The Warehouse Project

The Warehouse Beautification Administration

2011-07-10T15:37:00.000-04:00

The mulch bed near the back staircase contains sun-loving flowers and plants. Thanks to Connie for her expertise.

The front entrance now has mulch beds and solar lights flanking the walkway. The Blue Fescue looks real nice against the slate, cedar and the empty paint cans in the background.

The new retaining wall gets a mulch bed and various plants.

Guess Who Paid The Electric Bill?

2010-11-16T19:47:00.001-05:00

Rockin'-n-Rainin'

2010-08-25T12:39:00.000-04:00

The landscapers showed up bright and early to install the gravel under the decks and under the back of the house. The rain showed up even earlier and soaked them all morning. I say it was worth them getting soaked to get the gravel down and over with, but they might not agree. They were definitely good sports about it. Landcare Associates of Madbury, NH if you're interested.

All that's left outside is a few strategically placed plants, some slate boulders and some stepping stones. Oh, and grass...

HOLY CERT!

2010-08-14T12:58:00.001-04:00

The Certificate of Occupancy in all it's glory. If you ask me, it's not very glorious at all.

Master Bath Gets A Makeover

2010-02-15T11:13:00.001-05:00

The walls have been painted a darker brown color and the window trim has been installed. Also, continuing on the Reclaimed-Wood-From-Old-Warehouse theme, a piece of cedar rescued from the previous owner now graces the countertop as a backsplash.

DIY Coat Rack

2010-02-15T11:02:00.004-05:00

A step-by-step guide to crafting a scrap wood and spike nail coat rack:

Buy an old warehouse and renovate it for 4 years
Once finished, you should have an 8' piece of 2x lumber left over
Cut said lumber into a 3' section then sand, stain and poly the wood.
Mark and drill 7 evenly spaced holes beginning 3" in on either end (make sure to drill the holes at a slight upward angle so the spikes tilt up. It's best to make a simple jig to ensure your angles are similar. If it does not work out, just say the crooked nails add "character")
Secure coat rack to the wall using wood screws
Mark 8" spikes roughly 3" up from business end and cut to size
Insert spikes into holes with adhesive silicone on tip to secure them
Hang coats (you may also hang jackets or "hoodies" if you do not own a coat

Goin' gray, then green.

2010-02-05T14:20:00.005-05:00

The grey and white bathroom was great (in theory), but after living with it for a while, it was decided that there needed to be an additional color introduced. This olivy green color did the trick, and now the bathroom feels finished, which is the feeling we're going for here, ya know.

The Warehouse rolls again!

2010-01-25T10:14:00.006-05:00

As an homage to the old WH, the original sliding barn door hardware has been resurrected and will be used for the sliding master bedroom, guest bedroom and studio doors. The tracks are in good shape and only needed to be cleaned. The rollers are a bit of a different story. While they are intact, they will need some TLC before being put back into service. **update** The rollers are now considered fine as it will take too much $ and effort to restore them.

A snowy sunrise at the ol' Warehouse

2010-01-25T10:06:00.001-05:00

Range is in the house!

2010-01-09T14:39:00.003-05:00

The Range Design logo cut from plexi by Uni-Graphic in Woburn, MA and mounted using 3/4" aluminum standoffs from Home Depot.

Rug extravaganza

2009-12-10T18:08:00.005-05:00

A couple of new rugs from West Elm and 18 "dots" from Ikea go a long way towards making the warehouse feel more like a home.

Random Shots

2009-12-10T18:05:00.002-05:00

Picture perfect.

2009-08-10T08:24:00.003-04:00

Finished the trim around the porch window. Looks good and really was not too much trouble to install.

The red front door. A closer look

2009-08-05T15:50:00.002-04:00

pimp my beam

2009-08-03T10:24:00.003-04:00

The structural beams are now covered with birch plywood and stained cherry to match the kitchen cabinets.

