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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 11/2/2008 3:57:31 PM
It's November 2nd, 2008.
Wiring:
Just routed 3 lines of 3/0 (Three-Aught) copper cable for 1/2 of my 320A service from the new Siemens Meter Main/MeterSocket to one of two 200A sub panels. It was fun, and it didn't cost much more (todays work) than the $120 for wire, and $38.00 for the large cable cutters. We will forget about the $70 in 3/0 wire we have to sell on E-bay because I had three lenghs pre cut at Home Depot. I spent $38 for a cutter this time and bought 40 feet of wire. What was I thinking? I recommend buying (or renting) the $59 cable cutters with longer handles... the $38 cutters I bought cut the wire, but it took a bit. It was a Sunday, so I wasn't able to check my local rental place for rental pliers. I just wanted to do some work on the project for mental therapy.
I recommend "Wiring Complete (Taunton's Quick-Access Guides)" for anyone who is considering doing their own wiring work. I have years of DIY books in my bookshelf, and I scoured the bookstores for the last 6 months looking for information on Service Entrances. The NEC and NEC code handbook are places to start, but its difficult for a DIY-er to wade through all the code sections to make sure all the bases are covered. The book had several wonderful tips in it.
If you can manage your home with 200A service, do so. The costs rise considerably for 320A service (320A continious = 400A momentary (<3Hrs). To go to a true 400A service in my area would require re-trenching for a second 3" conduit, and adding a transformer. Most single family residences that say they have 400A service actually have 320A service. The meter socket prices jump from $50 ea to $170 plus. In my case I needed/wanted Main Disconnects on the exterior of the house, and those ranged from $1200 to $3200 list price. The best pricing I found was for a Millbank MeterSocket/Disconnect at $732. Local supply houses were at $900 for CutlerHammer, and GE was near $100. The Seimens meter socket/disconnect I chose listed at $1200+ that was the price I was quoted at Home Depot. The local supply houses didn't carry Seimens. Home Depot has a Full 320A panel for $575 which is the meter and all the circut breakers on the outside. I found the $1200 flavor I wanted on E-Bay for $465 + 115 shipping.
The box is the same as the HomeDepot 320A service, but comes with mounts for 2EA 200A disconnects, which is what I needed.
We plan to have 200A service in the shop/hangar which will not be demoed, and when the house is built, run a second 200A line to a subpanel in the 2nd floor laundry room. All the copper runs for dryer/range will be shorter and save $. Plus we won't have to go all the way to the shop if a breaker trips in the living space somewhere.
Bids:
I uploaded the project to "TheBluebook.com" site, I recommend folks get a eFAX account and local fax number so you can sign up for this service, and have trades people just fax you with bids. You then have an "online" plans room and you get reports of what companies download your drawings. ALL FOR FREE! I uploaded my project plans in pdf format to my "Online Plans Room", and began working up specifications for framing/masonry/foundation work. I don't have all the trades done, but I have several bids in already that I have not had to go fishing for. Of course, I still need to interview subs, but I can interview the ones who have bid.
I haven't gotten any foundation or roofing bids just yet, but have several of the other trades.
One note, I generally hate being up against a deadline, so posted a 10/31 date for bids the beginning of October. It appears that most of the trades wait unitl the very last minute, and I received many calls/bids on Friday 10/31 (the deadline). So I recommend that you work from foundation up and develop specifications in each area, then when the spec is available post a "call for bids" with a 2 week deadline (or less). Giving the subs more time to bid just means they wait until the last minute to call you with information.
So checkout "thebluebook.com" and take advantage of their services.
Getting FullSizePrints.
I had one other bidding company (NWBID something), call and based on the bluebook information said they would also like to host my information. They also offer printing service. Prior to this I had paid $4.50 a sheet for full size prints from a PDF files my Architect had provided me. They print pages for 0.95c each. So this is a tremendous savings. There are several "reprographic" companies that will print plots for you.
Photos
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| Meter Socket (Siemens 320A continuous)
400A service is VERY EXPENSIVE. Go with 200A if you can.
