New floor!

Yesterday the last of the old linoleum floor was torn out of the kitchen.  (except for a small piece under the big steam radiator because we don't want to move the radiator, and it'll be covered up by the radiator box we're building)  Once the floor was gone, Mike (the lead carpenter) found that the subfloor boards in the original house (the board running vertical in the picture below) weren't quite at the same level as the very uneven subfloor boards in the addition (the boards running horizontal under the window).  This becomes an issue when deciding which way the boards are going to run in the new hardwood floor in the kitchen.

The problem with this is that the hardwood floor in the rest of the house runs perpendicular to the original subfloor, which is parallel to the addition subfloor, and parallel to the transition between the two subfloors.  If we ran the new hardwood in the kitchen parallel to the hardwood in the rest of the house, Mike said that the uneven subfloor in the addition would cause a "hump" in the floor that the new boards would separate along, and we'd have a gap open up in the floor over time right where the addition meets the original house.  This wasn't a problem on the old floor because there was about three layers of plywood spanning the gap, with the linoleum on top covering up all the sins.  If we run the new hardwood perpendicular to the rest of the hardwood in the house, it would span the gap, even out the hump, and have the additional bonus of spreading the weight of our new kitchen island more evenly across the joists in the basement ceiling.

So we have to make some kind of transition between the old and new hardwood floors, since they're running perpendicular to each other.  This was already an issue anyway because the kitchen hardwood is going to be all sealed up and glossy, so it will have a slightly different sheen than the adjacent old floor in the dining room.  The solution was to put in a wide transition strip in the kitchen / dining room doorway, with strips of mahogany, to visually break things up between the old and new floors.  In the image below you can see the transition strips installed, with a tiny glimpse of the old dining room floor peeking out from under its protective cover.  After the new floor is finished it should bring out more of the rich colors of the oak and mahogany.

The kitchen is starting to look fabulous with the new floor!

I missed talking to anyone on the job today when I got home from work, but my guess is that those two darker patches on the floor are where they spread some extra poly underneath where the dishwasher and refrigerator are going to go, before the cabinet boxes come in a week from now.

Another small conundrum came up when the linoleum was ripped out of the landing next to the back door.  The top tread of the basement stairs was under that linoleum, and it's this weird red-painted board.  I think it's made out of soft pine based on the grain showing through the paint and the character of the mashed-up front of the stair tread.

I really don't want to mess with the basement stairs which are currently covered in an old gray carpet, and I'd like to leave them that way, thank you.  I'm pretty sure that the carpet isn't attached to this tread, and this board is too mashed up to keep.  I think this weekend curiosity will get the better of me, and I'll get out the pry bar and take it off so that we can think fresh about the transition from the back door area (in the scope of the project) to the basement stairs (out of scope).

Weeks 4 and 5: The calm before the storm

The fourth week of the project was pretty quiet except for the first day.  A big crew of plasterers showed up and coated everything.  It was fun watching the lead guy walking on half-stilts while he was doing the ceiling.  Here's the scene from the dining room side after they were done:

... and the view from inside the kitchen:

It's starting to look like a real room again!   But then we had to leave it alone for a few days to let the plaster dry.  Not very exciting blog material.

This current week has started slow but is rapidly picking up speed.  There was a delay in the shipment of our cabinets (probably our fault due to a change in decision), so we're trying to check off a few things that can be done before the cabinet boxes show up.  The first thing is to trim the windows and doors and start work on the baseboards, and the final thing is to rip out the old floor.  They were keeping the old floor as long as possible to absorb all the abuse.  Plus, without it you can see down into the basement which is a bit freaky (and a bit sawdusty for the basement). 

 Here's the current state of the window trim and the old floor removal.  You can see where the old addition starts because the subfloor suddenly changes directions.

The back steps also got an upgrade today from the temporary treads to nice thick (5/4) oak treads.  The trim is mostly done around the steps, and the new hardwood floor is going to com up to meet this area.  We're also building in a shoe storage box through the wall to the right.  (not cut yet)

Also today a big pile of hardwood floor boards showed up.  The floor is scheduled to go in next Monday, and then half the appliances show up (the ones that need to get integrated into cabinets), and then the cabinet boxes hopefully will be in by the end of next week.  Fingers crossed!

Weeks 3 and 4: Infrastructure and Insulation

A long span between blog posts, as I traveled around to various meetings around the country ... But now back home to see the progress!

Week 3 was all about putting in the rough electrical wires and plumbing while the walls were still opened up and easily accessible.  We had to make some decisions about lightswitch placement, plugs, etc.  The canister lights went into the new ceiling:

And the new bathroom fan was installed:

Meanwhile, the old back steps were torn out and temporary treads were put in before they get replaced to match the new floor.

It was a little scary seeing straight down through the temporary steps into the basement the first time I encountered these!  It got really cold outside for several days right around this time (half a foot of snow in April!), and with the bare walls and wind whistling in the vented roof, the kitchen space almost got down to freezing.  (it's sealed off from the rest of the house right now)  I guess it's lucky there's no running water in there right now.

Then I was off to California for week 4, during which all the inspections for rough plumbing, framing, and rough electrical work took place.  Then it was time to insulate it and make it warm and cozy again!

Fiberglass wall insulation got rolled in between the studs.

Then a thick layer of closed cell foam insulation was sprayed onto the inside of the roof extension, permanently sealing off all the air leaks that we'd been having problems with.

Finally, the wallboard was hung, and it's about ready for plastering.  It almost looks like a kitchen again!  You can see the plumbing stub for the new sink coming out of the wall under where the new pass-through to the dining room is going, and you can see various wires sticking out for under counter lighting, the cove lighting in the tray ceiling, and the new switches and plugs.