The Temporary House

We took a break before July 4 so Rick could visit his daughter in Oregon. We have been actively involved with construction since early March. It was time for a break. Here are a few images of non-kitchen activities.

Bringing one of two radiators upstairs.

Radiator place in new bedroom.

Closet system installed in enlarged closet of old bedroom.

Deck and railing installed outside. Notice the new gutters and downspout.

Don is working on the handrail.

While the kitchen is almost finished, the next job is to repair the new and old damage in the mud room. This will start in about two weeks. Now an image of the light coming in the upstairs bedroom striking electrical insulators that sit on the windowsill.

Electrical insulators on the bedroom windowsill.

Once the counter tops, plumbing, and appliances were in place it was time for me to fill the cabinets and set other things in place. I had given a lot of thought throughout the process of what would go where.

Pantry with interior shelf and vinyl flooring for liner. I trimmed the area around the magnetic latches so the liner lays flat.

Pantry with stuff.

Dishes I use most are on these shelves.

Top drawer on the left has spices and other small items.

Mixing bowls and measuring cups get their own drawer.

Ikea bins hold miscellaneous items. I got this idea from Chez Larsson’s blog. I’m very disappointed that she stopped blogging. She had such great ideas.

Open access for trays, racks and pans.

Pots and pans are easy to get when there are no doors.

While I was organizing the cabinets the carpenters and painter were taking care of other finishing. We had to wait for the butcher block to arrive before they could finish the baseboards and other details.

Door jamb and casing being installed. Note that the baseboard, cap, and shoe need to be finished.

The rail fitted through one of the maple brackets.

Butcher block and small shelf.

Butcher block is in, baseboards are painted and the floor sports a denim rag rug.

We still have more to do in the kitchen, primarily in the garden window. We still have not decided  how to fit in a soapstone counter in the space. Maybe I will devote a post to that topic.

A couple other items are outstanding from the cabinet maker. And I have to apply finish to the windowsill under the triple windows and fill all the nail holes in the maple brackets and door jamb.

Oh, and the radiator under the big window needs to be installed. We are waiting until the mudroom is ready for its radiator.

Countertops

The installers came to install the counter tops once the cabinets were secured in place. As I mentioned in an earlier post the counter top material is quartzite. Quartzite looks like marble, but doesn’t have the problems people often associate with marble. Following are photos of bringing them into the house and laying them in place.

Sink in place. Ready for the countertops.

The counter tops arrive.

Almost 600 lbs.

Just lift and place.

Peninsula counter

Long counter top

The biggest job was nudging the under-counter apron front sink into place. After everything was aligned, the counters received a bead of clear caulk around the edges. The countertops were otherwise not fastened to the cabinets because their weight will keep them in place. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation suggested that the peninsula weighed slightly over 600 lbs. It’s a good thing we put extra support in the basement.

After the countertops were secured, the sink was plumbed and the stove was hooked up to the gas line and installed.

From tidy to messy once again as the electricians hook up the dishwasher.

Faucet installed

Here comes the stove

Now the kitchen was almost ready. The refrigerator is next to arrive.

This post is focused on the shiny surfaces in the kitchen. Right now nearly all of the objects are in boxes and may be installed in the next week or so.

Faucet—Before I saw one up close, I thought I would like one of the commercial faucets with the fancy sprayer. Those things are huge and I want to keep things simple and open. I am very happy with the faucet in the old kitchen because the faucet head swivels as does the arm, so you can reach the whole sink area. This Kohler chrome faucet in no longer in production, but a few of them still exist in inventory. The flat wing shaped handles make it easy to turn the water on and off with the back or side of your grimy hands . Their shape makes them easy to wipe clean. Kohler no longer makes the same handles that I have now so I am going to switch the old handles to the new faucet. Below are the old and new versions.

Kohler faucet with the older style wing handles. I will take these from the old faucet and put them on the faucet in the new kitchen.

Kohler faucet with the new version of the wing shaped handles. I will put these handles on the old faucet

Lighting—Decorators like to “layer” the lighting: general lighting, task lighting, accent lighting. By the time they are done, the ceiling is full of pot lights and throughout are fixtures that are hard to clean and with bulbs located in delicate shades. Here is an example of what I mean in an otherwise wonderful kitchen.

