The Self-Inflicted "Change Order"

Architectural/Building/Construction Lingo: The "CHANGE ORDER"

Until I finished schooling and began working for an architect I was blissfully unaware of the term "change order". Suffice it to say, it is what it sounds like: an order issued during construction which alters the submitted plans and construction.

What you might not realize is that it is always accompanied by an added fee from just about everyone involved. Architects are famous for them and a great deal of air has been turned blue by the people who have to deal with the client and/or architect's whim. When you are dealing with someone else's money it can be easier to be cavalier about change orders. But today I learned what it means to be on the giving and taking end of a change order....issued by yours truly to.....yours truly. And yes, it ended up costing me money.

Here is what happened. When we bought the house there was a lavatory located in the basement in the aqua circle below.

Shortly after we finished the footing pour I stood looking down into the pit where the concrete was fast becoming rock hard. We had elected to lose the lavatory in the basement as the stairs to the basement, once moved, would be in the area where the lavatory had been. But now looking down into the hole I was at once inspired and beset with regret. I noticed the space that had been created by the new foundation just to the left as one walks from the old foundation into the new section. It is shown in violet above. It struck me as a perfect spot for a lavatory.

As we intend to have living space and a workout room in the basement and a lavatory would certainly be a nice amenity. However, if you have a toilet you must also have a waste pipe running to the septic line. The septic line runs from the aqua circle, through the new footing and out to our septic tank. If I wanted a toilet in there I would have to figure out how to get the waste pipe to the septic line. A quick call to the plumber, a consultation with Ron, a discussion with my wife, and the next thing you know.....you have become the victim of a self-inflicted change order.

Enter.....the dreaded concrete chop saw.....again.....price $75.00 plus the cutting disk.

One hour later, covered in slurry, chipped concrete bits, water, and sweat I had this 5.5"/14 cm deep and 6.5" / 16.5 cm wide trench bashed through the footing which had hardened solid as a rock. Oh what could have been avoided if I had only seen this an hour or two earlier!

The make-shift sleeve in place. When the plumber installs the waste pipe to the flange in the floor (not poured yet) he will run the waste pipe through the sleeve and out next to the footing where it will be tied into the septic line.

This is a sneak-peek of the foundation wall framing but it also shows the sleeve in place. The concrete will be poured into the frames and completely cover the sleeve and leaving a chase to run the waste pipe through.

Footings

Construction Update: Footings

Things have started to accelerate rapidly now and I will tell you that every single minute spent in the hot sun, bathing in sweat, has yield constant education. I have drawn foundation plans for clients and practiced them while "apprenticing" with architects. In fact, I have seen them during construction in one phase or another but I have never had the opportunity to see one from beginning to end. That has all ended now and I am up to my chin in dirt, cement, and forms. IT'S AWESOME! Sorry. At any rate, the experience is extraordinary and if it were not for the fact that one needs a lot of equipment, I could probably pour my own foundation soon. This not withstanding, Ron Messina (my foundation/excavation guy) has been exceptional. He is a mostly one man operation and loves what he does. Better yet, he is very good-natured about having a novice in the hole with him. It probably helps that I have a decent understanding of the process and pick things up quickly, but none the less. Here we go.

Ron and me building the forms that will hold the footing cement. The footing is a 2'/60 cm wide concrete pour which the foundation walls will stand on.

A picture of the #5 rebar hanging from its supports. Rebar is a 1/2"/1.25 cm diameter piece of steel which adds strength to concrete. It allows the concrete to absorb more stress. I got a quick lesson and then hung all the rebar.

The footing frames ready for concrete

The truck arrives and pour begins. The pour is a fast and focused process. It's heavy and it comes down the shoot quickly and must be distributed, adjusted, and smoothed before it sets up

The completed pour. Note the wide box at the middle of the picture. This is the pad for the double fireplace chimney

The walls framing comes next. The 10"/25.4 cm wide X 7'-4" high foundation walls will stand in the middle of the footing we just poured. That process will be featured in Part II.

