With January being surprisingly balmy after a suprisingly frigid December, the momentum is once again starting up. I think that getting weathered in will be the tipping point. The ensuing weeks should be a relentless, furious period of work.
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
I have now officially reached the stage of the project where I have to make very resolute decisions. Sure, there were some decisions to be made from the very beginning regarding framing, structure, materials, etc. But only now am I starting to make final decisions about the "fun stuff"- the finishes, the fixtures, the layout, etc. After months, if not years of looking at magazines, catalogues, websites at faucets, bathtubs, kitchens, lighting fixtures, etc., I finally had to show something for all of that research. And at the end of the day, it was rather anticlimactic. They were invariably rushed decisions that were borne of necessity, dimensional constraints and timing, rather than fantasy. It was more about spending hours on the internet and calling e-tailers, playing with floorplans and balancing the practical with the downright looney. It wasn't exactly sipping champagne at a Madison Avenue showroom.
...AND EVEN MORE DECISIONS
After suffering through another month of pondering over the window situation, I finally made decisions on how to deal with all of the glazing. The punch windows were fairly straightforward, but the 2-story atrium walls posed some heady design challenges. It appeared rather obvious from Ralph Rapson's original plans that he specified some kind of extruded aluminum frame with glass inserts for the atrium walls. However, in the interest of possibly saving some money (and also without having any previous experience with curtain wall or storefronts), Ron recommended that we frame up the walls with 2 x 6's and pop in conventional windows. This sounded okay at first, but the closer I came to making final choices, the more hesitant I became. Not only would this create really thick/bulky mulls, it also presented issues with regard to trim and structural integrity. I looked into the possibility of doing this with storefronts, but most people doing storefronts were not interested in doing one-shot residential projects. And fewer were willing to schlep all the way out to the Hamptons, and there aren't exactly tons of window fabricators in the Hamptons to begin with. And the handful who seemed willing to do a residential job in the Hamptons told me to send drawings/specs for pricing. Only one company bothered sending me a proposal, which was so ridiculously overpriced that they were clearly not serious. After some persistence, I finally came across a smaller shop in Cherry Hill, NJ (just outside of Philadelphia!), who seemed very interested in my project. They had done a modern house on Long Island previously, so they had no problem with my location or project. Ultimately they talked me out of storefronts because curtain wall had many advantages over storefronts, not the least of which being lateral structural support and resistance to air and water infiltration. And the pricing was surprisingly comparable to storefronts. And after some further discussion, they proposed to do the entire living room wall in curtain wall as well as the central atrium area, the roof windows and the end gables. I figured it would make sense to have them do all four of the 8' x 8' slider units as well as the front door- all curtain wall and door components would be custom fabricated from YKK and Efco Door. The process of bringing the curtain wall to fruition has been painful (the company has been very busy) and all of the custom fabrication has been way more expensive than I would have wanted, but ultimately I think it's one more painful expense I have to swallow to do this house properly.
THIS 'N' THAT
Other developments on the homefront:
-Much of the electrical wiring has been started and the power line was "shot" under the street to a meter that will eventually be hidden by the front hedge. Unfortunately LIPA requires that stairs to the basement are finished before electric service is activated. I'm thinking this has something to do with ensuring that some fat-a$$ sloth from the electric company can go into the basement to inspect the hookup. Here is Septimiu, the master carpenter, cobbling together the stair framing in a really wet basement:
-Much to my relief, the Suffolk Water Authority confirmed that there is a municipal water line running along my street. It's just a $950 hookup charge. The supply will be trenched when the septic tank is installed.
-The rough plumbing and PVC are complete.
-The supply and return wells/pumps for the geothermal system have been drilled and trenched to the house.
-The rough HVAC ducts have been blocked in anticipation of the concrete slab on the first floor.
-I am currently working up a kitchen design/quote with a local design firm in East Hampton who is trying to establish Berloni cabinets in the Hamptons market; they were very enthusiastic about doing a modern kitchen vs. the standard French country stuff which is the norm. The Berloni cabinets are beautiful and appear to be very well made. Even the grilled anodized aluminum toekick is gorgeous. I have considered some more competitively priced options that I have sourced in the local NYC area; however, the cost of delivery out to the Hamptons largely cancels out any cost savings. I am really liking the Hal cabinets:
or the "Class" cabinets.
WINDOWS
When I placed my house window order from H Window at the beginning of November, I was not sure what to expect. I had seen other installations of H Windows, but I had never seen them done with clear anodized aluminum exteriors. I also ordered a couple of Nordic doors from them for the bedroom roofdeck and the mud room. Even though I specified that there should be no kickplates or extraneous details on the doors, the pictures on the website seemed to have some details (like recessed panels) that I wasn't crazy about. Anyway, I was very, very pleased to see the windows when they were finally delivered to the site on January 23. The windows are absolutely breathtaking from the outside- perfectly squared details and a flawless satin aluminum finish. The doors had none of those superfluous details that I was originally concerned about. I couldn't have designed more beautiful windows if I tried. If I am ever crazy enough to build another house, I am definitely going to order from them again. The pictures don't really do them justice:
The double unit in the master bedroom (nominally 9'H x 8'W):
And here is a close-in detail of one of the Nordic doors. It's hard to photograph this stuff!
And here are some simple awning units being installed in the master bath:
And even before the windows could be installed, Jose and his crew wasted no time wrapping the second floor with tar paper in anticipation of the vertical T&G cedar siding. Apparently tar paper is a better substrate than Tyvek for cedar siding. It's also a lot cheaper, so I'm not complaining! Anyway, despite my initial willingness to go a bit "rustic" with the cedar siding (to save a few pesos), I decided it was worth it to bite the bullet with the #1 clear grade 1 x 6. After comparing the rustic and clear grades side by side, there was just no comparison. It's double the price, but ultimately worth it.
GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK:
-Finish installing windows and secondary exterior doors.
-Figuring out what to do with the fascia/trim. Then actually doing it.
-Applying the cedar siding.
-Installing all of the curtain wall.
-Figuring out what to do for the garage door.
-Check out the woodburning fireplaces up at the Wittus store in Pound Ridge.
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