Farewell, It Has Been....Many Things.

Part I:

On September 14, 2006 Ryan and I became the owners of the Zeller House. It seems like a lifetime ago and yesterday at the same time. This update is far more than long past due and it will be the final entry in the blog. Although the bulk of the project was completed over a year ago, there was quite a bit of finish work left. The photo gallery is complete and there are recently posted pics in the "Hiller's Pics of the House" folder on the photo gallery link.

The kitchen was completed including back-splash of glass tile and Ryan created open shelving rather than cabinet uppers out of more of the beams salvaged during early demolition. All the bathrooms and the laundry room were completed. Both the downstairs half bath and the master bath have beautiful counter-tops also created from salvaged beams. The master bath tile is consistent with that in the other full bath upstairs, featuring glass tile walls and a slate floor and shower floor. The master is shower only. It's a beautiful walk-in shower with shower head mounted directly overhead. Ryan and I are not bath people and we decided that we would love a great walk-in shower, so that's what we went with! There's a tub in the other full bath if you really need one! The built-ins we had been planning, finally happened as well. Beneath the landing halfway up the stairs is a bookshelf (See pic at the top). The area built up by the fireplace over the basement stairwell was finally finished as a bench seat with drawer storage beneath. Speaking of the fireplace, we decided to go all out and restore it to wood-burning, the only way we like it! Ryan put in a slate hearth and used more salvaged wood on the mantle. Upstairs, the laundry room got some shelving and the master bedroom is now complete with a desk surface in the narrow area on the opposite side of the bedroom deck from the bathroom.

Two areas we decided to leave to the new owners were the garage and landscaping. The garage is actually a great space. It's a structurally sound two-car space. The front yard is very shallow, mostly just the area directly in front of the facade that needs to be filled in with shrubs and flowers. The area between the sidewalk and street is now bricked with one tree to match the northerly neighbors along 4th street. The backyard is a great, large space. We left it pretty much a blank slate. The yard is all grass and we did finally remove "The Pond." Some of you may remember that there was a cement fish pond that had been constructed in the 30's. It turned out to be a real behemoth and required quite a bit of excavation to get out, but was definitely worth it. Not by choice, but by the whim of the weather gods, there are considerably less Mullberry Tree branches overhanging the yard. Maci was the only one who mourned this loss as she would graze the yard for Mullberries until her tongue was raw!

I have listed below the end of the entry, the information we collected as we anticipated putting the house on the market (although we were very lucky that we never actually had to). Most if not all of this information has been included in my entries over the past four years, but this summarizes all the important work we did in one place in case you're interested.

Part II:

On June 15, 2010 we closed on the house again. This time we were the sellers. A great family and longtime Lewisburg residents fell in love with the house and scooped it up. Fears that it would be hard to sell or would end up in the hands of people who would change it were abated when Bud and Tammy Hiller became the new owners of 213 N. 4th. It was what Ryan and I had hoped for all along. That someone would come along to love the house as much as we have. So that's the end my faithful readers, the end of a four-year relationship with a house that took a lot out of us, but returned it tenfold. Our intent for the project that I wrote at the top of this blog over four years ago rings unbelievably true. I'm not sure I've ever followed-through on a project and stayed so true to the original goals. This experience has been one of the most incredible of our lives. It has been both the most trying and the most satisfying. I remember when we first bought the place, our neighbor Gregg spoke to us with undertones of: "These kids have no idea what they've gotten themselves into!" I'm proud to say that although he was right in a sense, no one could have known what the renovation would bring, I think we were very aware of that from the beginning. Although sometimes it seemed like we couldn't catch a break, whether with the bank and our loans or the weather when we were trying to do exterior work, we stayed true to our goals and have an absolutely awesome product to show for it and more importantly, a wealth of experiences going forward.

There are too many people to thank by name. To those who were integral to every aspect of this project, whether for you labor or moral support, thank you all, you know who you are! We'd like to thank the residents of Lewisburg, rather than resisting change as we feared they might, they were overwhelmingly positive and supportive of our project and we remember every time a stranger stopped by to peer in the door or give a nod of confidence. I think we'd be remiss not to thank a few people by name. To our parents, Mike, Marcia, Chuck and Becky. Words cannot express our thanks for your work and advice-Mike-and from all of you, such a strong belief in us and unwavering support. To the Johnson family members, thank you for your excitement about the change and renewal of your childhood home and for your insights into the the history of the house. And finally to Michael Stone who has to this point gone unnamed. You may not have taken very good care of Zeller, but you knew when it was finally time to give her up and I know for certain that she thanks you.

As I was at the last update, I'm still in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. Ryan and Maci have moved to Oregon for grad school in architecture. On June 15th, 2010 Ryan and I parted ways from the Zeller House and each other. At times I think we both find it strange to be in new places with people who don't know about "The House" and the time we have spent with it and thinking about it over the past four years. As the blogger, I cannot close without also thanking Ryan. There is obviously not enough space here to say it all, but I am in awe of your abilities as they relate to both design and construction and I believe that when you look back years from now, Zeller will stand as the marker to the beginning of a career full of innovation and creativity.

Thanks all for following us on this journey. It has turned out to be so much more than the process of remodeling a house, 213 will always be with us. If you're in Lewisburg, please stop by and say hi for us.

