The Extension Story

This is the story of Debbie and Peter's extension. We have decided to double the size of our home, by adding a large extension to the back of the house. The existing master bedroom will be converted to a master bath (giving us a second bathroom), and a large walk in closet. The existing dining room will become a library/office. The kitchen remains. We will add a new master bedroom, a large family room/dining room, a side entrance to the backyard, and a guest room. The budget for the project is $129,000, exclusive of windows, doors, skylights, air-conditioning, and landscaping. We have all Marvin windows in the house, and so all the windows we are adding will be Marvins. The cost is around $7,500. I still do not have a figure for the doors, and skylights.

In addition, We believe there will be an up charge for the roofing materials, and siding that we have chosen. The air-conditioning I suspect will be around $6,000.

Pre-Construction: Here is the house before we started. The house is a 3 bedroom ranch, one bathroom, kitchen, living room, and dining room on a slab. One bedroom is used as a den, and a second has Peter's drum sets, and books. There is no basement, and very little storage space.In the photos where you see white siding (as opposed to the normal yellow), that is the locations where we replaced the original windows with Marvin windows. I never got around to painting the house, and that is why it is two different colors.
August 10, 2002: Anticipating construction to begin on August 19th, I spent the entire day carefully removing the pergola. I took some photo's, during the de-construction, and a few afterwards. Debbie, and I could not believe how big the patio looked after we removed it. I made a drawing, and carefully labeled each piece, and stacked them on plastic sawhorses behind the shed.
August 12, 2002: On August 12, 2002 the construction of our new extension began with a bang. The work was not supposed to begin until the week of the 19th. I was at work, and my wife, Debbie, was taking care of my mother who had just come home from the hospital. The masons called, and left a message, and decided to start work without our go ahead. The interesting part was that he had not even signed a contract with building contractor, so the mason began without any formal approval. To make matters worse, I had contracted with a gardner, Fiore Gardens, to replant the large upswept pine shown in the pre-construction photos. The masons ripped the tree out the ground with a bobcat, and shoved to the side, to bake in the sun all day long.
August 13, 2002: First, today is my Dad's 80th birthday. He looks great. I hope I look that good when I turn 80. Happy Birthday Dad. Well, I raised a fit about the tree, and the mason said that they would make things right. Michael Sparacino from Fiore Gardens, came to the house and pruned all of the dead roots. He prepared the hole for transplanting, and directed the masons workers on where to put the tree. He then tied the tree down, and told me how to water it. He only gives the tree a 10% chance of living, but that is better then 0. The masons layed out the lines and began digging the footings.
August 14, 2002: The footings could not be dug by hand, so they brought in a truck, and dug the footings. They also drilled in some rebar at each end of the house, and in the middle of the house right underneath our existing patio door. The rebar will help tie the new to the old.
August 15, 2002: The cement footings have been poured, and a layer of cement blocks have been put on top. I have no idea what the cement blocks are to be used for. What I do know is, is that the blocks are at two different levels. Looking at the house, the blocks to the left side are about one inch higher then the blocks on the left side.
August 16, 2002: The base material is made of recycled cement and crushed stone. It is very compactable, and lays a good solid base for the cement slab that will be poured on top. We need the plumber to come in and lay waste pipes and heating lines before the slab can be finished.
August 24, 2002: The General contractor came home from his vacation yesterday , and stopped by today to see where we where. We told him the vinyl siding and roofing material we wanted to use, and he took the information with him. We picked a high end siding made by Certainteed. The color will be "weathered bled" which looks like a weathered cedar. The roofing is also a Certainteed product.
August 17, 2002 - September 1, 2002: We are still at a standstill. The plumber is on "vacation", and has not shown up to lay in the heating lines, and new waste pipes. The foundation crew cannot move forward until that is done. So we wait.
September 2, 2002: The plumber came in today and laid the lines for heat and waste. We have decided to go for two zones. One will be for the bedroom which can be seen in photo P1010030 . The second zone will be for the rest of the area. The waste line (seen in photo P1010027), will connect to a dry well. We are only using it for the kitchen sink and washing machine. The dry well will go in after the slab is poured.
