June. Once the layer of gravel is put down (a couple of inches thick), an insulation barrier (think of plastic bubble wrap) is put on top of it and then a thick wire mesh is put on top of that. The mesh serves 2 purposes, a place to hold the radiant tubes in place and as structural support for the concrete. This was a back and forth thing between 2 contractors. The gravel was put in by one contractor, then the barrier was put in by the plumber, then the mesh by the original contractor, then the tubes by the plumber, etc. Nobody wanted to be at the house on the same day. Ugh. It was like herding cats. Finally, a simple vapor barrier (10 mil plastic) was used in areas where there wasn’t any tubing and not covered by original insulation, like under the stairs. Then we passed inspection and we were ready to pour the concrete.

June 23. The pour. It’s an easy date to remember because it’s Ali’s birthday. On that day, a good old fashioned cement truck pulled up to the house and dumped it’s cargo in the basement. On the left side they poured in through an old basement window (that we have since sealed up) using a temporary wooden trough. On the other side, they poured in through the basement door. The main cement layer (from the truck) was a sort of aggregate, very rocky, and was several inches thick. After a couple of hours of drying, they laid in on top of that about 1 - 2 inches of smoother concrete (most likely from bags bought at Home Depot). All of this was done in one day.

I got home that night and saw my new basement floor...a clear 7 feet from the ceiling.

Since the slab was now below the top of the footing, the footing was now exposed. So the guys reformed the exposed footing with concrete.

July. Now that the new floor was in, there was so much that could be done. Simple put, without a floor you can’t have walls. Without walls, you can’t have electrical and plumbing. So now we have the basement and first floor framing put in.

On the first floor, the framing was simple. Close off the bathroom, finish the closet space and fill in the spaces where the radiators used to be. Originally the closet space was a double closet...a door on one side at the top of the stairs to the basement (still there) and a door on the other side where the front door is (no longer there) with a wall in between. Presumably, the same owner that put in the bathroom there took out the wall and filled in the wall. So what we did was move the wall on the front door side 16 inches in so we have a more manageable depth to the closet and a nook on the other side where we put a seat.

The electrician wasn’t going to come until the framing was done in the whole house. In the interest of getting things done I had the electrician come when all but one wall wasn’t up (the boiler room wall), which had one switch on it and the electrician still complained. There was a lot of work to do since the basement needed to be completely wired. We even had upgraded our service from 100 amps to 200 amps (it’s an old house...most have 150), to which the electrician once again complained and tried to tell me I didn’t need 200 amps. I could use 100 amps for the basement alone. Just plain laziness.

Begin rant. I’ve stayed away from any negative remarks about the people we hired. After all, they all worked hard and did anywhere from great to a phenomenal job...except the electrician. There are so many things I can tell you about these guys...it just kept adding up. Like why was the electrician the only person who didn’t know to wire electrical lines away from network and video lines (the framer knew this!). It was a struggle just getting them to show up. The big thing was they completely screwed up the lighting design I had for the basement (I’m simplifying, but I wanted the stairway on a separate switch than the rest of the theater). We only found out in the end when all the walls were up and painted. So what did he do? He argued with me telling me I never told him to do it that way, believing that his guys can never screw up. Meanwhile, he saw first hand a miswiring of the bathroom fan...same situation. I told them one thing and they did another. He didn’t argue with me after that. Luckily that light was accessible from the attic and was fixed. The basement, however, had to be wired to all one (four-way) switch. End rant.

We had a small amount of electrical work done on the first floor. A funny story here. There were 3 light switches (front hall, living room front and living room back) that were just off the floor, at the height of a regular convenience outlet. Dimmers even. Why they were that way we didn't know at first, but we found out...laziness. Apparently, the switches most likely were outlets at first but converted to switches and the wire from the switch to the light was not only a simple extension cord, but it was buried in the plaster of the wall or just behind the wood paneling. Talk about a fire hazard. This was probably done by the same guy who took down the bearing wall upstairs. Come to think of it, it's not that funny of a story.