Kate and Ryan


FOR SALE: Single Family, 3 bedroom, 2 ½ bath, full basement, garage, great neighborhood

Zeller House c.1825 – 1850
213 N. 4th St., Lewisburg, PA 17837

Home Re-Build Summary:

The Zeller home (named for its original builder/owner) had been unoccupied for 15 years prior to this renovation. The state of neglect and disrepair opened the door for a total re-build. This is essentially a brand new home. A strong emphasis was placed on reduced energy usage, innovative design, and a healthy living environment, while preserving a link to the history of the home.

Below is a list of the major focal points of the home. A complete series of photos is available upon request, as well as full documentation of the scope of work performed, including materials choices and building practices.

Design/Function:

It was very important to us to maintain the original facade of the Zeller house to provide a connection with the historic nature of Lewisburg. We went as far as to convert a bay window that was built into the facade in the 1930’s back to the more appropriate double hung window. Although there is evidence that the home originally had two front doors, we wanted to make sure that the house would function as a single-family residence and not lend itself to future rental as a half/double. With the freedom to re-build the interior, a creative open space with a functional living design approach was used. While modern at its core, the use of authentic accents throughout was important to tie the reinvented space with the historical charm of the original.

Materials Salvage/Reused:

- Original wide plank pine floors salvaged, re-milled, installed on first floor
- Original floor joists milled and converted to structural members (beam in kitchen
& Master Bedroom)
- Original floor joists milled for lumber to create new front door, ½ bath counter, and kitchen shelves
- Original doors stripped of lead paint, stained, converted to pocket doors
- Ceiling joists on second floor exposed and finished for architectural accent
- Exposed brick walls throughout
- Stair railings milled from old framing members

Environmental Impact & Energy Efficiency:

- Locally sourced materials for wood siding, stair treads
- Locally sourced craftsman for wood flooring, front door, concrete counter tops
- Materials with recycled content used when possible (decking, concrete floors, salvaged wood)
- High efficiency closed cell spray foam insulation and Marvin Integrity fiberglass windows
- Light colored metal roof for maximum heat deflection
- Tankless natural gas hot water heaters for cast iron baseboard and radiant floor heating
- Central mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery for healthy indoor air quality, air circulation, moisture management
- Engineered building products utilizing higher percentages of raw materials
- Low or No V.O.C. paints and finishes
- Low flow bath and sink fixtures
- Energy Star appliances

Annual Gas Bill 2008: Covers all domestic hot water, heating system, gas stove, and gas dryer. 2000-sqft. living space, heated at average ambient room temp of 68 degrees. = $1391.00 (compared to $3-5,000 annually for neighboring houses of similar size)

Annual Electric Bill 2008 (post rate cap) = $660

Pics!

Great news! We FINALLY have photos available again. They are linked on the right as they were originally. There are a ton, check them out.

A Year Later...We're Still At It

Just a few days short of a full year since my last post and I've have finally gotten around to getting some information up. While I'm sure pictures are what you crave, that's beyond my capability at the moment so this update will have to suffice for now.

Last July I had just accepted a job with the University of Michigan and begun preparing to move. I have now been in Ann Arbor for almost a year. Professionally it was definitely the right move and if you've ever been to Ann Arbor, I'm sure you'll agree it's a great town. Great music, art, food and of course cool houses that need work:) I don't want to get ahead of myself though, we've still got this one to finish up!

So, the answer is yes, we're still at it on the Zeller House. Between my move and Ryan's constant stream of work, it's tough to fit in time to finish the house. Even in this economy Ryan has been very busy and we're counting on that for just a little longer so we can scrape the last bit of funds together to finish things off. I am also contributing to the house fund from afar, because at this point we are going to be bringing in some outside help here and there since Ryan is so busy with work and I'm not even in the same state.

This is not to say that Ryan hasn't gotten quite a bit of work done this year. As for the exterior, it is almost all painted save the side wall that is only feet from the side wall of our neighbor's house. There are a few more repairs to do on the brick before it gets painted. So the house is looking very sharp with a grey/green base and shades of purple on the trim, which will also eventually go on the two deck doors on the modern addition. As of the last few weeks, all the gutters have been replaced. This week the electrical line that runs to the back of the house is going to be moved to a different section so it's safer and more pleasing to the eye. We still have some railings to add to the deck and some repairs to do. I have to give a bad review to the deck product we used. It has not proven to be very durable and has warped in some places, so we need to do some repairs. We are planning to do some landscaping work within the month. We'll do some basic native shrubs directly out front. As for the thin strip between the sidewalk and street, we are going to follow the lead of the houses to our left on 4th Street and do a brick pattern as well as plant a tree. How much we will actually do in the backyard is yet to be determined. We are thinking we may clean things up significantly, but simply with some pavers around the deck and major weeding and pruning all over. As for "the pond" we may even have it taken out and just fill in the grass.

Downstairs is done except for paint and a few built-ins. Ryan had a chance to trim it out and prime it this winter. He added a tile backsplash in the kitchen. Some of the beautiful clear class tile was extra courtesy of a job a few years back in Philly and we supplemented with more tile from the small company we bought the bathroom tile from. The same tile adds a backsplash to the downstairs half bath. That bathroom also has a small sink which is undermounted onto a huge shelf-like piece of wood salvaged from the house that wraps around and creates both a counter and a shelf. I have to say it's a damn cool bathroom! Ryan also repointed the living room fireplace and we are probably just going to leave it as is. If a buyer wants either wood-burning or gas, we'll do it for them, but we don't want to make that choice for them. The built-ins I'm talking about are in the living room. There is a sort of bench-seat area over where the basement stairs are as well as the area under the stairs to the second floor. The carpenter who did our floors is going to make the bench seat with storage underneath and put in a bookshelf under the stairs.