September 18, 2002: The masons came back today, and have built up the base for the cement. The two trenches are called honch (I think that is the correct spelling) footings. These footings will contain extra cement which will be used to support two walls, which in turn will support the ceiling.
September 30, 2002: The lumber arrived today. It was off loaded from the truck, and put into the driveway. Two workers came, and spent the entire day moving the lumber into the backyard in logical piles.
October 1, 2002: Construction begins with laying out sill plates and starting to build walls.
October 2, 2002: Big leap forward today. The exterior walls are all up, sheathing has started, and for the first time we have a real sense of what the large family room it is going to look like. Very exciting move forward today.
October 3, 2002: Framing continues.
October 4, 2002: Framing continues. The windows arrived. Great shot of the guys building the house.
October 6, 2002: My neighbor Ken came over and declared that we would cut the tree down. I was very skeptical, as I had spent the better part of the morning trimming back branches closer to the top of the tree, and had gone pretty much as high as I would have liked. But, Ken insisted we could do it. Well, with some help from his son and a new 14" blade on my old craftsman chain saw that my brother had given me years ago, we did it. Most of these pictures show the aftermath, since I was busy helping with the cutting.
October 7, 2002: The guys from Kentstruction had been moving at a strong pace, and we where impressed at how rapidly things where happening. However, today that all changed. They are getting into the most difficult part of the framing. There are some strange angles in the roof lines, and these require very precise measurements, and cuts. In addition, we are putting two skylights in, and these add to the complexity of the job. So, we do not expect to see a lot of visual changes over the next few days, but certainly will see some structural.
October 8, 2002: Roofing structure continues to evolve.
October 9, 2002: The roofing structure and framing continues to evolve.
October 10, 2002: The roofing shingles arrived today. We had to upgrade the underlayment. Because of the pitch of the more shallow parts of the roof, we had to change from the normal tarpaper underlayment, to a rubberized underlayment. I have seen this material used a lot on This Old House, and have heard lots of good things about this, so I am not upset about going to that over tarpaper. Of course, like all good things, this cam with a cost. The roof is 16 square (1600 square feet), and so while we are getting a credit for the tarpaper, there is a $450 upcharge for the underlayment.
October 14, 2002: The TYVEK started going up, and so did the windows. We are very excited, this is the first time we can see the house, as it may look. The TYVEK covers the wood, and the windows look great. We also, decided to make a change inside the house. We want to put a storage loft above the area over the closet/mudroom/storage room. We can get a large storage area out of this. More importantly we can then use the storage room, as a studio for Debbie. She can go here and paint, and sew, two things she really enjoys. The loft storage area was my brothers idea, and we love it. We now wait to see what it is going to cost.
October 15, 2002: The roof is finished (almost), and we are pretty happy. The first dumpster left, and an empty one came back. The dumpster guy showed up around 6:30am, so it was an interesting way to wake up. These are also some of the last pictures of the old back wall in the kitchen. Plastic is up, and the wind is coming in. The pile of bricks is the old brick wall in the dining room. When we first moved in, the house had the brick wall, and a large brick and cement base, where an old ugly cast iron wood burning stove sat. I remember spending a weekend taking out that slab, and the stove. It always bugged me that I could see where I patched the ceiling. We loved the brick wall, and I was kind of sad to see it go. The best news, so far is no termite or carpenter ant problems anywhere. The sliding glass door moved as did the kitchen window today as well, and the loft area that we discussed yesterday was framed in.
October 16, 2002: The back wall is down. The hole for the skylight has also been cut in. We are now getting a lot more light into the kitchen. We can't wait to see the skylight in the dining room. We also emptied our bedroom, and moved the rest of our stuff into the front two rooms. As of tonight we will be officially sleeping on the mattress in the living room. The chimney has still not been connected, and so we only turn the burner on in the morning to get hot water. Of course, we are experiencing unusually cold temperatures. It has been in the low 40's at night. We bought an electric blanket, so hopefully that will help.