So we moved those switches up to a normal height, turning their old positions back into outlets again, and turned an outlet that was at switch height into a 3-way switch for the living room. We also had a mystery switch in the kitchen near the door. Since we couldn't figure it out, we turned it into a 3 way switch for the kitchen light. This was one of those things that we wondered why it was never there before. There's a switch for the kitchen right next to the door now. Before, if you entered through the kitchen, you had to walk through the room and into the dining room in order to turn on the light.

We also moved the placement of the basement switch from outside the stairs to inside. Made more sense this way, especially since this was done before the whole lighting design fiasco I previously mentioned.

The only exterior (and semi-exterior) work we had done was move the main electrical conduit over by a foot. The main reason for this was not only to move it further away from the kitchen door, but to also make room for a larger mailbox. We also added a new dedicated electrical line to the garage so now the door opener isn't powered by a thin extension cord attached to the light socket. Oh, this house was full of those things.

The plumber began roughing together the house in the end of June and it continued on into July. Once we put the boiler in, he was able to connect all the tubes from the floor and the rest of the house. The laundry room was put together once the studs were up on that wall, connecting the drain to the pipe running under the slab and venting to the existing pipe next to the stairs.

For both of the second floor bathrooms we removed the flooring (which was a couple of inches of concrete...bathrooms need extra support to hold the weight of a full tub of water). For the master bath, we opened the floor up and added more support on the floor joists to essentially double the framing, since we expanded into a room that was never a bathroom before. We had to open it up anyway so the plumber can run the new lines in the floor. It wasn't until after the plumbing inspection where we could close the floor up.

As usual, while the workers were doing there thing, I was doing mine...installing the network. Since the walls were open I added network conduits. I could have just put the cable in the walls, but the idea was to future proof it so I can take away or add any type of cable without tearing down he walls. Running from the wiring closet underneath the basement stairs, I put in 5 conduits...7 if you count the ones buried under the slab. Standing under the stairs facing out from left to right, 1) goes to the back of the room where my office will be, 2) goes to the left into the workshop for a future connection into the kitchen, 3) goes to the right into the boiler room and up the wall to behind the living room TV, 4) goes up through the center closet following the plumbing stack up to the attic, and 5) goes back and to the right to the center of the theater room for a ceiling mounted projector...yes, but I'll get more into the home theater stuff later.

Then after passing the plumbing, framing and electrical inspection, we were ready to insulate. The first two passed with flying colors, but in order to pass electrical we had to change all our in-ceiling lights to IC rated (insulation connection, or something like that) lights. What that means is more fire protection...good, but significantly more expensive lights...bad.

The insulation guy was the most efficient contractor I dealt with. He and his crew were in and out in a day. They covered all exterior exposed walls, plus a few more. That means the entire basement, including ceiling (for added soundproofing), the 1st floor bath, the entire master suite, and attic. There was never insulation in the bedroom or attic before...and there’s such a difference. The master suite (which is really one side of the house) is warmer than the other side with original walls.

We passed the insulation inspection, we are ready to close everything up.

The floor in the master bath was covered up with plywood immediately because we had to walk on it. Now, the plumber could install the tubs and had something to attach the radiant tubes to.

July 25th. Just over the border in Pennsylvania, Wren is born. There were 4 puppies in that litter, and knowing we wanted a girl all we had to choose from was the pattern on her back. Things are going to get interesting in 10 weeks when we bring her home.

Because we sold our last place back in May, most of our stuff is in storage and we've been practically living out of a suitcase at my parents’ house since then. Every day without our stuff was frustrating. We've been pushing to get to a point where we could move in. All we really needed to move in is one working full bathroom, and that would be done when the stone floor is done so that is the goal. There's quite a few thing to do until then, and even more after. It didn't help that at the end of July I spent a week in San Diego for Comic-Con, and 2 weeks later I was in Boston for a week during Siggraph. So...

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