Steel Beam Install

It's become more and more common for us to put steel beams into residential remodels. I used to only see this kind of thing in the commercial world. Now we drop steel beams into homes on a fairly regular basis when we're opening spaces up. I thought it might be good to post up an example of one going in.

For this remodel we planned on removing a couple walls surrounding the old kitchen to free the space up. In order to do that, we needed to support a long span that really only called for steel. If we had some space up in an attic or something then we could have used a larger wood beam of some kind, but we didn't have that situation here. One of the first things we need to do is get the thing in the house - so how? Well, it's different every time. This time we decided to cut a hole in the side of the house and slide it in. Inside there are some jacks the beam is sliding onto. These will lift the beam into place as you'll see. Here's one of the jacks for the beam. There's another one at the other end of the beam.

Here's the other jack near the exterior wall. You can also see the temporary stick framed wall that is supporting the load above until the beam is in place. Also notice the wood that is being inserted into the cavity of the I-beam. This is for other wood members to tie into.

Now the I-beam has all the lumber installed and is ready to lift into place.

These lifts are a life saver - I think this beam is about 24 feet long and weighs close to 900 pounds.

The guys check the final setting to make sure everything is ok before securing it.

There's also the unseen part of all of this in the basement. Prior to this whole scenario we had to put some concrete pads for the posts to sit on. Huge props to the guys in the field that do all of this . . . and by the way, when I say "we" in this post I really mean "them". No way would the field guys want me out there. These guys are awesome!

NARI Awards :)

NARI of Idaho recently held their annual banquet and announced the winners of the design competition. There are several different categories and each remodeler is able to enter up to four projects in separate categories. We entered four this year and took first place in each category!! Two of the projects were mine and I've included some before and after photos below.

By the way, NARI stands for the National Association of the Remodel Industry. Our local chapter was actually started by Jim Strite back in 1991 in order to "raise the bar" in the remodel community. Here's a couple links to the Idaho Chapter and the NARI website if you would like to learn more:

http://www.nari.org/
http://www.idahoremodeler.org/

Now, on to the photos . . . first up is a before shot of a kitchen. This was part of the "Residential Interior" category.

Before:After:

Before:

After:Sitting Room Before:
Sitting Room After:

And here is the second project . . . this was the "Residential Bath Under $20k".

Before: After:

I won't go into detail on what was done for each project since there's so many photos. I'll be happy to describe the design process or any other information if anyone requests it. I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Professional Photos

I know it's taken a long time, but we finally got the final photos shot last week by a professional photographer. And actually it's not just any "professional photographer", it's a woman by the name of Deborah Hardee. In my opinion she's the best in Boise. In case any of you would like to check out her work - go here: http://deborahhardee.com/

She's awesome - and great to work with too!

Anyway, the reason it took a while to get these photos is because of the furniture. As many of you might know, furniture can take forever to be delivered. But the long wait is over and I have three photos of the completed project. First I'll post the before, and then follow it with the corresponding after shot.

Before #1:

After #1:

Before #2:After #2:

Fun shot of the sink area:

Hope you all like the finished product. Huge thanks to the whole team for such a great project, and even bigger thanks to the clients. I wish all of my clients could be as great to work with as these people were!!

Vacation Over

Ok, I wasn't actually on vacation but you'd think so by how long it's been since I've posted anything. Honestly I think I just got a little burned out. I've never done a blog before so I'm not really used to the whole "writing thing". Besides that, when the project finished . . . I didn't know what to say. I was so used to describing what was going on that I didn't really think about what to write when it was all done.

To make a long story short - sorry for the delay. I'm sure that only about two people out there even notice, but that's still two people that deserve an apology.

So, what do I have to write about anyway? Well, I think I actually have a pretty dang good bit of information today. I'll be dealing with what we call the "Emotional Roller Coaster" in the biz. And as you can probably tell from the catch phrase, it sums up people's emotional state during the course of a remodel and how it corresponds to different phases of construction or design completion.

In a nutshell, when people first authorize a design agreement they're pretty excited. They've finally pushed themselves (or someone has pushed them) off the fence and decided to do something rather than just talk or think about it. It's a pretty good feeling for most people, but the emotion typically can only go one way when it's close to the top. Yep, it goes down right off the bat and continues to basically go down until the low point of authorizing the contract for construction. This is where the reality of the large investment punches the homeowner in the gut. Often times they think things like "are we really sure we want to put this kind of money into this?"