The 2EA 200A circuit breakers are not yet installed. This set of wires will route to the bottom breaker when it is available.
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| 200A Electrical panel (40 CKT)
(Wiring of GND not yet completed)
This panel will handle:
Water Pump
Water Heater
Electric Boilers (Hydronic Heat)
Shop & Hangar Lights
Electric Hangar Door Motor(Airplane Hangar)
A second panel about 2/3 this size will go into the 2nd floor laundry area and will be fed from the top breaker |
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 9/4/2008
After 6-1/2 months (It's September 5th today... I submitted the plans back in Feburary...) We finally have our structural plans approved. This is a rather complex structure with a 3" stack of 8-1/2"x11" structural engineering drawings. What started as a fixer-upper remodel, grew into this really cool house, but was $$$ to have designed. If I had it to do over again? I don't think I could go back in time and convince myself that we would be better off not spending the money. When we started, we were planning a $200K remodel using equity from our existing home to fix the place up... now it looks like we will need to expand the first mortgage to get enough funds to build it... thats where I'm focusing on now... getting accurate bids, going to the bank etc etc.
Normally you do that first, but we put this process on hold back in February while we waited to see how much structural modification we would need. We had some changes to pull costs out of the project, and several suppliers were waiting for the design changes to bid materials. We figured we would save Architecture fees if we bundled these changes with red-line changes from the county... but this meant... wait... wait... and no--wait... wait. We figured we would know in 2+weeks and we could pick up the financing in March... it was late July before we had feedback from the county structural engineer on what needed to be done to fix up the project. (Perhaps I'm repeating myself?). Now I've got these plans approved... anyone here recall what these are for? I mean what does one do with $6,600 worth of approved building plans? I'm not sure.
Talked with U-Build-it last week.. I'm impressed with their service in the Portland office, and the staff. But I'm done with the planning. Their business is slow, so they are entertaining the idea of me proposing some limited consulting services.
At any rate I have a permit for the structure. Need to pull plumbing and electrical (at least apply) and have a "pre-construction" meeting before we can have our first inspection. The existing footings also need Epoxy inspections for many 10" 5/8" holes that have to be drilled for epoxying in new threaded anchor bolts to meet newer tougher Oregon seismic code. (We are told we could have a major earthquake someday, and I believe it, so this isn't a pain, just something more to learn about).
We have several "Special Inspections" for this project. There is a third party "epoxy" inspection which needs to be done by a OBOA (Oregon Builders Official Association) certified inspector. This will run $350/day or $44/hr roughly to make sure the epoxy anchor bolts to be added to the existing footings are done properly. This needs to be scheduled with the trade that will do that work (or me if I do it myself).
Also we have multiple inspections by our Structural engineer for the foundation rebar and also some internal sheer walls that basicly hold up the third floor control tower. This third floor room is 8x10 and has large windows on three sides facing the grass runway that the property shares with 14 neighbors. The large glass area of this "tower room" invoked some sisemic code that our structral engineer failed to comply with, so $1900 later, the design is updated, I get 10' more 24" deep footings in the middle of the house, three new sheer walls, and some nifty steel glue-lam beam brackets that showed up on the structural details of the plans.
All this is great fun for me... but $$$, haven't added all the new costs up yet.
Should have stuck with the original idea... two bump outs and some carpet I'm thinkin!
I've got a contractor visiting the site Friday for demo, although we may do that ourselves. Another demo contractor Monday. I hope to get 3 bids minimum, then move to the next trade. One foundation contractor said they did foundations, then the estimator said all they did is flatwork... don't know what that is all about.
I discovered that if you go to thebluebook.com you can setup bid requests via fax for FREE. Go to the bluebook.com for info.
I checked out a copy of the bluebook for the Pacific Northwest, it's a source for contractors of all trades, and all materials suppliers.
I also found Atkin Ford Lumber in Eugene, They wholesale lumber by truck to contractors on the west coast. Their prices were similar to prices I was quoted by Home Depot six months ago. They have a pricing sheet for lumber by MBF (Thousand Board Feet), basicly a truckload, but will quote smaller orders... looks like they want Contractors. Lumber prices are volatile these days, so with my Home Depot prices being six months old it's not fair to compare there current prices but it's very close to Home Depot.
