Insulation review
We'll fill 10 dumpsters like this over the course of digging out the basement
The first step is a doozy!
Big pipe...but it was leaking.
Working out how many inches we can squeeze for second car.
Finished height: 10'10“
Load #12. This is one of the few that goes to landfill though.
Brendan (builder), Sean (architect) and Wayne (low voltage) - starting to plan home theater, intercom, house-wide music system, etc.
Nothing (or at least...as little as possible) goes to waste..
Some more steel...
Deep trench drain
Rebar...all new foundations. We're ready for the big one now!
Cutting the corner off the old garage was easy and helps get two car side-by-side parking vs the original 1 car detached garage which was water damaged and due for replacement.
Brick foundation. Bad!
Bricks are gone. Phew! We're pooring concrete next week.
Bendan reviewing plans. To pocket (the beam) or not to pocket, that is the current question.
All the way to the back...
...and to the front
And on the other side.
...and across the front
Our first 'famous' visitor, astrologer (to Sting no less) Steven Forrest
On the roof with Real Goods, measuring for Solar
Brendan in his element - this section will support the new stairs
And here's the results. Solid. Very solid!
6“ footing. Framing starts next week, then digging out the remaing dirt for the new basement.
Taking off the rear mud room.
Now THAT is a better view than the inside of the mud room.
Sunsets sure will be pretty.
Installing Steel
Beautifully pocketed beam. Done in a day. Brendan and his team do great work in record time.
Another view of pocket'ed beam (post is temporary!)
Last of the old posts, and later the surrounding two feet of dirt, ready for the dumpster.
Take a good look - today is the last day with cribbing - tomorrow we'll have a much better sense for what we've created.
Cribbing is gone, and the house is still standing!
Now THAT is a garage.,
Almost done with the dig...
...kust one more post to go.
We now have a 'view' from below.
FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified lumber.
NOW we're ready for the BIG one! Front moment frame.
Garage beam. No need to pocket here with 11' ceiling, and it maintains integrity of house versus cutting all the joists.
Looking West. (Our LEED rater Kirk Russell to the left)
Looking East. Starting to see the west wall of the media room.
Another view west, gives a good sense of the size of the basement now.
Hard to beat an 11' ceiling in the garage!
Steel goes into the kitchen ceiling.
Going into place to support the second floor bay at the other end.
Inside view of the large pocket door.
Basement framing - getting a better sense for the room.
Another 'ready for the big one' fixture.
As they say...like making sausage - you don't really want to watch the entire process.
Working to level the 2nd floor.
Moving the new upright post into place.
Brendan doing a good job of holding up the ceiling!
Exploring window options - quiet, but with classic character.
Sean interpreting advice from the accoustician for Foxtail Hill Windows.
Another evening review meeting.
Room with a view...indeed!
Opened up, but just for a couple of days while we 'straighten out' the rear wall.
Making sausage!!
Cross framing cut into second floor's existing joists helped keep the floor flat and level, not so common in San Francisco!
Mini charette to talk about plumbing and garden.
Reframing the rear wall. Window, door, window, window.
Insulated headers. Just one more small detail among so many.
Closing it back up.
Gives one an appreciation for the ceiling height...
Master closet and bathroom framed. Now we're making progress!
Another mini-charrette with plumber, gray water guy, architect and builder. Pipes. LOTS of pipes.
Framing the powder room. A full 1“ longer and wider than minimum spec by code!
There's a powder room in there somewhere
Looking from the other side, still facing west.
Small closet formed from rear of one of the 'octagonal corners'
And from the other direction. The powder room is small, but...we got it into the plan.
On site design
Creating new stairwell and new kitchen north wall
Interesting motif which is mirrored...
....in a more angular form outside. So many great details to discover.
New stairs will start here
and down here
Coffee shop meeting with architect (Sean Culman), LEED AP (Kirk Russell) and builder (Brendan Uniacke).
Details, details, details...
Another piece of steel. This one is part of the next stage of earthquake retrofit work and will enable some useful floor area expansion and capturing views on top floor.
Looking down from the second floor. The header was a few inches low. While we're at it we moved it.
Looking down to that beam change, from Zoe's bathroom to the stairs.
Gravel and other water proofing is underway. Multiple levels of defense in place.
Back on the roof with an old friend. Beautiful San Francisco day. Roof top deck...while we're at it?
We're looking to straighten up the roof.
The view east.
and this would get straightened up, creating 350 sq feet of roof for solar, and an extra 150 sq ft of useful space inside.
Plumbing galore!
Catchbasin - part of the water re-use system.
Test fit for wall-hung toilet.
Checking out laminated window. Anticipated 38db noise reduction. But its heavy, not to mention expensive.
Sketching noise isolation strategy for basement media room.
Underground plumbing check with John Russell from WaterSprout
There is quite a lot going on, best to get it right before its under 8 inches of concrete, gravel and sand.
Basement bathroom
and the media room.
Concrete insulation delivery.
Brendan gets busy with a shovel. Whatever it takes - he'll make it happen!
Meeting with our concrete guys to make sure the various levels are correct.
Looking through bathroom to basement laundry area
Vince from Foxtail - one last check before the first windows order is placed.
FSC stands for Forrest Stewardship Council - no old growth/clear (...except of course for the original house...sigh...we know better now.)
Harry Abbott from Comfort Zone gives us some timely advice on various heating/venting strategies.
Measuring out space for 2 120gallon hot water tanks.
Thomas McGuinn from Verve Living Systems flew across the country to make us a pilot user of their new lighting/power control system.
As usual we assemble a team. Raymond our electrician on the right.
Raymond holding a small demonstration unit that shows how a button click provides enough power to send an RF signal.
