lofty ideas
One of the exciting things about taking out walls and ceilings is that your perception of your space and design ideas can instantly change. In previous design iterations, we considered doing a full attic loft, but had concerns about being able to create enough acoustical privacy from the bedroom(s) below without having to add more structure/insulation thus decreasing the head height. So we changed directions and decided the extra volume would be better spent vaulting over the kitchen/dining area. But then, after demo, we couldn’t help but think that the area above the future living area would make a sweet little loft space, especially since the new 3/4″ plywood MDO “ceiling” could also serve as a subfloor. It would be cozy, but a perfect place to curl up with a book or as extra sleeping space for guests. Because really, who doesn’t enjoy a secret space to retreat to? In fact, when I was a kid I once convinced my mom that I really wanted to convert our cedar-lined linen closet into my bedroom. The space was maybe 5’x7′, but it had a built-in dresser on one end with a window at the top and I used to sit up there and draw and read and (unsuccessfully) sleep. The absence of an actual bed eventually sent me back to the room I shared with my sister, but I still always loved the coziness of that space.
So we recently revisited the sketchup model to try out a few schemes (above is a cutaway section to show the vertical relationships). The challenge was that we didn’t want a loft that was completely closed off but we didn’t want to lose the vaulted ceiling either (we tried making the vault bigger but it just wasn’t working). So here’s our plan: slope the portion of the ceiling over the stairwell to provide a peek-a-boo view from/into the loft space. Access to the loft will be from the living room, so it works with the angle of the stair below. Right now, we’re just showing a wood ladder of some type, but we’re also exploring ship ladders and other materials. Once you get to the top of the ladder, you then side step into the loft space. The ladder would then (conceptually) extend up the wall to form a guardrail/screen of some sort to prevent people/things from falling through to the other side.
We had some initial concern about how another angled plane would look next to the adjacent vaulted ceiling, but after Kyle plugged it into the sketchup model we felt ok. But what we are most excited about is the opportunity to take advantage of some natural ventilation strategies! As we all know, “heat rises” and the loft space was bound to be on the toasty side in the summer. But by utilizing the law of thermal convection, on warm days we can open an operable skylight in the loft and windows on the main floor which will create a natural convection process, drawing heat out of the house. Installing a fan in the stairwell will assist in this process as well as “pull” cooler air up through the basement (which is always several degrees cooler on any given day). In the winter time, we can reverse the direction of the fan to help “push” warm air back into the main space.
Below is a cross section at the front of the house, showing the extents of the loft space and the composition of the stair and loft ladder.
While setting up a few interior shots, we realized that the angled ceiling at the stairwell isn’t even that perceptible unless you’re standing on the stair looking directly up.
We will now have to cut back some of the exposed joists and head them off for the loft access, but we think it will work with the aesthetics of the space.
Another glimpse of the loft access, standing in the future kitchen.
So there you have it! Even though it won’t be a typical loft that overlooks a big space below, it’s another chance to carve out a little bit more room in our small house. One of our next steps is to sand and finish the exposed joists so we can prime, paint and install the 3/4″ MDO subfloor. This will allow us to get up into the space and evaluate its potential before we give the loft the final green light.
progress report: week 2
With no real deadline to finish this project (besides my b-day in September…which seems like so far away!), we didn’t sit down and hash out a week-by-week schedule like we’ve done for other endeavors. And it’s a good thing too, because we know it can be hard to adhere to schedules created under ideal circumstances. Take last week for example – things were off to a good start and by Wednesday night Kyle had installed all of the new subfloor in the old kitchen and porch space! Then he caught a stomach virus. We were able to get a few things done over the weekend, but it wasn’t the marathon weekend we had been planning on. Plus, yesterday was gorgeous – the kind of day where you can literally taste summer (the ice cream may have helped). Which had us thinking…we should really try to get a lot done before the warmer weather is here to stay (which is still a few months away here in temperate Seattle).
But back to the weekly re-cap:
1. Kyle installed most of the 1/2″ plywood subfloor. This job was made 100x easier by the purchase of a screw gun. A tool well worth the modest price tag, it had us saying, “how did we not already own this??”. And because we’re geeky architects, Kyle laid out different panel configurations in cad to determine which would be the most efficient use of materials.
2. And now that we no longer have a sink on this wall, Kyle busted out all the old galvanized pipe and installed new ABS vent pipe connecting to the washing machine in the basement.
3. I pulled all the nails out of the living room joists so they could be sanded. I also yanked or hammered in most of the nails at exposed walls. Kyle then sanded the bottoms of all the joists and a few of the sides, which is not on our “fun to do!” list. To be continued…
Here’s a before and after shot, they do clean up nice!
4. We also marked off the location for the kitchen cabinets and island (enhanced via Photoshop). We then moved the refrigerator and dishwasher to their future homes…mainly to get them out of the way of flying sawdust and also to get a feel for what the space will be like. We also decided we should go ahead hook up the dishwasher soon.
I miss you dishwasher. A lot.
5. Finally, we worked on the loft design and came up with some strategies to deal with thermal convection. [We’ll cover that in a separate post this week.]
