Client Questions 9/1/11

I started thinking about things that should happen before next Fri at
8 am when the runner goes up the stairs, through the second floor, the
master carpet gets laid down and the living room carpet is installed.
Due to the nature of the woven rug, the rug place suggested we not put
down the plastic on top of the rug because it could pull apart the
rug.

Paint stuff
- Bannister from first to second floor DONE 9/2
- Paint living room and hallway trim, master closet DONE 9/2

Finish Master Closet
   - does any paint or anything need to happen? DONE 9/2
   - let me know when this will start and I will move all the boxes out

Master Bath
       -Is any more trim going in master bath? DONE 9/2
       - I will try and find sconces this weekend for master bath (I am slightly concerned that I will not be able to return the ones that we currently have if all the boxes have been discarded) OK
       - What do I need to do regarding the master shower?  Ross mentioned whatever I bought does not fit so if I could know exactly what specifications I need to order for that would be great.  Ross ordered something.  It will be here Tuesday.  I hope you like it?
     - countertop? 9/8
     - mirrors 9/6
     - install med. cabinet 9/6
    - what else needs to happen in there? Accessories. 9/6

I think the only other things on the second floor are:
   - electrical stuff (master bedroom, replace Grayson's light) 9/6
   - switch out shower and tub fixtures in Grayson's bathroom 9/6

Rope Lighting at Crown

CABINET SHOP DRAWINGS

Family Room Wall

Range Wall

Pantry Wall

Pantry Detail

TV Wall

Vanity

Walk-In Closet - Design 1

Plan View

"A" View

"A" View

"B" View

"B" View

"C" View

"C" View

Client Questions - 7/18/2011

1. Thank you so much for bring so flexible with the move in date. NP

2. Do you know what is underneath the wooden soffit that runs along the workroom wall in the mudroom? Foundation

3. Have you ever built a chalkboard/place for keys/basket system on the side of your cubbies?  All the time.  We put them on refrigerators. And any other panel you would like. 

4. Do you think we would be able to put a bar to dry clothes from the wall with the stairs on it to the workroom wall and just put it above where the ironing board will fold down? I also saw this Sure

http://www.ballarddesigns.com/beadboard-drying-rack-with-hanger-rail/laundry-room/drying-racks/13603

do you think that would be useful? I think it is pretty cool.  Could work nicely.  You buy we will install.

5. Can we please leave the railing that goes up to the 3rd floor that is currently in the master bedroom off until we bring up the queen size bed? OK

6.  I would like to install the rugs before we move in due to the off gassing that can occur.  The rugs that need to be installed are in Grayson's room, Master, Living room, runner and second floor hallway and the basement. I can definitely wait on the basement rug but would it be OK to set a rug install date for 8/22? Yes

Meeting Notes 7/15/11

Melissa, Peter, Mike Norton

1. Melissa requested a cost update on the pantry cabinets as well as a hard install date.
   
2. Do a master closet layout.
   
3. Do minor touch ups and repairs on 2nd floor floors.
   
4. Have Buonato fabricate surround at fireplace.  Should be full pieces of material not tile.  Have Villanueva remove existing tile and prep for new.
   
5. Remove corner cabinet in dining room and patch floor. 
6. Remove the crown in the Dining Room and replace with new to match kitchen crown only larger. 
7. Make sure that the front entry closet doors work smoothly.
   
8. Gym Floor - Epoxy coat the floor for vapor and install 6 mil poly sheeting taped at all seams for moisture protection.  Lay 1/2" rigid insulation. Install floating floor over.  Give some inexpensive options for floor color.
   
9. Install folding shelf/table to right as you walk in laundry room door.
   
10. Smooth out all basement ceilings and walls and up stairs with plaster.
    
11. Replace round railings on stairs with new.  Install on new ORB (Oil Rubbed Bronze) brackets and stain to match other railings.
12. Add non-slip coating to master bath floor

Client Questions - 7/10/2011

The house is looking great.  Thank you!  I delivered the outdoor speakers to the living room today and more fixtures arrived as well. A few questions:

1.  I was wondering if you wanted to meet at some point this week to discuss closet stuff perhaps?  It can be next week as well.
Would you like to meet this Thursday 7/14?  I could do early afternoon.

2. When do you want the counter tops by?
I just need the material and/or slab location as soon as you have it chosen.

3.  Are there other things I should be picking out/picking up?
We need the accessories for the bathrooms.  TP Holders,  Things that have nothing to do with us would be rugs, furniture and window treatments. 

4.  In the workout room (which looks better already without the paneling) we are going to put a tv on the wall opposite the new wall you guys built (so on the same wall as the boiler room).  We don't need to install cable up high we can just run a wire up there).  Are you guys re-doing the soffits in that room? I can't remember what Ross had said.  The windows look great in there as well!
The soffits are being built to cover the existing plumbing and AC.  We will also leave an access for the clean out that is in the wall above the fireplace.

