Marcos Silva Re-Tired Architect

Going through my snapshot collection, here is an interesting one. This is the wallpaper found under layers of paint on the original plaster wall that was demolished. I don't know if it was original to the house.

We clad the new fireplace with the leftover thermally modified wood siding. About halfway through the project, I had one of those uh oh! moments when I realized that what I thought was a lot of material would not be enough. You simply can't just go to the box stores to get more of this siding so, an adjustment had to be made. Will anyone notice? 😉
We're thinking the baseboard color needs to be something other than white even though it matches all the other interior trim in the house. Maybe bring in that dark beam color??

We have tried to make use of a lot of what existed in the property and even the old liriepe is finding a new home as part of the crushed rock border around the addition.

Yesterday was one of those milestone days as we just about finished up the fiber cement siding work with new trim. The day began with having Dominion Energy do a temporary service drop so we could work around the power lines and reposition the attachments. Got it done with lots of help from our son in law Jared.
Our next door neighbor was kind enough to allow us to plug the compressor into her outlet. With the refrigerator packed with extra ice and the house unoccupied, we were able to keep the food cold and frozen along with maintaining 74 degrees inside. The shut down lasted about 9 hours.
Now onto finishing up the paint, then working on two windows and we'll be done except for removing that back door from the laundry room and closing up that opening. We have decided that with the new sliders from the addition, we do no longer need to travel through the kitchen to get to the backyard.

What to do with that former window opening.

We got our final inspection passed on the addition but not without a scolding from the inspector who told us he could fine us with a citation for moving furniture into the room before he was able to "bless it".... 🙄
We're almost there! :D

The day we have been waiting for is finally here. Today we take down the plastic barrier and move in to the addition. We get to turn our dining room back into its intended purpose and set up our living room which will let in so much light and allow us to reduce the clutter.
The fireplace is still to get the wood cladding and stone framing. That former window will be turned into a shelving niche and a built in bench will sit under it.

We're NOT going to talk about that little ladder incident! It's been a week since my night in the ER! 🫢

The carpenter bees not only annoy you when you are up on a ladder. They do actual damage and they seem to love new wood. This one is under a new soffit. They say that paint discourages them, so I will be rushing ahead to get these holes fixed and painted right away.

This is supposed to be a helpful tool so that one person can install new siding.
It isn't helpful and will have you lose patience quickly. I am convinced this was created by evil people intent on insuring you have a miserable day!😠
There are few instructions on how it works and I had lots of questions. How does it hold on to the siding below? Where do you set the next piece of siding? How do you remove the bracket after nailing your piece?.....
All those answers came as I tried to use them.
They hang on to the top of the siding below like you holding on to the top of a wall with your fingernails. The slightest tap and they are down on the ground. The new siding sits on the near side of that spring clip and you release the bracket by pushing down on that spring, pushing back on the siding, pulling the siding out a bit to release the finger nail hold under the new siding and voila!
Trust me, if you can "lose your salvation" while using this tool, you will! 😝. I'd suggest spending more money and getting something better.
Despite the frustrations, I was able to get the siding up on the west gable with an occasional help from Nancie.

We got into a bit of a dispute with the Fireplace shop over installation. We had always assumed that installation was included since they made several comments about scheduling our installation. When the time came, it was going to cost us quite a bit!
We arranged for our GC to pick up the firebox which weighs over 200 #, but when it arrived home, we found some cracks in the "bricks". They will take no responsibility for it since they required our GC to inspect it and sign a waiver after they loaded it into his truck. It's our baby now! 😡
This is the second FP we have purchased from this same shop but there will never be a third. Customer review is being prepared in my mind! 😉
I ended up installing the firebox myself and have the plumber installing the rest.

This is our western wall and has been in a state of "progress" for many weeks and at least one anxious neighbor commented on when we were going to do something with it. The mismatched windows do raise questions.
The window on the right will be enlarged but we did not want to interrupt the AC linesets so that will be as big as it will get. The enclosure will be raised into the attic level to include hiding the linesets.
The gable wall above is ready for siding.

There is still lots to do on the main house as I continue to peel off the layers of cladding. The last of the old vinyl siding came down yesterday and revealed some water damage.
Many people seem to think skinning your house in vinyl will give you years of maintenance free living when in fact, it just covers up the weather related damage so you don't see it. Maybe out of sight and out of mind? What you don't know can't hurt?
We did discover a 1977 Richmond Times Dispatch section stuffed under the siding which gives us the approximate date it was resided.
I suppose that the way vinyl siding goes up over the old siding and a layer of foam board as a weather barrier could be considered an early version of "Rainscreen Cladding", but without all the details thought through.
Another problem we found and I imagine it is prevalent in all homes that have been clad this way, is the nice haven it provides for insects to live within the walls.
In a rainscreen application, you are intentionally creating a gap behind the siding but that provides a gap (which should never be caulked) for the insects to enter. The problem is solved using a simple fiberglass screen stapled over the end of the furring. As we learned with our Spanish workers (and even our general contractor), this practice is foreign to them and not easy for them to grasp. I found them installing the screens incorrectly and so, provides a quick freehand sketch showing how it all works. I think it got the point across.
Now it's onto removing the old wood siding and preparing the wall for the new fiber cement cladding.