This is the beam in the studio containing the lighting fixture which provides ambient light for the room. There was never a real plan for how to hide the fixtures but, in the end, I think it worked out nicely.

July 09 update

2009-07-13T08:29:00.006-04:00

View of the house from the freshly mowed backyard. After 2+ years of neglect, we finally reclaimed the backyard from the forest. She didn't give it up willingly but, in the end, we won the day and now the woodchucks have some room to roam.
The front entrance area. Slate rocks flank a slate path leading to the front door. Eventually, there will be pea gravel surrounding the slate and defining the walkway. For now, it's just dirt and weeds.

mostly finished details

2009-06-18T10:11:00.005-04:00

Shot from the yard. This picture shows the length of the house along the backyard side.
Shot from the driveway. You can sort of see the red front door and the wraparound deck.
Looking into the dining room from the living room. You can also see out to the covered porch.
looking out from the living room. The plywood railing will be replaced with glass panels.

Cedar as far as the eye can see.

2009-04-20T14:40:00.004-04:00

The siding is going up. There will be 3 types: Cedar over most of the house, sheets of Hardie cement board will wrap the garage on the lower level and corrugated metal on the recessed wall of the 3 porches. The cedar is not hard to install. It goes up pretty fast and looks great. The Hardie panel looks good but creates a lot of toxic dust when cutting, and is pretty heavy in sheet form. The galvanized metal siding looks sweet against the natural Cedar.

We have fire!

2009-04-20T14:33:00.002-04:00

Now turn it off, you're wasting propane.

Tales from the customer service files

2009-04-20T10:53:00.010-04:00

Countertops are in and the sink fits great. We got all the fixtures online, most from Ira Wood, and saved a bundle. We had heard stories about backorders and terrible customer service from online retailers, but we didn't experience any of that from this company or any of the others we purchased from. Sometimes you get lucky I guess.

The countertop is Silestone from Home Depot. We had picked out a different color that looks like polished concrete. It was about $20/ft less expensive than what we ended up with. The problem is that the sales person at HD told us it was available in the size we needed to cover the island (40" x 126"); However, when they came out to take measurements, the subcontractor told us that color only comes in 96" length. He recommended we take a ride to their showroom on the weekend to pick out a new color. My mom and I drove out to the showroom (about 45 miles) that Saturday in a snow storm to pick out a new color but, when we got there, they were closed. Turns out he gave us bad information because they are never open on the weekend. I drove immediately back to HD to let them know what their subcontractor had told us and that I was not happy that the sales associate did not know her product well enough to avoid this problem, and that we were sent on a wild goose chase. They took our information down and said they would work it out. Amy got a voicemail that week from a sales associate stating that HD was willing to pay the difference and to "come in and pick any color that works for us." We stopped by on the weekend and picked out the color you see in the pic. It was one of our original favorites but too costly at the time. The manager said fine but we would have to pay an additional $1000 because that particular color was at the highest price point and there was another less expensive color that was large enough. We didn't like any colors at the mid-level price point so, long story shorter, Amy played the voicemail for the department manager, then the store manager and we left there with a sweet countertop at a great price!

We ordered the cabinets from Area Kitchens in Portsmouth. We had gone to another cabinet dealer which shall remain nameless, and it was not a very good experience. The associate did not add any value to the process at all. She gave us the stick figure equivalent of 3D renderings and did not fix any of the common mistakes homeowners make when they design their own kitchen. Nathan, at Area Kitchens, on the other hand did a really nice job of heading off any problems we might have encountered had we decided to go it alone. We ended up choosing Shaker style Dura Supreme cabinets in Cherry. It was a great choice for us. They are clean lined but not super modern, and not budget-breaking either.

The wood has darkened since this picture to match what we picked out in the showroom.

Tile 201

2009-04-20T10:48:00.004-04:00

Amy's design for the guest bath called for Hexagonal tiles with randomly place accents. When we spoke to the guy at the tile store (ENOS in Hampton, NH) he suggested a border treatment. It was a great suggestion that really added a nice level of detail to the floor. We also decided to forgo the black and white theme and add medium grey accents.

