there goes the neighborhood

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!!

2009-04-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time. Keep an eye on this space for some updates. Pictures of the finished house (yes, its actually finished. or, well, livable.) to come. Also, a new format and other exciting updates...
Stay tuned.

Floating Stairs

2008-03-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

The "floating stairs" are done and they turned out great.

a little more about the counter tops

2008-01-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

you may be able to tell from the photos, and maybe not, we poured these concrete counters ourselves. they are for the master bathroom, and there are several pieces. a tub surround, a vanity counter, and two sinks. more pictures to come. we did it for several reasons. one of which was cost. i cant really afford to outsource too much at this point, so this was a cost effective way to do it.
we set up forms made of melamine covered particle board in the master bedroom, so we wouldn't have to carry the finished product too far. probably spent 60 bucks on the melamine at home depot. we then caulked the corners and edges to keep any concrete from seeping out the gaps. added foam insulation blocks where we needed voids.
concrete was mixed in the room, with a rented mixer. $28 for 4 hours at home depot. used sackrete concrete (about $30 bucks worth, like 10-11 80# bags) and a little extra portland cement for the mix. we mixed it dry enough to hold in your hand. put in one inch deep first, then vibrated underneath with a $20 electric block sander from disposable tool depot, harbor freight. then, we laid in the .5" rebar, and added another inch of concrete on top. vibrate again, sides and bottom.
after about 2 weeks, we pulled off the forms, and flipped them over, exposing the finished surface. it looks awesome. color is very similar to soapstone. (we added no color to the mix) very very smooth, and almost no voids. i sanded the finished surface with 100 grit sandpaper, and then again with 220, and it came out almost as smooth as glass, with a little matte finish. used some grout and solid surface sealer (30 bucks for a pint) from home depot. 2 coats. and then 3 coats of liquid floor wax (3 bucks a can) and it all soaked in nicely, penetrating the surface and leaving no residue.
the suckers are heavy. but they look super nice, and for less than a couple hundred dollars, definitely the most cost effective way to go. i'll post more pictures once they are all finished out and in place.
master bathroom is almost finished, and the other upstairs bathroom is about 98% finished as well. pictures to come on both once they are finished.
-kk

Concrete countertops

2008-01-16T09:54:00.001-08:00

Want to see how the concrete countertops we made turned out?

Pretty much they rule!

heat!

2007-11-29T07:58:00.000-08:00

well, we have heat. the radiators are all working, and just need to be fine tuned. took a little while to get all the air out of the system and get it working properly, but now that it is, its very warm, quiet, and seems to be a nice even heat.
the upstairs bathrooms are both being tiled. should have all the tile finished in both of them in a week or so. i'll post some new pictures when they are finished. we have three of the 4 toilets installed. went with the toto aquia dual flush toilets in all 4 bathrooms. so far, they seem to work pretty well. the light flush is plenty powerful enough to get liquids down, and a kleenex or two. i haven't had the pleasure of doing much more than that at this point. sorry.
upstairs rooms are painted and most of the doors in the house are hung. about 95% of all the electrical is finished. just have some plates to put on switches and plugs, and a couple of lights to install.
basement concrete floor has been covered with a very light grey epoxy. at this point, that's all we'll do to the floor in the basement. laundry is hooked up and working.
started a small gabion wall between our property and the south neighbor. he gets a pretty steady stream of mud into his driveway from our back yard when it rains. this should retain most of that soil and allow us to level off the back yard under the deck.
so, we've accomplished a lot. dad's been over there most every day for at least part of the day working on stuff. we still have plenty to do, but we're making great progress. by the end of the year, we should be looking more seriously at being able to finish up. hopefully early in the year.
pictures to come.
-k

2007-10-16T09:39:00.001-07:00

drywall

2007-10-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

so its been a little while. drywall is finished. interior is all primed and painted. some of the rooms are finish painted. electrical is operable and most of the lighting and ceiling fans are installed. still waiting on some of the stuff we ordered from the web. its really starting to shape up.
the hope is to finish out a bunch of the rest of the siding on the weekends, and work on interior finish work during the weeks. the siding is getting pretty close. its looking nice. i want to get the rest of it up before the weather starts again for the winter.
more pictures soon.
-kk

wet

2007-08-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

well, to make a long story short, a screw went through a piece of copper plumbing during drywall hanging, and we sprung a leak. there's only a tiny bit of copper in the whole house, and unfortunately, the piece they hit was on the top floor, in the shower. so, we had to have the crew retape the kitchen ceiling, and rehang a good chunk of the garage, after we pulled down and replaced all the insulation.
what a mess. if its going to happen, its going to happen to me i guess. it really ended up being not that bad, but it was still disappointing in the end.
that said, they pretty much have the entire house taped at this point, and are starting to sand the top two floors today. tomorrow they'll sand the basement and saturday they should be ready to paint. these guys are great.
while they are inside working away, we've tied the walls for the front yard.
and i thought we were done digging months ago....