After the contract for construction is authorized emotion climbs as they see work being accomplished in their home. It tends to plateau on a high note until the construction seems to get a little old . . . and then falls like a rock until it bottoms out at drywall sanding. Everything looks kind of dirty and vanilla. Very bland.

Once the finish work like cabinets, tile, painting, etc. start going in - emotions go up again until finally reaching a high when the project is completed and people get the heck out of their house!

For a little more info or in-depth research I can send you to a couple places. First is the book by David Lupberger called "Managing the Emotional Homeowner". Here's a link to it on Amazon for you: http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Emotional-Homeowner-Remodelers-Customers/dp/0867185198

Here's a scan of the chart in the book that I find very interesting:

Another great article you might look into is from the Washington Post by Dina ElBoghdady - here's the link to that one: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052500775.html

Now I think it's pretty obvious that this exact same scenario isn't going to apply to every person out there. Heck some of our clients breeze through the remodel process like it's nothing while others can have a really difficult time. The reason I chose to post about this though is to just get some information out there so people might be able to make more informed decisions and be prepared if they decided to remodel their home.

Another thing that may or may not be obvious is that the emotions can be significantly impacted based on the competency of the remodeler. A remodeler that has great systems and works with you when problems arise will easily reduce the stress level vs. a one man show that has limited resources and is difficult to work with.

Under Cabinet Lights

Today they'll be putting in the under cabinet lighting so I went up to the house to check everything out and verify all the locations. The lighting we're using in this kitchen is pretty new stuff and is really cool. It's all LED lighting mounted to an adhesive tape. The tape is only about 1/2" wide so it can go just about anywhere - extremely cool! As usual, the pictures don't do it justice but I'll post them anyway :)

Here's what the light strip looks like as we're holding it up near the counter top area:

Like I said . . . not the best picture. I couldn't get the dang camera to focus on this thing very well so this is the best you're going to get from me today. You can see the transformer sitting on the counter top in the background - it's the little white hockey puck thing. It's only about 3" in diameter and about 1.25" in height. It will fit perfectly to the underside of the cabinets behind the light shield we'll be installing. Here's what it looks like up closer:

Now how exciting is that?! I wish I could have gotten a focused picture of the LEDs turned on but those photos looked horrible - I mean really bad. So you'll just have to use your imagination until we get them installed and I can get a better shot of it. Sorry :)

Backsplash!!

Very cool - I went up to the house today and it turns out the backsplash is in! It looks awesome - the pictures don't do it justice. Here's what it looks like:

Here's another angle over by the sink. I love that faucet :) By the way, the blue strips you see at the top left of the glass backsplash are painters tape to keep it in place while the silicone sets up and dries.And here's another close up. These materials look really nice together. Can't wait for the LED under cabinet lighting to go in next!!

As a side note, I will say that we're having a few issues with the countertop material. As you may remember it's a quartz material made by Caesarstone. Now typically quartz is the ideal material . . . however, since this is in the honed finish it seems to show just about everything. Not what we were expecting and we're in the process of investigating a solution. Anyway, just wanted to pass that info on to anyone considering this same material. I'll let you all know what we find out.

The Latest

Well I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. I know I sure did! So I went up to the house today and took a few pictures. Things are getting pretty close to being done at this point. I was hoping everything would wrap up last week but it didn't happen. The glass backsplash was supposed to go in Thursday but won't go in until tomorrow. I hope. We really can't do the undercabinet lights until that's in so we'll just have to wait.

So, . . . here's what it looks like today:

Some of the pendant lights are installed over the peninsula and the others will be in by the end of the day. You can also see how the cork floor looks. Well, a little. These pictures don't show the greatest detail but I think you get the idea. The patterning and look of the cork are gorgeous in person.

Here's a closer view of the cabinets with the drawer hardware installed. Actually this first picture is from last week when I went up to the house to look at where to install them.

And here's the finished look:

You can see the flooring a little better in that picture. We also got the wenge wood veneer put on the door to the garage as well as the door hardware. I think it looks great - here's a close up shot of the door hardware:

That's about it for now. I really can't wait to see that glass backsplash go in. I think that will clean things up so much. I'll post pictures of it as soon as I can.

