Framing

The rain continues off and on, so the foundation work remains on hold. Meanwhile, with the furnace venting and the hot water heater both moved some of the bones of the new room are starting to take shape. The original idea was to nestle the venting inside of the existing framing but we were told that they cannot do that. So new framing was constructed around the furnace venting and it sits on top of the existing framing. This will push to wall out about 4 inches.

The soffit framing, which formerly ended at the old closets, has now been extended. A new soffit has been created across the room where we will have our new Murphy wall with shelving and a place for the TV.

The bathroom has also seen some changes. We are shifting the door frame to the right. Originally, we were going to do this so that we could install a pocket door. But it turns out that there is a metal pipe running inside the frame and up to the roof for venting the toilet. So it can't be moved. Right now we are looking into sliding door options. The original sink and vanity was against the wall. The plumbing was also moved to accommodate the corner sink that will be installed in the future.

Tankless Hot Water Heater Installation

As we thought all of this remodeling/foundation repair work through many months ago, we had a certain order in mind. The foundation work would come first, then we would replace the hot water heater, then remodel the interior room downstairs. But given the record rainfalls, we have had to rethink the order of things.

The foundation work is off the table until we get some dry weather. So we are trying move forward on other fronts. Step #3 is now #1 and Step #1 is now #3. You get the idea.

Today, however, was a big day. The traditional 40 gallon hot water heater that was in a closet downstairs has been removed and we have moved to a tankless hot water heater that's now in the garage. A Rinnai RUR98i, to be exact, was installed today. We paid extra for the circulating pump so that we could program it to have hot water on demand during certain key hours--such as morning shower time and evening clean up time. Here's a promo video in case you want to geek out:

But with the old, traditional hot water heater gone, we now have freed up some real estate downstairs. The existing venting pipes you see to the right of the new venting will be redone but will remain. Somewhere in there will be the new wine fridge.

We also had some work done on installing a downstairs bar sink. A chunk of the concrete was  cut into in order to tap into the piping coming from the kitchen sink so that the downstairs bar sink can feed into the same pipe and vent. During the concrete cutting, a piece of the original pipe was damaged and had to be replaced. But during that process it was revealed that this pipe was suffering from the equivalent of clogged arteries in the human heart. They recommended getting the pipes cleaned with a pressure washer. Evidently, snaking  (which we've had done recently) does not always clear out the gunk lining the clogged pipes.

County inspections are scheduled for tomorrow for the hot water heater as well as the plumbing.

Other topics on deck: concrete polishing, filling in concrete that's been cut away, and getting through county inspections.