Drywall pictures!

2007-08-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

taking shape

2007-08-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

we finally made it to drywall!!!! this week we had air seal inspection, including structural, and were able to insulate on tuesday. Gale Contractor services came in and insulated in a day. after another inspection, and a ton of little pick up work by dear old dad, we were ready to start drywall at about 330 thursday.
its a huge relief. i know there is still so much more to do to finish things up, but the drywall is a big step. i'm feeling pretty good.
hey, if you can see them, click on an ad on the sidebar or the bottom of the page.
-k

ok. scrap that one picture of the...

2007-08-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

...heat. a little disappointing, but most of the grief is over now, so i won't need to curse or anything at this point. here's what happened.
just for giggles, and because we installed the boiler and its web of pipes all by ourselves (ok, my dad worked on it. it became his project.) we decided to call a local rep out to take a look. to make a long story short, after some praise about how good it looked in that little closet built especially for it, we found out that our little workhorse was going to be a little too small for what we were planning. nobody is really at fault. we're just moving forward.
so, we've decided on a cast iron boiler system with an indirect tank for heating the domestic hot water. its still pretty efficient. 85% or so. and we should have plenty of water for the heat, and showers and dishwasher and everything. it doesn't fit as well into our little closet. in fact, i'm going to have to build some kind of a door to cover it all up. but as far as hot water, its the Cadillac of systems. and we were able to keep all of our plumbing in tact. i'll spec it all out later, and post some pictures. anyone interested, let me know and i can send you my contact. he did all the install in a day or so.
-k

pictures

2007-07-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture or two. Rainscreen siding.
Heating manifolds.

Domestic plumbing manifold.
Bolier. Heats domestic and heating water.
Back of domestic plumbing manifold.

sign offs...

2007-07-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Plumbing and electrical have been signed off. We're getting close to the point of drywall. I'm hoping to be ready for drywall in about another 2 weeks.
I know, I know... I said pictured are coming. I say that all the time. Truth is, I fall asleep about 10 minutes after getting home each night, so I haven't had time. I'll do it this weekend.
-k

pex plumbing

2007-06-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

(I've got a couple of pictures to add to this, and will do so later.)
We're about 99% finished with the plumbing and ready to inspect. Just a couple of little things to fix up and we're done. The domestic water is all run off of a Manibloc Pex manifold, which is really slick. All of the materials were bought at houseneeds.com online. Tell them you saw it here!
Basically, we have red lines to hot water, and blue to cold. Every line is a home run to the manifold. It went in quicker than electrical, and is super super easy to install. (Yes, that's two 'supers'.) The line that comes into the house is copper in our case, so there is very little copper expense involved. We have 4 or 5 thousand feet of pex tubing running through the house for the domestic and heat combined. Its so cool, that its almost a shame to cover it all up with drywall!
The heating system is also pex supplied. We have Myson panel radiators in all of the living space, and a manifold system in the basement that connects them all. The heat and domestic hot water are all supplied by a high efficiency, on demand boiler, which hangs on the wall in the basement, and is about the size of 27" TV. (Not a plasma. The old kind of TV.) The heating system and materials were also bought through houseneeds.com. They pretty much designed the system based on the specs that I gave them about our space.
I'm really excited to get things all fired up. It should be a really efficient system. Quiet. User friendly. Healthy. And cost effective.
Pictures to come.
-kk