Facades, Before and After

Things are in full swing now at the F&H homestead, with foundation walls being poured this week. This means that phase II of my share of the work (the interior design) begins - things are moving fast and I need to start compiling spec(ification) sheets for the plumbing and electricity. This means making final decisions on bathroom and kitchen faucets and hardware, as well as which recessed lighting cans we are going to use and where.

But before I go into that, and after the last posts showing the construction site in such a "demolished" state, I think it is a good idea to go back to the drawings and remind ourselves of what we have to look forward to.

These are the north (front) facade for the (no longer) existing house and the new house:

The south (back) facade:

These drawings did not upload to exact scale but are pretty close. The width of the actual house will be the same but the breezeway will be longer (and wider) and so will the post and beam garage. Both buildings will now have a full second floor.

The garage will have an in-laws apartment above with a full bathroom and a very tiny kitchen (I think that will be my crafts room as well... ahem... ). The breezway will double as a mudroom and utility area with a full laundry/ironing room and a pantry (just outside of the kitchen).

We are keeping the original stone fireplace (which now will be in the library room) and raising it with brick, as we have seen in many traditional colonial houses all around New England. We will also be building a second one in the drawing room, all in brick and with a double flue for interior and exterior use.

The west facade:

The east facade:

There will be a small covered portico in the front facade, and on the back there will be a covered porch outside of the drawing room, and a pergola outside of the kitchen. Both of these will be accessed through French doors.

Next step in terms of interiors? Bathroom and kitchen fixture and flooring shopping, to start with! As I go along in my purchasing I will show floor plans and that will allow an easier understanding of how we designed the interior space. Stay tuned for that!

Important Note: All drawings are courtesy of my husband, the design architect for this project, and are copyright protected under Ferret & Hound - Architecture and Interior Design Consulting.

EcoStar Shingles

Materials - Part I

Today will be a shorter post and then the other half of F&H will take a hand at writing. As I explained earlier on, I will be discussing materials intermittently and describing why we chose them and what they offer versus other materials.

From the very get-go we have aimed at an energy efficient and sustainably sourced material house. Taking from the environment is fine but it needs to be done sensibly and with as light of a footprint as possible. A "green" product does not have to be straw or stone, it can also be a manufactured or long lasting natural material chosen for its ability to stand a long usage and not wind up in the dumpster after ten years.

This brings us to the first chapter in materials: EcoStar roofing shingles. These are of the same family as TAMKO Lamarite or EcoShake shingles. All these are excellent options and are composed of 80%+ recycled plastics and rubber but we chose EcoStar because they are manufactured in Pennsylvania (under 500 miles/804 km from the end use location which means less fossil fuel used to transport the material) and they offered an imitation cedar shake roofing shingle at 3/8" (0.925 cm) thick which closely mimics a Perfection Cedar Shake roofing shingle (a machine cut natural cedar shingle). They look very convincing, especially from the ground, and they have a 50 year warranty, are fast installed, do not leak or absorb (as a wood shingle), and are Energy Star rated. Tamko Lamarites were too chunky looking for us and had a sort of Lincoln Log/Fisher Price house roof look that we wanted to avoid.

We chose Smoke Grey (this is the back of the sample shingle) because it more closely mimics a patina-ed/weathered cedar shake)

The texture of the shingle from the front

The front of a 12"/30.5 cm wide shingle

The EcoStar shingles come in other colors and there are also slate (very real looking) options but slate does not fit on the type of house were are building. The shingles come in 12"/30.5 cm, 9"/22.8 cm, and 6"/15.24 cm widths so that they can be installed randomly and mimic a natural cedar shake.

EcoStar shakes installed with a random pattern

Synthetic shingles are not inexpensive, averaging about $400.00 USD per square (a roof is measured in "squares" which are 10'x 10' / 3 m x 3 m) for the materials only. Installation is another $400.00 per square. This might appear expensive but consider that a cedar Perfections cost about $300.00 USD per square and twice that in labor to install (not to mention that cedar is now coming from second growth forests and last only 10-12 years, unlike their venerable predecessors which lasted between 40-60 years depending on conditions and installation). Considering the no-leak and lasting nature of the EcoShake, it is far more cost effective over the long haul.