And Home Depot was the lowest price for Glue-Lam beams so far... Their stick lumber is close to Atkin Ford.
I recommend Atkin Ford just because they post quantity pricing on the web and it helps you start estimating... if you bother to convert from thousand board feet to lineal feet. I have no idea what the smaller quantity pricing from them would be... just like the website.
I'm riding the Train from Seattle back to Portland... I'll post more photos and details of bids when I get more information on where we are going....$$ sigh.
--R
Photos
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| One of Nine Structural Detail Pages for our project |
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 9/1/2008
After 6-1/2 months (It's September 5th today... I submitted the plans back in Feburary...) We finally have our structural plans approved. This is a rather complex structure with a 3" stack of 8-1/2"x11" structural engineering drawings. What started as a fixer-upper remodel, grew into this really cool house, but was $$$ to have designed. If I had it to do over again? I don't think I could go back in time and convince myself that we would be better off not spending the money. When we started, we were planning a $200K remodel using equity from our existing home to fix the place up... now it looks like we will need to expand the first mortgage to get enough funds to build it... thats where I'm focusing on now... getting accurate bids, going to the bank etc etc.
Normally you do that first, but we put this process on hold back in February while we waited to see how much structural modificatoin we would need... we figured we would know in 2+weeks and we could pick up the financing in March... it was late July before we had feedback from the county structural engineer on what needed to be done to fix up the project. (Perhaps I'm repeating myself?).
At anyrate I have a permit for the structure. Need to pull plumbing and electrical (at least apply) and have a "pre-construction" meeting before we can have our first inspection. The existing footings also need Epoxy inspections for many 10" 5/8" holes that have to be drilled for epoxying in new threaded anchor bolts to meet newer tougher Oregon seismic code. (We are told we could have a major earthquake someday, and I believe it, so this isn't a pain, just something more to learn about).
We have several "Special Inspections" for this project. There is a third party "epoxy" inspection which needs to be done by a OBOA (Oregon Builders Official Association) certified inspector. This will run $350/day or $44/hr roughly to make sure the epoxy anchor bolts to be added to the existing footings are done properly. This needs to be scheduled with the trade that will do that work (or me if I do it myself).
Also we have multiple inspections by our Structural engineer for the foundation rebar and also some internal sheer walls that basicly hold up the third floor control tower. This third floor room is 8x10 and has large windows on three sides facing the grass runway that the property shares with 14 neighbors. The large glass area of this "tower room" invoked some sisemic code that our structral engineer failed to comply with, so $1900 later, the design is updated, I get 10' more 24" deep footings in the middle of the house, three new sheer walls, and some nifty steel glue-lam beam brackets that showed up on the structural details of the plans.
All this is great fun for me... but $$$, haven't added all the new costs up yet.
Should have stuck with the original idea... two bump outs and some carpet I'm thinkin!
I've got a contractor visiting the site Friday for demo, although we may do that ourselves. Another demo contractor Monday. I hope to get 3 bids minimum, then move to the next trade. One foundation contractor said they did foundations, then the estimator said all they did is flatwork... don't know what that is all about.
I discovered that if you go to thebluebook.com you can setup bid requests via fax for FREE. Go to the bluebook.com for info.
I checked out a copy of the bluebook for the Pacific Northwest, it's a source for contractors of all trades, and all materials suppliers.
I also found Atkin Ford Lumber in Eugene, They wholesale lumber by truck to contractors on the west coast. Their prices were similar to prices I was quoted by Home Depot six months ago. They have a pricing sheet for lumber by MBF (Thousand Board Feet), basicly a truckload, but will quote smaller orders... looks like they want Contractors. Lumber prices are volitle these days, so with my Home Depot prices being six months old it's not fair to compare there current prices but it's very close to Home Depot.
And Home Depot was the lowest price for Glue-Lam beams so far... Their stick lumber is close to Atkin Ford.