We have an excellent sub contractor doing the siding and trim work. His work is impeccable! The trouble is that he speaks no English and I have tried in several ways to explain how a rainscreen system works but it is not working. I walk away thinking he got it when he nods his head but come back later and see the lesson is just not connecting. We're bringing in an interpreter tomorrow who probably has no clue what a rainscreen is. 😫

Roofing work and some shots inside our new Living Room and front yard plantings.

While everyone was out looking at the solar eclipse, I shot some views of our house at the peak of the eclipse, 3:19PM. Nothing exciting to see. 😎. Roofing is being installed.

The weather created a bit of a pause in the construction but we got an early window delivery and hope to have them installed tomorrow (Friday).
The roofer is also scheduled to be here on the same day to finish the back half and addition.
Still waiting to hear back from the electrician. Seems our contractor, as good to work with as he is, might have painted himself into a corner by not leaving a route to get wiring into the addition.
The mini split unit linesets should also be in soon.
We began some landscaping work having 5 yards of topsoil delivered and planting some flowering trees and bushes.

Wood framing began this week.
We had a lot of discussions over our design and the fact that this is not your typical house framing.
For yet unknown reasons, two of the LVLs were set on scaffolding, with the posts to be added later.
So far, I have been very impressed with this crew (RI&C Services).
We have heavy rains in the forecast for tomorrow, so they are going to be careful not to pe*****te the existing house roof today.
Meanwhile, I continue on my own removing the gable siding and prepping for new PVC trim and fiber cement rain screen.

We're still making progress on the front of the house. We decided that the porch ceiling needs to be the same color as soffits if we are going for simplicity and consistency. The soffit in the addition will run right into the covered patio addition, so they had to be the same.

The next piece of our construction starts this morning! It's been a wet couple of days and the ground is saturated. Let's hope it does not create any issues with the grading and excavating.

We decided on a light color for the brick since we have so much dark going on.
Next question is what color to paint the soffits. Would you go with a light (match the brick) or continue the dark facia color and give the eave a more monolithic look. It seems to me that whatever we do with the soffit, should be duplicated in the porch ceiling but painting that dark paint sounds wrong. The posts and beam will be dark.

We are officially under contract with a new builder for the addition. We are pouring the concrete turn down slab next week!

Any guesses at what this might be?
It is not my attempt to do an etching of a large tree even though it really looks cool.
Hint: I was not too happy to see this.

I love it when it is beginning to finally come together!

Meanwhile, across the street, I am not quite sure what they are building in their back yard, but it does not look safe.

It's a whole lot more satisfying when you begin to see the end of a project after much hard work.
This is thermally modified wood siding which is going up this week. It is getting a lot of attention from neighbors who normally just walk by but now are stopping to make comments. It is applied as a rainscreen with treated furring. I have contractors looking to give me a proposal for the addition in the rear and it is surprising how little people know about it.
We need to decide what color the brick base should be. That grey and white are just primers. The white facia, skirt board, post and beam will be painted dark like the windows. Should the brick base be a dark color or light? What color? What would you do?

Here is an interesting group to follow.
I have been saying this for a while now that many builders don't seem to understand building science but need to take the time to learn. The idea that the barrier behind the siding needs to be though of as shingles that prevent the passage of water down into the structure. Moisture barriers get installed from top down, with lots of holes and terminate under flashing at the bottom. I even noted as at our house, spray foam was added to the bottom, leaving moisture with no escape route. I am sure the builder thought he was doing something great!
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=fine%20homebuilding%20magazine

After the overnight rain, I went down in the crawl space to verify if any more water has entered. On the foundation wall, you can still see the high water line at around 12" but the floor is now dry!
While checking it out, the heater came on and I felt a strong blast of warm air and thought that should not be. The air was coming from a mess of ductwork that had been covered over by the previous owner with insulation. I guess he figured no one would ever see the problem.
I peeled away the insulation and discovered that there was a circular duct not connected. We were effectively heating the crawl space. A bit of silver duct tape and some encapsulation tape we happened to have around and the problem is resolved for now.

The weather finally relented and we were able to make some progress on the porch and front of the house.
We tested some colors and have settled on the dark color for the trim and the darker blue/gray for the Hardie siding. Still to be selected will be the brick paint and front door.
After removing all of the original wood siding, I was surprised to see that the sheathing is a gypsum board. I cut a small hole to take a peek in a cavity and it revealed NO insulation whatsoever. I was able to remove the middle section of sheathing and slide in some batt insulation and reinstall the sheathing. What will be installed over this area will be Thermally modified wood over furring as a rainscreen application.

I have never been happier to see roofer on a job. These poor guys had to scrape ice and work in 20° temperatures. I lasted about 20 minutes out there before my fingers froze.