The second floor is where the work really needs to happen. It's a matter of getting in the floors so that Ryan can do the trim. We've also learned a bit about glass tiling. We thought we did a pretty good job, but we've found some problems in the bathroom that we did. Hard to know whether it's our fault or the quality of the tile, but probably a combination of the two. We've decided to have a professional tiler do the mater bath. The two front bedrooms still need closet doors as well.

It seems like a lot. In some ways it is, in some ways it isn't. None of this will really take that long to do, but we're just at the point where we're not going the route of the loan, just chipping away at it as we can with money we're actually making:) The project itself is not all that stressful. Thinking back to the day I came home from work and opened the front door to find Ryan looking up at me from the basement and the inside of the roof looking down at me with no first, second or third floors was a heck of a lot more stressful. What is hard at this point is that I'm in Michigan and Ryan's still in PA. What's amazing and nice is that neither of us hate the house or are really sick of it. I miss it terribly, just being in it, and Ryan is already sad to think about leaving it. I guess that's when you know you've done good work. For some people, home is not about the structure, it's about the family inside. It's certainly about family for us, but I think it's also about the structure. Three years ago, the Zeller House was not a place that felt good, but it's really become a house that you want to be in, that makes you feel good. The space is light and positive and family and friends enjoy being in it and although it might sound crazy, I believe old houses have a sort of soul and I think that after a long while, the house itself is happy again.

Summer Update

Well, the lack of posts does not reflect a lack of work, only a blogging hibernation on my part. As I said in my last post, Ryan has put in quite a bit of quality time on the house in the past six months. Through the winter we made a great deal of indoor progress. The kitchen is in including the counter tops. They are concrete, crafted by a local company. In conjunction with the kitchen cabinetry, we installed a line of cabinets in the sun room that provide a ton of storage and sit underneath the eating area that connects the kitchen and sun room. In order to spice up our dark concrete counter tops, we've installed a large section of butcher-block on the island and the eating area is also covered with a large stretch of butcher-block. The IKEA kitchen exceeded our expectations. It was as easy as they say to install and Ryan was able to customize certain parts to meet our needs and ideas. He added panels to give the fridge a built-in look. We also decided to do our own custom end-panels stained a charcoal color to go with some of our other trim. These panels are on all visible ends of counter tops including both ends of the island. Our favorite customization is for the wall-oven. We really wanted an oven separate from the range-top to avoid constant stooping to access the oven. However, with the shape of the kitchen and our design, there was no space on the wall that made sense for an oven. To remedy this, we decided to put the oven in the island, slightly raised up with a drawer underneath. The result is that a section of the island has a higher counter top which works out well given Ryan's substantial height (6'5"). Now that we have had the entire kitchen installed for a while, using the oven is easy and I'm very glad we made the decision that we did. Now all that's left to do in the kitchen is a tile back splash and paint. We're thinking of bringing all the colors together for the tile, including gray, black and red to spice things up a bit.

Once the kitchen went in, the beautifully re-milled hardwood floors went back down in the kitchen and front room. The floors looked absolutely stunning when we got them down with a little help from Ryan's parents and my mom, so we decided jut to go with a clear coat rather than any stain that would change the color of the natural wood. Once the floors were in, Ryan was able to pour the concrete hearth in the front room. Although it has been great to have the kitchen in, and the floors are amazing, the stairs are the most beautiful interior piece in the house. Back when when we were still in the framing stages of work, we deliberated for weeks, probably months about where the stairs should be and how they should be designed. I could never have imagined that the final product would be so stunning. Everything is done on the stairs except the balusters which will be metal cables. The rest of the structure is a combination of wood, large pine treads stained black with simple banisters made of hemlock extracted from the house. Ryan then constructed the rough trim for the windows on the front of the house with their deeper boxes. We have decided to paint the boxes and trim, but stain the actual wood window frames. We decided to steer away from staining all our trim, because we already have a lot of stained wood in the house and don't want to overdo the look. Most recently, our first built-in piece came together. We have been talking about a piece that will divide the front room into a living and dining area and double as a place to put mail, newspapers and hang a few coats. The shelving unit that Ryan constructed looks great and we think it will have the desired affect.

In the spring we were able to finally get the concrete floors stained. Ryan did the mudroom first and then we did the sun room together. We are happy we decided to carry the charcoal/black theme over into those floors. I think they add some depth especially in the sun room where we get so much light and offer a complement to the end panels and the red in the kitchen.

As the weather has warmed up we have headed outside to prep the exterior for paint. The first step was to power-wash the the brick to loosen up some of the old paint. Next, Ryan and I painstakingly scraped the old and loose paint from the brick. Ryan then caulked the joints that needed a bit of filling and next we'll power wash one more time to made sure we've got everything off that's going to come off. We've been back and forth and back again on colors, but right now it looks like we're headed for a very light purple base with a light green and darker pink/purple trim. I hesitate to even list the colors, because I imagine they sound a little strange, but we really think they will look great in the end. Try not to pass judgement before you see the house after it's done!