::UPDATE:: The grey and white theme has been altered to include green walls. Please update your score cards if you are playing along at home.

Tile 101

2009-04-20T10:45:00.002-04:00

The master bath tile going down. It was a lot more difficult than I anticipated to lay the tile over the floor warming pads. You need a thicker mortar bed to cover the warmer so it makes it harder to level the individual tiles as you go along. It's nice to have warm feet in the Winter though.

Diamond in the rough?

2009-04-20T10:25:00.005-04:00

(before) One of the things we loved about the place when we bought it was the old floor. We were told that it was 1 5/8" tongue and groove Southern Yellow Pine by a few knowledgeable people during the renovation, so we were hopeful that it would refinish to something beautiful.

(during) This is roughly the same area as the above photo after it had been sanded.

(after) Once the floors were sanded, and the polyurethane had been applied, we breathed a sigh of relief; however, we didn't take that breathe inside because the fumes might have killed us. The floor guy now thinks the wood could be Heart Pine instead of Southern Yellow Pine. In any event, it looks great!

Tape, mud and sand, oh my!

2009-04-20T10:14:00.004-04:00

Amy and I hung most of the drywall ourselves. I have to say, I didn't mind working with the drywall. That part is instant gratification because you have this mix of wood and insulation then you put a sheet up and it looks fairly white and uniform.

You can also see the finished ceiling in this photo.

Here's a shot of the studio.

We ended up hiring a contractor that GROSSLY UNDERESTIMATED THE SCOPE OF WORK and had to be replaced by another guy. The second contractor was great. He did good work and charged a very fair rate for his work.

Here's another shot of the studio from the opposite side.

This shot was taken from the kitchen and looks down the hall to the second bedroom. That corner on the right is the opening for the master bedroom. across is the sliding door that leads to a small porch. There's another slider in the master that, when both are open, provides cross-ventilation. Further up the hall is a laundry center and the guest bath.

A more finished look at the studio.

Water comes in. Water goes out. Seems simple, right?

2009-04-20T10:08:00.003-04:00

The rough plumbing is in! Our Crotchety old plumber did a good job but was not exactly a pleasure. Come to think of it, maybe it's the profession? The plumbing inspector for the town was not exactly our best friend either. More to come on that later.

Who decided baby blue was a good color for insulation panels?

2009-04-20T09:41:00.003-04:00

The metal roof is on! It took the roofing contractor about a full day to install the entire roof. We decided to go with the metal because it fits in with the clean, linear look of the place. It would have been hard to justify the additional cost of the metal over asphalt shingles except that the pitch of the roof is fairly low and the metal sheds snow much faster than ashpalt shingles. (update) After two Winters with the new roof I can difinitively say the metal was a good choice all around.

Metal roof example!

In order to expose the existing barn board roof on the inside of the house, we added insulation panels to the exterior (similar idea to the walls) and connected them to the rafters with 10" screws. Once that was done, we added plywood sheathing like you would a normal roof. This was 10 straight days of back breaking labor but i'll take that over drywalling the celing on the inside!

She's a looker alright. Polystyrene rigid foam panels cover the outside of the house for two reasons: 1) the existing second floor exterior walls are framed using 2"x4" lumber, so fiberglass batts only get us an R-13 (R-19 is code). Adding the foam to the exterior walls gets us to R-20.5, plus the exterior insulation panels cover all of the interior studs so there is less heat loss through the wood framing and, 2) the tongue and groove foam panels create an envelope on the outside which helps stop heat loss through the studs. Also, the strapping that is applied over the foam as a nailing surface for the siding creates an air cavity behind the siding so moisture does not get trapped.

