Week 113: Sweet Suite Framing

Things got rolling with the framing this week and it is shaping up nicely. The critical framing in the suite is basically done and you can get a real sense of the space now. They still have to fix up the load bearing wall and shrink the front hall closet/expand the bedroom but the rooms are all framed including the powder room and laundry closet. We are keeping things simple for now and haven’t framed in either of the bedroom closets or the shelf/bench at the end of the bathtub, but we can catch up with those later. They are not important for wiring an insulating. With the framing substantially done, this means the plumber and electricians can get rolling next week and keeps us on track.

We are still waiting for the roofer which is stressing me out to no end but are hoping that can happen this week. I noticed a bit of water got into north wall of the library upstairs around where the new roof joins the house and has warped some of the wainscoting but hopefully that will all dry out and lay flat again. Fingers crossed.

Still demolishing

I got into the house and took the rest of the plaster lathe off of the ceiling in the hallway by the bedrooms and bathrooms. We realized that with moving the wall in the kitchen we were going to have to patch the area. I have done a lot of drywall patching and drying to fill a gap in a plaster lathe with modern drywall never works well. You can see it in our bathroom ceiling where i took out the wall that used to be at the end of the tub. It cracked all around it within a year and has stayed that way. I figured we might as well replace the entire hallway section rather than have a 6″ patch on one side. We also are likely going to have to change the run for the sprinklers since we had them coming through the closet in the bedroom and we are going to lose that. Taking it through the hall now is better option.

Finishing budget

As we are getting closer to completion we are starting to line up our finishing and that is stressful. With the job over budget (I don’t blame our builder. I’ll write a post about all that when the dust settles. There is a lot of dust) we are making realistic decisions on some of the things we really wanted. For example, we will not be installing the tile in the laundry room right now. We can revisit that once we are in the house and know if we have any money left. And for that matter, i’d rather spend that money after the suite is rented. We are also not going to get the super quiet dishwasher i coveted. Don’t get me wrong, we are still going to get a nice dishwasher, but it will be half the price and several decibels louder than the one i wanted to get. We are also going with a cheap and cheerful range hood. I had big plans of getting lots of CFM at very low decibels (or sones depending on which measurement you use) but again, we just aren’t in a position to spend 3 or 4 times as much for a luxury model. We are pretty philosophical about this, or at least we are pretending to be. The entire project started as a kitchen renovation and to be cutting corners at this late stage sucks, but at the same time, we lived 17 years in the house without a functioning range hood and with a portable dishwasher that you could hear from the front street. Whatever we have will be better. Also, both of them are just appliances and will not last as long as the foundation and the suite. Luxury, and the new induction stove, can come later.

Kitchen Cabinets

Speaking of cutbacks, we tried to order our ikea kitchen the other night only to discover that the 36″ base cabinets we need for the island and the kitchen sink are not available until the end of March. We could change the island back to three 24″ units, instead of the two 36″ but that increases the budget and reduces usable drawer space. It also doesn’t make any significant difference to the problem since one of the cabinets is for the kitchen sink which is sort of the most important part. We are going to hold our breath on the order and line it up in early March. That will give us all of our upper cabinets and the entire north side where the stove is. We can use a table as the island (we did for years anyway) and just stack everything else on shelves if the base cabinets don’t show up. We are also planning on a getting a laundry sink and cabinet for the laundry room and we can just buy that and install in the kitchen we have to. We’ll make do.