rainscreen

2007-05-09T13:26:00.001-07:00

I decided that we would go with a rainscreen siding design for the bottom half of the house. The top half of the siding is metal from Metal Roof Specialties in Tacoma Washington. (You can see it in the pictures in previous posts. The roof is also metal.) I'm not a huge fan of climbing ladders, or home maintenance so the metal was the way to go. Just about everything above about 10-12' high on the house will never need paint, or any work at all now that its installed. It was a little more expensive, but worth every penny.
All of the rest of the house is a rainscreen. Google it if you are thinking of trying it yourself. Its basically a method of attaching the siding so that there is an air gap behind the siding project, allowing any moisture that gets in there to dry out easier and keep your house from rotting.
Here's how I did it:
The house is wrapped in a material called Vaproshield. Its available on the web at vaproshield.com. The stuff is more expensive than tyvek, but its like wrapping your house in Gore-Tex. Waterproof and breathable. Its great stuff, and easy to use. I put down two layers because I have an open joint system, which I'll describe next.
On top of the vaproshield, I used cedar battens to set the siding off from the house about .75". The cedar fencing that I used wasn't all exactly the same thickness, so I used a planer and planed it all to the same thickness so my siding wouldn't be wavy looking.
Then, I've attached Hardi Cement board siding like tiles, 3'x4', with a .25" gap between each panel. Its all pre-painted (front and back) and pre-drilled and attached with stainless steel screws. The screws are every 15" so its down nice and tight. (Some of the house is actually Brazilian Redwood instead of the Hardi. Same idea though.)
I guess it works great. We had some of the biggest storms in years this past winter and with the vaproshield alone, the house stayed perfectly dry, so the siding over that can only help.
If you think I'm crazy, do a little searching on the web and read up on it yourself. Its the way to go. The canadians are doing it all over the place and here in Seattle, I think its a requirement for all condos. I'll post some pictures after the weekend.
-kk

Faucet Depot

2007-05-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

Faucets and plumbing fixtures can be a real expense. Especially if you want something a little different than what you can buy at the Home Depot. (Not to knock the Depot. I'm just sayin'.) So when it comes time to buy your faucets, sinks, toilets, etc... Faucet Depot dot com is they way to go. (Link to the side of the page.)
They have about everything, and their staff is able to help out as far as ideas, possibilities, etc... And, on top of that, if you email Nicole (nicole@faucetdepot.com) and tell her you got her info from this website, she can hook you up with a price better than you will see on the website. I saved a ton!
And no, I wasn't paid to say this. She did an awesome job of working with me, and I ended up buying almost all of the plumbing fixtures for the entire house. (Of course, now they all have to sit in storage until we're ready to use them....)
Anyway, I cant say enough good things about Faucet Depot and Nicole.
-kk

Driveway walls

2007-04-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

concrete

2007-04-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

ok. i said i was never going to do concrete again. but guess what?? the idiot that i had doing my concrete for me, showed up today and decided that he was quitting. yup. he just quit. what an ass.
so, it looks like i'm in the concrete business again. i'm trying to get a couple of small retaining walls in along the sides of the driveway so we can level out the yard, install gas service, water service, etc... i have a concrete truck coming on saturday at 8am. looks like i have my work cut out for me between now and then.
bar is all tied, we just need to frorm the walls, and somehow, get the concrete into the forms on saturday.
pics to come.
-kk

Heat and Links

2007-03-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

Work is moving forward. Its been feeling slow lately, but this weekend we started pulling rough plumbing for the hydronic radiators and the plumbing supply. It goes really fast which is actually pretty rewarding because it feels like something is getting accomplished. Lots and lots of pex tubing. Its cool to see the hub down in the basement where it all comes together, and know that you can control everything from there.
I’ll post some photos soon.
Also, I’m going to add a couple of links on the page. These are places that I’ve used in building the house. If you have questions about them, or want to know more about their part in the house project, don’t hesitate to email me. They aren’t paying me anything for doing this. They were just great to work with. So click on their pages and check out what they can do.
Last, if you are in the Seattle area and have salvageable fir flooring or transplantable timber bamboo shoots that you would like to get rid of, please let me know.
-kk

its been a while...

2007-03-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

i have been working though. things are moving along. most of the top siding is finished, with only a few metal panels and about another 7 feet of wood to go. then the cement board panels will go up. should go fast.
inside is kinda trudging along as well. i'll post pics soon.
keep posted. dont lose hope. check back for more details soon.
-kk

Happy New Year!

2007-01-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

The latest pictures of the house. It's coming along.

