Permit, finally (partially)

Right before the Christmas, our building permit came out. It is for the 1st and 2nd floors. The basement will be "filed" (meaning, it will continue to be perused by the authorities, due to the technical nature of its underpinning process). At least we can start something! We have started the process of selecting windows, interior and exterior doors and skylights. We have also met with candidate contractors for masonry, insulation and the security system. Right after the New Year's Day weekend, work will start in these areas. Yeah!

Lots more pictures

Here are many pictures of the house interior before we started, the demolition, and some of the new stair opening. The bright spots in some pix are dust caught in the flash.
Before:
1. This shows the LR fireplace before demolition.

2. Kitchen appliances with water heater.

3. Second BR in lovely green with light bulb and transom.

Demolition Phase:
4. Chimney in transition. Looking from dining room - backside of fireplace in Picture 1.

5. First floor demolition nearly done. Dusty!

6. MBR demolition

7. MBR wall with furring remaining. The light colored horizontal strips in the brickwork are where the builders inserted lath strips between the brick courses as nailers for the furring.

8. First floor demolition. No more chimney-opening it up inside.

9. Second floor demolition looking into the MBR. Note the plaster marks across the old remaining studs.


Stair opening and joist support:
10. New stair opening to basement (note ladder sticking up) and kitchen subfloor repair. Stronger and better already!

11. Close up of new stair opening to basement showing the now-vacant joist pockets in the common wall.

12. In the still-scary basement. Sistered joists, old joists, and new joists. The red bricks at the far end are the expanded joist pockets for the sisters. The extra large pockets will be filled in when the final floor leveling is done.

Permit Limbo

Not much is happening now as far as construction is concerned. We are waiting for construction permits to come out. We have finished everything required to send to the "permit runner" (a person who does the dealing with permit authorities for living). I personally believe that construction permit regulations should be straightforward enough for us laymen (and laywomen?) to handle, but in the real world they are not and we rely on those people who have had a lot of dealings with the corresponding authorities and therefore are better able to predict what they will say. That's why they are also called expediters. We are using this time to research on different options on insulation materials, multiple showerhead systems, flooring materials for different parts of the house, water heaters, exterior paint colors, and so on.

Plaster...plaster

This week we have been "finalizing" the demolition. This means shoveling enormous number of bucketfuls of old plaster. The dumpster in the backyard has been filled with wood scraps and plaster pieces. And OH, you have to see the amount of dust! We have been destroying one dust mask per person per each day we work on the house. Today we finished removing the remaining plaster dust from the floor. We also went to Community Forklift to check the place out. A multiple number of people have told us to do so. We looked for an exterior door, but we did not find a 6 or 4 panel solid wood door that is exactly our house's size. Oh well....but we found a cute little exterior light to be placed by the entrance door for $2.50.

Demolition nearly complete

This weekend we worked on removing the remaining walls and framing. Those who have seen the bathroom picture before the demolition may get a kick out of this one. Not only have we gotten rid of the walls and some non-functioning fixtures, we have found a mystery pipe sticking out in the air....which E identified as a gas pipe for lighting!! When this house was build, electricity was not used yet for lighting purposes....this made us realize how truly historic the house is. Anyway, we have achieved our objective of finishing the removal of all walls and framing, except for the plaster wall we will be keeping.

The second picture shows well the wall that shows where we removed the original framing.

This picture was taken facing the windows of the living room (or, pricisely speaking, what used to be a living room and what will be a living room). We realized that there is no need to expose all the bricks just because that is what a lot of people do. The plaster is in a

decent shape, and with a little sprucing up it will look great

(we hope).

Demolition! Demolition! Demolition!