I recommend Atkin Ford just because they post quantity pricing on the web and it helps you start estimating... if you bother to convert from thousand board feet to lineal feet. I have no idea what the smaller quantity pricing from them would be... just like the website.
I'm riding the Train from Seattle back to Portland... I'll post more photos and details of bids when I get more information on where we are going....$$ sigh.
--R
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 9/1/2008
After 6-1/2 months (It's September 5th today... I submitted the plans back in Feburary...) We finally have our structural plans approved. This is a rather complex structure with a 3" stack of 8-1/2"x11" structural engineering drawings. What started as a fixer-upper remodel, grew into this really cool house, but was $$$ to have designed. If I had it to do over again? I don't think I could go back in time and convince myself that we would be better off not spending the money. When we started, we were planning a $200K remodel using equity from our existing home to fix the place up... now it looks like we will need to expand the first mortgage to get enough funds to build it... thats where I'm focusing on now... getting accurate bids, going to the bank etc etc.
Normally you do that first, but we put this process on hold back in February while we waited to see how much structural modificatoin we would need... we figured we would know in 2+weeks and we could pick up the financing in March... it was late July before we had feedback from the county structural engineer on what needed to be done to fix up the project. (Perhaps I'm repeating myself?).
At anyrate I have a permit for the structure. Need to pull plumbing and electrical (at least apply) and have a "pre-construction" meeting before we can have our first inspection. The existing footings also need Epoxy inspections for many 10" 5/8" holes that have to be drilled for epoxying in new threaded anchor bolts to meet newer tougher Oregon seismic code. (We are told we could have a major earthquake someday, and I believe it, so this isn't a pain, just something more to learn about).
We have several "Special Inspections" for this project. There is a third party "epoxy" inspection which needs to be done by a OBOA (Oregon Builders Official Association) certified inspector. This will run $350/day or $44/hr roughly to make sure the epoxy anchor bolts to be added to the existing footings are done properly. This needs to be scheduled with the trade that will do that work (or me if I do it myself).
Also we have multiple inspections by our Structural engineer for the foundation rebar and also some internal sheer walls that basicly hold up the third floor control tower. This third floor room is 8x10 and has large windows on three sides facing the grass runway that the property shares with 14 neighbors. The large glass area of this "tower room" invoked some sisemic code that our structral engineer failed to comply with, so $1900 later, the design is updated, I get 10' more 24" deep footings in the middle of the house, three new sheer walls, and some nifty steel glue-lam beam brackets that showed up on the structural details of the plans.
All this is great fun for me... but $$$, haven't added all the new costs up yet.
Should have stuck with the original idea... two bump outs and some carpet I'm thinkin!
I've got a contractor visiting the site Friday for demo, although we may do that ourselves. Another demo contractor Monday. I hope to get 3 bids minimum, then move to the next trade. One foundation contractor said they did foundations, then the estimator said all they did is flatwork... don't know what that is all about.
I discovered that if you go to thebluebook.com you can setup bid requests via fax for FREE. Go to the bluebook.com for info.
I checked out a copy of the bluebook for the Pacific Northwest, it's a source for contractors of all trades, and all materials suppliers.
I also found Atkin Ford Lumber in Eugene, They wholesale lumber by truck to contractors on the west coast. Their prices were similar to prices I was quoted by Home Depot six months ago. They have a pricing sheet for lumber by MBF (Thousand Board Feet), basicly a truckload, but will quote smaller orders... looks like they want Contractors. Lumber prices are volitle these days, so with my Home Depot prices being six months old it's not fair to compare there current prices but it's very close to Home Depot.
And Home Depot was the lowest price for Glue-Lam beams so far... Their stick lumber is close to Atkin Ford.
I recommend Atkin Ford just because they post quantity pricing on the web and it helps you start estimating... if you bother to convert from thousand board feet to lineal feet. I have no idea what the smaller quantity pricing from them would be... just like the website.
I'm riding the Train from Seattle back to Portland... I'll post more photos and details of bids when I get more information on where we are going....$$ sigh.