2006-11-20T09:06:00.000-08:00

rain rain go away

2006-11-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

if you are in seattle, you are wet at this point. let me tell you, the rain sucks for construction. especially when you are up 25' on a lift trying to put on siding.
the yard is a huge puddle. we have some water problems. i'm hoping it stops soon.
on the brighter side, the metal siding looks absolutely awesome. and the basement is 99.99% dry. as soon as its dry enough to take off the lens cap, i'll get some pictures of the siding and post them. i'm liking the fact that once its all up there, we'll basically have a no maintenance top half.
-kk

rain

2006-09-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

good thing that roof is on there, because the rain is here in seattle. its been raining unusually hard for september the past few days. anyway, the roof is doing its job, and just in time. the next door neighbor said its a little loud when the rain beats down on it. oh well. turn up your tv. if he doesn't like that, he wont like the siding much...
we're going with metal siding from about half way up and wood on the bottom half. the metal is a dark grey corrugated and it should look beautiful in contrast to the wood. the wood is an open joint rainscreen system. i'm pretty excited to get it up there and see what it all looks like. i'm hoping to hire out the top half to keep myself off of the ladder, and do the bottom myself. we'll see.
-k

roof

2006-09-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

the metal roof looks awesome. it was a little expensive, but it should last forever, and it looks great. actually, it wasn't as expensive as i was thinking it would be, but the labor was kinda steep for a day's work. the place to go if you're in the seattle area is Metal Roof Specialties in Tacoma. ask for Wayne. he helped me out a ton.
rough plumbing is in, but dry and today is the pre-glue inspection. hopefully i can get the place all glued up on saturday and tested. its time to move on to the siding, and in order to do that, we should get that big hole in the front yard filled up so we have a flat place to work.
garage door is on order, and should be installed in a couple of weeks. it will be nice to be pretty much closed in at that point. we still have a window on order and two to install, but after that, we should be pretty much dry inside
i'd take some pictures of the roof, but you cant see it from the street. you have to drive around the block and look at it from the road above. and even then, you can only get a peek.
-kk

Pictures

2006-08-24T17:56:00.000-07:00

update, inspection, etc...

2006-08-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

i'll post some new pictures. i need to get over there and shoot some today. the place is all framed and the framers just need to set the windows and they're finished up.
except, the inspector came out yesterday, and there are a few little things to fix. and a couple of bigger things. and one huge thing. then we should be structurally set, and ready to side.
i'm working on getting the siding set up. metal. if the neighbors aren't already a little "interested" after seeing the shape, they will be when the metal goes on. metal roof goes up on labor day weekend, but you cant really see the roof from the street anyway. the siding is another story.
-kk

august begins

2006-08-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

its been a slow process, but the framing is finally starting to wrap up. the top floor is walled in, and the roof is going on today. once we have a roof, we can really start to visualize what the rooms will look like. prior to that, its tough to get a feel for what we're working with as far as room size, finish work, etc...
started to do some plumbing last week. with some help from tim, we should be able to get the majority of the drains and vents dry fitted this weekend. we'll have a dry inspection first to make sure we aren't doing anything totally wrong. then we'll glue it all up and have it tested.
the plan from this point is: finish framing between now and aug 11. have framing inspection and any follow up framing work done by aug 18. by the end of august, have rough plumbing in, tested, and passed, and be able to backfill the rest of the holes in the yard. by end of september, have roof on, plumbing finished, electrical and plumbing supply lines should be well under way, and the siding should be on. weathered in by the end of september.
-kk

up, up and away!!!

2006-07-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

so they're still framing away, shannon and the crew. its awesome to see some progress. we have a basement and a first floor framed at this point, and the joists hung for about 90% of the second floor. i think they'll be at it for at least another week and a half, is my guess. there is still a bunch of small stuff that they have missed on the way up.
seeing the actual layout is nice, but it makes me start thinking of things we need to change, which is not so nice. the kitchen is a little up in the air, but other than that, i'm trying to hold my comments until we get it all finished up.
i'll post some pics if i can figure out how.
-kk

on the level...

2006-07-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

so the framers have been at it 4.5 days. (they started on a half day.) they've gotten the basement in, with a couple of little exceptions like closets and stuff, and the floor of the first floor. i went over last night to take a look and it looked like they had the first floor laid out to frame today.
getting that first floor level was a task. each of the boards in the pony wall had to be individually cut to length and set level. now that they have the deck for the first floor laid, things should start moving up fairly fast. i figure they'll have the majority of it framed by the middle of next week, and just have a couple of days to come back and finish up closets and little interior walls, anchors, straps, windows, etc... i'll post another few pictures as it grows up!
i took a look around last night and it looks like we'll have a little bit of a view here and there. from the basement guest bedroom, you can see about 75% of mount rainier. i think from the front of the house, we'll see downtown bellevue and possibly a little slice of the stadiums and cruise ship terminals. its interesting to stand there and actually get a visual idea to match up to what was previously only on paper.
-kk

got wood?