Out of Town :)

Sorry about the delay, but I left town for a family reunion at the end of last week. I was really hoping to get these photos posted Thursday, but it didn't happen. So, anyway, here's what's going on . . . the appliances are all installed (except the cooktop), and so is all of the cork flooring. However, the cork flooring is all covered up to keep it from getting destroyed during the remainder of construction. We also have the pantry closet systems installed too. We met with the glass installers last week and discussed details of the backsplash and that should go in by the end of the week. Here's a few shots of what's happening . . . first is a shot of what the inside of the pantry looks like:

It's not the most exciting stuff in the world, however I can tell you when you haven't had a pantry and you get one like this - it's pretty close. This stuff is really cool and can make a huge difference in the efficiency of a kitchen pantry, closet, or laundry room. This system was installed by a local company called Treasure Valley Closets. Great company. And here's a couple shots of the kitchen with the appliances installed:

We've obviously got several things to still take care of, but I think it's really coming together great. As I mentioned, the glass backsplash should be in by the end of the week as well as most (if not all) of the other outstanding items.

Quartz Install

I know I've mentioned this a few times, but I really love the last part of a remodel. It's when all the fun stuff starts going in and transforms the space almost daily. We'll be 90% done by the end of this week. Very cool.

Anyway, I went up to the house yesterday to check out the installation of the quartz tops made by caeserstone. This particular product is a newer finish for the quartz materials and looks awesome. Most of the quartz tops are seen in a gloss finish while this one is more of a honed look. It almost comes off like a limestone - it's gorgeous. We also have a knife mitered edge to allow for a thicker profile . . . I think it's a 2" drop here. Here's a few photos, keep in mind it's still kind of dirty. First, let's take a look at the overall shot:

We still have the two upper cabinets being repaired so they're not installed yet. Once they go in, we'll have the glass slab backsplash installed along that wall. Below is a photo of the sink install. It's a really nice rectangular sink in stainless steel. I think it's made by Houzer . . . anyway, the white covering on it is to keep it from being scratched during construction. You can see the small hole at the back of the sink for the future faucet.

This next photo is a closer view of some of the materials coming together. You can see the detail of the quartz top as it's intersected by the wenge wood at the fridge enclosure as well as the teak wood. The wall in the background will eventually have the glass slab on it and strengthen this intersection of materials even further.

That's about it for now. If I get a chance I'll head up there again later today, if not I'll get up there tomorrow and check the progress. Have a great day!!

Let the Install Begin!

This is one of my favorite parts of the remodel process . . . big things coming together. Cabinets are a huge part of the design so it's really nice when they get installed. Here's how things look so far:

As you can see here, the tall box form will house the fridge and is the darker wenge wood. The grain runs vertically and seems to intersect the horizontal grain teak cabinets. I really like the contrast of the two woods working together and the forms are really nice. Here's a shot a little closer up:As I was leaving the house the installer of the cork flooring was starting to bring in cartons of flooring to begin that install. That stuff goes down pretty quick and was supposed to be completed by the end of the day today. The key phrase there is "supposed to be". I just got a call from the flooring company letting me know that out of the 21 cartons of flooring only two were not damaged. The real bummer is that earlier in the day I spoke with the homeowner about how great it will be to have the flooring in when they get home. Yep, not my favorite kind of phone call to make after saying something like that. Basically I felt like crap. Fortunately the homeowner is awesome and understands that life can sometimes deliver damaged goods to your door . . . especially in a remodel.

The flooring contractor is working very hard to get a new batch of flooring overnighted to the site for installation tomorrow. I'll be crossing my fingers :)

Cabinets Arrive!!!

Very cool - the cabinets showed up on site today. Granted, they were a couple hours late . . . but hey, better late than never I suppose. Once I heard they were there I went up to take a few photos before the installer started to get them in. So, if you've ever wondered what it looks like to have a bunch of cabinets delivered to your house - here you go:

Yep, kind of a mess. Well, an organized mess. It was less of a mess when everything was packaged up neatly from shipping but I had to open a few of them to see what the wood grain looked like. Can you blame me? Here's what it looks like:

I hope you can get a good idea from these pictures. I know they're not the biggest files, but it's the best I can do right now. The veneer looks awesome. I shot a photo of the wenge wood but it just looks like a big dark square in the pictures. It's too bad, because it's gorgeous. We did notice that one of the upper end cabinets shipped in the wrong configuration so we'll have to get a new one built. Fortunately it's an end cabinet and it's an upper so it won't impact the installation and inconvenience to the owners. We should easily be able to have it built and shipped before everything's finished.