--R
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 8/14/2008 9:25:00 PM
The county called, and it is possible our plans are approved... I am supposed to call the county structural engineer and schedule a meeting with the Architect, our Structural Engineer and myself (contractor) to go over the "Special Inspection Plan", due to the complexity of our structure design, we need to have "special" during construction inspections done by our Structural engineer during construction to verify concrete anchor points, sheer wall nailing patterns etc. I get to pay $100/hr for the inspections by my structural engineer (something like this), but actually I'm kind of happy about this because I trust our Structural guy, and think this is a good thing.
So hopefully I can schedule this meeting, and with the signed inspection agreement with the county we pay our "truckload of money" as the Plans reviewer indicated, and we will have a Structural Building Permit... perhaps before the end of the decade, or even before the end of the month! Whee!
Did some code reseach and learned that our 200A 3" underground conduit can handle 320A continious cable from PGE (Portland General Electric). I need to research getting a 320A Meter socket with disconnect switches so that we can wire the existing panel to one 200A disconnect, and the new (shop) 200A load center to the second 200A disconnect. (2EA 200A panels long term). I did some calculations and for all electric hydronic heat (with solar backup) 200A wasn't going to cut it for current capacity... so had to re-think the existing 200A meter socket.
Called Verizon this week, and they are going to move the phone from overhead to underground to the conduit I provided on Monday (Whoo Hoo). $30.00
Photos
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| Architect CAD model of house (From Driveway) |
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| CAD Elevation of house (from street) |
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| Existing Driveway Shot (Car in similar position as First Photo) |
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| Existing Street View (Door is where Large Picture Window at right of CAD drawing is) |
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 6/4/2008 1:36:47 PM
Last week on Tuesday (after Memorial day), I went down to the county to find out how much longer my remodel plans would be in for structural review. My Architect expected 2-4 weeks... and then at 16 weeks. The plans examiner and the structural engineer reviewing the plans were on vacation... but I was told to call them the next day. I wasn't happy with that, so it turned out there was a county comminssioners metting that night. I wasn't sure how to approch that, but decided I would make my concerns about the lenghy review process known. If I were paying interest on a construction loan, this delay would have costed thousands of dollars.
At the meeting I was one of two citizens to speak before the meeting. (That was scary, but seems so far to have been worthwile.) I stressed that all my contacts with the county had been positive except for the delays. The results have been promising, last Saturday I received a apologetic letter from the plans examiner with a list of issues. I went to the architect Monday (two days ago), and he is working on those issues.... hopefully I can get permitted in a couple of more months ! (sigh... hopefully by the end of June).
So the good news is I didn't want permitting to be on the critical path, so this delay is acceptable. (There are financial reasons why this wait is OK... if I has $$$ I would be more peeved than I am.) Part of the time, money, quality triangle.
We have received two more bids from Generals for the entire project.... and now are weighing the costs. If we owner build, we are unsure if we can secure financing.... if we go with a general... we might be able to get financing, but it would be painfull to make the payments.
Till next time!
Photos
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| Backyard View to the runway. |
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 6/4/2008 1:27:23 PM
Just hauled 33 hazmat bags to the landfill last weekend. The local landfill requires a 24 hour advance appointment and only accepts the waste Tuesdays and Thursdays. Other than that and a brief wait at the landfill I paid $115 to drop the waste off.
We removed a house full of popcorn ceiling for about $600.
This includes the $50 we paid to test to see if we actually had asbestos before starting. We used about 6 Tyvek suits, and had to purchase a second resperstor and new HEPA filters. $80.00 at the safety store to get the required 6 mil hazmat bags. Double bag a yellow bag inside a clear bag...
You will eventually decide that double bagging is a good idea as you move the darn water soaked bags filled with muck around.
We don't know what we saved nut estimate it to be $5000-7000 that a licensed hazmat team would charge.
The states of Oregon, Utah and Washington had good information on procdures on how to do this.
Photos
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| Nancy wetting down living room. |
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| Seems a shame, but all this structure will be torn down for the addition of a second story.