5.  When ever the dumpster gets emptied I will come over and clean out the third garage so Mike has an easier time getting through that disaster area!
We'll let you know.  If you want to throw stuff in there now, its fine.

6.  I saw that Mike pried off the grates in the front hall.  How labor intensive $$ is all of that?  It looks much better without those!
I will ask Mike.  I know he was wrestling with a couple of them. 

Client Questions - 7/6/2011

1. Can I get a ballpark price on ripping out the paneling in the workout room and just putting plaster on it?  It is such a stupid expense but I can't really see another option now that the entire back wall needed to be rebuilt and because we have filled in the door. Sure

2.  Doors in the basement: into the mudroom from the garage, into the utility room, into the hallway and into the laundry room. I think it might make sense to make these door frames wider so we can get appliances in and out without having so saw off the molding like we had to when we brought in the dryer.  Is it too late for that now?  Sorry.. just thought of it... We actually need to do that for the laundry room.  I will check on the width of the other doors today.

3. Mike told me we need a metal door into the garage to bring it up to code.  By code you need a fire door there.  I hadn't noticed that it wasn't.

4. What is your vision for the laundry room set up under the stairs etc?  I thought we are putting deep open shelving there.  Would you prefer it to be closed off?

5.  I noticed some water/ condensation on the floor in the laundry room against the wall next to the outdoor work room.  Do you think we need to reinstall the dehumidifier we had running down there or when we have the HVAC system on will that solve the problem? Humidity is an issue down there now because the door is open so much during construction.  This will reduce somewhat once door is kept closed.  A humidifier is always a good thing.

6.  Since we have to take off panels etc on the front of the house, I assume we will paint that area around the door.  Do you think I need new light fixtures and house numbers?   Haven't looked at those but my guess would be yes.  Though you could do that at anytime.

7. I got a new peep hole which is smaller than the one we currently have so we will probably need wood filler around the old one.  Needham Lock said it should be in in less than a month. 

8. Will we ever need to access stuff for the HVAC system in the ceiling in the cellar hallway or the mudroom ceiling?  I noticed there are no panels there.  Wherever there are controls or shutoffs there are access panels.  Other areas should be fine.

9.  Do you think we should we remove the other cupboard in the dining room to create more symmetry?  Not necessarily.

10. I went to California closets yesterday and left as confused as when I started.  I have a catalog to show you and some materials. Maybe I could come over to the house today if you are going there? Otherwise perhaps next week? I will be there tomorrow morning.  Today I am flat out.

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Owners Manual

Cubbies for Basement - Design 1

Thoughts?

Cabinet Plans - Updated 6.15.11

5.1:

-- I’ve shown a 27” wall oven and microwave (as per appliance schedule, 5-19-11).

-- I’ve drawn a side elevation (D1) of the cabinet with glass doors to left of the oven. It shows a possible bracket profile. I can easily print a full scale template if you like the profile.

-- Elevation A shows a much simpler idea for the range hood and tile surround. The idea would be to make a thicker frame that could go up to the ceiling. The frame would be a boundary for the tile and also be thicker than the casing of the opening to the family room next to it so they are clearly different. The range hood is also drawn more accurately since I measured it on site.

-- Also note the full scale profile of the typical foot at the bottom of the cabinets, middle-right on the sheet.

5.2:

-- Shows deeper banquette as discussed on 5/20

-- Bookshelves are now 12” deep

-- Cabinets extend all the way across TV wall. I’ve added some notes to help describe the details more.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Cubby Design

Air Button

Client Questions - 5/26/11

Can put insulation in the floor in the family room since that room is above an unheated workroom.

I believe there is already insulation in the floor. I will confirm.

The door going on Grayson's shower is there a way for that door not to throw water out into the bathroom when you open it? Or is that just a natural cause of any swinging shower door?

I think it is natural to the system. I will look into a solution.

My notes are a little shady on this so can you please explain to me again the sound for the TV? I know John mentioned doing something to it but he said not to hook it up to the Sonos speakers.
The Sonos system is more of a music delivery system It is not made for TV's. If you want to use the same speakers for the TV it can be done but you would need a separate amplifier. Then the speaker configuration would be different since you want to get the appropriate separation between speakers from where you are sitting. That room is not ideal for true TV theater watching and sound. The best solution would be to put a sound bar above or below the TV. These give great sound and almost theater quality but from the direction of the TV not the ceiling. We suggest staying with the music in the ceiling and if you want more of TV experience maybe down the road designate a room as a home theater room.

