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Surviving Your Remodel

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Surviving Your Remodel

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. While they re always inconvenient, major remodeling projects can also become a real strain on your relationship if you let them. But there are ways to make sure you re just gutting the kitchen, not your marriage. First, never assume your spouse knows what the family room will look like or how big the deck should be without discussing it first. Talk about your expectations for the project and your budget thoroughly and often. Even the healthiest relationships are challenged when a contractor comes into the house and a third person enters the couple s territory. Make decisions as a team and convey them clearly to your contractor; no one wants to be the go-between or the one left out of the loop. If you find you can t agree on some things, don t feel you have to compromise on everything: If one of you chooses the paint color and the other chooses the light fixtures, you can avoid a lot of tension and resentment. If you still can t agree or the project is beyond your skill set, don t hesitate to hire a professional. An architect or interior designer can offer solutions you may not have thought of. Remodeling projects seldom go exactly as planned. Expect the unexpected and don t point fingers when chaos strikes. If you can laugh about it, you might wind up improving not just your home but your relationship as well. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

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Reviewing the Architect's Home Plans

Bob studies the architect's plans to get a better feel for what the house will look like when it's finished. The side entrance to the home will have a covered porch, and there will be a double garage in the back with a big gable. Front and back gabled ends are critical design elements defining this as an old style farmhouse. Also distinctive are the many windows enabling the homeowners to take advantage of the spectacular view.

The Architect's Design for the Warehouse Rehab

In the recent past many of New York's historical landmarks have had facelifts to keep them both structurally and aesthetically sound as well as true to their roots. One of the architectural firms behind several of these projects, the New York and Washington, D.C.-based Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects & Planners, has joined the Home Again crew to lend their expertise in the architectural restoration. Bob meets with Jack Beyer in front of the old Pepper Mill to get up to speed on the exterior design plans for the rehab project. Beyer discusses some of the pitfalls with landmark buildings, including the multiple overlapping regulatory agencies which approve changes to a buildings structure, mechanics, and style. Bob discovers that the building is being converted for at least the second time. It was originally a three-floor residential building, but was later converted to commercial use. Beyer observes that while the building is in need of extensive repair it is structurally sound and stable. HE shows Bob sketches of the proposed renovations, which include two entrances, commercial space on the ground floor with a show window, and a possible added story set back from the fa�ade. Beyer is cautiously optimistic that the addition will gain Landmarks' approval since the building is a contributing landmark, not a specially designated landmark.

Architectural Design of the Connection Between the Home and the Barn

Walking behind the house, Bob makes a few observations about the design. He points out that the house and old barn were not exactly parallel to each other creating some issues fo the breezeway addition. Th architect chose to build the breezeway parallel with the barn, but as the roof is right onto the house, when you look at the roof overhang right on the corner of the addition it subtly increases in width in one direction. Another interesting feature of the architect's design is a 4 ft. wide and t10 ft. long "gang plank"-like balcony coming out from the second floor masterbath.

Putting in a Gable Window

While on the third floor of the Medford house Bob looks at the Pella window installation in the gable end. The architect's original plan called for one big glass triangle but this would have involved a great deal of structural reworking, so the plan changed to installing two smaller triangular windows with 2 x 4s retained in the middle maintaining structural stability. In a flashback to the installation, carpenter Matt Alexander removed the exterior wall covering from the area and used a chalk line to mark the opeing for the new windows. next he cut away the sheathing with a reciprocating saw to create the opening, folded out the nailing flange on the custom Pella windows and nailed the flange to the sheathing. The windows are aluminum-clad, with double glazed argon-filled low-E glass.