Almost done . . . with carpet

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but with the carpet taking center stage there's not a whole lot to show or talk about. When you carpet an entire house, the logistics of moving furniture from one area to the other and getting the carpet installation finished can take a while. Especially when you combine all new baseboard trim and painting. But . . . we're almost wrapped up with it and then it's on to the cabinet installation next week. We have confirmation from the manufacturer that they will have the truck on site Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. Can't wait to see those cabinets! Until then, I thought you might like to see the current state of the home. This first shot is of the Red Room as it's getting the window sills drywalled up and waiting for the new carpet tile:In this next photo you can see how the baseboard is installed in reference to the carpet tile. The installers use the carpet tile to verify the gap required between the baseboard and the subfloor.

And here's a picture of the repairs at the window sills. They used to have some wood sills and they weren't holding up too well. With the more modern direction we'll be taking the design, going to what's called a "4-way wrap" is ideal. A "4-way wrap" is simply saying that all for sides of the window opening will have the drywall wrap around and terminate into the window framing member. Here you can see the drywaller has completed the mud for the left one and will be doing the one on the right next.And finally, . . . I just have to share this with you. On the drive back to the office I was minding my own business when I passed something that practically slapped me across the face. At first I just kept on driving passed thinking it just couldn't be - but then I just had to stop the car and turn around. When I did, I went back and got out of my car to get an up close look. Here's what I saw:

What the heck?! What is that, Snufalufagus or something?! Yeah, it looked like someone killed Captain Caveman and installed him on their living room floor. I mean, I get the fact that shag carpet was "cool" for a while there, but this is insane. And this is 2008 so you know it wasn't from the 60's or 70's. Well, I guess I don't know that - wow. Anyway, I know that was probably a total waste of some of your time but I couldn't help it. I just thought it was funny how I was coming back from our carpet install and saw this old carpet on the side of the road. Way too coincidental and way too funny . . . well, at least it was to me.

Paint & Carpet

I emailed the homeowners today about some lighting and a couple other things and I reminded them about how this portion of the remodel can be kind of a low point. Well, the actual words I used were "boring". I wish I could say that the whole remodel process is all fun and games, but it's not. We know that around the drywall and paint phases the clients are a little bummed out. But - the nice thing is that things will start picking up from here.

And on this project we kind of have a "double whammy" (you like that?) - not only are we at the boring phase of drywall and paint, we also added new carpeting for the rest of the house as well as painting. Oh, and that also includes all new baseboard and trim in the secondary spaces. Basically it's just a lot of tedious work that can seem to drag on. And because this added work adds to the schedule it can feel even longer. I feel for them, but I'm also pretty jacked up about what the added work will do for the end result. They're going to be pretty stoked if you ask me.

Anyway, I do want to show a couple pictures of what's going on. First up is a shot looking at the pantry in it's new duds. It's not totally done, but you can start to get an idea of the massing accomplished by the color. Also, take note in this picture as well as the next one and you'll see what the painting process can look like when doors are involved. The painter has to lean them against the walls inside to avoid any dust settling on them that would affect the gloss paint.

And we also have all the furniture moved out of the back rooms for the carpet install - covered in that beautiful plastic. Yep, pretty fun, eh?

Now I want to give you a little info on the carpeting that will be going into the other spaces. There's going to be two different types of carpet - one is a broadloom and the other is a tile. They're both actually commercial products I was aware of from my past life as a commercial Interior Designer. For the hallway and the bedrooms we'll be using a Bentley Prince Street product as shown here:

And here it is from a little further back. The slate tile is at the entry and the carpet shown on the right will continue into the hallway. The exposed OSB flooring on the left of the slate tile goes to the kitchen area and will eventually have a chocolate brown cork flooring.

And here's the second carpet we'll be using. It's an Interface tile that will only go in the "Red Room" - basically the main living space off to the right of the entry that has a big red wall in it. Very nice space. Anyway, the carpet tile will be on a 1/4 turned pattern and will almost look like a basket weave pattern.

By the way, Interface is a crazy awesome company that is full of innovation and is pretty hardcore on the environmental tip. And not just a "green" company. And while I don't agree with everything they push . . . they're the real deal, not just another company that is looking for shameless promotion without results promoting real sustainability. If that's something any of you are into, check them out here: http://www.interfaceinc.com/

Oh, and you can check out Bentley Prince Street here: http://www.bentleyprincestreet.com/

Both companies put out some awesome product in both design and quality - very nice stuff. I hope you all had an awesome Memorial Day weekend, oh . . . and a big shout out to all the folks in our Armed Forces. Thanks for your service!