We elected to avoid asphalt roofing shingles for a number of reasons. First and foremost, they are made using petroleum. This is a non-starter on an environmentally sensitive house. Secondly, they lack a certain visual appeal.....no, let me rephrase that. They are ugly. Yes, they are cheaper per square but so is vinyl siding. I rest my case.

Rain and the CAT repairs

RAIN DAY

Monday brings a slow, steady summer rain which is filling the mostly dug area for our new foundation. It's also filling our basement which will help continue the nice harvest of mold I have been growing. That's fine. Another day of Wet-Vac tomorrow. Because I have the chance to sit home today I will take some time to recount a non-building experience from the site in the last few days.

Ron, our excavator, arrived on site about 12 days ago. We got the Bilco door foundation removed and then the left track on his CAT excavator seized up. Now, I have been around machines most of my life in one way or another but an excavator is a big, solid machine. It makes a backhoe look like a Tonka Toy. It has huge treads like a Panzer tank and a 360 degree rotating work cab. Needless to say, repairs on a beast like this are heavy duty.....and quite pricey as well. It took two days to diagnose the problem, three days to receive the part, two more full days to get the old part removed, and two days to get the CAT back to working condition. This is holding everything up but on the positive side.....Ron let me help rebuild it and I was surprised at how easily I took to the work.

The HUB mechanism from the CAT (400lbs/181K)

Now, this is not like fixing a car. This beast can rip apart cement walls and fling 500lb/226K boulders like pebbles. The parts weigh a lot. The hub piece above weighs nearly 400lbs/181K and it DID NOT WANT TO COME OUT. It took nearly two full days for us to finally force it loose and when we did, it had to be hooked by chain to a crane and lifted out.

THIS IS WHERE THE HUB WAS REMOVED FROM

To get the hub loose we had to crank 4"/10.16cm long bolts through the thread holes from the inside of the carriage/frame. This and a sledge hammer finally got the old part out. Then we had to clean everything and use the crane to bring the new part into position. Ron drove the crane while I whirled and swung the 400lb/181K solid steel part until it inserted into the hole in the carriage. At the same time I had to make sure the bolt holes on the new part lined up with the holes in the carriage....it's like trying to thread a 400lbs/181K needle with a rope from the Titanic.

THE NEW HUB

(the sprocket gear lying above/behind the hub is what bolts onto the hub and drags the chain-link treads to make the CAT move)

THE NEW HUB IN PLACE AND ME BOLTING IT TO THE CARRIAGE

With the new hub in place all we needed to do was bolt the sprocket into place and then use the crane to drag the treads into place

THE SPROCKET IN PLACE AND BOLTED TO THE NEW HUB

The tread also weighs a lot and we had to pull and tug with crane to get it on the sprockets. Then we drove a 8"/20.32cm X 1"/2.54cm diameter steel pin through the loops on the underside of the track which ties the two ends of the tread together into a continuous loop. A little forced into the housing on the tread drive and the track tightened up. JOB DONE! The CAT was ready to go.

A Second Point of View

By way of introduction, I am the other half of Ferret & Hound, the hitherto silent entity in the goings-on of this blog about building a home in the rolling hills of Northwest CT. Now that F&H is up and going things have gotten very busy, both in the design and construction of our house, but with outside projects as well. Because of this my industrious spouse has been working the blog whenever she can. I have vowed to pick up my share and will be contributing whenever time permits. My angle will attempt to explain the more "nuts n' bolts" (ie. material selections, environmental/market reasons for choices, and how it all is put together) aspect of the project and their place in the grand scheme of things. In addition I will often explain decisions so as to try and demostrate how we made our decisions along the way. I hope this dicotomy will prove interesting.

Demolition--the ugly step-sister of construction. Up to now we have shown some phases of demolition from a macro standpoint. Now for some details. Cutting concrete.

