In a way I feel like I am forcing us (myself and Ron the builder) down some decidedly uncharted territory- at least as far as one-off residential construction goes. In my initial exuberance (and ignorance) at the outset of this project, I had a somewhat approximate vision of what I wanted to do, and, accordingly, an approximate guess as to how it would be done. And while I wanted to do this project as economically as possible, I also wanted to do something boldly different using alternate building systems and materials. Hence, my insistence on using the Superior Walls, pouring concrete floors, incorporating solar elements, etc. Rapson's original plans never called for any of these. I think it would be one thing if we tweaked one or two things, but I sometimes feel like we just took the design and went to town with modifications to the point where any similarities to the original Rapson design are purely conceptual. At this point I feel like we have gone down a path that we need to see to its conclusion, regardless of how twisted and tortuous it may be. I don't want this to be a "halfway" house.
STRUCTURAL STUFF
Despite Ron the builder's pleas otherwise, I stuck to my guns regarding concrete floors. Not only did I want the look of polished concrete floors throughout the house, I was very keen on putting in hydronic radiant heat in the floor. Also, much to Ron the builder's chagrin, I was also keen on putting in a solar photovoltaic system and solar hot water system to heat and cool the house. Not only did he lack experience with solar or radiant heat, he believed that solar was still prohibitively expensive and "not yet ready for primetime." He felt that we were still years away from having the technology that would make solar truly practical. Anyway, suffice to say, I stuck to my guns and he relented after much sighing.
Now we had to figure out how to build the structure that would accomodate the deadweight of a 4" suspended concrete slab- approximately 50 lbs/sf. He felt that going any thinner with the slab would virtually guarantee cracking during curing, even with control joints. We asked the engineer at the steel yard to come up with a structure. Suffice it to say, it came back prohibitively expensive- $23,000 to frame the first floor (approx. 1500 sf) with steel joists and steel decking. Not only was this too expensive, it made the roughing in of plumbing, electrical, radiant, etc. much more difficult, which would mean less flexibility and greater cost. I suspect none of the residential contractors would touch this with a 10 foot lolly column. After consulting briefly with another engineer and using a few span/load calculators, we determined that we can also frame the structure with wood. Conservatively this meant 2 x 12's spaced 16" OC.
So once we had an action plan on the floor structure, we decided to move ahead with the framing of the first floor deck (after the wide flange steel beams and tubular steel columns were set). Then we hit a snag- the floor joist hangers sold by Superior Walls do not accomodate 2 x 12's. The lumber yards in the area didn't have them either. Finally we had them custom made by the steel yard- to the tune of $815 and a 10-day delay. Ouch!
The decking itself took only two days and the sand (it's not really dirt) was backfilled around the perimeter of the foundation.
THE CREW
Ron the builder has been working on a much bigger project in parallel with mine- a 5000sf mansion in Water Mill. So in a way he is acting as a guinea pig for all of the trades that will eventually get tossed my way. One in particular has appeared to step to the fore. It is a group of general builders who work for a Brazilian family-run home renovation business based out of Newark, NJ called Ideal Home Restoration. For whatever reason, this group of guys has been doing construction work around the Hamptons, which is about 120 miles from Newark. And Ron discovered quickly that they did very good work and were very competitive price-wise- anything from framing to drywall to concrete work to plaster to roofing, etc. It seems likely that we will be relying on them to do most of the framing and concrete work on my house- I just need to order the supplies and they take care of the rest. So far they did a fantastic job with the slab and the first floor decking, so I am gung ho about this.
D-DAY PART II
The set date for the first floor Superior Walls was supposed to be July 25. I made a point of taking the day off of work to be there. Of course with me there is always a snag. I was about halfway out to Sag Harbor when Ron called me to tell me that I had been "bumped" to "Wednesday or Thursday." Obviously I was beside myself with frustration since I wanted to see the work taking place. But I continued on anyway just to meet with Ron the builder and to see how the first floor deck and basement looked (I had not been out there since the foundation set in late May).
My initial reaction to seeing the site was:
"Dude, where's the rest of my house?" The footprint looked so small. Ron the builder told me that was always the reaction at this stage of the project. He said that a house gets bigger and smaller throughout its lifecycle. I could only take him at his word.
Fast forward to Wednesday. I received a telephone call from Ron the builder. Indeed, the crane was there, the set crew was there and the first floor walls were there. I was stoked. And I asked him to take lots of pictures with his phone.
An hour later I received another call from Ron the builder. Immediately I could hear in his voice that something was going on. "I saw the first wall piece being hoisted up and the next thing I heard was a big BANG," said Ron the builder. This 85-ton crane apparently died while the wall piece was in mid-air. Hour after hour I checked in to see what was going on. Ultimately the crane company had to call out another crane to come and rescue the wall piece stuck perilously in midair (I did not want to think what it would be crashing down upon if that were to happen...). Unfortunately this meant that yet another big chunk of my hedges would have to be ripped down to let this other crane get onto the job site. Grrrr.... Finally by 2 in the afternoon, the setting of the walls back on track. It would now have to be a 2-day affair.
I went out on Saturday to check it out:
The view from the front
I must admit I was a bit shocked to see it at first. For lack of a better term, it had a kind of majestic presence about it. Ron the builder joked that I should just put a roof on it now. I didn't think it was such a far-fetched idea, honestly.
A closeup of the front.
As you can see, we will need to do a lot of "parging" and other cosmetic detailing to hide the seams and discolorations in the concrete.
A view from the right (south) side. The opening will be a wall of windows with the exception of a stand-alone fireplace
It's going to be a beotch finding window treatments for those windows!
My ugly mug (just to get a sense of scale).
The view from the back yard.
Ron the builder thinks the door opening is too short. It was supposed to be 7' tall, so I am wondering if Superior Walls may have screwed this up. It looks alright to me, however.
Another view of the back.
THE RAPSONS
Back in June I had the pleasure of meeting Toby and Ralph Rapson, who were in New York to speak at a presentation of a documentary on Ralph's body of work. I found out that Toby actually has been following this blog on LiveModern, so I was really impressed how up to speed he was on this project. I decided to take them to one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants (since I am a vegetarian and I heard Ralph was pretty much a vegetarian these days for health reasons). Of course I failed to consider that the main dining area was on the second floor, which meant having to take some stairs. I was not aware that Ralph had injured his leg sometime ago! Oy!
Anyway, after dinner we got around to some discussions around the structure- in particular, the balconies and the roof deck. Toby and Ralph- if you are reading this, thanks for the advice (and the grub)! Ron the builder and I are actually working on the implementation of this.
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