Pardon me while I rant. Nearly all islands or peninsulas in new kitchens are lit by three pendants and counters lit by under cabinet lighting. I can only imagine the bank of switches that control everything. None of this for me. In addition, I am committing the worst lighting sin by having a fluorescent fixture in the kitchen area. I have one now and it works fine with no shadows cast. Fluorescent bulbs get a bad rap because old ones cast a bluish light and people didn’t like how their skin looked in the light. Nowadays bulbs come in a wide selection of temperatures so they all don’t have that blue cast that people complain about.

For a bit of bling, over the windows will be two sconces made by a company called Cedar and Moss.  The finish  in the image below is matte black and  bulb  is an Edison bulb. The Edison bulb is now the fancy of the lighting industry and will soon be dated. It is an incandescent and only comes in a 60 watt version. My sconces are brushed brass and I will use small LED spotlights.

Imagine this in brushed brass.

Over the table will be a hanging light from Rejuvenation. I wanted one of the rise-and-fall pendants that were popular in the early 20th century and revived later in a mid-century modern version. In the US, only  smaller pendant versions are available to go over islands, three in a row,  or in small spaces. The one I would like to have is made in England and while a little pricy to purchase here, it would take too long to arrive. I also thought it was too small. But it turns out the one I got is about the same size. Here is an image of the rise-and-fall fixture:

Cobb Rise and Fall lamp.

I picked the Rejuvenation light after ordering and returning another light below. The version with the brass finish only came 23” wide. I thought it would work, but when it arrived it was clearly too big.

I sent this one back because it was too big for the space.

Here is a good picture of the one I got from Rejuvenation, though mine is unlacquered  brass. You can see that the glass shade is more delicate than the one I returned. I will put some of the same wax on the brass that is on the sconces and hope the brightness will diminish with time. I also wanted a translucent shade. One of the reasons I chose this particular fixture is that it can take up to a 300 watt bulb. I plan to use 150 watts on a dimmer, not the Edison bulb in the picture. You can change the bulb without removing the shade and the smooth surfaces are easy to clean. In a few years an LED bulb should be available to provide the same light as the incandescent one.   Still I wish it could go up and down.

This is the one that will be in the new space although mine will be brass.

Knobs and pulls—While checking out the knobs and pulls at Menards, I fell in love with the feel of this pull.

Pull for the small cabinets and drawers

My hands are not always dry when I need to open a cabinet. In the old kitchen the cabinet finish behind most knobs is worn from cleaning. The finish wasn’t that great on the old cabinets anyway, but knobs and pulls should be easy to clean and make it easy to open a drawer or door without getting it soiled. This pull is going on all cabinets except the large pantry unit. There the pull would look too wimpy. The  image below is the pull for the pantry. It has a good feel too.

Pull for the pantry cabinet doors and drawers

Here is the small pull installed on a cabinet door.

Small pull on a cabinet door.

Close up of small pull on a cabinet door.

The finishes in the kitchen are brass, chrome, and satin nickel. I don’t mind mixing things up. The light fixtures in the “public” spaces in the house originally were brass as is the original window hardware. I thought it important to maintain consistency, so the new kitchen has brass light fixtures and window hardware. I would have had chrome cabinet pulls, but the pull I liked didn’t come in chrome. Chrome is much easier to keep clean and it is a classic finish. Satin nickel, like subway tile, is a bit overused these days. But they are classics, too.

The last thing to select is a back splash material. I will wait until the counter tops are in to make a decision.

The next time I post about the kitchen it will be nearly finished. That should be in about two weeks—or more. The plumber, electrician, counter installer, painters, and floor finishers each have work to do.

I’ve been looking at kitchen images on the web for at least five years and in magazines virtually forever. One of the best places to look is Houzz where I have some Ideabooks full of my selections from the Houzz posts. You can check them out here:

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/users/evelyn

There is at least one thing in each image that caught my attention. But the picture that best captured the look-and-feel I wanted wasn’t on Houzz. I think I first saw it on the blog “Desire to Inspire.” Here it is:

What I like about it is the color palate, the light wood of the cabinets and floor, the open shelves, both marble and wood counter tops and the fact that the appliances didn’t match. This image drove my selections while I kept in mind the age of the house, the size of the space, the light from the windows, and how I would use the room. It will take two posts to discuss everything.

