Team AngelaIt's Like Extreme Home Makeover: Angela Edition!

In about a week we’ll be able to lock the doors, though that’s not done all that often in our new neighborhood. John’s got the windows and patio doors in, and soon we’ll get our entry door. I still have to pick a garage door, but I’m slacking….

Our plumber is now on the job, and we’re extremely glad it’s Jimmy Trudo, Bobby’s brother- Jimmy’s one of the good guys, and has been taking care of us for years. When I visited today I saw that he’d installed the drains for all of the baths and the laundry, and he’d also installed the bathtub upstairs.

Jimmy’s meticulous, so he doesn’t mind all my detail-oriented questions; he told me he’d be the same way if he were building a house. Maybe, but I’m betting I’m worse. I mean, I wouldn’t want to work with me… but at least I know it! In fact when Jimmy told me the HVAC contractor (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) who’s bidding on the job said he wanted to walk through the house with me before he bid on it, I said “So you didn’t tell him about me?” I actually met the guy today and we got a lot done. Incredibly his brother was diagnosed only a month ago with bone cancer, and he’s being treated at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. It’s just about the worst thing you can have in common with someone.

When you peek at the pictures, there’s some fun stuff to notice (try not to notice that I failed to set the date correctly on my ancient digital camera):

The window and door frames and grills are mocha-gray colored so they look like the bark of some of the hardwood trees on the lot (seriously, that’s why we picked them). The siding will be natural red cedar shingles, and the trim a mossy olive-green. The intent is that the house will look “like it grew there” as my buddy Jeff would say.

There’s a picture of Diana in the crawlspace sitting on the “crawl space creeper” Angela and I made for Jimmy; it’s a video game chair mounted on a furniture dolly. When he sits on it he can roll around in that low space and work overhead more easily, and it also keeps him off the slab down there which is horrendously cold.

There’s a picture of the sun coming in the windows and French doors to the dining area, and another of the sun coming in the windows on either side of the fireplace opening. I have been steadily complaining that the pine trees to the south block too much winter sun (I already cut down the ones that were ours, and some of the neighbor’s too, with his consent). Angela’s sister Alexandra has been steadily telling me to quiet down, and that there’s plenty of sun. When she walked in the house today she saw me with the camera and said, “Why don’t you take a picture of the sun coming in?” She’s pretty funny.

There’s a picture of the back of the house, showing the newly-framed chimney and the pretty double window of the bedroom above the living room. The house will have three bedrooms when it’s done, and that one looks out into the woods.

Overall the house is coming out way, way better than I’d imagined it could. Our architect, Henry Arnaudo, really did conjure up a beautiful little New England Cape, and John Corsi, Jimmy Trudo, and the rest of the guys from the Lake are making it real in spectacular fashion.

First, a word about our house in Newton… it’ll be on the market very shortly! We’re in the middle of fixing every little nagging thing, like windows that stick, bathroom ceilings, leaky gutters, and torn screens. It’s a lot of minor stuff that creeps up on you over time, and you don’t want to show it off at an open house!

Our realtors, Buzz and Margie Birnbaum of Hammond RE have been a tremendous help. They referred us to Alli Krongel of Whitney Interiors (her contact info is in the “Building Partners” section of this site). She’s a house stager and interior designer, and she took the furniture, artwork, etc. that we already had, rearranged it, and the whole place looked 10 times better! There’s a picture here of one corner of our living room that she turned into a little oasis in less than 10 minutes; the whole job took her 3 hours. I’d recommend her in a flash- she has great taste, plus a fine sense of color and space, and she loves what she does…and she does it at very reasonable rates. A find.

Now on to Westwood… 109 Colburn is starting to look a little more like a house. This past week they got the plywood sheathing on the roof so you can clearly see its lines (real purty…), and they fitted the facia and soffit boards which go over the ends of the rafters. They’re the white boards at the bottom edge of the roof in the pictures, creating a finished look where the roof rests on the outside walls of the house (as well as a handy place to mount gutters).

Tech note: The soffit and facia boards are actually plastic- they’re from a company called Azek which makes house trim pieces (and a lot of other stuff) meant to stand up to the elements without requiring maintenance. Paint sticks to it like glue, so it should be a long time before we have to repaint the trim. Remember, whenever you paint something, you’re also making an appointment to paint it again at some time in the future. The further out that appointment is, the happier I am. That also accounts for our decision to leave the interior doors and trim in a natural wood finish (which a carpenter I knew long ago said is fancier than any paint job you could ever apply- a sentiment I’ve never forgotten).

We’re having an insulation adventure. It turns out there are a bunch of ways to insulate your home, all with pros and cons, resulting in a matrix of possibilities that I should probably be kept away from so I don’t stall the project. It’s sorted out I think, but you never know until it’s applied!

They’ve also fitted the first floor ceilings with strapping, narrow boards that will make it possible to attach sheetrock to the ceilings. There’s a very cool picture showing the strapping in place, and it gives you some sense of how much work is hiding beneath the interior skin of your home.

Finally, we saw a nice big pallet of red cedar shingles sitting in the front yard, and the windows are supposed to show up this week, which means in just a few days it will look much more like a house. Can’t wait!