Still outside the house, this time in the backyard, we have made quite a bit of progress. With the help of my parents and a small backhoe, we transformed our dirt-pit of a yard into a grassy, doggy paradise. Ok, so it's not perfect, but the house is the main project. We did, however, spend a long, hard day removing the overgrown, beyond-help quince that was taking over the left side of the yard. We leveled the yard and Ryan planted new grass everywhere. Maci did not enjoy the weeks she was forced to stay out off the grass, but it paid off and now we've got tons of great grass and all her friends can come over and play with her out there. We've still got the infamous pond that we think might end up as some kind of herb garden spot, but the backyard has certainly reached a level where we can really enjoy it. Ryan recently constructed the largest picnic table I've ever seen and it has been great to eat out on the deck with friends or just the two of us.

Having made some comparisons with friends and neighbors throughout the winter in regards to heating bills, we're excited to report that we pay just about half of what most people with conventional heating and insulation systems pay monthly and through the winter. The house was toasty-warm and comfortable all winter and we saved a bundle! Now that we are into the heat and humidity of the summer we're happy to report that we are very comfortable without air conditioning. The fans do a great job and the roof, insulation, passive solar, and the ventilation system that keeps the humidity in the house in check have created a house that does not require AC!

Honestly, this summer is turning out to be less productive for housework than we hoped. Ryan is getting ready to start a bunch of projects at work, which is great and my year went longer than usual due to a trip with the team to race in England. There is also a new and unexpected change in the plans for work on the house. I have accepted a job at the University of Michigan and will be moving there in the middle of August. The decision was a tough one, but the opportunity is too good to pass up both for myself and our future plans. I will therefore be consulting from out of state this year on house matters and supporting Ryan as he tries to finish much of the work. I will have some time off in which I'll be able to come back and help, but it will not be what we had initially planned on doing. Our goal is to finish the house by the summer and put it on the market so Ryan can make the move to Michigan as well. I will greatly miss living in and working on the house regularly, although I hope to get an entry up on the blog from time to time.

Last bit of news is that we will be on the Lewisburg House Tour this September 27th from 10am-3pm. The theme this year of the Slifer Museum Home and Church Tour is "Harvesting the Past to Sustain the Future" and we are really excited to be a part of it. If you live in the area, Ryan would love to see you here!

Pics to come in the next few days!

Bring on the Winter!

As I write, the last siding boards are going up on the back of the house. By the end of the day, the siding on the additions will FINALLY be complete. We were hoping to have it done by Thanksgiving, but once we accounted for all the details, the days lost to bad weather, and Ryan's time spent away from the house, the goal became to get it done before Christmas. We decided on the style together, reverse board and batton. It's much more common to see the battons (thinner pieces of wood) on the outside and the boards closest to the structure, but for a more modern stream-lined look we decided to put the battons under the boards. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on the blog, but our original thought had been cement-board siding. It's just what it sounds like, siding made of cement, and it pretty much lasts forever with little maintenance. Well, you know how it goes, the project progresses and the budget shrinks. It just seemed like too much of a stretch to go with the cement-board, so we decided on locally grown, sustainably cut hemlock. We used it for both the siding and soffits. The siding will be stained green and we've already stained the soffits a charcoal color.

This is one aspect of the house work that I grossly underestimated. I never imagined how much time, energy, and precision the siding would take to put up. Not to mention that it gets tougher as the weather gets colder and you add snow and ice into the mix. We tackled the large back addition first, battoning the entire structure and trimming the windows. Ryan had the forethought to realize that stainging everything before we put it up would take too long, so we decided to only stain what we absolutely had to. He figured we could stain at the end of the project or wait until the spring if we had to. Looks like we're waiting until spring:) So, on the battons, the ends needed to be stained to insure that they don't soak up any moisture over the winter. We also stained the strips for around the windows, so that we wouldn't have to stain them once they were on the house and risk getting stain all over the window frames. Next, the siding started to go up on that same section along with he soffit. We took on once side at a time from the bottom up. The pieces of soffit were easy to stain and put up and we did the same thing with the boards as the battons, staining the ends and the backs in order to prevent any moisture damage before we are able to stain them completely. The soffitting required a router, which I have to say I was able to master, in order to cut the pieces in a tongue and groove fashion, so they would fit together and be weather tight against on the passive solar overhangs. The siding had to be measured, cut, and then pieced together up on the walls with levels. In going for a sleeker, more modern look, we decided not to do any more than basic trim around the windows and leave the surface of the walls almost flat. In order to achieve this, the boards that fell over windows had to be put up, measured and then brought back down to have the cut-outs made.

The last part of the back addition to be finished was the second floor deck that opens out of the master bedroom. Ryan had a string of bad weather days and kept having to put-off finishing that section, because the waterproofer that needed to go on before the deck went down required quite a bit of dry weather. After loosing one coat to a surprise snowfall, we finally got a good coat down and were able to put down the decking, the same Cross Timbers material as we used on the backyard deck. Once that was done the battons, soffit and siding went up around the deck. We finished off that section of the house with three back deck lights, one above each exterior door into the house off the deck, one on the upstairs deck, and a flood-light over the backyard for Maci's nighttime outings.

It wasn't until just last week that we started on the smaller back/side addition. I was dreading it, but it really is considerably smaller and we are considerably better at what we're doing and so it's gone much more quickly and smoothly. We've braved some frigid days, but with the help of friend Dave Lawrence, father of Matt Lawrence whose house Ryan is working on, the job is within a few hours of completion. Dave has not been our only helper on the siding. Our friend Katie lent a hand in some staining and another Dave, a friend of Ryan's from high school stopped by for two 3-day visits and put in quite a bit of work for us. It was great to see him (as well as his engineering degree:) Since the stain does not apply as well below freezing, we are probably going to wait until the spring to do the full application. However, for now, our neighbors don't have to look at house-wrap all winter long and we can be confident that the house is ready for the winter.