Floor and Paint—As I mentioned before, the good maple floor was staying even though I would have preferred porcelain tile. A previous post discussed the paint which, now that I have looked at it for several weeks, is even better than I hoped. In late afternoon light it has a bluish tone, on a cloudy day looks grayish, in full sun can look more white. It takes on the hue of the light coming through the windows. Just wonderful.

Cabinets—I have some of the original cabinets from 1925 in the basement, some from a 1960s era remodel in the garage, and, of course the current kitchen cabinets that went in in 1985. This time I am using Shaker style like the 1925 version, but natural maple like the inspiration photo.  The Shaker style can work in a contemporary, transitional, or traditional kitchen. There will be only a few upper cabinets in order to keep the open feel of the room. In the place of some uppers there will be shelves with custom brackets that match the shape of the brackets supporting the living room fireplace mantle.

The natural maple finish is the brightest, most user friendly finish. Paint or dark stains when dinged  or damaged are hard to repair or refinish.  Natural wood is more forgiving and develops a gentle, worn patina.

The cabinets are installed, but the counter tops, pulls, and some trim are not finished. Here is what the cabinets look like now.

Mike and Rick install the range hood. The hood has a temporary white film to protect the stainless finish.

The cabinets and range hood are in. Still a lot of work ahead.

Counter top and sink: I spent way too much time researching counter tops. Thanks to a Christmas gift from my son, the main counter top material is quartzite. Quartzite looks like marble but doesn’t have the porosity and softness of marble. Here is a picture of the slab.

Quartzite slab from which the counter tops will be made. The blue tape marks out the sink and other cutting information.

I wanted a stone top because I wanted an under mount, apron front sink. Otherwise laminate would be fine. Surprisingly, I don’t mind the plastic of laminate, but do mind the plastic of Corian-like surfaces.  Quartz, another man-made material is as expensive as granites and other stones. Quartz is nearly indestructible and comes in a wide variety of colors and effects . Marble is relatively cheaper. I chose the 30” Kohler Whitehaven enameled cast iron sink. A small surface will have a butcher block top for rolling out bread and pie dough. That area will also be three inches lower than the other counters: a better height for rolling and mixing.

The Kohler Whitehaven sink in its cabinet.

Appliances—My dishwasher died two days before last Christmas. I didn’t replace it until after the New Year. It’s amazing how you can get by without a dishwasher—even with house guests and holiday entertaining. My garbage disposal died four or five years ago and I have lived without it since. I compost vegetable scraps and besides, the dishwasher manufacturers don’t want you to rinse dishes before loading. The city is about to start collecting compostable kitchen waste soon, so there will be no need for a disposal. My old Dacor range is in good shape and is staying, this time with a proper exhaust hood by Zypher. The new Samsung refrigerator will be counter depth with a smaller capacity than the old GE one that is 28 years old. The Samsung doesn’t have a water or ice dispenser and is white.  I will get a small under counter beverage cooler that will go where the dishwasher used to be in the new mud room/butler’s pantry/bar. That will keep the traffic from the kitchen.

The next post will be about the shiny finishes—faucet, lighting, and cabinet pulls.

When we first moved into the house in 1985 we remodeled the kitchen. We didn’t really “remodel” because there was barely a kitchen there. The previous owners had removed most of the cabinets, there was a free-standing stove, a small refrigerator, and new cheap linoleum. The best you could say was that it was functional and clean. The house cost much less than we were prepared to pay, so we used the money to have a new kitchen within a few months. That kitchen worked ok for several years when it became apparent that a galley kitchen with doors at each end created traffic jams and provided no immediate place for muddy shoes and snowsuits. As the kids got bigger we just started using the front entrance where there was more room—even if it was the living room.

Years went by before I had the time and inclination to think about a kitchen again. My first design bumped out the east wall of the current kitchen and added a mud room on the back. I started by using SketchUp. You can see one of the earliest versions below (Click to enlarge). I played around with this for a year or so and was ready to move ahead. After a visit to the city zoning desk, I discovered that I couldn’t carry out my plan because I would need something called an “area exception”  because I would reduce the size of the side yard below the code minimum. An area exception is a formal procedure to get permission from the city and my neighbors to do what I wanted. I decided to put my kitchen plan aside for a while.

Kitchen and mud room plan in old space made using SketchUp.