October 17, 2002: Well, the bedroom is gone. It seems like yesterday that Debbie and I redid the room. It took me forever to do, but we pulled down all the sheetrock, and after a few false starts, we finally had to pay a painter to finish. He did a pretty bad job of spackling, and it always bugged me, but he did a great job with the popcorn ceiling, and the yellow paint. I remember putting up the border with Debbie at night. It matched the curtains perfectly, and we did a great job, if I do say so myself. But, now it is all gone, but soon it will be all new.
October 21, 2002: The new bedroom, bathroom, and closet are almost completely framed. Sorry, there aren't more pictures.
October 23, 2002: Things have been hectic. These are some general shots of the new bathroom, the outside of the house, and the general area. When doing construction you have to expect a lot of garbage, both inside the house and outside. The guys have been pretty good at keeping things clean, but Debbie, and I do spend time cleaning up. In fact we spent one whole Sunday (October 27) cleaning up. All the garbage you see here in these photos we cleaned up. The yard looked a lot better after that, and we felt good, about doing it. After a few very cold nights, we had the contractor put the chimney back outside temporarily. Until this was done we would turn the burner on, make hot water and then turn it off, since the fumes where venting in to the extension.
October 24, 2002: The chimney has been framed. We are still looking for someone to run the pipes. I cannot believe the prices we are getting for this. Some quotes have been as high as $1500.00. The other problem, is the heat pipe. The plumber mis-measured, and ended up running the heat pipe, up through the doorway. The guys decided to try and dig it out, but the concrete for some reason is very deep here,and they couldn't do it. The plumber came and look, and decided to just run a new pipe. I am curious how he is going to do this.
October 29, 2002: Well, Kentstruction came through with a chimney guy. The cost was $750.00, and I think they did a good job. SO the chimney is done, and the whole house has now been wrapped in Tyvek, so I hope that cuts down on the wind a little bit. Also, the side door is in, and that helps a lot. The scariest part of the day, was that Vachig (the job foreman), fell through the old roof while framing out the second skylight. He is a great guy, and we have grown to like him a lot. We where very concerned, but it turned out that he is ok, just a little bruised and embarrassed.
October 30, 2002: Vachig came in today, and he finished the sky light.
October 31, 2002: Both the electrician, and the siders showed up to start today. They both said they would be done in 2-3 days, so by the end of Monday, November 4th, we should be all buttoned up and have lights and electricity. That means we could be close to insulation, and electricity. Even if the plumber doesn't come back soon and fix the heat, we should be fairly warm, and wind free.
November 1, 2002: The frustrations of construction. The siders never showed up, even though it was a beautiful day. The electrician, cam but left at 2:00, so I don't think he will be finished on Monday. He has all the wiring done, but still has to hook up things to the panels, put hi-hats in. In addition, he has outside work that has to get done, but that is dependent on the siders.
November 2, 2002: Well, The electricians have stared their work. As a matter of fact they started on Oct. 31. I decided to wait for them before I started running cabling. So, my brother and I spent all morning and part of the afternoon running telephone, television and network cable into all of the rooms. We also ran 12 gauge speaker wire into the ceiling fro the eventual home theater. The catv cable was quad shielded RG6, the network cable was Plenum CAT 5, and the telephone was standard phone wire.
November 5, 2002: The electrical rough in is complete, and we are no ready for insualtion. After that sheetrock, paint, floors, plumbing completion, etc... There is still a lot of work to go. The siders are still working outside. It is definitely taking longer then I thought, but the quality of workmanship is high, so I guess there is a trade-off.
November 20, 2002: Sorry, for the long gap in photo's. Work and life - do I really need to say anything more! Well the insulation work has been done. There was an odor that was coming out of the insulation. We where worried, and spoke to Kent at Kentstruction about it. He told us not to worry and that it would go away. Sure enough after three or four days the smell was gone. The old sheetrock in the kitchen and dining room ceiling had to come down. It was beyond repair. The guys where did not do exactly the cleanest job, but it was done, and we re looking forward to sheetrock. As you can see, a very large truck delivered the sheetrock. Because of the dumpster in the driveway, they couldn't get as close to the house as they wanted,and it took 4 guys a couple of hours to get it all carried in and staged.
