Small problem with the brick guys

[actual e-mail]

Hi, Christina.

I came home tonight to find my basement door kicked in, the basement door wide open (the grate unlocked), an extension cord running through the open basement door, and my brand new lockbox broken.

I was hoping you could talk with your crew and find out what went on today.

I have some theories, and look forward to sharing those with you over the phone.

Thanks!

Steve

[It appears that the water from washing the wall froze the lockbox, which the workers then broke trying to open. The back wall was covered with tarps to keep the heat in–which made it hard to open up the backdoor, so one of the workers unlocked the basement security grate, found the door locked from the inside, and decided he would “open” it his way. The company owner and production manager assure me this won’t happen again–and they’ll buy me a new lockbox. For what it’s worth, the job looks nice; my architect was even bragging on the company.]

whoosh!

Emily put it best: “That whooshing sound you hear is the sound of our money flying out the door!” We just signed on with Renaissance Development (aka “the Brick Doctor”) to redo much of the masonry in the rear of the house ($16k). We’re also close to making a decision on replacement windows. Yesterday we toured the showrooms of Pella, Andersen, and Comfortline. Windows aren’t cheap, as you know. Pella wants $38k; Andersen wants $22k.

Buying windows can be confusing. One company will warn you of the other company’s rot, air leakage, class action suits, and so forth. Though I was leaning toward Pella, the $16,000 savings is helping me lean toward Andersen.

New fireplace

The other day I called up High’s Chimney, fishing for a deal. I asked the sales guy if they ever had “slow season discounts.” Turns out they are in the midst of a major slump; he offered me 10% off if I would allow work to start the next day. I said yes, and we knocked $300 off a $3000 job to reline the flue (first removing the existing terra cotta liner), rebuilding the totally trashed firebox, and installing a spring-loaded damper (a little wire runs all the way up the flue to the top). Other companies wanted $5000 for the job.

So Wednesday the crew shows up, speaking mainly Spanish and just a smidge of English. Where is my Spanish-speaking Emily when I need her?! I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised: probably 90% of the construction crews around here speak Spanish. It just makes it harder for me to communicate some of the finer details of a job (“ok, leave a quarter inch reveal so I can mount the surface tile flush–do you understand?” Yeah, right.)

I knew there would be lots of dust so I enclosed the parlor the best I could be shutting our huge, beautiful-but-need-oil-on-the-wheels pocket doors and using sheet plastic. Still, dust migrated up the open stairwell. Though the guys had cleaned up fairly well, I still grabbed a rag and wiped things down. I’m trying to keep Emily happy; welcome to renovation!

I included a “before” picture for comparison. My only concern now is the 6 feet of “throat” between the new firebox and the new flue. Looking up, it looks decrepit–but the chimney guys seemed to think it was ok. Don’t want a chimney fire, you know–so the lead supervisor is coming back this morning. Worse case, we remove the mantel (it’s already loose, so no big deal); knock a hole in the chimney, and remortar the joints with refractory cement.

Sills

The back of the house has wood sills, most of which are rotted away (see photos). In this climate, painting is a continuous maintenance to-do item. And some of the windows are three stories up via ladder. To cover the wood and eliminate painting and rot, I’m thinking about having the window installers “clad” the wood with aluminum. Another option is to use plastic lumber on the sills, which should basically last forever (if I can get it in 4×6 boards).

Unfortunately, one of the brownstone sills out front is rotten. My mason said they can’t be reordered, but I find that hard to believe. Seems like a large percentage of east coast buildings are brownstone; surely, someone still quarries the material.

Security film

In the effort to get rid of the hideous security bars that ring our house, I’ve been looking into two options: 1) a thick security glass that is actually a piece of plastic film sandwiched between two layers of glass; and 2) a 3M security film product that is good for preventing burglaries, flying glass from bomb blasts, and so forth. Hopefully we won’t have any bad incidents, but you never know. The good news is that the neighborhood is fixing up nicely and more renovations don’t include window bars. I need to go by Radio Shack and see what kind of security alarms they have.

Angel

I’ve complained about various things already–like the incompetence of the DC trash people. But though I am paranoid of contractors trying to rip me off, I should also mention that good people will inevitably cross paths with this project. Remember the boiler guy two months ago–who had worked for the company that made MY BOILER for 35 years or some huge number. He could’ve fixed my boiler blindfolded.

Right before Christmas I met my neighbor, Emmie. I’ll probably never see her again; she moved to Florida to be ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest. Imagine this: she was only taking one suitcase worth of belongings! What would YOU take? You and I probably would struggle to get our underwear and socks into one suitcase. She was taking no photos–nothing of the past. She lives in the present only; here, now. Such a mindset really puts our materialist ways on edge.