After a few other demands on my time, including retiring, I was finally ready in late 2012 to get down to business. By then I decided not to bump out the kitchen, but to have the new kitchen space in two of the downstairs bedrooms. I came to this conclusion because, as I thought about it, the existing kitchen was above a crawl space and moving the plumbing would be a nightmare. It just made more sense to make the old kitchen a mudroom and add space upstairs to compensate for losing two bedrooms.  Rick, the contractor, said I would have to wait until Fall 2013 because he just started a big project. Meanwhile, I went back to the city in the summer of 2013 to see if my plan was on the right track. I asked about an “area exception” because the upstairs would violate the minimum width of the side yard. Much to my surprise, the code had been changed in early 2013 and I wouldn’t need the exception.

Below are a couple of SketchUp views of the new kitchen plan. It is basically still a galley, about the same width as the old kitchen and about two feet longer. The real difference is the peninsula and the absence of many upper cabinets. The cabinets in the mudroom would provide plenty of storage for items I used less often.

Layout plan of new kitchen.

New kitchen plan

The layout emerged from some fundamental considerations. First thing is to locate the basics: sink, range, and refrigerator. While it would be nice to have the sink under a window, there wasn’t a window that provided a nice view of the back yard. In this climate a sink shouldn’t be on an outside wall anyway, hence, the peninsula was the logical place. Next, the refrigerator should be located for easy access. People shouldn’t have to walk to the back of the kitchen to get to the refrigerator. And the range should be next to a pretty good length of counter. You should be able to have the oven door and dishwasher door open at the same time.

The other major consideration was the size of the new windows. The existing windows in the kitchen part of the room had to go. They were narrow and a pain to open and close and not original to the house anyway. I decided to reduce the size of the triple windows because the view was of the side of my neighbor’s house. The double windows facing south were to become the garden window to provide a mini-greenhouse. Below are photos before and after.

Windows in small first floor bedroom. The greenhouse window will go where the double window is and the triple windows will be cut in half horizontally.

New windows in kitchen.

In the next post I will talk about the lighting, finishes, and cabinets.

Floors

The old floor in the new kitchen area is maple. I didn’t want to rip up perfectly good floors to put down my first choice for a kitchen floor, porcelain tile. Porcelain tile is ideal for a kitchen and I don’t feel it is too cold on bare feet or more likely to cause items to break that drop on it. The maple did require some weaving of new pieces into the spaces where walls had been as well as replace the damage caused by radiator valve leaks over the years.. Since 21st century maple wouldn’t fit, Tim the flooring installer, found old maple flooring at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore.

In order to weave replacement wood into an existing floor, the new and old have to be dimensionally identical. New maple flooring doesn’t have the same dimensions as the maple from 1925. Tim was able to find some old maple flooring at Habitat’s ReStore.

You cannot tell where the old and “new” pieces were woven together. Below is the maple before and after repair. Pretty good job, don’t you think?

The maple floor after the walls were removed. Replacement maple needs to be woven in.

The kitchen floor refinished.

The bedroom and bonus rooms are in red oak to match the oak in the rest of the house. I had considered maple, but unlike new oak which is the same dimension as old oak and old maple, new maple is dimensionally different. It would have been more work to make the two sizes match up. I chose not to stain the new oak, though, and just use a clear finish. I like to see the transition to the new space.

The floors were sanded and took two coats of sealer right away. When everything else is finished the floors will be buffed and a final coat of Bona Traffic will go down.

Below are the photos I took of the process, most are of the maple floor. Read the captions to see what is taking place.

When a radiator valve leaks over time the wood floor can rot away. Chris is clearing out the old wood and preparing to weave in the wood from Habitat’s ReStore.

Sanding the old maple floor. The “old” maple pieces from the ReStore were weaved into the existing floor. It is hard to tell the “old” old from the “new” old.

After he sanded the floor, Chris vacuumed it,  then used a “tack” mop to get all of the dust.

After the floor is sanded, Jason carefully scrapes the corners smooth.

Jason and Chris start in a corner to apply the sealer. Jason works the sealer around the perimeter and Chris works from the perimeter to the center. Their process was like choreography.

Chris and Jason finish the second of three coats on the kitchen floor.

The old and new oak meet at the upstairs hallway. The old oak has a polyurethane finish that has yellowed with age. The new floor has a water based image and its color will not change much with age.

The finished oak floor in the bedroom.

The floors are absolutely gorgeous. The next steps are to install the doors, apply the trim around the windows and doors, and apply the base trim.