And in life-without-a-kitchen news, we’re surviving! We’re eating out a little more than usual, but we’ve come up with some microwave-friendly meals that are relatively healthy. So far, the favorite is frozen Amy’s mac’n’cheese with a bag salad. We’ve had it at least once a week…and we may have it again tonight.
layers of history
When we bought our house, most of the walls were a drab, off-white color. During our first demo project a few years ago, we expected that we’d find layer upon layer of paint over the plaster walls, but what we didn’t anticipate was the four to five layers of vintage wallpaper under the plaster! As the mystery unraveled (or…fell off the walls), we learned that plaster walls must have been a luxury back in 1910 because only our living/dining room had them. The rest of the house consisted of wallpaper over shiplap wood siding. (At some point, someone took it up a notch and plaster was added over the wallpapered rooms.)
Above and below are a sampling from our recent demo. This is what we found in the kitchen under all those layers…I knew our house had a feminine side.
And below is the old vinyl that was under the astroturf-esque carpet in our old back porch space.
Apparently the living room once had pink walls!
In 2006, when we tore out some cabinets to install the dishwasher, we found this old newspaper used as a shelf liner .
The bedroom demo two years ago uncovered another set of surprises. The wall paper in this space was also installed directly over the shiplap siding and then lath and plaster was added afterwards.
Despite the headaches that can come with an old house, it’s so interesting to discover its past life and think about the people who lived there and what was happening in the world at that time. I’m a little sad that we have now opened up every nook and cranny and there is no room left for surprises.
Maybe we should add our own…for the next 100 years.
progress report: week 1
It’s been almost a week since we did a post, but not because there is a lack of activity here at chezerbey. There’s just not a lot of visual difference to get excited about. So we thought it might be a good idea to start weekly progress posts – a summary of what we’ve done the previous week and what’s slated for the upcoming week. In addition, if there is anything that warrants its own post, we’ll do that too. Besides keeping up with the blog, we’re still getting in the groove of working full-time, working on our house, and squeezing in time to eat and do laundry (which seems to double during renovation projects!), but we’ll aim for a Sunday/Monday update from here on out. So let’s say the first progress report will cover April 5th-11th (since we already shared the thrill that was demo weekend).
As soon as the dust settled from demo, Kyle got to work on the basement stair. But first, a little history – the house was not built with a fancy interior stair to the basement, but one was added at some point. We’re not really sure what the logic was in this or the numerous other stair issues, but we knew the whole thing had to be re-done. During the great basement dig out of ’08, we rebuilt the stair per our new design. The only problem was that you had to duck under the new beam which was doable but pretty awkward.
Not anymore!
With the interior wall gone, Kyle was now able to cut out the piece of oak flooring and framing (after heading it off), allowing us to walk down to the basement minus the ol’ crouch and duck. As you can see though, there was some serious patching that needed to happen as well.
After a couple of days we were all patched up and ready to go. We’ll be adding another stair stringer and putting down new treads and risers that will span the full 36″ width.
As a side note, one day I was picking up debris and came across this – and it reminded us of home.
After the framing for the stair opening was complete, it was time to tackle a few other areas. On demo day, we discovered that the framing under the kitchen cabinets was pretty sub-standard…as in, there was no rim joist for the subfloor to bear on. So all that got ripped out, a new rim joist was added and new plywood went down. We also had the old back porch flooring to deal with. Since it was built as a porch, all the floor framing sloped away from the house. This meant setting up the laser level (Dad – best present ever!) and sistering on new joists, each one slightly angled to make up for the slope. Since our new kitchen cabinets will be going in here, it was extra important to make sure everything was level and plumb.
The complexity with these two areas is that most of our plumbing, electrical and ductwork happens in this area. So there was a lot of time spent re-routing (annoying, but necessary). At least there was a nice crawl space slab to stand on…
One of the challenges in creating one space from several small ones is that you have to compensate for different floor materials and thicknesses. Fortunately, the oak floor in the living/dining room flushed out with the old fir kitchen floors, which were hidden under two layers of linoleum (leading us to believe that the oak floors were original and not an upgrade). Much to our surprise and gratitude, the linoleum came up very easily (the black color is the glue residue). The patch at the back door is where part of our old bathroom used to be and was filled in over a year ago. The next step is to cover all the floor with 1/2″ plywood. This will add some extra rigidity and will even out any subtle changes in floor elevations (the 4×8 sheet in the corner is sheet #1).
So yes, at this point we’re planning on doing cork everywhere. Part of me wanted to re-finish (and maybe stain) the oak floors, but this would have meant an awkward threshold between the oak and cork which (in my experience) can be a toe-stubbing nightmare and would take away from the goal of creating a cohesive space.
We took tonight off, which is shaping up to be a good way to recover from the weekend blitz (especially when House MD is on and someone invites you over for a homemade meal! Thanks Aud!). This week we’ll focus on installing the 1/2″ plywood and some minor electrical work. And then, skylights? We could use more light…
kitchen visualization
Now that the walls and ceiling are gone, it’s easier to visualize what the future space is going to be like. On demo day we joked that it was looking more and more like our Sketchup model, so I thought it would be fun to do a quick overlay to show how we’ll go from bare studs to a finished space.
Above is where we’re at now – we’ll be adding new ceiling framing to create the “mini vault” over the kitchen/dining area as seen in the composite image below…
We’ll also be adding those two skylights and window behind the table. Natural dayllight!
Above is a current rendering of the space. (The white piece jutting out at the lower left hand corner will be some type of shelf/guardrail that separates the basement stair from the rest of the space while providing additional storage.) The sliding doors on the left hand side are for the bedroom and bathroom.
We’ve got a ways to go but it’s certainly motivating to think about the finished product! Maybe I’ll do a similar post looking at the other side of the space next…