A few well-placed walls

2009-04-20T09:31:00.006-04:00

I am available by appointment for structural analysis of headers. I also do weddings and baby showers.
So, this is a shot of the living room (it's not as blurry in person) and dining room (right half of picture in front of window)
Master bathroom subfloor going in. We used the old floor boards from the bathrooms and bump-ins to patch areas throughout the house that had damaged or missing boards.
Looking straight into the kitchen. The new structural beam is in place and the walls have been framed. The wall on the left is an exterior wall that has been moved in 10' from the long edge and 12' from the short edge to create a covered porch. There is a door leading to the porch from the kitchen and a slider leading to the porch from the dining room.
Entrance to the studio.

Interior framing

2009-04-20T09:05:00.003-04:00

These beams replace the existing dimensional beams where the span exceeds 10'. They are 20' long, made of engineered lumber and weigh A LOT. Getting them into position was an adventure. Fortunately we had some help during that time.
Removing a section of beam that had deflected over time.
The very first interior wall to be framed! It was not exactly perfect but what do you expect for the first attempt? In the end, it worked out fine and you would never know there were issues.
Brandon and his brother help with the framing of the 3 triple windows in the studio. Well, they are helping with the REframing of the 3 triples in the studio. This was an interesting day because it was great to see the window openings roughed in, but there was some concern that the corner of the house would collapse if a strong breeze came through. It held up fine until we were able to get additional supports and the plywood sheathing installed.
Amy sitting in the dining room window opening. This window replaces the old barn door, which we originally wanted to keep but realized we couldn't because of pesky building codes. Now that I think of it, we probably could have kept it because we ended up putting a deck along that wall...

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

2009-04-17T16:05:00.002-04:00

hello there.

Nice pipes

2009-04-17T13:26:00.004-04:00

Having the utility lines buried was a great idea. The foundation guys already had the excavator on site, so it didn't cost us much at all to get this done. I don't even think the electrician (Stephen Porter) charged us more than the cost of materials to run the pipes. Plus we had the foundation guy dig a hole so we could bury the propane tank! The tank is almost twice as large as the above ground model, so they are not out there every month filling it up, and you don't have to look at the big, ugly tank. Highly recommend burying the tank and the utilities.

Put your ladders away people, we've got stairs!

2009-04-17T12:13:00.003-04:00

Don't you look at my new stairs.

It was a lot of fun ducking under that structural beam for months. We were too afraid to cut it, so we left it there until one day when we got up enough courage to fire up the Sawsall. Nothing disastrous happened and we haven't had to duck since.

Measure once, cut twice; or how I learned that adages exist for a reason

2009-04-17T12:01:00.004-04:00

Something happens in the time between when I measure and when I cut that defies physics. It's almost like the universe waits for me to finish measuring before rearranging itself into a slightly altered state. Specifically, it shifts by 1/8".

Typar rules. Tyvek drools.

2009-04-17T11:44:00.004-04:00

Here's the thing: Typar® does not crinkle when you are installing it, but Tyvek® does. Sounds like a small difference but when you are working with this stuff it becomes a real annoyance. Not to mention the roll of Tyvek® we bought had the NASCAR® logo plastered all over it.

Who needs siding when plywood looks so cool.

2009-04-17T11:26:00.005-04:00

It's nice to have help every now and then.

Proficiency with the nail gun is key. Especially when you are precariously perched high above the ground.

Connie inspects progress. Eerily reminiscent of our time together at Plainspoke.

The weather inside is frightful

2009-04-17T09:57:00.002-04:00

Dad bought us an electric fireplace for Christmas. It was a genius move on his part as it provided us refuge from the blistering cold winter days.

Only the best.
You should always walk around with a tape measure on your hip. You never know when you might need to measure something.

Frankenwarehouse.

2009-04-17T09:35:00.004-04:00

At some point, we made a decision to forgo saving the existing sheathing and install new plywood. It was more expensive but it is easier to install than patching holes, creates a tighter envelope and it's structurally superior to the original weathered boards. It looks sweet too.

Burm, baby! BURM!