2006-07-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

slab

2006-07-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

So we finally have a slab! I forgot the camera so I wont have pictures for a couple of days, but its there. It looks ok. Not perfect since the concrete is the fiished floor in the basement, but good enough that I can live with it.
The trucks got there at 5:15AM I guess and woke up the entire neighborhood. Not exactly the best way to make friends, but it was a one time thing and we shouldn't have another early day like that in the near future.
Shannon, our framer is itching to get started. Maybe by the time I can upload some pictures, there will be something there besides just concrete to look at!
-kk

and we're plumbed...

2006-06-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

plumbing inspection passed. hooray! we're okay to cover the pipes in the floor and pour the slab. that means, another couple of days of hard labor, and the framing crew can start. finally we'll be moving up!
sam, the concrete guy came over last night and talked smack for a few minutes. he cut the foundation walls to repair what was one of many mistakes in the concrete. probably the ugliest and most visible of the mistakes so its good that its 'fixed'. he's going to form up the walls for the driveway, and we'll pay for the concrete. that'll save us some time.
i heard a rumor that wood prices came down a little. good thing. we're getting to that point, and it was gonna kill us. probably still will. at least we'll have something visible.
-kk

dirt, dirt, dirt

2006-06-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

we're trudging along. the foundation walls are in, but in order to finish up the concrete work, we need to get the drain plumbing in that will run under the slab. what a process. a huge mound of dirt from the front yard had to be moved to the back yard (and some hauled off. i got screwed on that one. paid out through the nose to dump dirt. long story...) but before we could do that, we had to level the huge pile that was already in the back yard! so dirt was moved, and a new hole dug for the sewer and the driveway. sewer lines hooked up, tested, inspected and approved. and now we're finishing up the drains under the slab. hopefully those will be in, tested, inspected and approved by the middle of next week so we can get the concrete guys out to finish up the concrete.
looks like there will be three more concrete pours. one for the slab and the footings for the driveway retaining walls. (then we can start framing.) one for the driveway walls, and one for the driveway. if everything goes as planned, all of the concrete and framing should be finished up by the end of july. possibly a little sooner, but i'm not holding my breath. that would give us about 4.5 months to finish up if we are going to get in before christmas. probably a little near impossible, but we'll see.
anyway, not much to see as far as pictures go. will probably try to post some once the pipes are in, and again when they are pouring the slab.
-kk

foundations and photos

2006-05-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

we have concrete! its looking pretty good, but far from perfect. i thought i would be able to just watch as they did all the work. you know, that's the luxury you have when you are paying for a service. when you go buy tires at a tire shop, they dont have you come out to the garage and help put them on the rims, do they? well, maybe sometimes they do.
i ended up working way WAY more than i expected to on this stuff. was there for two concrete pours, and put in several days of just general helping. they just didn't have enough people to do it alone. and in the end, there are some repairs to be made to get things all up to par. i still hope to have the concrete part of things finished up by the beginning of june, but we'll see. there are still slabs to pour, and the driveway. there are some photos.

(by the way, these photos were provided by Julie Kaufman of starminestudio.com. she'll be shooting throughout the project and providing me with some shots every now and then to keep things up to date. check out her site. thanks Julie!)

ps... 15 days without an argument.

concrete and no fighting...

2006-05-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

okay, we're off to a decent enough start. in the past couple of weeks, we have excavated the entire lot, hauled off about $1100 of dirt, and poured the footings. this week we should have foundation walls in and be starting on the drain and sewer connections that will run under the slab.
we're a little over budget at this point, but not too much. i'm trying to decide if anyone cares to see what each bit of the project costs. if so, i'll post the results after each piece is done, so you math fans can add it all up. maybe nobody cares. let me know.
also, sign up for the email list thing so i can let you know when there are new posts. i wont sell your email address to a porn site or anything, i promise. i know there are at least a couple of people out there besides family that are peeking in from time to time.
NEW!!! i love my dad. he's a great guy and without him, we wouldn't be able to get this place built. but he and i dont see eye to eye on alot of this house stuff. and this creates some tension. however, a new leaf is being turned over and we are going to try to get along. today marks 7 consecutive days without an argument. as soon as i figure out how, i'll add a little counter to the site and track how long we can go. (we've already set a record for us at this point...)
pictures later in the week.
-ken

