Techbuilt Renovation

With Foundation Work, Progress Happens Quickly

After more than a year of planning, we were certainly eager to get going with our renovation and addition project. But we weren’t quite prepared for the swift progress that the first few weeks of construction brought.

With the unusually warm late autumn and early winter weather this year, once we gave the go ahead to start work, our builder Dylan James jumped into action. He wanted to get the foundation completed before the winter weather kicked in.

I was surprised by how many things had to come together to get the foundation done. There was excavation of course. But I didn’t realize the surveyor had to come three different times – to stake the excavation, to mark the location of the footings, and to mark the location of the foundation.

At each step, the Town of Lexington was required to come on site and inspect the work to ensure that we were up to code.

And at each point Dylan was juggling the team from Northeast Concrete who were doing the form work, the concrete trucks, and the like.

From the time of the last tree cut down to the completion of the foundation work was less than one month. Quite remarkable, I’d say.

Rock Collecting

As the excavation work for our addition was beginning (and how dramatic it was) I noticed a bunch of large rocks being dug up.

I figured that these would be terrific materials to build a stone wall, so I asked the crew to please save the stones.

At some point near the end of the project when we turn to landscape and hardscape, we will find a place for a stone wall.

A brief history of New England Stone Walls

Growing up in southern Connecticut, I always admired the stone walls that were everywhere. Because I could see the walls even in the woods, it was clear to even my elementary school self that the walls were made a long time ago.

New England’s wall stones date back to between about 30,000 and 15,000 years ago, when the Laurentide ice sheet retreated and left billions of stones scattered throughout the area.

But the stones weren’t exposed until the 1700s and 1800s when there was widespread deforestation in the area by New Englanders who needed vast amounts of wood to build houses and heat their homes. When the ground was laid bare, frost penetrated deeper than before, churning up the soil and bringing stones to the surface.

Most of the region’s stone walls were built during the Revolutionary period between 1775 and 1825, a time that has been called the "golden age" of stone wall building. Over several generations, more than 200,000 miles of stone walls were built.

Most of New England walls were built to divide fields by ownership or to separate animals and crops. Laws in Colonial America required a farm fence to be 3 to 4 feet high. But since walls were built by hand, most did not reach this height as it was much more effort to lift the stones to do so. Therefore, farmers added wooden rails to top the stone helping to pen in animals.

The majority of New England farms were abandoned by the end of the industrial revolution as traditional farming gave way to better jobs in factories. But the walls remained.

For more, check out the article The history, science and poetry of New England's stone walls by John-Manuel Andriote.

Demolishing the shed

One of the major challenges with TechBuilt homes is they have no basement and no attic. Combined with the small closets customary in the 1950s, there is way too little storage for a modern family! 

Many TechBuilt homeowners build sheds for storage. When we researched our shed we learned that it was not original to the home but had been constructed at a later date. Therefore we were comfortable with the demolition. 

And yes, the design of the new addition to our house has plenty of storage! 

Tree Work

We regret having to take some trees where the addition to our home will be located.

When we consulted with John Marquis of Marquis Tree Service we made it clear that we wanted to save any tree that was not absolutely required to be taken.

Once the project is complete, we will plant appropriate trees to replace the number that were taken.

The Marquis process was amazing to watch.

There were six men working with two trucks, a big chipper, and an enormous crane that must be 20 stories tall.

For the medium trees, the workman would go up on the crane, tie the harness at the top, then rappel down. Then he would cut the tree and the entire thing would be lifted and moved over to the chipper. The entire process for a medium tree took about ten minutes.

The large oak tree on our property came down in about half an hour. They cut half the top and then removed it with the crane. Then the other half. And the entire base went last.

We saved several cuts from the large oak that we will install in our new entrance hall.

 

 

 

Our Design and Construction Team

We’re working with an incredible team!

The renovation and addition design is led by Joe Welch at C/W Design Group and Dylan James at Patriot Custom Homes is leading the construction.

C/W Design Group: We wanted an architect who would be sensitive to the historic nature of our Techbuilt home and we certainly found that with Joe. He served as the Chairman of the Lexington Historic District Commission and has thought deeply about how an architecturally important home can honor it's history while still being a fantastic place to live.

Patriot Custom Homes: Dylan's firm specializes in building high performance custom homes with sustainable and passive design while delivering superior craftsmanship. Their committed to "Green Building" techniques attracted us because we like the idea of building a better, more efficient, and healthier high performance custom home.

We’ve enjoyed the nearly one year process of getting to the point where we are ready to break ground.

Finding a team you can be comfortable with is essential in a major project like this.