomed to teamwork and corporate work structures cannot abide sloppy, poorly managed and error prone work documents and processes.  Interview the entire work style – not just the finished home work project.
• Ask if the GC has a line of credit. I do. I pay my teams most often way before my client pays me and could use this if needed. Our GC always complained loudly that she did not have any money to pay her teams if we didn’t submit a check immediately.  An established, credible GC should have enough working capital to pay the team(s) until you write the check.  Plus the GC gets their 10-15% from you straight away – and that could help cover the team cost if it is so necessary, right?
• Establish a work process that suits you – the client  - and ask if the proposed GC can work within these guidelines. Say I will prefer meeting notes, emails and/or text and phone updates.  Document it as part of the working contract.   Meeting notes, especially, help clarify what was decided and who is responsible. Keep up the reports even after construction starts.  So many of ours fell to me to do early on and then afterwards meetings turned into an ATM – merely an opportunity to tell us, “I need these checks and now… “ 
• Make certain the GC understands they are responsible for the Spreadsheets and managing of the budget. They are your advocate and need to manage to your stated budget even if that is a working aspirational budget.  They need to update accordingly and be held accountable to meeting the approved working budget.  And share this with you.  You are working the home renovation project together.
• Establish weekly or bi weekly meeting updates that are more about the design and the workflow than about writing checks.  Walk the construction site. See what manifests itself – the space and rooms look different once the work commences than when it was on the blueprint. We only made a few design changes from the start – adding two windows.  But if we had focused on the design work rather than check writing at the meetings, we could all have discovered the need for the windows sooner.  My cousin pointed out to us it might be nice to add the one, and the window in the loft was my idea once I saw the room framed out… I’ve heard of many home renovations going spectacularly over budget due to design changes requiring massive change orders. We didn’t have that.  But do walk the site and see if the work in progress suggests something else you might do at that time and save money later.  Or add something you just can’t live without now that you See it.
• Establish payment schedules. While it is true that most construction trades require a deposit and one can plan for that, there is simply no need for immediate payments and the high drama that goes with demanding checks as soon as the request is sent.  Most every business operates on net-30 or 60 days and there is no reason for home construction to be any different.  Our GC was always in a high drama mode waving pieces of paper with a number on it or emailing demands.  We had to manage our monies and move from various accounts so the immediate turn around didn’t work nor was it necessary.  I found a huge error when I took the time to review the spreadsheet and proposals from the trades.  Further, permits and weather often modify even the best work schedule so payments based on work are not always established as set in stone. 
• But it is always preferred to provide an invoice with the original budget proposal, the back up and the invoice. This standard operating procedure and should be provided with courtesy and clarity.  With proper notice and back up, payment can readily be made with confidence  -- within a week, 30 days, (or a day) whatever is agreed to.  We have continued to pay our excellent trades and craftspeople on this weekly and monthly schedule. No problems. No drama.
• Review the proposals and spreadsheet before signing the contract. Review repeatedly.  Overbudget occurred to us due to sloppy, mis-management errors and no detailed itemized list of necessary items on the proposed and final budget proposal and spreadsheet.
• Establish a realistic timeline for the work.  This way you know you will be moving things for not just “a few weeks” but for a year  -- or whatever.  Demand that you get more than a few weeks’ (or in our case, days – notice – especially if you travel for work) about moving the household items so that you can pack and store with respect and assurance and will know where items are for the duration of the work project.
• Update the workflow and timeline as the work progresses.
• Courtesy and preferred client relations should be a given, but it’s not.  So establish what you need up front.  Everything. Not just the construction work.  Interview many points of contact.  Make it a joyful, blissful project. After all, it’s your dream house.

The Garden State Home Renovation Tips and Design Review

It seems there will be no gift of a completed home renovation project in time for Christmas. 

Work goes on for phase one.

That includes windows and French doors in the dining room and master bedroom suite, new roof (take that Nor’easters!), insulation, (getting some much needed warmth inside now that the weather is turning winter cold), and the first part of front porch frame and mason work, as well as the back porch addition off the dining room and next to the existing terrace.  This is where the Japanese soaking tub and yoga will be. And chairs for contemplation… And star gazing.

Here is where the Sunbrella fabric drapes will frame the view and offer privacy and shade.

roses watch the their new home companion

roofers start

  

start of loft

There is noodles of wiring meticulously threaded throughout the house by Harold, a darling, tidy electrician.
And there are miles of silver foil sheaths peeking out and twinkling behind the framing, knowing they will soon be hidden away, and what looks like plastic garbage bags channeling an amusement park tunnel attraction but is in fact part of the HVAC.

Once most of the framing and flooring was up, we could see we needed two windows that could open—positioned on either side of the center square window on the water side of the loft room perched over the new dining room.

In the areas where there was existing house: upstairs where the bedrooms and bathrooms are, we had to move all the "stuff" that was in the rooms and lined the walls. 
This was no small task; especially as all the house items and furniture from the living room and kitchen and garden room have already been moved to the garage. 
There is no place left to put the stuff!

We moved the upstairs room items to one side and put a drop cloth over the stuff.

