Alteration In Princeton

Alteration In Princeton

= D & J CONSTRUCTION =

Here we are in Princeton, NJ again. On this, our current job, we were hired as the General Contractor to take a tired looking home with numerous problems, and transform it (hopefully) into the dream house the owners,( Mike and Kathy Havardansky) have always wanted. I'll start out by putting a picture of the house before we started and as usual will picture guide you through the progress. Please be patient there are lots of pictures.

This is the before picture.
We are going to Install all new exterior doors. The front door will be enlarged with a sidelight. The porch will be torn down and a wrap around porch will be installed. The stucco will be ripped off and "Hardy Board" siding will be installed. The roof will be striped down to plywood and a new roof will be installed. Cultured stone will be installed under the bay window, on the support piers for the porch, and on the new chimney stack for the new gas fireplace. And much much more...............

The sheathing used when this house was built, was a pressed board type and was breaking apart where it had gotten moisture,

With the bottom half re-sheathed, we find that some of the insulation had to be replaced.

On the pictures on the top right and left, we needed to take off the brickface stucco and the stucco on the top, so we could prepare for the new porch. Under the stucco was old shingles, and under the shingles was a compressed board that was used extensivly in the late 60's and 70's. There were parts of this material that had gotten moisture and was falling apart. It was decided to tear off all of this material and sheath the house with 1/2" plywood. But once we started to take off the old sheathing we found that at one time the house was infested with mice, which had tunneled through the insulation. Some of the insulation was completely gone in sections. So, we replaced all the bad insulation also. This kind of put a kink in my schedule.
The machine was there to remove the old concrete porch slab, and dig footings for the porch piers and the base for the bay window, which is to get cultured stone.

The rest of the house is wrapped with "TYVEK" and the side was just sheathed.

The new chimney stack is ready for the cultured stone.

The sheathing is now almost completely finished(just the garage needs to be done) and the house is wrapped in "TYVEK". We are ready to start the cultured stone work on the chimney stack. The new gas fireplace will be installed this week also. Did I mention that for three weeks the heat index was about 110 degrees?

The cultured stone is now being put on..

Free counters provided by Andale.

The footings for the piers are ready for concrete.

The gas line had to be extended to the new fireplace.

The holes for the porch piers are dug, the gas line is extended from the main basement through the front yard and into the garage for the new gas fireplace. The cultured stone is now ready to be jointed. The garage is now re-sheathed and wrapped.

The block work is done for the bay window and piers for the porch.

The Chimney is now complete and ready for the new fireplace to be installed.The cultured stone on the bay window and piers for the porch will be next. We altered the plans a little, because as the job progresses you can see how some changes will enhance the total project. One of the big changes was the detail under the bay window, the plans called for partial stone on the bottom and AZEK frame on top. I convinced the owners to go all the way up with the stone, and well look at the pictures and tell me if I was wrong.

The cultured stone is now finished on the chimney stack, but we have to do something with that ugly flashing on top.

That's me laying the stone on the bay window.

The stone work is finished, now we are installing the joints.

The old roof was ripped off and the new one is being installed.

The second floor is being braced for the new front door.

The new front door with sidelight is now in.

We used the old porch roof as scaffold to take off the stucco on the upper part of the house.

After one day the stucco is half off and the porch roof is down.

Before we got the permits for this job(which was a job in itself) We removed the old back door and installed a "Therma Tru" door with built in blinds.

In these pictures on the right and left, you can see the process of taking off the stucco. We used the old fashioned muscle method. This created alot of debris, which had to be carried off in a dumpster just for the masonry. The old, cracked,concrete walkway was also taken out and disposed of.

Here you can see the heat duct in the porch roof.

In this picture the heat duct was removed and the overhang is insulated.

We have started to frame out for the new chimney.

The framing for the fireplace is finished and the new garage entry door is installed.

In the pictures above, we found that the original builder ran the heat duct for the master bath through the ceiling of the porch. The second story overhang had little if any insulation, which exposed the upstairs to the elements. We removed the duct and tied into another duct from the attic, and insulated the overhang. It was finished off with 1/2" plywood. The chimney stack for the new fireplace has been started, and the new "Stanley" fire door is installed in the garage.

The shingles stand ready to be installed.

The cultured stone if finished under the bay window. The original plan was to stop the stone about two feet under the bottom of the window and frame it out with the AZEK.
The roofers have started the new roof. The original roof had two really old layers on and had to be ripped off. Fortunately for the owners only about ten sheets of plywood had to be replaced. The fireplace is now installed and we took down a wall to wall mirror in the living room and had to re-sheetrock the wall. We also installed crown moulding in the entire room.

The Hardy Board siding has been started.

In these pictures, you can see the different phases of the roof progress.
The fireplace was installed, but caused me a small problem. Being a Zero Clearance fireplace, with a metal vent and chimney stack, the very top had to be flashed(look at it on the picture above right). Well it didn't look good to have flashing bent over the top, on the stone. In the next couple of weeks I needed to come up with a solution.....and I did.
The new wrap around porch is now being framed. We need this porch done so we can start the "Hardy Board" siding.

The Hardy Board siding is finished on the left side of the house.

For those of you who don't know, "Hardy Board" is a fiber cement product with a fifty year warranty, and carries a fifteen year paint warranty. click here to check out the James Hardy site. I personally, am very impressed with this product. You look at it and swear that it's wood. All of the corners and windows are trimmed with a pvc product called AZEK, click on the word to check out their web site.