The exterior work is still ongoing so the next two posts will be about the kitchen.

The last few weeks have seen a lot of traffic as Rick juggles to make sure the trades are scheduled so as to prepare for the next stages without stepping on each others toes. And to make sure that there is plenty of parking for the trailers and trucks as well as to replace the Do Not Park signs that go missing.

The sheetrock, windows, and painting progress appear below. I’ve taken many photos of the progress, but will show only a few  photos of each stage.

Sheetrock
This is probably the messiest jobs in construction. Once again the plastic walls and tunnels went up to reduce the amount of dust. This step does a pretty good job, but it is not perfect. I’ve stopped trying to keep up with it; I just make sure the dishes are dustless before using them.

Plastic tunnel to the front door

Plastic around stairwell

The first stage of “rocking” goes pretty fast. In a day and a half, both the upstairs and downstairs spaces had their sheetrock screwed in place. Next came the taping and mudding of the seams and joints followed by the skim coat. This was pretty messy as the guys like to work with fairly wet mud. Nothing gets in their way, including electrical outlet boxes and switches, as they work their way around the rooms.

Sheetrock in place

Seams taped and screw holes filled

Then we wait for the mud to dry before the sanding begins. Once dry, the real mess began. Sanding coats everything with a layer of joint compound dust. The sanding and finishing took several days because I asked for a smooth finish.

Some of the drywall compound dust

Windows
The windows arrived during the sheet rock installation. The box bay for the garden window was a splurge for this project. With the exception of the box bay and a replacement window for the old kitchen, all of the windows had simulated divided lights. That means there was a spacer between the two panes of glass and muntins  to give the appearance of true divided lights, in keeping with the style of the original windows of the house. The sheetrock installation halted while the windows were installed.

Box Bay delivered

One of three small bedroom windows

Even though the box bay came with support brackets, Rick built out an additional box under the window for support and for a recess for the radiator. Now, even in the winter the greenhouse bay will be toasty.

Once the upstairs windows were in and the water shield cut away, the rooms no longer had that green glow.

Kitchen window installed

Bedroom double hung window in place

Rick and Mike installing the new window in the “old kitchen”

Tulips in the box bay were growing under the temporary deck on which Rick and Mike were standing. A taste of things to come.

Paint
Fortunately, I had decided a long time ago to use a color for the upstairs rooms that I used in one of the downstairs rooms, Ashlar by Pratt and Lambert. I love the color because it changes with the light, sometimes grey, sometimes pale blue/green. Its a great color that acts as a neutral—everything goes with it. I’m not sure how well the colors will translate to the web page though, so you will have to take my word for it. On the stairway wall, I chose a much lighter grey color, Whitecap Grey, to make the transition to the downstairs hallway which is always very dark.  Whitecap Grey looks almost the same as Ashlar in a corner, but looks almost white in the direct light. I still haven’t decided what to put in the hallway. All ceilings will be white.

The upstairs paint color, Ashlar, looks different in different lighting conditions. The shadow is cast by the  angled ceiling lit by an incandescent light.

Same view as above with the light off. See how blue that part in the upper right looks now in light from the windows to the right.

I wanted something a little lighter for the kitchen than for the rooms upstairs and couldn’t decide between two colors, Falling Tears or Sealskin Shadow. Under incandescent light you could hardly tell the difference, but Falling Tears had a little more blue/green in it. I asked my friend Sarah to help me decide, but even she, with her great sense of color, was undecided. Finally, I picked Falling Tears. I was gone for a while when the painters “cut in” the color and started painting the walls. What I saw when I got home was not what I expected. It didn’t look at all like the color I picked. And it wasn’t. The paint store had made a mistake and what was on the wall was a minty aqua! The picture below doesn’t really show how “minty” it was.

Falling Tears, mixed wrong, became a minty green

Sealskin Shadow is the right color

Bill, the painter, and I agreed to go with Sealskin Shadow, a light warm grey with a little green in it.  It looks beautiful and I smile every time I see it.

Next up the exterior siding and the floors. Hint, both are gorgeous.

One of the first modern commercial insulation products was made in Louisiana by Celotex of a material called bagasse, the pulp that remains after processing sugar cane.  Celotex produced their first insulation board in 1920 and it may have been what was used in the Temporary House when it built. The fellows who removed the lath and plaster from the old bedrooms found the dense matted material behind the lath and wedged into the spaces between the windows and the studs. It was very difficult to remove. A report written for the Midwestern Roofing Contractors Association in 1988 said that bagasse and wood pulp were the only remaining commercial products then available from the many different types that were tried through the 1920s and 1930s.

