The Second Floor Begins

The garage is starting to take shapeThe garage door openings from the street. The drive will eventually fill in the area to the bottom of each opening The back wall of the garage taken from the Living Room. The wrapped Glu Lam Beam on top of the wall will be exposed to the Living/Dining/Kitchen area

Second FLOOR

The tarp is back in place to keep the "man cave" dry, but underneath, the second floor beams and floor are done! FYI, The "man cave" is the downstairs front bedroom that we are using as a jobsite office/storage room

View from the future drive. The flooring is down in the garage and the main(2nd) floor except for the far back of the Living and Dining rooms.

Tarp UN-Relocation

No more roof or tarp over the Front Bedroom (that was short-lived :-)) Kai, the lead framer, is busy laying out the new floor joists for the second story office. Lots of "massaging" to get this all to work with the exisitng structure. I picked up the correct heavy duty hangars today so the rest of the crew is busy laying out the triple 2x12's for the garage floor.

Floor sheathing tomorrow!!

Tarp Relocation

We couldn't live without a tarp on some portion of the remodel so here you go :-) I tore off the old shingles over the remaining bedrooms and tarped it over the weekend. The back portion of this roof structure stays but the front will be removed and the upstairs office will replace it. Floor framing starts Tuesday!!

The Lower Floor Framing

Standing in the Family Room Looking at the 2nd Bath and the hall to the Master Bedroom
Family Room from the back of the house


Master Closet, HUGE! :-)

Master Bedroom from doorway

Media/Meditation Room from outside in the Lower Garden

All the concrete floors have plywood over them to protect them temporarily. They have been cut in 4'x4' squares, looks good

Your Project Schedule

I title this "Your" Project Schedule because pretty quickly the project seems to have a mind of its own when it comes to time! :-) This is my first time managing a major house remodel so I am learning as I go. As an architect, I have managed large commercial projects in the past and feel that being organized is really the key. The more you can organize and lay things out the less surprise you will have. Having said that I know I could be far better at planning ahead right now on the project but until recently I have been doing most of the work myself which made it hard. I hope to get more on top of this now that I have a Framing Crew doing the heavy lifting at the jobsite so to speak :-)

So speaking of the Framing Crew and schedules here is another interesting story and lesson learned. I had bids from Framing Contractors that were a little high for our budget so through friends, I had contacted some individual framers to put together a crew where I could provide some labor/swear equity and save some money. This was all coming together until the last possible minute when their current work pushed out their availability. If you know me you can imagine how "po'd" I was :-) I couldn't wait another 4 weeks so I went back to work and found another crew that I feel is working out even better. They started right away and are moving quickly so the costs should be even less. So the lesson? Shit Happens! Get pissed, get over it and move on. My job in this whole project is to handle these things when they come up and get the project back on track. And it all works out in the end. I just want a few more rain free weeks to get a roof on please! :-)

Bidding and Negotiating Contracts

The title sounds pretty ominous but really it's pretty straightforward. You want to get prices for a product or scope of work to compare and get the best deal! Sounds simple.........................but wait:-)

My first example is the lumber package for our house remodel. This a pretty identifiable portion of the project. We want a price for all the wood structure for our project. Lumber suppliers are set up to review your house plans and do a "take-off' which means estimate the materials and give you a price. Obviously different people may "estimate" differently so there is a chance for inconsistency there, plus if the drawings are unclear that will add chances for confusion or error.
As you can imagine there are many other possible variables that can happen that make it challenging to compare each supplier "apple to apples". In the end we had two suppliers within $300 of each other which is very close. As I dug into one of the estimates I found numerous mistakes, misunderstandings, etc and by that time I was done reviewing the estimates, the one supplier was almost 15% more! Needless to say we went with the second supplier :-) An interesting point to remember is that each lumber supplier was providing "estimates" so if they were in error and we needed say 200 more 2x6s I would pay for them anyway. This makes reviewing the estimates very important.

My second example is brief but noteworthy. We needed to pour the interior and back patio slabs prior to starting framing. I contacted the original company that bid the job when we got our construciotn loan to get an updated bid. In speaking to them it became apparent that we were not in sync on the actual scope of their work. I clarified this and they rebid the project at almost 3x their first bid! When I called them in shock to ask for a little breakdown of the costs they were uninterested in doing so. I was not talking much detail just concrete, labor, and materials would have been fine. I decided then and there that they were not the company for me! Through a contact I found another concrete firm that bid the job and came in just a little higher than the original number. Considering the original number was missng a few things this made sense and I went with the second firm, which came out promptly and did some great work!


So here are some pointers about soliciting and reviewing bids:

1. Make sure the scope of work is clear and understood. Accurate drawings and followup discussion help this.
2. Different bidders will delivery there numbers in different formats. If you are trying to compare clearly, see if you can get them to use a standard form that breaks down the bid in a way you want to see it.
3. If you feel like you are getting ripped off, you probably are! Common sense goes a long way, as well as asking questions. There is not stupid questions and a good supplier/contractor will have no problem answering and clarifying their work.
4. Comparing $ and scope is key but make sure it is really "apples to apples".
5. The lowest number is not always the best. The old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" really holds. Low bidding and then trying to make it up with cost changes later is common.
6. And we could talk forever about the quality of the work necessary. This is a hard one. I like referrals from people I know and trust. If that isn't possible get references, check for online feedback, look at work they have completed, etc.
7. In the end it is all about time and money. Are you getting what you want, for the price you want , when you want it?

Of course I could probably have 1000 bullet points but you get the idea. Common sense prevails. Know your scope, shop around, compare apples to apples costs, ask questions and most importantly ask the question, "Are you comfortable working with this person/firm on your home?". If not keep looking. In today's economy you should have lots of options

Framing Underway!!

After a few bumps and hurdles the framing is finallly underway. And the Framing Crew is just flying along at this point. After looking carefully at the existing perimeter walls we decided to take everything down except for the two end bedrooms. View from the street. The temporary power pole is where the entrance path will be.
View from the corner of the future garage looking down. From left to right is: two exisitng bedrroms, the Family Room, 2nd Bathroom, Laundry Room, and the Master Bedroom on the concrete.
View from the back yard looking at the patio and steps into the Family Room

More to follow on the difficulty of schedules and hiring subcontractors! Plus a dialouge on the process of bidding and negotiating contracts. Real fun and exciting topics! :-) They will drive you crazy but are critical for a successful project.