Well, anyway, the point of mentioning Emmie is that here is this person whom I’ve never met, befriending me. She had seen my efforts taming the bamboo forest and elm tree and presumed I liked working in the garden (which I do). She told me I reminded her (in a good way) of her ex-husband, and his working to fix things up. On that note, she presented me with bags of tools and gardening books–all stuff she couldn’t fit into her one suitcase. She even gave me a set of sheep shears and her mother’s fancy parasol. Basically, she gave me a lot of her memories; she’s not taking those with her to Florida.

I gave her a hug, and just hope I don’t end up with a full house and an empty heart.

Plans

These plans are pretty much what we’re going to build, with the exception of the small bath on the second floor. There, we’re not sure whether to build a laundry room (or put the laundry room in the basement). There are pros and cons of each.

Architectural update

Just spent two hours meeting with Jim Martin. The plans look great!

The kitchen is going to be totally rebuilt. There will be a powder room right next to it. We’ll have a laundry area on the second floor. The master bedroom will have large closets and a new master bath with his-and-her sinks. Lots of other neat stuff! Come see it.

Honeymoon and contractors

Well, the upcoming wedding is fairly under control.

It would be really nice to get some disruptive work done while we’re on our honeymoon–letting our architect, Jim Martin, be on call if a decision needs to be made. Speaking of Jim, we meet with him again tomorrow night. I’m anxious to see the plans, make whatever decisions have to be made, get construction plans finalized, and pull a permit so we can get going. I wish I knew how to post his hand-drawn plans online; the final design is going to be way cool. I may have already mentioned, we decided to ditch the sleeping porch, decided the rough kitchen layout, decided to keep the back stairs, and decided to close off the hallway door to our master bath (you’ll have to enter via the master bedroom).

Back to the point of today’s blog: I’m in the throes now of talking with contractors to install a/c, redo the fireplace, fix the outside masonry, and replace the windows. Through ServiceMagic.com, I’ve had Sears and ARS stop by to talk about installing a new a/c system (we only have 3 window units for a BIG house). I liked how the ARS guy measured every window and room size; he’s going to put all the data into a computer model to figure out what size system we need. The Sears guys, who were nice, just quoted me $24,000. With Sears, you actually get a subcontractor; not so with ARS. A third contractor, Mr. Cool, has delayed the appointment twice already. The original company I called, Rowan Heating, didn’t even return my call–and because they had just done a good job for a friend, I was about ready to sign them up at any reasonable price.

I’ve also had two masonry contractors out. I really liked Christina Wilson of Renaissance Development! As a PhD in Architectural History, she has a passion for old houses. Ours needs repointing (in many places, the original lime mortar, which is softer than cement, is powder). The new plans will also call for some windows to be bricked in. This Saturday, a grizled ol’ vet with 40 years in the industry is going to stop by and quote me a price for a new fireplace.

For windows, I’ve called The Window Man, Pella, and Renewal by Andersen. We have about 25 windows in the house, so it will probably be pretty expensive. I would like to get rid of the bars but still stay secure. One option is to get a security window that has a piece of plastic laminated between two sheets of glass. It takes a fireman about seven minutes to chop through. Such a thick window is also good for sound deadening, so I’m thinking about having them installed in our master bedroom (which faces the street). I’m a light sleeper and dread the various horns, door slamming, conversations and other sounds of the night. Give me the sound of crickets and frogs!

View from inside

Here are a couple of pictures from inside the attic crawlspace. One show the tire jack assembly, and one shows where the sistered joist is cut into the wall. A few days before Christmas, I mortared all the bricks back in place, eliminating the holes.

On a different note, we recently had to relight the pilot light of our water heater three times within a week. Seeing how I’ve NEVER had to relight one before, I figured we had a problem. (By the way, if you need to know how to relight a pilot light, click here. It’s easy.) With my handy flashlight, I peered in the base of our water heater just to see a pool of water and to hear the hiss of dripping water hitting the lit flame. Not good, I thought. Anyway, I did some research and deduced we were experiencing severe condensation issues: when warm, incoming water meets a cold tank. One telltale sign that you don’t have a leak: the pool of water doesn’t grow; it evaporates.

While I was still in the mindset that I had to spend hundreds of dollars on a new water heater, I decided to use the opportunity to switch to a tankless water heater. Without a tank to keep warm 24/7, you save energy. The systems cost more initially, but may qualify for tax credits. Unfortunately, my research found some negative reviews. It sounds like the systems work best when the water is left running (like a shower), and less well when you need to turn the water on and off frequently (like when washing dishes). Weighing the pros and cons, I decided that I would stick with the tank model, at least for now. I believe a previous post shows the new insulation I put on the tank–why waste your energy dollars as lost heat?