Although the siding has been the largest project of the last few months, the weather has caused us to take on some others when we can't be outside. We have slowly been priming more and more of the house. We are down to just the front two bedrooms and the upstairs hallway yet to be done. When we had all the drywall done back in August, we didn't have the time or the money to have the last coat of mud and taping or the sanding done in the those rooms or the hallway, so we've got a drywaller at the house this week, not the same group as before, but one they recommend and he's doing a great job finishing things up for us. I'm hoping to get some primer up in all or most of those areas by Saturday, since we are headed out to visit friends and relatives for Christmas after that. We're having some friends from out of town for New Year's Eve and I'm hoping to upgrade their living quarters as much as possible before they arrive! We tested the waters on entertaining in the house just a few weeks back. Of course we have had friends over, but we branched out a little and decided to be of the host houses for a progressive holiday party that our block had. For those of you unfamiliar with the progressive concept, it refers to migrating from house to house for different food and drink throughout the evening. So, we brewed up some mulled apple-cider and even made homemade donuts. Turns out that most the neighborhood couldn't wait to check out the inside of the house they had been watching from the outside, so no one seemed to mind the dusty, informal setting.

We have been living without any interior doors up to this point, including the bathroom, but we decided to get some up for the overnight guests coming for New Year's. We have had the old doors from the house back for a while after they were stripped. They still need to be stained, but Ryan put some of them up temporarily and they look great!

So, as I said, we are taking a much needed holiday break. Just after the new year, I am off on a training trip with the team, which essentially kicks off the rowing season for me. Things start to get busier through January and February and then once March hits, my free-time and weekend are virtually non-existant through June. What I'm saying here is that this will be mostly Ryan's show for quite some time now. We have some exciting projects coming up. Ryan is hoping to put in a chunk of time, up to a month, on our house. It's mentally tough to switch back and forth from different projects, but you really loose time when you have to move all your tools every few days. So, a solid block of tim at our house, should be very productive. Mike, Ryan's dad, will likely come down and help lay and finish down the hardwood floors that will cover most of the first floor. Those are now back from the guy who milled them down for us after we salvaged them from the house. Since the entire temporary kitchen has to come out for this to happen, we will be putting in the kitchen as soon as the floors are down. We are going with an IKEA kitchen. That might surpise some people, but the modern look and quality for the money just can't be beat and you'd be surprised once you look into it, how much customization can be done. We are really excited about the kitchen and hope to have it in by mid February? We will still have plywood countertops for a while, as we aren't going with IKEA countertops, we're having concrete tops custom made. On the horizon after the floors and the kitchen are the stairs, which I know some of our friends and neighbors will be happy to know. Our neighbor Bonnie who we see every day hasn't been upstairs since we bought the place:)

Still figuring out a better way to do pictures. I'm not sure if people were able to get onto Snapfish to view the ones with the last post, but i'm going to continue posting there until I figure something better out. In order to access the pictures you have to end the email address: zellerhouse@yahoo.com and the password zeller. Just go to www.Snapfish.com and enter that email address and password. The trick is to check out "Friends Albums" in the menu on the left when you login. You'll then be able to view all the photos of the house so far divided into 2006 and 2007. Most recent are obviously under 2007.

Happy Holidays to all, check back in 2008 when the Zeller House project enters its third calendar year!

A Facelift for the Front and the Back

It has been just under two months since we made the move into the Zeller House. It's amazing how fast one becomes comfortable in discomfort. Not that the house is really uncomfortable, but it is still very much a work in progress and will continue to be for quite some time. I think the most progress has been made on curbing Ryan's house burnout. He worked such long hours with only as many days off as I could count on one hand for so long. He has dropped about 25 pounds in the last year and I knew that if he continued to work that hard, the work on our house would become a chore that he dreaded. Of course it's tough to muster up the energy to build a house in all your spare time, but we've started to pepper in a little more time to relax or at least keep the rest of our lives in order. I'm not talking about lots of time, but for the first time we didn't work today, partly so I could finally get this up.