The wall with cabinets will be removed making one larger first floor kitchen. |
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 5/24/2008 11:41:29 PM
We have filled about 21 hazmat bags (42 if you count double bagging). Learned a lot about asbestos and popcorn ceiling over the last 4 weekends. Economics forced us to do this ourselves, in Oregon, homeowners are allowed to do this.
Built plastic containment areas for all rooms, two 6 mil floor sheets. Used a garden hose to wet down everything. A @$#%* of a messy job & clean up.
Now we can do some minor interior demolition while we wait out the lenghty permit review process.
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 3/20/2008 11:09:47 PM
Finally received plans from my Architect (Michael Lewellan in Portland) on February 12th and ran them to Washington county. The preliminary plans review fee was around $590 and should be 4-6 weeks. I should hear from them soon the word is that Washington county is one of the tougher counties for permits... so we shall see how this goes.
I also ran a set to the fire department for approval of a fire wall. Our combined square footage of building, garage and airplane hangar will exceed 3000 square feet, and we are on a well, so they may require water storage and a sprinkler system. Our Architect thinks a 1 hour fire wall between the hangar and the house will do, and my initial phone calls with the Fire Inspector seemed to concur, but that was weeks ago. I need to talk with him and make sure things were approved.
So far the most difficult task is project management and forcing myself to do the phone calls to line up subcontractors. I have had terrific success with getting fast turnaround on materials bids with spreadsheets called "take-offs" which is the term used by the trade to refer to the estimates or in my case hopefully accurate materials requirements for beams, joists, plywood. Some of the materials vendors have called now that my permit application showed up on the web.
In our case so far, the Architect's and the first Generals cost-estimates are very rough since we have no detailed specifications, but both are in the stratosphere for us $450-500K which is over our $200-300K budget for the remodel. Using the Owner Builder book we are hoping to get the best informationn on costs before we start slashing our plans. Architects can be great at design, but it seems they loose sight of the budget. On the other hand, our first architect was good to budget, but bad on creativity and listening to what we wanted.
Since we have 2000+ square feet of flat roof to view from the planned second story room addition, the architect suggested a green (live plants) roof. How much? was the question... oh an additional $7.00-9.00 per square foot. Hmmm OK. But we learn that the structural engineer added the weight of snow-load, green roof (soil,water), and a live load of people for a total load of 165 pounds per square foot. This meant that all the portions of our home which we didn't want to remodel (garage, shop) get reinforcing joists, beams posts, and concrete piers... UGH! So this is being re-designed OUT of the plans for cost reasons. Some of the glued laminate beams spanning the 45' hangar are $3500 each (pressure treated)... the beams are custom made someplace in Oregon, then trucked on a semi trailer to a pressure treatment plant, then to the job site. I need 4 of these babys ... so $12K just in big beams. The new beams should be smaller, but may still be too large.
So far we have spent perhaps 13K on Architecture/Design work. Much of that was spent prior to purchasing the owner builder book. The first 3K on the first architect to get as-built drawings and some initial design ideas she was great, but we had problems getting a walk in closet to appear on any sketches... so we found the new guy who was wonderful, but slow, and not as detailed oriented as I would like. He is more $$$ so I'm torn between thinking I'm getting a great deal for his time, or thinking I over did things in choosing him. We knew up front from discussions that Architectural design costs would be 8-10% of our estimated budget of $200-300K. But last year in March '07 when the budget came in at $531K, we started thinking the architect wanted 10% of that amount, which was 25% of our initial construction budget... buyer beware. I don't think this is done on purpose... it seems more that the people who can really afford an architect, don't care about the costs... and pay it. From my research Frank Lloyd Wright was similar, very creative, and always over budget and late.
In retrospect, we could have spent the first 3K on demolition of the entire house, and 2K on house plans, and saved 8K. But where is the fun in that?
Now we are deep into budgeting. We have materials quotes for lumber which look reasonable. And are looking at windows. The design has 8 double french doors. Those babies are Expensive $$ Vetter windows are $2800 EA which is what the Architect specified. The local Vetter window rep can just substitute standard (possibly non Vetter) all wood double french doors for $1500.