Sean digs into the details of just how/where of master control units.
...and more on the where.
Local coffee shop is much warmer than the job site. Sean and I worked on lighting and top floor plans for another four hours.
Serious gear...
Concrete day! A big step closer to a finished garage/basement.
Media room floor cuts in process.
Brendan keeps a careful eye on the process.
Serious team work on the 'swale' - more about that later.
Concrete floor bathroom gets extra attention.
Insulation all-round.
Lots of elbow grease applied to bathroom floor . Orange pex in background for radiant. mmm...warm...
Floor is dry. Life is good.
Getting ready for stairs
Fine tuning placement
Insulation detail
Bathroom to left, kitchen/laundry to the right, with radiant tube in orange.
Basement radiant up-close
Shopping for tile - master bathroom south wall inside the steam room.
Zoe's bathroom
Climbing the stair framing
First stage of stair framing complete
Now the test - can we fit two cars in the garage, with individual access?
Yes!
Tuck under the stairs makes all the difference.
FSC Certified lumbar - of course.
Brendan sets up the purpose-built drill with magnetic grip. Bolt holes in seconds!
Landing detail - steel gives back important inches.
Very neat.
Planning the top floor glass wall/conservatory.
Shaggy old garage, getting ready for demolition - in stages.
Dry rot and termites. Its definitely seen better days.
More FSC timber.
beta unit from Verve Living Systems - looking forward to testing.
Verve (our lighting system vendor) steps back into the limelight with a big booth at International Builders Show in Las Vegas.
Checking out fire sprinkler systems at IBS - we need a full “13R” system vs simpler “13D”...of course!
Kohler “Karbon” articulating faucet we plan to use in the kitchen, here its part of the IBS showcase “The New American Home”
Kohler jums on the bio-inspired bandwagon...
Back at Broderick St they've been busy. Top floor goes back to the studs...sigh...had to be done because roof is not up to code to support solar.
A few days later its looking clean. Rafters need doubling up.
Well...it looked clean facing in one direction...
Radiant install underway care of Comfort Zone. Great team to work with.
Kitchen plan review with Gomez (Sean and Brendan, and Kirk in the background)
Checking out FSC certified siding at Baronia Lumber.
Contrast the price - $1.80 vs...
...$1.25 per linear foot. A hefty premium to assure no old trees were felled on our behalf.
Only the area with green labels is FSC, the rest is regular siding. At least they have some in stock!
Visit to San Francisco Victoriana to check out ceiling roses and...
...korbels
We hosted our first walkthrough with a four person group from from the Presideo Green MBA course.
Checking over structural plans with our engineer at DoubleD. Ooops...we've triggered a full seismic retrofit. sigh...
“Substantial change.” Really?! :-)
Top floor demolition continues.
Working out optimal balance of ceiling hight / floor area, and allowing for casing around the doors. Things are less simple when you're working in multiple planes - no wonder they build houses like a box these days...
And demolition continues, this time downstairs clearing out the old deck structure to afford more light into basement. (Thats Harry from Comfort Zone our HVAC consultants)
Starting to see how the rear will shape up.
Details details. While I was in Sydney on vacation in Feb I noticed this door panel which could be a model for our kitchen.
And another panel, this one at my parents home.
Also at my parent's, a couple of design ideas for the bookshelves we plan to build into the top floor hallway.
Ah yes, another piece of steel...
Invariably when one retrofits there's an extra detail, this time we had already installed a window in the garage that requried some extra framing, but all in a day's work for our builders.
Looking west through the garage.
Looking west through the Media Room
After much back and forth we decided on Hardiplank for the rear siding.
Building for durability.
Back up on the top floor the debris has cleared and we have a new perspective on the possibilities. Unfortunately a sheer wall thwarts some of our good ideas, and historic considerations prevents us from fully capturing the eastern view (imagine: glass walls...maybe next house project)
Looking west. The area in the foreground will become a library, and the far end will be removed to make way for a deck and glass wall. So, we managed to expose one view.
Soon to become a deck.
Another dumpster. Had I fully understood what was being triggered I'm sure we would have dug a geothermal system rather than reinforcing for solar pv/thermal...lessons learned, though on the other hand, the new top floor (which will be our office) will be a huge improvement.
Looking west from the second floor.
Here is the western view from the top floor today...
And here is the view we're exposing. It will certainly be a better place to spend the majority of my waking hours.
Peak-a-boo (that's our architect Sean Culman)
Looking down from the top floor.
Down there, the remains of the fire escape, to be replaced with full sprinkler system.
Siding work continues. Like so many of our decisions there was a lot of back and forth, but I'm really pleased with the final choice. Durable, cost effective and 'green'.
Old siding cleared to make way for new sheer walls.
“These are the best prepared windows I've seen” says one of the Presideo MBA team and professional painter on a return visit. Windows care of “Foxtail Hill Windows & Doors” - www.foxtailhill.com.
Remember those engineering drawings? Here's the result - a whole lot of glue lams and steel.
But like the sprinker system, you hope you'll never need it, but its nice to know its there when the big one hits.
Down on the first floor - another new beam.
Figuring out front of house details. hmm...
First formal presentation on our work, care of a Rainwater Harvesting session at PG&E's annual water day.
That's John Russell our water guy presenting three case studies.
First stage of removing the top rear section of the house: Brendan preparing for another steel beam.
Rolling in the big boys toy - crane to lift steel to top floor.
Getting ready to lift the top floor steel beam.
...and the second beam that will be welded to the first.
All hands on deck to bring it in through the top floro window.
New rear windows in place.
Making way for those steel beams.
Steel beams in place.
On site visit to plan fire sprinkler system.