Actual progress on the house is relatively slow since I am back to work and Ryan is working at least four days a week away from home. However, the work that we have done is highly visible and some of the most satisfying to date. We did a bunch of work on the front of the house. This was in the plan, so that besides painting the brick portion of the house, the exterior would be done well before winter set in. We removed the old, rotting trim on all seven of the front windows and replaced it with a PVC product that requires no maintenance and will not rot. It looks just like wood on the front. If you check out the pictures of the front of the house, you'll see what a huge difference new window trim makes. In addition to the trim, Ryan spent a few painstaking days repairing some parts and replacing others on the overhang that frames the front door. We really wanted to save it and it was actually in fairly good shape. Some of the wood had to be replaced and we used the PVC for that as well. The metal roofing was shot and that is what really took the longest to replace, but the result is great. We finally picked out a light fixture for the front as well. When we bought the house, the front door was flanked by two small fixtures, but with the great little overhang, we decided to switch the light location to to a single hanging fixture. Exterior light fixtures can really emtpy your wallet! The front door hardware is an aged bronze that is almost black, so we went with a black metal fixtures that is in a lantern style. We found one that would receive a compact flourescent bulb. It's nice to have some light outside the front door at night. While we waited for the much anticipated front door for the house, we prepared everything else. The reason for all this work on the front was that we were in the process of switching banks and were hoping for a much higher appraisal from the new bank. Ryan and I actually had some trouble figuring out what we wanted to do for the front stoop. When we bought the house it consisted of one red brick step and one step made from a slab of stone. We saved the big slab since we intially thought we would reuse it, but we're still not sure if it's limestone or marble. We kept thinking about what we could do with brick, but kept coming up short of anything we were really excited about. Finally we decided to go with slate. Ryan poured two concrete steps to be the base for our stoop. We covered about the same footprint as the old stoop. The bottom step is low and wide and the top step is much smaller and takes you up to the front door. He found some nice slate and came up with an impromptu design. The stoop looks simple and clean yet fairly traditional, since we are trying to maintain the historical integrity of the front of the house. Finally, we got the news that our front door was done. If you remember from previous posts, a local crafstman was making our front door out of hemlock we salvaged from the old floor joists in the house. He is also re-miling the wide plank flooring we removed from the house so that we'll be able to re-install it in the entire downstairs except for where we have concrete floors.. When we finally got the door, it was more than I could have hoped for. I think a front door is one of the most important pieces of a house. The eye is drawn to the door as center-point and the port of entry into the home. We picked out a simple set of hardware and he isntalled that as well as the glass for the six small windows at the top. It felt great to finally get the door in. Once in a while, we'll hear voices outside the front as if some is at the door. When we go check it out it turns out that it's someone stopped to admire the new door! The door is made of beautiful old wood that didn't require any new trees to be cut down. It was made locally and cost hundreds, maybe even a thousand less than a commerically manufactured door of the same style would have cost us.

We were brushing our teeth in the kitchen for about two weeks, but during the last weekend in August, we finally tiled the countertop and backsplash in the second bathroom, which allowed us to put in the sink and faucet. Essentially, besides paint and some trim, that bathroom is done. After waiting almost a month to exchange the electric dryer we recieved in error, for our gas one, we finally have laundry in the house. It's been years since I used a new washer/dryer to do laundry between college and living in rental apartments for the past four years, so it's been almost fun and luxurious to do laundry in our new Fischer and Paykel set. It's digital and the choices are endless. You can choose to wash "regular" or comforters or sleeping bags or coats and of course all of the standard options. The great thing about the washer is that it is top-load, but it doesn't have an agitator (that thing that sticks up in the middle of most top-loaders). This allows you to wash big bulky items. The dryer is also a top-loader and has a huge capacity. It has a sensing feature, so it never continues to work after the clothes are dry. I have to say that it also has a great lint feature. Instead of scraping lint off that screen that never really gets clean, there is a container almost like a large plastic cup that sits inside the dryer. It fills with lint during the cycle and then you just dump out when the clothes are done.

During the second week in September we finally got our appraisal from the new bank. After much anticipation, the news finally came in and it was great! The house was appraised (in its current condition) for the exact amound we were hoping for. We close on the loan this coming Thursday.

The hemlock siding for the addition comes in this week. In the meantime, Ryan wanted to get the deck done, so he'd have somewhere to put the siding when it arrives. We had purchased a composite decking material back in the winter when it was on sale for about half its regular cost and it has been sitting in the backyard since then. The company is Cross Timbers. The material is made by combining Oak and polyproplyene. It is all around more durable and resistant to the elements. The finished look is extremely clean, because the fastening system is all hidden. The majority of the deck is a grey color and the trim is tan. Unfortunately, the industry still hasn't come up with a material or system for framing outdoor structures that does not involve pressure-treated wood, a product that is far from green. It's possible to use the Cross Timbers material to frame the deck, but the cost would be way out of the average person's range. As it is, the deck would have cost about $10,000 had we bought the material at regular price and paid someone to build the deck. I would say that the design and construction of the deck was one of the most amazing parts of the project to watch happen. Ryan has helped his dad out with a few decks and just built a small, simple deck at the other house he's working on, but ours turned out to be quite complicated, with lots of angles, cantilevered steps and a hemlock rail system.

Before the deck was actually built, the grunt work had to get done. First, we had six tons of stone delivered to the house. Since there is no way to back truck up to the back of the house, we had it dumped next to the garage. This meant that we had to shovel and wheel-barrow the stone up to the foundation all around the back of the house. Since most to the deck work required skill, I found myself doing a lot of stone work. The finished deck wraps 38 feet around the back of the house and we distributed the stone about three inches thick, four feet out from the side of the house and ten feet out from the back. The deck runs along the side of the house from the back door into the mud rooom, past the side door to the sun room and back around the rear of the house where it is about ten feet long, twelve feet if you count he step that connnects it to the backyard. The railing will be hemlock posts with stainless steel cable between. The posts are already in, but the cable will probably go in once we get to the stairs inside. We are planning to tie together some of the interior and exterior designs of the house. The railings of the interior stairs and exterior will be made of the same materials. Once the stone was down, Ryan used shovels and a post-hole-digger to do exactly that, dig the holes for the posts. He then set the posts in concrete and began framing the deck and steps. Although it was tough to wrap a step along the entire back side of the deck, it was a very important element in the design of our deck. I think decks are tricky, because often they can cut off a backyard from the house, but I wanted a deck and I wanted it to flow into the yard as well as the house. I decided that this meant no railing on the yard-facing side of the deck. This in turn lead us to a low design. However, I didn't want the deck to be so low that it felt more like a patio, so we decided on one wide step down to the yard. The finished product is amazing! It was a relatively quick visual change and I think it flows seamlessly into both the yard and the house. We don't have any furniture for the deck yet, but then again we didn't think we'd have so many 80 degree October days...