So in areas where we don't get direct driving rain and are sheltered by a roof, we will go that route. Sliding doors are even cheaper.
I have priced Anderson doors and windows, you can get list pricing from the Anderson website...very tedious, but do-able.
Generally based on list pricing the Anderson 200 series windows are 25% cheaper than the same 400 series window. And they share the same base part number (at least from the website data.)
Also... for French doors that open outward.. these are $$$ more than French doors that open inward. There are security issues (hinges on the outside, so more expensive), and rain/water control issues with the seal. We have CertainTeed vinyl windows and a open-out CertainTeed Fiberglass double French door that we had installed in our current house. It has the internal shade and looks fine for this house, but for the new house we are hoping to spring for wooden doors. The CertainTeed double french door was about $1300 or so if I recall installed (this is a fuzzy recollection).
We have also looked into Kitchen cabinets and appliances. We are looking at the Kenmore Pro-Line, primarily because Kenmore has the best deal on an electric induction cooktop, and the dual oven is well priced and has KNOBS. We spent a lot of time in a nice local appliance store (Standard TV and Appliance in Beaverton OR)... most of the mid-high range ovens have touch panels. I work with computers all the time, and when I get home, I don't want to fuss with a touch pad that gives me no tactile feedback... we looked for KNOBS. Fisher-Paykel and Sears have the best knobs on the ovens... that was our take on this.
The other activity... I worked with PGE (Portland General and Electric) to arrange relocation of my 200Amp electrical service to underground. PGE has a great ESR (Electric Service Requirements) PDF file that discusses how to go about digging a trench. I rented heavy equipment, and we have a web Album (private) Picasa that show the fun of renting a backhoe (first time), then later renting a front end loader (first time), having that break, and driving a BIG front end loader (first time)... it's amazing what the rental company would let me play with... total Tonka Toy Fest. About $230 for the backhoe, including delivery/pick-up and replacement of fuel ($30) that I didn't top off. The loader was about $150. The bids I had for excavation were at $2500, so I had way more fun for $500. I probably could have gotten lower bids for excavation, but where is the fun in that?
PGE approved the trench, and we filled it in. One contractor mentioned that for a house as big as we are planning, we probably should have gone for a 400A service. I'm going to pretend that as an Electrical engineer I can manage this issue, but basicly he was 100% right, I failed to do my homework here.... guess what, moving to 400A means re-digging the trench as that requires 2 seperate 3" conduits... .so I think I will be happy with 200A. FineHomebuilding.com has a great site, with info on how to calculate your amperage. I should have reviewed this. Actually I think I will be OK, but if I choose point-of-use water heat for both hot water and hydronic heat boiler... I could be at or close to the 200A panels limits. So this may force the use of propane for heat.
I'm going to have some electricians come out for bids, and can chat with them on this.
Photos
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| The grass runway in this photograph is shared by 15 homes... third from the far end of the runway is where this remodel project is ongoing. |
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Posted to Airpark-Remodel by Ross in Hillsboro, OR
on 8/3/2007
Hello!
Love the book (Still reading it). We are in the early
phases of a near full tear down remodel of a 1966 "rambler" modern
style house based on a grass airstrip in the Portland OR metro area.
Working with an architect the last six months we have beautiful plans.
(Three stories), but the estimated cost for a turnkey build is
$531,000. We are hoping to get as much done as possible for
around $350,000-400,000.
I found this home last year when my airplane was at my mechanics
for the annual inspection. Unfortunatly it is rather dark and dreary,
other than having this really nifty runway thingy in the back yard,
there isn't much to say about it, other than it is "interesting".
Our addition involves rotating the airplane hangar (35x40 roughly) so
you don't have to taxi the airplane onto the patio (nearly into the
kitchen window) to get it into the hangar. And we are adding a second
floor master suite, with bathroom and laundry room, and a small 3rd
floor "70sq ft crows nest. At least that's the wish list.
Photos
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