BILCO DOOR FOUNDATION

Bilco doors, for those of you who have never seen one, are metal doors that cover a steep flight of steps into a basement. This one has already had the doors removed with only the stairs and foundation left.....the foundation is the hard part. Concrete is really tough....seriously. We take it for granted. Its terrible under stress but it is very strong in other ways. This one was attached to our existing foundation. As we are extending out from the house we need to remove it so that the opening from the basement will become the pass-through to the new foundation. Demolition is fun for the first day and then becomes just a dirty and miserable requirement. This however is the worst. To cut the Bilco door foundation (8"/20.32cm concrete walls) away from the existing foundation you need one of these....

MASONRY ROTARY CUTOFF SAW (with operator)

To those of you have never seen one of these....you don't want to. Those who have....well they do not want to either. No one wanted to do this no matter who I asked. So....I did it. This thing weighs about 30lbs/13.6kgs and screams like a chainsaw. It is hooked to a hose to cool it and keep the dust down. Anyone who has used one without a hose looks like they have wandered through nuclear fallout. However, the water makes its own mess and you are drenched in water and concrete slurry after about 45 exhausting minutes of cutting through two 7'/2.15 meters high walls. Next comes knocking it down.....

EXCAVATOR (note Bilco foundation at right center near the green shingles)

Break it down Ron!

It took about five minutes of smashing to get first piece to crack away but finally a stress fracture occurred and the first piece crashed aside.

From inside the basement, note the stress fracture occuring on the bottom left of the wall next to the bucket on the excavator.

BREAKING IT FREE

(note the cut along the foundation wall where the Bilco foundation attaches to the house foundation)

Finally we broke it away. Next up we will get into some materials and the choices we made. More on the foundation will follow when the pour begins. In the meantime we are waiting on a replacement part for the excavator.

Summer on the Hills

The top two photos were taken on the hills about 5 minutes up from our road. The cherry, pear and peach trees, as well as the mushrooms, are in our orchard. The regular rainfalls here in NW Connecticut, although annoying, have done wonders for the landscape and we are in absolute awe at how beautiful it is here!

Progress Report

Things are progressing fast at the Ferret & Hound Homestead. While for the first couple of months (the design phase) it seemed like this project was never going to happen, for the past 2-3 weeks the "landscape" has changed substantially.

As I have mentioned before, we bought our property mainly for two reasons - we loved the land and the original horse barn, and while we utterly disliked the existing house, it had the advantage of having a full basement that we could build on.

These two panoramas were taken at the end of April, as you can tell from the brown and leafless landscape. The first photo is taken from the road. The house is a little bit too close to the road for our liking but we are going to change the driveway and plant some trees which will more or less hide the house, even though it is a quiet scenic country road. The second photo is taken from the back end of the property and shows the back of the house and about 2/3 of the total width of the property. (Click on the photos to see an enlarged version).

Then, about 3 weeks ago, demolition finally started... the front:

The back:

And this was yesterday. There is still some demolition to be done, like the stairs, the back exterior wall and all the siding but this is pretty much the structure that is staying.

After that, excavation for the new part on the back of the house starts early next week, as well as the pouring for the new foundation and a concrete slab for the new garage. Stay tuned...

Demolition

Demolition on the house started last week! It is amazing how the design and permits process dragged for so long and now all of a sudden we have a job site and daily appointments with plumbers, electricians, foundation, roofing, windows, siding and insulation people.

It is very exciting, especially because for the first time, it seems really real! The demolition process can be slow but only after a couple of days the inside of the house was completely unrecognisable. The reason as to why it is taking longer is that we are salvaging as much of the wood as we can - the hardwood flooring and the framing to be used either in framing the new structure or simply as fire wood for the fireplace!

Drywall comes out easily, but worse are the studs filled with crooked nails. Worst of all, though, is removing the awful fibre-glass insulation (that's my husband in the picture above, in the space suit)!

As of yesterday, most of the existing breezway was gone and they had started to "attack" roof. The heavy rains up here in northwest CT are delaying the process a little bit but time has been spent following up with contractors, vendors, manufacturers. The only two who seem to be having an easy time are Bayou, our doggy, and Toby, one of the builder's dachshund!