pictures

2006-04-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

no more house

2006-04-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

…and two hours later, the house is gone. Yup, that’s about all it took to pretty much squash the house and pack it down into the foundation. I have a couple of before shots, and I’ll post some after shots, but it went so quick that there was no chance to get any shots of the actual demo.
Tomorrow they haul the mess away.
I’ll sleep well tonight.
-kk

bare bones

2006-03-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

the remaining useful materials from the house were removed last weekend. i pulled up all the hardwood flooring that i could get (with help from dear old dad) to plane down and use as moulding and baseboards in the new house. i wanted to recycle all that i could, and the idea that some of the old house will still be used was one that i really liked.
the power and gas were cut this week (at least i hope they were. i haven't been over there since saturday.) there's really not much left there of worth but the power panel which i'll pull out this week. now its just nailing down some subs to do the demo and excavation and we're off! probably get started right about the time baby king is born...
i'll get over to the place this weekend and try to get a few last pics of what's left before we squash the place.
-k

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-03-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

just when i was about to give up (ok, i wasnt going to give up, but still) we got approved. i dont actually have a permit in my hot little hand. there is still a matter of payment to deal with. but they are all approved!!!!!!!
so i did some hard labor at the house on saturday and got the temp power pole installed. now all that's left to do (before the hopefull demo date of april 1) is get the power disconnected, and remove any last little bit of salvagable material from the house.
its been a long haul. i dont think anyone even reads this anymore. things should start picking up though. tell your friends!
-ken

Sign up for e-mail updates!

2006-03-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Look, I had my awesome wife add a notify list to this blog. Make sure you sign up for it to receive e-mail notifications when I update the blog.

It's easy. Just put your e-mail address into the space on the right and wait for the e-mail in your inbox to verify.

Yes, it's that easy.

asbestos free

2006-01-20T15:42:00.000-08:00

no, it wasn't free. it cost me 1100 bucks but the house is now poison free and i'm able to move ahead (if the rain ever slows down) with the demo. i worked with a local asbestos removal company and they did all the permits and paperwork for me, as well as took care of the abatement and disposal.
it was a little more than i wanted to spend on asbestos removal (i had hoped to not have to do it at all), but still a decent deal.
pictures to follow.
-kk

results, good and bad

2006-01-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

so we got the results back from the asbestos test. good news and bad news. the good news is, there is no asbestos on the outside of the house that would require costly removal. i guess when its in the roofing materials or the siding, we're talking circus tent over the whole place to get it removed. yikes!
there is a tiny bit in some flooring in the kitchen. that's the bad news. but it shouldn't cost us too much to get it out. more on that later.
so i'm still trying to get this place torn down in january, but we'll see. its great weather to tear down a house... rain. but not so great weather to have a huge hole in the yard. so, if we could just get the rain to stop for a few weeks at the beginning of february, i'd be in good shape. weathermen of the world unite!

have chainsaw, will travel...

2005-12-17T18:55:00.000-08:00

more action at the house today then we have had over there in like 6 months! camp (a friend of mine) brought over his kids (and more importantly, his chainsaws) and we cut down a couple of trees in the yard. sean was also there to lend a hand and hold his breath as they fell to the ground. i'm proud to say that no animals or neighboring homes were injured in the process. and i was a little nervous.
the place looks totally different without that crappy tree in the front yard. i'll post a picture or two in a few days. which reminds me...
we now have a photographer to take a photo or two of the whole process as it rolls along. she was there today to talk a little about the project and get a few shots of things as they are now. we'll talk more about that later. for now, i have to get the sap off my hands...
-kk

asbestos

2005-12-07T08:13:00.001-08:00

so, in order to tear the house down (which i'd like to do at the end of the month, maybe first of january) we have to have it checked for asbestos. the check is next week. now would be a good time to start holding your breath and crossing your fingers for me...

moving right along

2005-11-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

things are moving along a little better now. now that we have moved out of house #1, i have a little more time to think about house #2. i'm getting demo estimates and will post some figures FYI shortly. its a little more money than i was hoping to have to spend, but oh well. can't be avoided at this point.
i think i have a photographer (maybe 2) interested in helping out with the blog and documenting the house process. look for some photographs soon.
if everything works out as planned, we may be tearing this dump down in december. one year after we bought. yikes.

attn: Michael Ian Black

2005-10-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

Mr. Black,
If you're not too busy working on a new Vh1 show, or the new season of your own program, drop me a line. I'd love to have you write my blog for me.
Contact me here.
Sincerely,
Ken

not directly construction related, but kinda...

