Words from Master Dave

Contractor to the House Under the Rock

When Julie said she was starting a blog on the adventures of remodeling the new old house, I thought it would be fun if all of us blogged along with her—and by us, I mean me, the interior space planner and the kitchen designer.  They all thought it a great idea but the reality is that each of them have two little kids.  My feeling is that they will be hard pressed to find the 20 minutes every Friday to write, but we’ll see.

The adventure begins…

Okay, I missed the introductory blog, so here we go…

I’ve known Roger and Julie for quite awhile—I met them at least four houses ago when their middle son and my son were elementary schoolmates.  But, I was surprised to hear from them somewhat out-of-the-blue several weeks ago to look at a different house they had their eyes on.  We met, looked it over and decided  to give it a hearty “nah.”  Fast forward to early July and I met them at this house—along with realtors, inspectors, ladders, tape measures, etc. 

Julie already had some good ideas of what she wanted to do, so we chatted about how to proceed.  I’ve been a general contractor specializing in remodels for 20 years or so, and have a really good working relationship with several designers…would Julie be interested in meeting with them?  Julie would! 

Next was a phone call from Roger: he had the inspector’s report in hand and wanted some idea about what certain repairs would cost.  We came up with some preliminary numbers for some of the repairs and he took it to the sellers.  A few days later, the deal was done!

Everyone showed up a little over a week ago to get a visual on the house, and to start brainstorming what could be done, what should be done.  We have a very nice chemistry between the four of us, so this should be a fun project.  We ran through a schedule of sorts, with our next major goal of getting to budget numbers.  We need plans!

Quirks

I assume the title doesn’t refer to us, but you never know…Julie does have that kind of a sense of humor!

For me, as a contractor, there is always a bit of mystery in older houses.  Who worked on it and what were they thinking when they did this or that.  This particular house has some interesting soffit ideas—as in they are everywhere on the main or upper floor.  Since there isn’t a floor above us, the soffits won’t be hiding plumbing for a bathroom above.  There may be some rogue electrical to deal with, but that’s it.  So, if not for practical reasons…why all the soffits?

We also have a number of flooring types: the entry is a large marble tile.  It butts to a white ceramic tile in the hallways, which butts to two different types of hardwood floor.  And, they are all visible from the entry.  The little planter in Julie’s picture is in the marble entry, a prime example of the adage: “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

We met at the house on Wednesday this week—Julie, my partner in crime Bruce and my electrician of 15 years, Jason.  The goal was to put a number on replacing the electrical panel which was a mish mash of different breakers and floating wires, and was located on the inside of one of the lower floor bedrooms.  As helpless as Julie feels when her ideas are met with lukewarm responses, so do I feel when standing with Jason as he does his magic. 

We are waiting for his estimate to move the panel outside, install a new 200 amp service, install new wires from the panel to the shutoff (which is located on a pole about ten feet away accessed by conduit) which is just below the meter, also on the pole.  Oh, and the bonding or grounding of the panel requires a larger gauge wire, and…well, you get the idea.

As Julie mentioned, I am going to take the very preliminary plans to the city and get the permit ball rolling.  I may have to amend our submission based on details, but most cities are pretty lax on the specifics of the permit, leaving it to the inspectors and contractor to work it out in the field.  The kitchen is a relatively easy permit, whereas the space planning will entail some additional professionals—structural engineer for one as we will be moving or eliminating walls—so we’ll start with the kitchen. 

Julie’s right about the smells.  It’s not me, I swear!