Demolition permit has been issued. We are now in the full swing of gutting the house down! Will brought in a dumpster in the backyard. (The first one he brought in was too big for our lovely narrow alley....so he had to go back for a smaller one. Thanks, Will!) We spent a whole day taking down the chimney structure from the 1st and 2nd floors. You don't ever imagine how tedious that job is! You have to take down each and every piece of brick by a few knocks of hammer, and then scrape off all the old (130 years old, for that matter) mortar stuck on each brick for possible re-use. We took turns in taking bricks down and hauling them to the backyard. We now have an estimated amount of 1,000 pieces of vintage bricks! A few days later Will and Co. came in to haul out the "big stuff" - old stove, water heater and furnace, bathtub - all in perfectly non-working condition. Lovely, isn't it? Then we went back to knock down plaster and the wood structure underneath. Now the house is really just the exterior brick structure, floor joists and the roof.

A Bit about the House and Our Plans

The house is brick, two stories plus basement, about 38.5' x 15.3' inside on each floor (see photo right). It is configured as 3 BR, 1 BA, all upstairs. It's semi-detached, faces north with the east side detached. There is about 9' between houses on that side. The entire block was built by the same builder in 1879, and the houses all look about the same. It is in a designated historical district. It has a nice-sized back yard (for the city). The ceilings are fairly high (9.5' downstairs, almost 9' upstairs). The basement is dirt but 6.5' high (see photo in earlier post).

It was neglected and used for storage for the past many years (up to 25 by some accounts). Before that, it appears to have had a farily extensive remodel in the 1920's. It was also broken up and rooms rented, to judge by the painted-over transoms and deadbolts on the interior BR doors. Probably in the 1950s or 1960s, as that was kind of the worst time in the history of the city.

The roof is intact and there is no current leakage except for some in the basement through bad windows. Gas leaks if turned on, furnace does not work, water leaks if turned on, electricity is a 4-circuit fuse box. The outside structure is mostly OK and certainly savable. Bricks all need repointing, the brick parapet needs a rain cap, and the marble steps need reset, but not much else except a paint job. We plan to replace all windows and the front exterior door. We will make a french door opening in the back and resize a couple of windows (back and side only). The first floor is about 4' above grade in the back; we will put a small deck off the french doors.

The inside is a complete gut job. Lath and plaster walls, the only electricity is one light in the middle of each room and one outlet in most rooms, none in the rest. The floors are rotten in a few spots across the back due to previous water damage, but almost all joists are sound. Plaster has fallen in big chunks from the ceiling for the same reason (see photos in earlier post). The only plumbing is in the back corner with one cast iron waste pipe. We are saving the 2 marble fireplace fronts, the foyer light fixture, the transoms over the bedroom doors, the plaster on the party wall, and not much else. We briefly considered saving more but here is what we found: The layout is very chopped up and light does not get in. The stairs are in the middle of the house and are enclosed, too narrow to allow modern furniture and fixtures (see photos below. Scary eh?).




















The floors are pine and very weathered and chopped up. The windows are not original and the casing is very beat up. So we decided (not too reluctantly) that it all had to go.

The inside will be very contemporary. We will put in new stairs along the party wall and open the entire first floor front to back. The only enclosed spaces on the first floor will be a coat closet and a powder room. We will have a contemporary style kitchen with a big island (like Hawaii). Upstairs we will do 2 BR and 2 BA with a proper master suite. We will raise the ceiling in the MBR, have a his-&-hers walk-in closet, and a bath with a Japanese soaking tub. To accommodate these luxuries, the 2nd BR and 2nd BA will be pretty small, but functional and comfortable (we hope). Stacked W/D in the upstairs hall.

The basement will be excavated to full 8' ceilings (with underpinning - watch this space to see how THAT goes!). We will put a nice-sized den and a bath down there, and a "project room" in the back part. To help ensure dryness, we will put in a sump pump and french drain.

So, that's the plan as of today. The outside look is not as well defined except for the deck and parking in the back, and an historical black iron fence around the front. We expect that the project will take 7-9 months once the building permit is issued. We are now targeting early January (2009) for that.

DC Historical Preservation Office

I (M) am on a business trip in the Caribbean...(Could I be the only person in the world who prefers demolishing the insides of an old house to laying on a white sandy beach surrounded by palm trees and emerald-green ocean?) In the meantime E has decided to talk to the DC Historical Preservation Office. This office is a part of the DC government, and any renovation permit for houses in a historical district (ours is) must be approved by them. E is going to meet with the Committee member who is responsible for our historic district as a proactive way so that we don't stumble into an unforeseen roadblock. Meanwhile, E continues with our "light" demolition. Sorry to our neighbors!