I am feeling a little nervous about a 24 inch door since Will played football at Dartmouth and a lot of his friends are rather large:) Have you done a 24 inch door before?
I have put in 24" doors before. They are small and only are used in closets and small baths. I think it will be OK but we might need to build a mock up so that you are more comfortable. I just found a 26" if that makes you feel better.

1. We decided to leave the family room floor at the current height and make a slight 1" ramp over 24"+ at the end of the kitchen peninsula.
   
   
2. Laundry ceiling is being patched in as well as possible. Still a lot of stuff hanging down. May need to box later after we see how it looks.
   
   
3. Decided to demo master bath shower room ceiling and relocate vent to the wall. All lightsin this area to be sconces adding one more on the window side at the toilet.
   
   
4. Powder room door will be a left hand 2'0" door. Light switch to be on the outside of the room
   
   
5. Powder room sink will be corner mounted.
   
   
6. We will add a vent to the Master Bath shower/toilet area.
   
   
7. We will try to reuse the existing kitchen vent hood. It may need a new stainless chimney to the ceiling.
   
   
8. We will either fabricate or purchase a medicine cabinet for the Master Bath to be located in the closet wall to the right of the vanity. Tis can be wide enough to fit between two wall studs and no mirror necessary.
   
   
9. We will install a full length mirror on the closet wall behind the bath door.
   
   
10. We agreed to alter the trey ceiling in the family room to allow for a 12" bookshelf.
    
    
11. We will alter the Unico system as necessary to make it work appropriately and fix installation issues as we deem necessary.
    
    
12. We will demo master closet ceiling and frame up as high s possible.
    
    
13. It was determined that all of the moisture in the basement was caused by humidity. We will figure out a dehumidification system for the basement.
    
    
14. Melissa will contact the alarm company asap to get everything checked out.
    
    
15. We went over the speaker location with the electrician agreeing to locations in the family room, Dining room (down low in wainscot), Living room and deck.
    
    
16. We discussed repair of the front entry. The issue is that the copper roof over the capital was never installed correctly and had a board nailed through it. I suggest replacing it with a new copper roof. We will also open up the panels on both sides, clean them out and reinstall with new trim. Caulk and paint. This will be a T&M project.
    
    
17. Rot repair on the basement sills turned out to be much worse than originally thought completely eaten by termites in places. We will need to disconnect the Unico system to access this area. Total work needed is unknown.

Architect Meeting 5/23/11

Cabinets (general): Peter, could you let us know when you are going to start making cabinets. I think it would be good to review everything with Melissa. We will start measuring up once the sheet rock is done. Hopefully next week. After that 10+ weeks until delivery.

Bookshelves opposite TV: These are 10” deep, which is a good depth for most books, however looking back at pictures of your old shelves they are deeper to hold the larger albums. If you think these 10” shelves may not be deep enough, now is the time to address it. 10" is a little shallow. I would give it at least 11".

Built in Seat: We decided this would be better at 2’-6” deep (previously 1’-10). Add 8” to cushion width. OK

Cabinets under TV: These are shown as open in the 5-19-11 set, but we decided to have doors, I will revise. OK

Casings: Melissa would like to use the casing with a profile instead of the flat casing to match the existing casings in the house. I think the Anderson McQuaid A&M30208 is a close match. Maybe we could get a few feet of to verify? OK

Powder room sink: To be continued after today’s email exchange. OK

2^nd Floor bathroom: We eliminated the open shelves opposite the mirror and decided to get a store bought medicine cabinet adjacent to the window. See attached PDF. OK

Here are a few options after a quick search. Most of these have mirrors except the first one:

http://www.nutone.com/product-detail.asp?ProductID=1719

http://www.nutone.com/product-detail.asp?ProductID=11054

http://www.nutone.com/product-detail.asp?ProductID=11052

Powder Room Sink

Plans Updated 5/17/11 - KitchenElevB

This image shows a boxed in cabinet style range hood. I think this may jut off the wall too much. I may have suggested this but in further review it might need to be anchored to another wall cabinet. It is also too high for most fan systems to work correctly. It should be lowered by about 6"+.

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Meeting Notes 5/12

Today we had a walk through and discussed:

1. New rot issue at back patio/ outdoor shower.
   This area has a built up bluestone patio area the surface of which is higher than the shingle siding and sills of the house. Over several years water and snow has been sitting here and seeping into the walls. Currently the wall adjacent to the outdoor shower has been exposed and we found completely rotted sills. We have also seen the wall at the back of where the shower is attached and that is rotted as well. We suspect that the wall perpendicular to this wall, under the living room is rotted has similar issues.
   The correct way to remedy this issue is to remove the bluestone patio, expose all of the rotted sills and repair them, dig the patio down to an appropriate height so that water shed away from the house, and then put it all back together.
   This is not a small project. However it doesn't have to be done right now but must be done in the next year or so.
   