November 30, 2002: Another long delay in photo's, and another apology. If you know me, you know I have been living at work lately. The sheetrock is up, and spackling has started. We are living behind plastic tarps. It is the only way to really control the dust. Debbie and I have been living, sleeping and eating in our old living room, and it is beginning to take a toll on us. We are getting tired of living life this way. If you are curious the flowers where for Debbie for her birthday (from my parents), and the fruit basket was from our neighbors, for watching their dog over the Thanksgiving holiday.
December 8, 2002: Another week, and another delay in photos. There has not been a whole lot going on. We are definitely in a slow construction period. We are tired. The project is 4 months old, and we probably have at least 2 or 3 more months of work. The bathrooms won't be touched until January, the painting, flooring, plumbing, gutters, and electrical all need to be completed. The hardest part for me, has been the lack of Christmas in the house. Debbie and I love Christmas. It is without a doubt our most favorite time of year, and we go all out with decorating the house. Every room normally has something. This year - nothing. It would be impossible. With all of the work, dust and dirt, our beautiful stuff would be ruined. It has both of us upset, but there is nothing that can be done, and it is nobody's fault.

It occurred to me that because of the long gaps in photos some things where just never shown, so here is a list of some things that have happened, but may not have been documented. The siding was completed, and except for gutters, some caulking, and electrical connections, work is complete on the outside of the house. Inside, the spackling is complete. It was as dirty, messy and horrible as I feared. If you are going to do an extension, be prepared. Dust, dust, and more dust. Debbie and I spent 8 hours cleaning yesterday, and we didn't even touch the new master suite area. I looked in there yesterday for the first time in a few weeks. Debbie put up some sheets, to close off that area, and since I didn't want to take the sheet down, and then drag dirt back into the original house, I just avoided that area. Anyway, as I was saying, I went in there yesterday for the first time in a few weeks, and what a friggin' mess. It will take us at least a full day of cleaning to get it looking somewhat decent. Now that the spackling is done, we need to prime and paint the entire house. My brother volunteered himself, and my sister-in-law to help. We want to start that as soon as possible. We have ordered engineered hardwood engineered flooring called Bruce Hardwood Flooring. We shopped around, and got a good price from a local flooring company. Kent from Kentstruction provided us with a flooring guy to do the install. The flooring won't come for 2 or 3 weeks, so with the holidays, we will have to wait until January before we put it down. We are going to take up the blue carpeting in the old dining room, and replace that with the flooring as well. In all we are going to install 1100 square feet of wood floors. This does not include the new master suite, which will get carpetin. In fact, the entire house will need to be recarpeted. We will use our old master bedroom carpeting in one room, the dining room carpeting in another. The rest of the house will get all new. More money.
December 14, 2002: work continues at a snails pace. Sheetrock is done, and we are ready for paint
December 31, 2002: We thought we could handle the painting ourselves. We primed everything and realized it would take us a year of weekends to get it done. We hired our brother-in-laws brother-in-law , John Karaptis of Sunset Painting and we couldn't be happier. He did a great job.
January 2, 2003: The painting is done.
January 14, 2003: The flooring has started. The guys are doing a nice job, the smell from the glue is overpowering. Debbie is having the harder time. The entire house has a chemical odor to it, and unfortunately for her she has sat home all day in it. The installers don't seem to have a problem with it, but then again they get to go home. In addition, the electricians have come back. We finally have some lights in the kitchen, and the new hallway closet. The biggest problem was getting the electricity to work in the master bedroom. The electricians spent hours trying to get it to work. Turns out the sheetrockers covered over an outlet preventing the circuit from being completed. This is the third problem the sheetrockers caused. They also covered an outlet in the dining room, and an outlet for the smoke detector in the master bedroom. The smoke detector outlet was easily found from the ceiling, and the outlet in the dining room was found easily because it was pushing out on the sheetrock and it's outline was easily seen. In the master bedroom however we had soundproof board put in plus the sheetrock, so the only way to find the outlet was by cutting holes into the wall. Luckily the electrician found it on his second try, but know we have a nice hole in our newly paintednew walls that needs to be fixed.
January 19, 2003: The flooring is finished (almost). Here are some general photos.