In the interest of saving space, I'm going to put more pictures in each section, because..... there are a ton of them.
In some of these pictures, notice the shed in the rear of the house. It was about a foot away from the corner and created a bad moisture and mold situation. You will see later that I insisted that it be moved.

The siding on the lower part of the house is now finished.

The siding is being done on the upper half of the house.

The siding on the rear of the house is just about finished.

The siding on the front and side looks nice.

This is a nice view from the end of the driveway.

The stone piers are finished and ready to be backfilled.

A nice close up picture of the stone work. Isn't it really nice?!

As you can see, the roof is done, the siding is now finished, the porch is roofed, and the stone work is complete. The wood coloumns were a bit of a problem though. By working closely with the homeowners, Mike and Kathy, we went through four different kinds of coloumns untill they were satisfied. I'm very happy with the final decision.

In the pictures below, you can see that we have come to a solution on the top of the chimney. The stone work on the bow window in the rear of the house is finished. The owners love the stone so much that they requested that we put stone on the other metal chimney stack which is also pictured below. The color for the concrete pad under the porch is on order and will take two weeks to come in. The brick pavers for the front walk are also ordered. The porch is now complete, and the gutters are going on the house. The challange for the gutters was that the owners didn't want to run the downspouts in front of their beautiful stone piers, so the solution was to try to pitch the front all the way to the garage....it was really a challange! The shed is moved with a bobcat with forks attached, and chains, and rope, and time, and care.....

The "AZEK" on the top of the chimney really tops it off!!

I had to build the backing for the stone with brick.

The stone is finished under the bow window.

The shed is now moved away from the house. Now the house can breathe again.

Full view of the almost finished product.

Finally, that darn shed is moved away from the house.

We found a nice spot in the back yard for it.

By putting stone on this chimney, it gives the house balance.

Now we go back to the inside of the house.
The surround for the fireplace has arrived and is being installed. It is a man made stone product. You can visit their website here. www.missionstone.com. Unlike natural stone, it is not only half the weight, but it looks incredibly real. I'll give you a dollar if you can tell the difference between the two. We also installed a ventless fireplace, with an oak surround in the master bedroom. They had what looked like a "Pocono's" 1960 wood burning fireplace surrounded by fake brick...nice. We also installed a shelf to match the surround.
The grading, seed and hay is now finished(the grass started to grow in three days!!!) and the exterior lights were installed on custom made pieces of "AZEK". Oh wait...did I forget Sheldon?... I can't go on without mentioning Sheldon. Sheldon is the Havardansky's old Bassett Hound. He often escapes and comes outside to inspect the progress. I swear he really is checking things out. He is currently going through chemo and still gets around really good. Lets all take a second now and give a little prayer for Sheldon's continued success.

Shedon often escapes, and we chase... good thing he has short legs.

This man made surround is glued to the wall, then chaulked.

Go back to top

Don't forget...click on all the pictures to enlarge, and if you hold the curser on the picture to the left you can see before and after !!

SITE SURVEY: Please Let Us Know What You Think.
Just click on the picture below and the survey will pop up. Then hit the back button twice when your finished.

The fireplace doors are installed and the fire is roaring.

This is a ventless fireplace that we installed in the master bedroom.

We built a custom shelf above to match the fireplace.

The t.v. sits real nice on this custom oak shelf.

The exterior lights are installed with a custom piece of AZEK.

The rear lights also have custom AZEK backings.

The miracle grass was planted on a Friday and this picture was taken on Monday morning!

The front door, moulding, and sheetrock are all finished.

We replaced all the interior doors, hardware, and trim.

In the pictures below, we replaced all the interior doors. On most of the doors the frame was in good shape, so we replaced the door slab, the hinges and hardware. We also installed a pocket door for the master bedroom. The bathroom was small and the old door swung into the room, creating a "skinny person only" entrance. We had to knock down part of the wall and reframe it to accomidate the pocket door.

The pocket door is in, the sheetrock is finished and the trim is on the door.

From inside the bathroom, with the door closed.

The finished door from inside the master bedroom.

The inside of the house is now finished. We go back outside to pour the front slab for the porch. The owners picked a colored concrete...Sombrero Buff....
The final phase of this job is to install a brick paver walkway. By now you should know the Havardansky's, They don't just want a walkway, but the kind that lights up. So we installed paver lights right into the border. I think it looks beautiful!
I hope you enjoyed this page. It was really a great job to turn an ugly home(no offense Mike & Kathy) into a beautiful masterpiece. I am truly proud to have been a part of this project. See You On The Next Job!....

The slab is a colored concrete. The color will lighten after a few days.

The pavers are started. The wire for the light ran for over two hundred feet in the transformer.

It's pretty cool how the pattern turns into an angle pattern at the intersection.

The walkway is now finished and all the lights are working(after three transformers).

I'm not floating....I stood on top of the dumpster to take this one. Cool angle...huh?

Ahh the finished product.... what a great feeling!

Looks good from every angle...Doesn't it?

Sad to be finished, we really got attached to this family, I will miss them!!!

Go back to top

NOTE:
This page is exceptionally large with a lot of pictures. It may take a while for the page to completely load, but I guarantee it'll be worth the wait.

This is really an amazing transformation!!!

We replaced the rear entry door with a "Therma Tru" with the blinds built in.

We now have to take off this brickface stucco.