WOOD FLOORING

Hardwood Flooring Install Underway

On Monday the red oak hardwood floor installation began on the first floor starting at the front of the house, working its way back towards rear entry, with the second floor install coming last in the sequence. Prior to any of the wood being nailed in place, a black felt underlayment was rolled over the plywood to dampen sound, and provide protection for the new floor boards. Looking at the amount of flooring installed today, I anticipate this work wrapping up tomorrow, but in the meantime here are some progress pics.

FURNITURE SELECTIONS

Living, Dining & Master Suite Furniture Sets

After a weekend full of browsing furniture stores everywhere from Value City Furniture up to Ethan Allen, I settled in on Havertys as the supplier for my first floor living and dining area furniture sets. In the living area I decided to go with a sofa, love seat, and storage ottoman from the Benny Collection and in the dining area, I went with a counter height Maren table and chairs that can also be used for seating at the breakfast bar.

For the master bedroom, I chose to go with Macy's Captiva 3-piece Queen Bedroom Set that includes a bed frame, chest and night stand. Below are some images of the various selections.

PAINT & STAIN

Stair Railing Painted & Stair Treads Stained

In advance Monday's hardwood flooring installation, the stair rails were painted black to match the cabinetry and the oak stair treads were stained in what appears to be a clear coat to match the Red Oak select finish floors. The stair risers and stringers will be painted white to match the trim in the upcoming days and below are some progress pictures of the work.

   

MISCELLANEOUS HVAC WORK

Thermostat and Return Air Grilles Installed

A highly productive week at the Starter Home 2.0 project came to a close yesterday with the installation of the Thermostat and Return Air Grilles on the first and second floors. The final hook-ups with the air conditioner condenser and all of its associated piping and wiring was also completed. The hardwood floors are scheduled to go in on Monday having arrived on site and having had the chance to adjust to the indoor climate for several days now.

FRONT & BACK

Front Porch & Back of House Update

Earlier in the week the exterior siding and trim crew was back on site and installed all but the last few pieces the porch soffit and trim around the porch beam and floor, getting the front elevation to a point where the other trades will be able to install the porch can lights, railings, and stairs sometime next week.

Meanwhile, work on the back of the house continued yesterday with the placement of the plastic cover over the window well and installation of the air conditioner condenser on the patio. The adjustable motion activated security lighting was also installed on the front and back of the home, both of which, are in locations that are accessible without the use of a ladder.

 

 

PATIO & EGRESS WINDOW

Concrete Patio Poured & Well Window Installed 

Wednesday, on the heels of some last-minute design changes to adjust for a longer stair run at the back of the house, the concrete patio and a portion of the driveway near the garage were formed and poured in place. In addition to the concrete work, the contractors also installed the basement egress window in the window well and removed the old chain link fence at the back of the lot in preparation for the new privacy fence installation in a couple weeks.

LIGHTS ON

Interior Lights Operational

Tuesday was a bit of a milestone date with it being the first day that lights in the Starter Home 2.0 project were turned on. I'm definitely going to need to get used to which switches control what lights, but the amount of light given off by the fixtures should be more than enough to satisfy the needs of any user to the point where additional floor and table lamps are completely optional and not required for any of the spaces to function (though the design certainly accounts for and accommodates their usage). That said, there is really no need for any lights to be turned on in the house, except for in the bathrooms, during the daytime hours with with abundance of natural light throughout the home. 

DUKE

Electric Hookup & Meter Install Complete

Monday everything got back on at the Starter Home 2.0 site with Duke finally showing up and installing the permanent power from the street along with the electric meter. With this critical path item complete, the temporary power pole can be removed, which means finish grading can occur and that the driveway, steps, and patio work can commence shortly thereafter. It also gives the HVAC contractors the chance to wrap-up their installation and get the house conditioned, which is required for the hardwood floors to be installed. The finish line is definitely now in sight, so it should be an exciting next couple weeks with plenty of updates to follow.

 

PULLS & HOLES

Cabinet Hardware & Baluster Prep

On Saturday the trim carpenters installed all of the kitchen cabinet door and drawer hardware, which really pops against the black background, providing a nice contrast that coordinates well with the form and finish of the door handles, faucets and soon to be installed appliances. They also drilled holes in the stair treads, railing, and floor for the metal balusters to slide into and trimmed out the top and bottom of the stair stringer, so I'm anxious to see how that assembly comes together in the upcoming days.

PROJECT BASED LEARNING

How Insurance Became Interesting

As an Architect at SHP Leading Design and volunteer with Design LAB (Learn and Build), I am regularly working with educators, administrators, and community members to develop progressive learning environments for the next generation of learners, which requires an understanding of the different ways students learn.and retain information. At the forefront of effective learning styles is project based learning (PBL), which is a type of instruction, where students work together to solve real-world problems in their schools and communities. Successful problem-solving often requires students to draw on lessons from several disciplines and apply them in a very practical way. The promise of seeing a very real impact becomes the motivation for learning. This is what the Starter Home 2.0 project has been all about for me, and explains why for the first time in my life, I was actually interested and excited to learn about Insurance.

This past Friday, I took a vacation day from work and met with my insurance agent to go over how to go about insuring the home once construction is complete. We discussed everything from the amount the insurance should be for, to what additional coverage needs to be added through endorsement to ensure I have complete protection, to a detailed cost breakdown of the policy. This wasn't the first time that I've learned about homeowners insurance having taken several personal finance classes back in high school and college, but thanks to the project based learning experience, it was the first time I was enthusiastic about the content and actually retained information regarding the subject matter.