2005-10-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Admit it, you watch Arrested Development. And actually, it is construction related I suppose.
Hands down, the best show on television since Seinfeld. This crap is so well written, you can watch the same episode ten times and still not catch everything. We got the DVDs on Netflix, and we're watching season two right now.
I'm hoping that in another couple of weeks, I wont have time to watch TV. We'll see. The wait continues.
I may go over to the house and chop down a couple of trees this weekend. We'll see.

SOLD

2005-10-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

sold the house. we listed it in the paper for a couple of weeks, and posted on craigslist. we had a couple of open houses. then i broke down and put it on the MLS through a website called redfin.com. sold in three days. actually, the buyer saw it on craigslist so the $600 i spent to put it on the mls didnt do me much good.
i am a believer in the redfin site though. check it out if you get a chance. you can even find old bill gates' home and see how much property tax he pays.
good luck!
as far as the project house goes, the plans are once again with the structural and as soon as they come back, the can go back to the city. we had one review and there were a few changes to be made to accomodate the basement and the excavation.
anyway, now that the other house is sold, i can worry a little more about this one. and we have the money to do it.
-kk

a small roadblock

2005-08-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

after taking the plans in for a prelim screen, there were a couple of small things that needed to be fixed before submittal. most of them were simple changes and calcs that didnt take too long. but one requires either an expensive shoring plan for the excavation of the foundation, or a simple letter signed by one of the neighbors. i opted for option 2, the neighbor. well, that was 12 days ago and i haven't heard anything back. i talked about it with her, and dropped the letter off with the understanding that she would read it over and sign. now its been 12 days and 2 follow-ups and still nothing. she's really nice, and she'll be a cool neighbor, so i dont want to bug her about it. but i'm not sure that she realizes that she is holding things up.
so tonight i'll make one more attempt, then its on to plan a i guess.
the plan changes, the budget rises...

i suck

2005-08-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

dude, sorry to anyone that reads this now and then. i haven't been too good about updating. i'm just as bored as you though. the waiting was tough.
here's what's happening:
the plans came back from the structural engineer. tons of wood is going into this place. i'm not too jazzed about that, but it didnt change the design at all so that's cool. just adding to the cost some. i made a couple of small changes and bagged the roof access and deck. this is gonna save like 30k so i guess the roof top deck will have to wait until the next house.
now there are just one or two small things to finish up and the plans will go in THIS WEEK for approval with the city. as soon as i get approval, its tear down time.
it has given me some time to get the house we live in closer to being ready to sell. there are still a few things left to do before we can list it. hopefully get it on the market by the end of the month. anyone looking for a nice little place in georgetown, let me know. its a great house. 3 years old.
we also went to mexico. tulum. it was awesome. that's probably the last trip for a while. once the house is underway, its pretty much balls out to get it done.
so again, i promise to be better and update more often. the interesting stuff should be coming along shortly.
-kk
ps, anyone that gets the random home depot coupons in the mail, and isnt going to use them, let me know. i'll take all the discounts i can get!

waiting sucks

2005-07-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

so the waiting is the worst part here. i guess what is really happening at this point is the structural engineer is still working out the bugs. the prelim site visit is done, but the city cant have the plans until the structural engineer looks everything over and gives it the ok. i'm pulling out all the favors on this place, so he's doing this out of the goodness of his heart (i think) so i cant really complain. i guess i could have burned through half of my budget and paid someone...
anyway, so we are waiting. which is okay since we're going to mexico next week. yup, right in the middle of a hurricane. forecasts say it'll pass before we get there, but i'm still holding my breath for a nice, long, 10 days of sun. and that the plans will be ready by the time we get back.
i think we'll throw a party when its time to tear the place down. i'll post the dates. any takers, let me know.
-kk

PLANS DONE

2005-06-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

the plans are finally finished up. its pretty much up to the city now. the site visit was yesterday i believe. we should be ready to go here in a few weeks. FINALLY!
sorry for the long delay in posting. there wasn't really much to report. i'll get back into it at this point, now that there is something a little more exciting going on.
-kk

2005-04-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

4/25The design is pretty much done! Finally. I just have to lay out the master bath and make a few adjustments to the kitchen and then its all just dimensioning and things that are out of my control. It feels nice to know that it’ll finally be in for permits here in another week or so. I’m crossing my fingers at this point.

