Diary of our upstairs- personal residence

[Tanya F.]

This is a little late starting, but I'll catch up quickly from planning to mid-project in this first post.

We have a small house, started off at 750 sq ft when I bought it. I've added a sunroom (in 1995) and extended our bedroom (in 2001) bringing the house to 1100 sq ft. This year the roof was leaking so it was time to decide if we wanted to change the roof line when we replaced the roof. We added a 500 sq ft second floor. 

The work started this November 13th, and the framers were done before the end of the year. The outside is now complete. For the inside- the contractors took care of some of the insulation- air sealing so that the electrician still has access to what he needs.  For the rest - we're taking it from here!

We've got a favorite electrician, who will come in early March. We've been talking to HVAC people, have three bids already. The first floor has forced-air gas system and it's looking like we'll go with a minisplit system for the second floor. Then we'll do the drywall and trim. Probably hire out for the flooring, or maybe we will do it. We're not in a rush.

First week:

Week 3:

Exterior finished

We can't afford to re-side the whole house right now, so we picked a color that coordinated well with the existing.

More updates on interior progress as we have them. Pretty boring looking right now.

[Tanya F.]

Ok, electrician is coming March 1, We're going  to go for LED strip lights pointing upward from exposed crossbeams. With a couple of can lights on the sloped ceilings. That will be interesting to see how it looks. 

The plumber came for a bid a couple of days ago- he probably won't do his work until close to April 1. 

We talked to four HVAC guys and the score is 3-1 minisplit vs ducted. We haven't decided between the two finalists of the HVAC companies- will do that soon. 

So it looks like maybe we will pass the mechanicals inspection sometime in April, then insulate after that.

We have an old chimney in the garage. It's no longer used. If it were made of small bricks we would certainly take it down ourselves (we've done that before), but it's made of huge cinder blocks that would be significantly harder to remove. Any suggestions for what sort of contractor we should call to take that down and how much that should cost?