Demolition and Permits

Yes, the house renovation project is underway, to a certain extent. I cleared the backyard and took out some chainlink fence so that we can get the big dumpster in. We have done some basic demolition, removing all the door and window trim and baseboards, interior doors and transoms, and a couple of makeshift closets. I dismantled the two marble fireplace fronts and labeled the pieces for re-construction later. Will (our contractor) and his "guys" took down the two interior chimneys to below the roofline and temporarily patched the holes in the roof. M and I will dismantle the chimneys the rest of the way from the inside. I have worked with our engineer to design the foundation support in the basement so that we can excavate it to regular height. He is to drop off the certified drawings at the house tonight, and Will will combine them with all the other drawings and get the building permit application submitted (this week I hope).

The house looks very disgusting now, probably at its worst. Even further demolition will improve it. I hope the dumpster comes next week, then Will and the guys can begin the heavy demolition work of cutting the big cast iron waste pipes, moving the old furnace and bathtub, etc.

We have not found anything truly interesting yet. A couple of old law firm business cards, an ace of hearts, a piece of door casing where the lead carpenter signed his work on the back. Lots of stuff in the house can be saved and sold or at least hauled for free. A neighbor has offered to buy our old interior door rimlock sets and knobs. One lock has patents from 1869 and 1878. The radiators might be sellable too or at least someone will take them for free.

Note to the neighbors

Our contractor Will had a great idea: to give our and his contact information to all neighbors who might get affected by the upcoming construction. I created a note, in which we ask neighbors not to hesitate to contact us if they have any problem. Construction is one of those situations where you could cause problems to others without noticing. To us it is very important to start it right with the people with whom we will be sharing the block, so we will deliver this note.

"BEFORE" pictures

OK...I know we are all eager to see "before and after". But obviously we only have "before" pictures at this point. So here we go. As you can see from the exterior shot, it's not too bad from the outside...





But the inside!
I think that this bathroom picture has the biggest impact of all - to show the degree to which the house has been unattended.














The kitchen is also very chic, especially with the water heater right there where you want it. Note that the big cast iron pipe peeking out from the back wall is the same one that is painted green in the bathroom picture.





















In case you were wondering, there is a basement. It was used primarily for coal storage. 6' 6" from dirt to bottom of joist.







This living room picture is also very telling....the sign of water damage on the ceiling, the old radiator at a rakish angle...and probably the original windows behind those shades. Yes, plenty of work to be done.

First weekend after closing

OK, what has to happen now? We are now waiting for our engineer Kameron to give an approval stamp on the plan our architect Peter has drawn. It will take about a week. Then we will have to send the drawing to the DC government to obtain permits. Once permits are out, our contractor Will and company will come to do the demolition. That will be exciting! In the meantime, our first weekend after the loan closing has come. What can we do in the meantime? We have decided to go and salvage some little items we can remove ourselves. The thing is, we are not the kind of people who can just sit here and wait for the professionals to come in and do the job. We want to be part of it!

Oct. 15, 2008 - We closed on our construction loan!

After a grueling process, we closed on our construction loan. Between the time we put our offer to the house and this closing day, Lehman Bros. went belly up, Wachovia announced it would be bought by Citicorp, the stock market saw its biggest fall in decades, Wachovia's buyer was switched to Wells Fargo, the government churned out the 700 billion dollar "rescue plan," and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae got taken back by the government, and the government bought another $250B worth of bank stock. We don't even remember the order in which these things happened. What we do remember is that as a result of all this, we had to knock on the door of several different lenders to get the loan. In case you are wondering, we have two decent, stable incomes and excellent credit scores. Finally our mortgage broker found a bank that would lend to us, but it turned out to be a nightmarish paper chase; we had to take the loan "on their terms", and on the very last day they were issuing construction loans! Anyway, at least we have the money to start. The house (or the house-to-be) is officially ours.