Below is a photo of the fibrous material we found in the house and the fluffy white stuff is very likely a material called rock wool, a precursor of fiberglass. The rock wool had once filled the stud cavities but ultimately had settled within the cavities—it wasn’t doing much insulating.

Bagasse insulation was made from sugarcane pulp. The white wispy stuff is an early form of fiberglass called rockglass.

Nowadays, foam and fiberglass bats are the primary materials used for insulation. Foam is the better insulator, but is substantially more expensive. Straw, cellulose, and shredded denim are among some other less common, though recycled, insulating materials.

Once the rough electrical inspection was completed the insulating began. The first step was to use foam to seal all the cracks between the sheathing and studs. Roberto below used this orange foam that came in a can. After all of the cracks were sealed, the pink fiberglass bats went between the studs. Then plastic sheeting covered the studs, fiberglass, and window openings.

Filling all the gaps with foam.

New kitchen space is insulated and plastic stapled in place

Upstairs the procedure was a little different since there are fewer cracks in the sheathing. Yet all of the possible sources of air leaks were hit with a shot of the orange foam. The pink fiberglass went between the studs except for the spaces where the ceiling angles down.There the space was too shallow for the fiberglass so it was filled with foam. That foam is beige. Reflective foil lines all of the areas that will be behind radiators. The upstairs will be very warm.

Foil is placed on top of the insulation in the areas where the radiators will be. The heat will be reflected back into the rooms.

Another important aspect of the ceiling insulation is the use of plastic/foam panels to line the ceiling before the fiberglass bats are put in place. These panels have channels for the outside cold air to seep in and form a layer of cold air under the shingles. This way, ice and snow are less likely to melt on the roof and the melted water less likely to refreeze under the shingles and form ice dams.

Vent panels for the second floor ceiling create a cold air layer under the roof to prevent ice dams.

With the last of the “rough inspections” approved we are ready to coverup all of this fine “rough” work with drywall.

Inspectors’  Approval tags

Drywall is next! One of sixty 12 ft. long sheetrock panels being loaded into the house.

It has been almost three weeks since my last post. Some very major things were taken care of, but they were not so visually dramatic as those trusses going up. Below is most of what happened the first two weeks of the last three. Insulation will be in the next post.

First, the roof was shingled. You can see the roofers finishing up in the photo below.  If you look closely in the second photo you can see that portion of the roof ridge is higher in the middle than at the end. I thought the roofers hadn’t finished the ridge shingling. Rick told me that is the way it is supposed to be because of new roof venting requirements. I think I am the only house on the block with the new style of ridge vent. It does look unfinished though.The flat roof dormers got rubber roofing to replace the old metal roofs.

Roofing crew finishing up. See the rubber liner on the dormer.

The roof vent does not completely cover the roof ridge. It is a new method of venting the roof.

While the roofing was taking place the carpenters worked on various loose ends so that the new areas would be ready for the electricians. Code requires outlets every 3 feet along the kitchen counters and every six feet around the perimeter of each room. In addition each new closet will have a light—hooray! New smoke detectors in each bedroom throughout the house and in the hallways need to be connected on the same circuit. The downstairs hallway ceiling looks like swiss cheese. It took two electricians three days to complete the work. And this is just the rough electrical installation that precedes the sheetrock.

New ceiling electrical cans in any second floor room must have additional bracing to support a ceiling fan. I’m not installing ceiling fans, but someone may in the future, besides it is code. While I was photographing the ceiling fan supports I noticed some 2x4s in the ceiling area at unusual angles. Rick says that the Amish always add that kind of bracing to the  structure. It makes the house particularly stiff against high winds. The green cast to the upstairs pictures is from the green house wrap.

Bedroom ceiling light can. Note the extra bracing for a possible fan.

The kitchen area being wired. The papers pinned to the wall indicate where the outlet boxes, fixtures, and switched are to go.

While the wiring was being installed, the pipes to the new radiators went in. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how to do it. The guys did a remarkable job of threading them through the walls and ceilings to the second floor, you can’t even tell that there was a concern.

Heating pipe heading to the second floor.

Next up, insulation.