Although it's still so warm, we'd like to get the house ready for heat, so we don't get caught off guard when it drops into the 30's. You'll remember that we're using cast iron baseboard. The second floor plumbing is ready to receive the baseboard. The first floor piping still needs to be run from the basement and it all needs to be connected to the water heater. Once we start using the heat, we'll also need the ventilation system running since the house is so tightly built. Once the heat is hooked up and ready to go at a moment's notice, Ryan and I will move outside to the siding. We need to get that done before winter really hits hard, but we'd rather be outside working in the cold than cold inside our house.

Photosite, where we had been posting all our photo galleries went out of business. I have been trying to find a site that allows me to post a link to the blog, rather than only "share" the photos with specific people. If someone can suggest a better way that is relatively easy, please let me know. For now, I have created a Snapfish account with the email address: zellerhouse@yahoo.com and the password zeller. Just go to www.Snapfish.com and enter that email address and password. The trick is to check out "Friends Albums" in the menu on the left when you login. You'll then be able to view all the photos of the house so far divided into 2006 and 2007. Most recent are obviously under 2007. Please let me know if this doesn't work or again if you have any suggestions. Enjoy!

The Bad, The Good and FINALLY, The Move In

It's Monday August 13th and it's official, the Zeller House is now a Home! Well, sort of, more like a construction site that we eat and sleep in, but it's a far cry from what it was just eleven months ago and one can actually visualize the finished product coming together. My parents and my brother came to help us clean and move from Friday through Sunday and we wouldn't be in the house if it wasn't for the time they put in. Let's take a few steps back to my last entry, before we recount the most recent glory of appliances and finished plumbing.

Ryan shopped around for an insulation contractor. As I have explained before, the insulation we are using is blown-in medium density open and closed cell expanding polyurethane phone. It is high efficiency cannot be installed "do it yourself" style. Installers wear Tyvek suits and ventilation masks. The products is sort of a liquid foam when it first hits the air, so it can get very messy if you don't know precisely how to aim your gun. After estimates from two companies, Ryan chose the larger one, with the more professional business practices, or so he thought. They said their schedule would be tight at the end of July, but we stressed the need for adherence to our timeline, since we had the drywallers scheduled directly to follow. When the crew arrived to start the insulation on Monday July 16th after they had said they would be able to start either Monday or Tuesday, we took that as a good sign. They said it would take two to three days, so we scheduled drywall to begin on Thursday.

Well, their start date was the first and last good thing they did. By the end of the day on Monday, they had made such a mess on our exposed brick walls, in our outlet boxes, etc. that I really just wanted to grab the gun and take a crack at it myself. That seemed like a big deal until the end of the day Monday when we said, "See you tomorrow." The head guy looked at us like we were crazy and explained that there was no way they would be back the next day. He said the company had run out of the product and was waiting on a new shipment. He didn't know when they might be back... After that, communication with the owner of the company started to speak volumes about the company's problems. This guy was impossible to get a hold of and never returned phone calls. He finally said they would be back Wednesday to start up again, but Wednesday came and went and so did Thursday and Friday. The drywallers were great about it and let us keep pushing them back. We had planned our only weekend away this summer for that Saturday and Sunday and as we drove out of town, they insulators finally confirmed that they would do whatever it took to get it done by Monday and bring in extra guys over the weekend. Ryan asked our friend Matt, whose house he is also doing right now, to open and close our house for us while we were away. Thinking that this would finally be the last of the problems and figuring there was nothing we were doing from home that we couldn't do on the road, we left town. After a lovely weekend, Ryan got a call from Matt on Sunday night. (We weren't due back until Monday evening). He informed us that no one had shown up all weekend! The whole sequence of events dumbfounded me. Ryan is always saying that in this business, there are many more bad eggs than good, but it's just mind boggling how anyone can operate this way. After another series of calls on Monday morning, they said they would be done Wednesday.

We toyed with the option of just firing them, but at this point, hiring another contractor would have set our timeline even further back and we had already given a deposit of half the cost, which wouldn't be worth losing. I would have been ready to fire them and take legal action to get the deposit back, but Ryan is a small business and it would be more of a hassle than it would probably be worth. Well, finally they did show and finished the job. It was messier than we would have liked, but it got done and the drywallers were able to load their materials into the house on Wednesday and start Thursday. This whole process put us back a week, which was our only cushion and as the Drywall started on July 26th, our move-in date of August 12th was fast approaching.

Thank goodness the drywallers were the complete opposites of the insulators, because I'm not sure our nerves could have handled anything else. They were professional, friendly, neat, fast and best of all, they did an excellent job. If you've ever been around drywall installation, you know how dusty it can be. If not, trust me, there's dust everywhere and sweeping and vacuuming don't really help. Because of the dust and the fact that there were about seven guys working in the house each day, Ryan put in some time at his other project and we worked some serious nights.