2009-04-17T09:27:00.003-04:00

The burm helps block the view of the train during winter when there are no leaves on the trees.
There ended up being quite a bit of soil removed for the slab and the foundation walls. Rather than paying someone to take it away, we decided to create an earth wall in the back yard.

Windows: take 1 and take 2.

2009-04-17T09:16:00.004-04:00

It is very rewarding to frame in a window. It is less rewarding the second time. Remember, always check your calculations before starting.

Dining room window! It's nice to see parts of the place starting to become real. It's also nice to see the green shingles steadily diminishing.

"If this worked, the building won't fall when we lower it."

2009-04-17T08:53:00.006-04:00

She's a beauty alright.

The new front of the house includes two garage bays and the front entrance.

It was nice to be able to frame the first level from scratch with a new foundation. It's much easier and faster than trying to retrofit.

80 feet of house. 50 feet of Foundation.

2009-04-17T08:30:00.005-04:00

It's best to pour a foundation prior to building the rest of the house. In the event you require a new foundation post-construction, you will need the following items: hundreds of solid wood blocks for cribbing, several pump jacks, two 40' "I" beams and someone brave enough to go under and jack the house up 2".
Poor Amy had to hold the house up for an entire month. I gave her a comp day for her effort.
The foundation contractor (Perkins Concrete) removed an additional 1 1/2 feet from the inside in order to gain enough headroom for the garage.
The guys pouring the frost wall. This was the first thing to go into the WH that wasn't the color of old wood!

Wicked straight!

A teeny, tiny little foundation

2009-04-17T08:26:00.002-04:00

This is an example of one of the original foundation piers. Most of them were still in place but a few had washed out over the years and the wall sections they had supported began to sag.

it's really kinda sorta really big.

2009-04-16T16:13:00.004-04:00

Our friend Brandon created a few options for the floor plan. We decided on this option and set out to make it so. In the end, the original 2D drawing held up remarkably well once built. We only made a few tweaks during construction as opportunities presented themselves.

It's hard to tell the true size of something until you've completely stripped it bare. But by then it's too late to go back!

Demo is really easy and a lot of fun!

2009-04-16T15:56:00.000-04:00

At this point in the project we were just getting used to ladders, power tools and long days of hard work.

I did say "a select few women" were allowed in.
This is the first floor after Hebert and I evicted the woodchuck. The floor was mostly dirt at this point although there were pads of concrete here and there. Oh, and there was a chemical toilet way back in the corner.

Boy's club

2009-04-16T15:45:00.001-04:00

The former owner, Hal (left), and his buddy, Bob. I know this place was used as a base of operation for at least two generations of builders, but by the time we got on the scene, it seemed more like a giant clubhouse for these guys than a functioning shop. Amy was told repeatedly that she was one of a select few women to ever set eyes on the place.

"Well, you could just drill a well."

2009-04-16T15:35:00.001-04:00

Those words would come back to haunt us about two years later. Well, actually, they probably haunt the building inspector more than they do us, but that's a long, annoying story.

On a positive note, after 365 hard won feet we struck liquid gold. Clearwater, the company that drilled the well, has been a pleasure to work with over the past 2 years. Call them if you need a well or (SPOLIER ALERT) water filtration system (look for pics in an upcoming post!).

BTW, the blue water tank is no longer in that spot. I'd like to reiterate to finalize your plans before construction.

Septic tank: a big, expensive box you'll never see

2009-04-16T15:26:00.000-04:00

It went in with relatively little fuss. Although it's probably a good idea to finalize your plans before burying anything in the yard.

The cinder block building must go

2009-04-16T14:40:00.000-04:00

In a matter of minutes thousands of hornets, bees and yellowjackets were rendered homeless.

Demolition, man.

2009-04-16T14:26:00.002-04:00

There was a deceptively massive amount of stuff in the place. A fact we realized almost immediately after it was too late to turn back.

"You bought a what?"

2009-04-16T13:38:00.002-04:00

a few "before" shots of the Warehouse. It looks so harmless.