2005-04-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

4/18/05
I got another chunk of the wall plaster off and cleaned up. I decided that in this waiting period (waiting on permits) I’ll just take the time to salvage all I can and do everything I can without the demo permit. Which basically means, I cant do anything to the structure of the house. But I can tear out all of the inside stuff, like the hardwoods, etc… and possibly tear off the siding and roof. I doubt there is much in the way of dimensional lumber worth saving except for the roof and floor joists and the truss lumber. The interior walls would take too much work to salvage just a few 2x4’s. I’ll take the time to get what I can, but when the permit comes, the rest will have to just be torn down as quickly as possible. -kk

2005-04-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

4/8
Spent a couple of hours over there last night, waiting for some people to come and look at some of the stuff I'm trying to give away. The water heater, the furnace, fridge, siding, range, etc... One guy came for the furnace, but it was too big. If you want any of this stuff, email me and I'll tell you more.
I got the lath and plaster out of the rest of the one bedroom and one wall of the kitchen. I think if I had a couple of guys with hammers, we could have the place gutted in an evening. It comes off pretty easy.
I'll take a few pictures and upload them.
-kk

2005-03-30T08:48:00.000-08:00

3/30
Well, the kitchen is all out. Someone responded to an ad I had placed about free stuff and took all the kitchen cabinets for me. Better than tossing them into the landfill. There is still a fridge and a range that need to go. Hopefully I can get a taker on those.
I started beating the plaster off of the walls in one of the rooms. It comes off pretty easy. Easier than I thought. It should go pretty quick. I’ll post some pics. I didn’t have the camera last night though.

2005-03-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

3/28
I guess I should explain a few things in a little better detail. One, when I say modern, I don’t mean huge soaring glass walls and rooftop gardens, PV solar and an underground grey water return system. I mean something unique. Something a little out of the ordinary for the neighborhood. And the decision to follow one of the built green checklists (builtgreen.net) is going to add to the cost and the difficulty of the project, but as I said above, we aren’t going all out for a 4 star home with PV solar or a wind farm or anything crazy. -kk

PictureofWSeattleHouse

2005-03-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

PictureofWSeattleHouse
Originally uploaded by porkfork.

3/23 pm
Here is a picture of the house as it looked when we bought it.

2005-03-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

3/23/05
I haven’t been over to the house since Friday. There isn’t really much to do but get the plans in at this point. I did make a few calls yesterday and found out that the permits will cost about twice what they did for the last house we built 2-3 years ago. But the good news was, if the plans are fairly simple, and the house isn’t in a critical area, they can expedite them and get them out in about a week to 10 days. Otherwise it’s about 4-6 weeks. Ugh. And you need a permit just to tear the old one down (which is about $250 additional). So we wont be doing much for a few more weeks. This is the toughest part for me. I hate to wait around. I just want to get over there and get started. I guess I should enjoy the time now.I’ll try to post a picture or two tonight. The ‘before’ pictures, so to speak.

Here we go!

2005-03-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

3/22/05
I figured I should probably try to keep some type of a journal of what’s going on with this house and since at this point we have owned it for about three months, now would be a fine time to start.
We bought the place in the middle of December ‘04 with every intention of remodeling it and adding a second story to the current structure. The house is built on a tiny lot and is pushed over to one side so far that it doesn’t conform to the setbacks. Hence, the plan to add on instead of tear it down. But as time has passed and plans have developed, I’m beginning to believe that it would be easier to just build from scratch then to try and salvage any of the existing structure. There are just too many hoops to jump through to keep the one wall and all for about 15o square feet of living space.
So the decision was made to tear down the existing structure and build conforming to the setbacks on both sides. However, we are on a tiny budget and it will require some tricky work to get it all figured out.
As the plans developed, the home changed shape a number of times. Now that we are getting close, we’ve decided to follow our hearts and replace the tiny bungalow with a more modern looking structure. It will be the first of its kind in a neighborhood of cute little craftsman homes. I’m excited about the prospect; I’ve wanted a more modern home now for years. But I’m also a little nervous because all of the neighbors have been so nice so far. It will be interesting to see how things develop when they see what we come up with.So here’s the plan: Build a modern home, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a little under 2000 square feet, and do it for around 100k (not including the cost of the lot). Also, build with Green Building standards in mind. I know it sounds crazy. But I also know its possible. So this one goes out to all of the Do-It-Yourselfers out there. I’m open to feedback, so tell your friends and follow along for the show…