Having passed the inspection on Friday, our next effort will be to pour the cement. However, we’re expecting rain for most of the week, so we’ll need to delay a bit until the weather clears up. In the meantime, there’s some prep that can be done, and while there won’t be any work getting done today, Armin did drop by to go over plans and answer any questions that are lingering.
Some key things that happened today:
Timeline Update & Changes to Cement Pour Plans
Armin was aiming to begin pouring this week, but due to some changes, it looks like we won’t actually begin pouring until next Monday. Besides just plain availability on the side of the cement company, the weather also is going to be really bad with on and off rain. On Monday, Armin said he will actually prep and pour the cement for the base of the footers himself (referring to the extra 16” wide footings required for the base all around). He recently purchased a mixer that he plans to bring and mix the cement on site, and pour. That would then need like 2 days to set before the big pour, which will be scheduled for Wednesday.
Crawl Space Will Be Shallow Afterall
I think I mentioned that our approved plans had a note from the Permitting Office stating that the crawl space would need to be accessible, but Armin wasn’t planning to dig it out, let alone make it accessible. His hope was that we wouldn’t need to run lines under the new “crawlspace.” He mentioned that he thought the island going to be over the existing crawlspace, but I clarified that no, it’ll over the new crawlspace.
We met at the table today and revisited this. I noted that I actually drew out a diagram of the layout to size, so that I could confidently illustrate where the current crawlspace ends and the new begins (I’ll attach a screenshot to share below). I explained that I think we can make it work actually, because a good portion of it will be over the existing crawlspace, so we can direct plumbing and electrical up there, and run them across to where they’re needed, inside the island. That solves for the island, but we also have a pot filler on the far wall. For that I proposed that we run the plumbing across the walls, on the north side and around the corner to where it would be installed, above the stove. We were already intending to increase the depth of the far wall for extra insulation, but if we are running the plumbing across the north wall, we’ll also need to do the same for the short distance that will be new exterior wall there. With that being said, I don’t think that will be a big deal. It was a concern for the far wall because we couldn’t push the wall out anymore, for risk of breaching into the variance outside, therefore we had to opt to eat into our living area for that extra depth. We don’t have that problem for the side wall. We can increase the depth of that wall outward.
Armin’s only concern was not being sure how deep the exterior wall needs to be for plumbing, according to code. I thought it was just an extra 2” (up to 8” overall maybe), but he said it might actually need to be 12”, but he will check. I’m pretty confident it doesn’t need to be that wide, but we’ll see what he comes back with. Otherwise, he seemed onboard with the plan. He then told us that the inspector got back to him actually, and said we can get by with a shallow crawspace that isn’t accessible. The stipulations would be:
No lines running through the space
Must be covered with a vapor barrier
Must have proper ventilation (Armin noted these small vents he would need to install in the ledger board to vent to the outside)
Must pass a “shallow crawl space” inspection (I think that’s what it was called)
Kitchen Walkway Clarification … yet again
Just want to note that I had to make the clarification, yet again, that the kitchen walkway will be 42”. I noticed that the most up to date plans seemed to show that the island will be located in the center of the room, but we want to shift it more into the corner. Not a big deal. Armin confirmed, and I’ll be sure to revisit again when the time comes that they begin work on that.
Choosing the Window Size
We need to start thinking about the type of window we’d like to put in the corner, and how big it will be. Not set in stone, but we ended up agreeing on shooting for a 36”x60” sliding window.
Surprise Increase to Header Height
So, we already know that we’re knocking down most of the wall separating the kitchen and great room, but we always assumed the opening header would stay the same height, which is around 6.5-7ft, and just go across the new opening. Armin, however, said he can raise that to like 9-10ft, which, of course, would be way better! So, that was a great surprise.
Backsplash Has Been Decided
We’ve finally selected the backsplash that we’d like to go with. We found it at Architessa, and the line is called Overlook.