Techbuilt Renovation

Reclaimed Antique Factory Maple Plank Flooring

For my office, I sourced some beautiful reclaimed maple flooring that had once been used in a factory. After researching antique factory floors from several different suppliers, I went with Jewett Farms as my supplier.

I’ve always loved the look of office and loft space in an old factory and I’ve recreated that feeling in my office with high ceilings, exposed ductwork and this fantastic flooring.

The floor has warm patina and historical story that makes for a unique and interesting addition to a brand new room in our house.

The boom in industry at the turn of the century resulted in thousands of factories and warehouses being built. The factories have fallen into abandonment but the character filled planks, mostly maple, are being saved.

Each board retains its original wear marks, nail holes and scuffs. There are some awesome burn marks and funky holes. The boards are different lengths and they have a natural variation of color and a vibrant grain pattern.

Fortunately, the company that installed the flooring, C&R Flooring, skillfully put the puzzle pieces together and finished the floor beautifully.

Moving Weekend Part One

After seven months of work, the new addition is finally complete enough for us to move in. For the next 5 months or so while the team renovates the existing house, we’re “camping” in the addition.

We’re making use of what will be our daughter’s room as our temporary bedroom, the guest bedroom will be a makeshift eating area, the ‘fridge will be in the garage, and my eventual office is serving as our living room. There will be one bathroom, reminding us of our first apartment when we lived in Tokyo. Fortunately, the new exercise room is ready to go in the addition so we can maintain our fitness.

The transition process was planned long ago because we wanted to remain in the house for the entire addition and renovation project. Yes, it is more complicated and disruptive than moving to a rental for a year, but being onsite during construction has been a terrific experience. We love to see the daily progress.

Early in the project once framing of the addition was complete, the team broke through from the addition to the existing house. They then installed a small temporary wall just inside the existing house so they can work in the new addition including the transition space that will be the new entry hall.

For this weekend’s “moving party”, the temporary wall was taken down so that we had access to the entire house. For the past 4 days we’ve been moving constantly! Boxes here, clothing there, where the heck should I put my surfboard?

Everything was sorted into categories:

• Junk to the dumpster
• Usable items we no longer want to Goodwill with some larger items like my really comfortable and in great condition (but rather ugly) recliner made available to the teams of subcontractors.
• Furniture, clothing, supplies, and whatnot that we will use in our temporarily living arrangements goes to the new side.
• One bay of the new garage as storage of furniture and other things that will eventually move into the renovated side.
• The entire old garage as storage for things like books that will eventually go to the new library plus sporting equipment and seldom used large items like suitcases that will remain in what will eventually be the storage room of the house.
• For those who use a Fitbit, I recorded the following stats for the 5 days of our move: 100,205 steps, 48.07 miles traveled, and 279 staircases climbed.

Then with the help of five strong guys from Big Foot Moving and Storage, we shuttled the big stuff from the original house where we have lived for 21 years.

In the next week, a temporary wall will be installed just inside the new addition, which gives the team access to just inside the transition and all of the existing house.

We look forward to Moving Weekend Part Two around the turn of the year when the entire house project is done! 

Restoring and Reusing Vintage 1950s Light Fixtures

We’re lucky to have a bunch of original light fixtures from the 1950s still in our home. I’ve always loved these fixtures, so we will be reusing them in the renovated house.

The fixtures are currently undergoing a complete restoration. I cleaned the glass, polished the wood, and painted the metal base of each light.

Mike at Patti Brothers Lighting, an expert vintage light repair craftsman, is re-wiring the fixtures. Each will get new wires and converted to be able to accept LED bulbs.

I’ll post again when they are re-installed.

Garage Doors

It was exciting to have the garage doors installed!

We chose very simple, clean, and modern design with no windows.

Spray Foam Insulation

 

On the outer walls and roof, we went with a spray foam insulation product manufactured by Icynene and installed by Anderson Insulation - the white material in the photograph below. The pink material is used between rooms on inner walls and serves as a noise barrier.

Spray foam insulation is quickly becoming a favorite insulation for architects and builders and homeowners because it provides an effective air seal and is much more efficient than traditional fiberglass material.

Insulating and protecting against air leakage with spray foam insulation results in significantly reduced carbon emissions and saves on heating and cooling costs. It is likely that we will use less energy to heat and cool our new renovated and enlarged house than the old one even though the new will be twice the size.

 

Choosing New and Recycling Old Door Hardware

Our original 1958 TechBuilt home features really cool original door handles in what I believe to be brushed aluminum. They are wonderful period pieces that I consider to be works of art.

We decided early into our project that we wanted all the handles throughout the renovated and enlarged home to be the same. We knew we wanted to go with lever style, which we had in our Tokyo apartment in the 1990s, and that we admire in various buildings throughout Europe.

This posed two challenges. What to do with the original handles and how to choose new ones.

Fortunately, a neighbor who also has a TechBuilt home wanted to swap out their non-vintage door handles with originals so we’re absolutely thrilled that our vintage handles will live on for many decades to come in another Techbuilt home! How exciting. 

For our new handles we had a great visit to Raybern Decorative Hardware in Boston where we worked with the very knowledgeable (and humorous) Paul Speight who helped us choose from many options and kept us giggling the entire time. The Raybern showroom is in a wonderful old restored factory that serves as a perfect showcase for their many products.

We went with lever style handles in solid stainless steel from Omnia. The made-in-Europe handles will look awesome in our new home. The handles feature a 28-degree retraction so they are easy on the wrist, especially as we age. And since the handles are in stainless, we can use for both the interior and exterior doors.

Our Team from Patriot Custom Homes

I love this photo of our team from Patriot Custom Homes. 

It's a challenge for both us as homeowners and our builders because we have chosen to live in our home during construction. 

Having a team with a positive attitude and who clearly enjoy their work makes the relationship work. 

Thank you guys!

 

Exposed Spiral Ductwork

We’ve decided to leave the ductwork in the upstairs part of the new addition exposed. I’ve always liked the look and from the beginning of our project, we asked the architect and the builder to go in this direction.

I like the natural color, but there is always the option to paint it. We’ll likely live with it natural for a while before making any decision on paint.

Installing the Metal Roof

We chose to go with a 24 gauge Galvalume metal roof product made by Englert and installed by Bradford Standing Seam.

We had looked at many options for the roof and were attracted to metal because it is long lasting and we will never have to replace it in our lifetimes. Metal roofing from Englert is Energy Star approved and has been included in the government's energy efficiency tax credit program.

Standing seam metal roofing is installed using a portable panel-forming machine that allows the team from Bradford to custom form each piece on site. It was fascinating to watch the roll of pre-colored metal go in one side of the trailer and come out the other ready to go. A computerized cutter was used to measure each panel exactly.

Prior to arrival onsite, they manufacture all the trim and flashings in their shop so that the installation goes quickly.

Englert has many color options and a really cool color visualizer on their site. We went with Dove Gray.

Making Electrical Decisions

Over the past week we’ve had to make a bunch of decisions about the placement of electrical outlets, switches, and light fixtures.

So many things to think about!

We had to imagine how we’d live in each room in the new addition – where would furniture go? Would there be wired internet, landline phone, cable TV, or stereo speakers in that room? What sorts of fixtures make sense? How much automation do we want?

Since the previous homes we’ve lived in were all rented or purchased with electrical already set, this was our first foray into this unknown world.

Fortunately, Dylan James from Patriot Custom Homes and our electrical contractor Mark Tierney walked us through the options so we could make intelligent decisions.

It’s been fun to see the “behind the scenes” installation of the wires and boxes to make the decisions come to life.