NEIGHBOR PROJECTS

Parkview Construction Activity

While the primary focus of this blog has been on the infill lot I have been building my house on, it is not the only construction activity happening on the street. Three other houses on the same side of the block also have active projects going on, so I thought I would feature the other works-in-progress around the neighborhood with today's post.

• The neighbors to the west and northwest of the Starter Home 2.0 have been taking down the tree whose limb would have fallen on my house if I would have started construction a year earlier as I had originally planned.

• The next door neighbors to the east have been stripping and repainting their garage

• The house two doors to the east is wrapping up a major interior and exterior renovation. The man rehabbing the property gave me a tour this past week and has done a really nice job with what will end up being a relatively high-end flip.

NONHAPPENINGS

Nothing Happening Doesn't Mean Nothing is Happening

In an era where social media and instant gratification is making society more and more impatient by the day, the natural lulls in activity associated with the real estate development, design, and construction process tend to induce unnecessary panic and rumor-spreading among the public masses who prematurely and falsely proclaim projects dead with no real knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes. I know first-hand as a volunteer with the Pleasant Ridge Development Corporation (PRDC), that every time a project is held-up in due diligence, permitting, or waiting on utility hook-ups or inspections, it is the popular opinion of the neighborhood that the project fell through and is no longer going to happen. However, the reality is that just because nothing is happening, doesn't mean nothing is going to happen. The Starter Home 2.0 project itself is in the midst of one of these lulls waiting for Duke to hook up the electricity and remove the temporary power pole on site. But no need to worry, I can assure you that this project (like many other stalled projects in the Pleasant Ridge Business District) is still happening.

INTERIOR RAILINGS

Wood Handrail Install Complete

Despite exterior progress remaining stagnant with Duke Energy and the exterior siding and trim crew missing in action, the last section of interior handrail was installed yesterday with the drywall patched around the area where blocking was added in the wall to provide additional support. The handrail is now ready for painting and baluster installation.

DOOR LEVERS

Interior Door Hardware Installed

The trim carpenters were back on the job Tuesday installing all the interior door hardware sets and with the missing section of interior handrail arriving on site, I am told they should be able to effectively wrap-up the trim package installation on Wednesday. Note that the black hinges that were mistakenly shipped with the doors still need to be replaced with satin nickel hinges.

PRIVACY PLEASE

Wood Privacy Fence Discussion

Monday morning I met with a fence contractor on site that I had put an estimate together to install a privacy fence along the back property line in order to go over the project in more detail and to ask and answer questions related to the scope of work. The intent is to match the style of fence both neighbors have on either side of my lot in order to provide some much needed privacy from the adjacent public parking lot, and at the same time install a latching gate to provide me with one-way direct access to the parking lot that connects to Montgomery Road and the Neighborhood Business District. This work will occur upon completion of the Starter Home 2.0 project and is under a separate contract than the one I have with the builder.

PLASTERED WEEKEND

Cement Plaster Applied Over Garage Block

On Saturday while visiting the Starter Home 2.0 project, I ran into one of the subs who was on site to apply a skim coat of cement plaster over the garage's concrete block foundation walls to give them a more finished and uniform look. I was leaving just as he was getting started, so I decided to come back on Sunday and take some pictures of the results, which are posted below.

SHELVING & SHOWER DOOR

Wire Shelves, Hangers & Glass Shower Door Installed

On Friday the wire shelving for the pantry, linen, coats, and clothing closets were installed throughout the Starter Home 2.0 project as well as the frameless glass shower door enclosure in the master bathroom. Below are a few pictures of those installations and plenty more have been uploaded to the photo album page.

SPILLOVER EFFECT

Starter Home 2.0 & Personal Professional Growth

Later this month I will be celebrating my 1-year anniversary as an Architect at SHP Leading Design, and one of the really cool things about the workplace culture is that employees are very much encouraged and acknowledged for engaging in productive extracurricular interests and activities, whether it is designing and building a home, volunteering to teach a class of school children about design, or running a marathon. My take on this is that there is a positive and productive spillover effect between personal and professional endeavors and both are worth celebrating. Below is a recent SHP Twitter post on the Starter Home 2.0 project that reinforces that point.

CRITICAL PATH ACTIVITIES

A MOMENTARY BREAK IN THE ACTION

In construction, the term 'Critical Path' is used to describe the longest sequence of activities in a project plan which must be completed on time for the project to complete on due date. An activity on the critical path cannot be started until its predecessor activity is complete; if it is delayed for a day, the entire project will be delayed for a day unless the activity following the delayed activity is completed a day earlier.

Unfortunately, two incomplete 'Critical Path' activities of Duke hooking up the power, and a missing interior railing arriving on site are now holding up subsequent activities until the start of next week. That said, despite the momentary pause in the action, the project is still tracking ahead of schedule, so it's nothing to be too concerned about. So until things pick-up again on Monday, here is a picture I took Thursday of the left hand side of the building in honor of 'Left Handers Day' 

PORCH LIGHTS

Porch Soffit & Can Lights

Wednesday was an 'off' day at the Starter Home 2.0 with minimal activity, but another recently completed task was padding down the porch ceiling framing for the installation of the exterior can light fixtures and soon-to-be installed beadboard style vinyl soffit.  

TOILETS & TRIM

2nd Floor Toilets, Porch & Stair Trim

On Tuesday, the toilets in the hall bathroom and master bathroom were set in place, siding on the front of the house and porch trim work continued to move forward, and the interior stair stringer trim boards were installed. Below are some photos showing the status of those items, all of which are still works in progress with adjustments being made along the way.