The big projects were electrical and getting the tub/shower tiled and ready for use in the second full bath, since it is a smaller project than the master bath. Ryan and I decided to go with glass mosaic tile. We like the look of small tiles. After lots of deliberation over color, we decided to go with a neutral opaque frosty white colored tile in a 3/4 inch size with a one inch border in a transparent dark gray. Ryan had never tiled a bathroom before and I certainly never had. We had heard about the difficulty of glass, but decided to go for it, since it was the look we wanted. I actually ordered the tile online, but it turned out that it was coming from a company out of Vestal, NY, just about two and a half hours north of us, so I made the trip up to pick it up, which saved us a ton in shipping. The owner, an artist, who specializes in custom glass mosaic designs gave me a tour of her warehouse and studio and let me take a look at samples of some 100 percent recycled glass tile made from old windshields that they will soon have for sale. Glass tile is expensive to begin with and the recycled is even pricier, so unfortunately we were not able to go with this or a similar product.

The tile was a ton of work, but the outcome is beautiful! The glass tile comes in sheets of about one cubic foot. Before tiling we laid cement backer board, basically the equivalent of drywall for wet areas. Once it was time for tile we laidd a base of thinset mortar, and placed the tile on sheet by sheet. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, there are very few locations where you can actually get full sheets in, so you have to cut the 3/4" tiles one at a time with special nippers made for glass. We decided to put in recessed shelves, since I really hate to have those hangers over the shower head with shampoo etc. in them. Again, the finished product is great, but the shelves were a huge pain, with tons of half and quarter-sized tiles needed to keep the corners and edges clean. Once the thinset had dried, we grouted the whole thing, basically a wipe on, wipe off process that takes place over and over again to insure no grout is left to dry and harden on the tile. The last step is a sealer, which I applied two coats of. We caulked the places where the tile meets the tub and installed our fixtures. It was a really exciting moment to see it all done, since it is sort of the first glimpse of a finished product in the house. We were also able to put in the sink and and ready the counters for tile by putting down the cement board. The counters and back splash will also be tiled. In the last few days before we moved in we were also able to get the floors done in that bathroom and the attached laundry room. We went through the same process with backer board, thinset mortar, grout and sealer with large slate tiles. The color variation looks beautiful and Ryan is in the process of putting in the toilet as I write. We are hoping to tile that sink area this week and then that bathroom will be done besides paint and trim.

At the eleventh hour, we were also able to pop in a one of the many ceiling fans we are planning into the master bedroom, which made a big difference and made our first night's sleep in the house very comfortable. Still remains to be seen if a combination between the fans and the ventilation system (once it's hooked up) will do the trick or if the hottest summer nights will still be tough upstairs. After the initial work getting the boxes in before insulation, the recessed trims and bulbs popped in easily and are exactly what we had hoped for as far as general light throughout the house. Ryan was able to finish the electrical box downstairs and finish the wiring for most outlets and switches. We have a ton of dimmer switches and some complicated lighting, so that this point we only have the essentials actually switched.

The big excitement on Friday was the appliance delivery, another glimmer of our eventual finished product. Everything arrived in one piece. The only problem was the dryer, it's electric and we ordered gas, so alas our rush to finish the laundry room was in vain. Through Saturday, Sunday and today, Ryan has worked to get a temporary kitchen installed. The fridge is on, the range-top is beautiful and I boiled water on it tonight, while the hot air was whisked away and my cooking was lit by the bright lights of the new hood. The sink is large and undivided, just what we wanted. Ryan got the faucet on today and the plumbing hooked up, so we can stop brushing our teeth in the bathtub:) Last night's shower was really amazing. Tiling the tub was one thing, but actually taking a shower in something that you made is pretty cool and after a brutal weekend of working at the house and moving, it felt great. The dishwasher looks great, but for now we are going to wait on hooking it up. We figured we might as well get all the "move-in" logistics out of the way and of course I knew I needed to get blogging, so we had the cable company here today to hook up our Internet.

It's an exciting point to be at- moved-in to a functioning house. We're trying to take it day by day. Some days you run the list of what's left to do: kitchen, floors, indoor and outdoor trim, siding on the addition, exterior paint, decks, interior paint, baseboard installation, ventilation hook-up, beam-sanding and refinishing, doors, built-ins, front door, master bath, etc. Other days, you look around and realize how far we've come, how far the Zeller house has come in the last eleven months. Now that we are actually living in the space, it is amazing to really feel that while the square footage has not ballooned all that much, the flow and feel within has changed so drastically for the better at the same time that the house has maintained its original integrity.

I am back to work in full force this week and Ryan goes back to full-time work on his other project, so efficiency becomes the key. Evenings and weekends will be essential to keeping the house moving towards done. Next on the list is the Siding on the addition, all exterior trim, and the decking, both the back deck and the master bedroom deck. Next we are hoping to move to the kitchen and the finished interior stairs. We continue to wrestle with banks, we're in the process of closing out our loan with an incompetent local bank that will remain nameless and transferring over to a larger bank. As I mentioned in the last post, Photosite is discontinuing its service and has transferred our pictures to Snapfish. Unfortunately, the sites don't have the same capabilities, so we are working on figuring out how to allow you to continue to view our galleries. We'll have updated pics as soon as possible! Finally, I have to recognize our neighbors Bonnie and Art for their continued support. Bonnie has invited us over, tired, hungry and dirty on more than a few occasions and she really outdid herself with a bottle champagne the other night after the move-in. She is always delivering her delicious leftovers to us and we can't thank her enough.