   
2. Accepted change orders include:
   CO 1 - Extra Demolition
   CO 2 - Center Windows
   CO 4 - Framing & Carpentry 1
   CO 6 - Sill rot repair
   CO 10 - Replace master shower door
   CO 12 - Master Shower Tile Note: wrong CO submitted (11). Actual CO = $3,456.00
   CO 13 - Fireplace tile
   CO 14 - Front Walkway Note: Steps and front entry not estimated as of yet. Stilling sussing out issues.
   CO 15 Outdoor shower floor Note: This may change based on direction we go with patio rot issue.
   CO 17 Plumbing Extras #1 Note: there will be some extras coming based on things that arose last week. i.e. the need for a pump system to drain the laundry room fixtures.
   CO 18 Sewer Tie In Note: This is an estimate. We are still waiting on final numbers based on what the town is requiring us to do.
   CO 19 Reframe Family Room wall
   CO 21 New Triple casement
   
   
3. Rejected change orders include:
   CO 5 - Dec Renovation and carport
   
   CO 7 - Window replacement - Will replace all trim on lead windows on 2nd floor. The lower sash of these windows will be stripped where on their styles and rails and repainted. Tuning up of all window and storms remains a T&M task. Write up new CO and resubmit.
   
   CO 9 - Sonos music system - Will be reduced to 4 systems. (1) Deck, (1) Kitchen/Family room, (1) Dining Room, (1) Living Room and resubmit.
   
   CO 16 - Kids shower door Note: This is to be changed to a frameless shower door for cost savings and resubmit.
   
   CO 20 Master Bedroom Electrical Note: remove Lower bedside sconces and resubmit.

Client Questions - 5/9/2011

1. What should we do with the electric baseboard in family room? I am not sure. I will look at it tomorrow and advise.

2. Should we keep the door on the second floor that leads down into what will be Grayson's bedroom on or take it off? I thought we should take it off and maybe re-use it in the master somewhere for the bathroom door or something but would love your opinion on that. It depends on how you would be using the space. I don't see there being much use for it right now especially since you have little kids living down there for the foreseeable future. Unless you plan ion shutting it off or using it for a guest wing I would probably get rid of that door altogether.

3. Now that the walls are down to their studs can we put in better insulation? I will upgrade all of the insulation to either foam (my preference) or Cellulose (Lyle's preference).

4. What do you think of installing the music also in the work out room - which will be the room that leads to the fire pit? I am a music guy. I would put it everywhere if I could.

5. I noticed damage to unique's airducts/or silver bag thingys do you need to contact them to get the correct stuff to fix it? If so, I can give you the name of the guy we used or I can contact him directly. Yes I would like his name.

6. I assume you would like us to get everything off porch- when would you like that done by? We have some time. I hope to get a price to you early this week to make sure we are all on the same page. we need to get a bit further on the interior before we can jump out there.

7. How long will dumpster be in the driveway? I am wondering because I would love to clean out and throw out junk from the work room into it:) A long time.

8. In the master bath, we talked about the fact that the light has to go over the mirror- do you think a tube light or upside down sconces would look better there? I am not a big fan of fluorescent so I would find a sconce of some sort.

Laundry Issues 5/9/11

This is a view of the rotted sill below the laundry sink. This will need to be replaced and the framing replace as well.

This is a view of the broken drain to the laundry sink. This will need to be replaced if we intend to reuse the sink. Note there is a sizable crack in the sink. Might think about replacing.

Kitchen Elevation Updated 5/9/11

This drawing shows where the architect would like the beam. Note relocation of the range.

Pantry Window Change 5/5/11

This is the window configuration that we like the best. These are casement windows.

Client Questions - 5/2/2011

1. "Let's leave the sconces on the wall looking at the fire pit. As long as we can do it electrically, I think it looks nice." OK
   
   
2. "I agree about the car port and I like one level better anyway!" We will price up the project to see if it meets your budget requirements.
   
   
3. "I had not thought about surround sound for the TV but it would be nice! It will depend on the price I think. We were thinking of having sound in the kitchen, family room, Living room, bar and library... it would be great to be on the porch as well but we can bring a stereo out if that is super expensive." I would like to set up a meeting with you and Ross to go over music options. We love the Sonos system. It is completely expandable. inexpensive (comparatively) and very easy to use. When are you available to meet with Ross?
   
   
4. I would like to revisit the lead issue with you. After thinking about it some more and talking with one of my guys we feel like taking a few more steps in the lead removal area. The immediate concern is the windows where sashes sliding up and down make lead dust fro the paint. This is a particularly hazardous scenario since small children often stand at windows and hold onto the sills to see out. Then the hands go in the mouth etc. I would like to meet with you again to discuss this. Please let me know your availability.