The French door with soon-to-be-Juliet balcony was installed to my great delight.  How perfect it will be to wake up with light streaming into a new expanded bedroom and to enjoy the glistening water views and New York skyline and stately sailboats and frisky sunfish sailboats and cruise ships sailing hopefully to exotic ports from New York Harbor -- and our gardens below.  

We also wanted to offer our overnight guests more of the water and skyline and garden view too.  It was almost like one would have to peek through a squinted or squished viewfinder with the previous windows. Now there is a big, wide square happy window. 

The house, having been originally built in the 1960’s placed all the important rooms on the back side or southwest side of the house in order to safeguard the integrity of the windows from storms, especially the wicked Nor’easters that angrily whip through with impudence every season.  We’ve been told the windows back then just couldn’t sustain the winds and beating rain.

Now, the technology and window designs allow us to get creative with shapes and sizes and positioning. 

We selected the floor for the dining room.  It is comprised of 20x20 tiles – grayish/bluish with striations of coppery brownish.  Small copper squares will be placed artistically throughout the tiled floor area as accents.  This will accessorize the copper topped table to giddy design magazine-worthy heights!  The exciting part of this is the transition tiles I found to lead from the wood kitchen and living room floor to the dining room tile.  This transition tile is appropriately named Opulence.  Oooohh!  It looks like jewelry with tiny glass squares of dazzling copper, cinnamon, silvery-gray and saffron colored tile.  Perfect.  

I am finalizing the outdoor front walk, driveway and front herb garden designs. 

My design request - to be scaled for front porch

I forwarded the image of the front porch design to the masons via the architect – see here -  but they said the design was too big and if they were to do it would cost us $1,000 more to cut the bluestone and brick to scaled size. Further, they said the labor to put the bricks between the slate would require more money.  I suggested they stay within the budget parameters and provide a design opportunity that is close to the look we wanted without costing more. 


The design compromise that was emailed was a random bluestone patter -- too dizzying to work with the clean, straight-on walk design I envision and designed.  After some phone consultation, the mason brothers came over to meet and lay out my suggested alternative design concept, using 16" bluestone.  On the diagonal/diamond-shaped.  With bricks around the sides.  ^:^ Sounds pretty familiar? It worked for me!

The front steps will be 12" bluestone, framed by brick.    

We try to stay focused on the progress. We try to stay out of the dust.  We try not to think about the loss of privacy or the lack of space to put anything.  Thank goodness we have the Gotham apartment to live in during the week.  And my mother's welcoming condo down the street. On the water. We need to get away from all this plus the noise and mud and …

What I wasn’t prepared for is the lack of GC communication and the problems it’s caused. 

Santa should prepare for coal in stockings this year…

Coming up will be installation of the kitchen cabinets, making the template for the kitchen counters and island that will be used to cut the most beautiful marble this side of heaven.

The marble looks like the Caribbean Sea or the sky.  With stars and clouds.  I literally hugged it  when I came upon it. I knew it was for us!  

It took too long to find the cuts we coveted. But we prevailed.
It will look so dreamy mirroring and reflecting the water of the bay and the wide berth of sky behind and framing.

And the front door needs to go in. Right after they finish the front porch.

The siding will go up next week. We chose a bluish grayish shingle that will blend with the water beyond.  The color and style will also work with the existing brick siding on one part of the house that we will whitewash so that we achieve a kind of French country house effect.

We continue. 

So much of a home renovation is hope, tears, and attention to detail.  I advise all homeowners to over-manage. Do not allow anyone to take the reins or to think they control or selectively control the project. It must be very clear at the outset who is the client and how the relationship and process will proceed.  So much time is spent on the materials and design. When in fact, so much of the project is really about the chemistry found in the relationship between the architect and GC and the homeowner/client.
There is more than enough challenges and stress to go around. Be sure to partner with someone who shares your values and character as well as your style and vision.
Do not trust anyone with your budget.  The trust is too often misplaced.  Go over the numbers yourselves and then together with the GC manager. Sadly, professionalism can be in the eye of the doer.
Homeowners are so busy with their work and family lives that more often than not they do rely on the GC for that oversight management they are being paid for.  However they make mistakes.  Sometimes bad ones.

I also recommend having constant email and text updates. That’s worked very well for us.  Weekly meetings – not so much.  The meetings should be more than requests for money.  They should include design review before work is to begin in the areas next in the work flow schedule.  While we only had two change orders, we might have been able to realize the need for different windows if we had walked around once the part of the construction was completed to a point to see what was emerging. 
Take notes and write meeting reports to share with key decision makers.
Review and review and confirm.

The meetings should also foster a sense of team, shared responsibility and commitment and pride…

Weather plays a big role in home renovation in locales where there are four seasons.  Outside of getting the work done in the ideal temperature-kissed late spring through fall time period, there are still rainstorms.
And given climate change - - (yes, Virginia, there IS climate change!) there will be more wild swings in weather patterns including this year's hurricane, tornado, and earthquake. So I suggest looking to the weather channel's long-range forecast when planning the work schedule.  It's a good arrow in the quiver. And it's a good way to plan to use the teams for inside tasks when inclement weather prevents outdoor work.

Securing permits is also a time and schedule challenge that needs to be managed.

Take lots of pictures - before - and as the project progresses.

Have fun. Enjoy the path to a soon-to-be new style

More to come with completion of the house, phase one.  Then on to the the garden and driveway designs.