Central Air Installation - Leave It To The Pros!

Not an ordinary DIYer project, when I decided to install central heating and air conditioning in my house I must have been out of my mind.

With a small arsenal of HVAC (Heating Ventilation & A/C) literature behind my belt coupled with a decidedly obstinate eagerness to complete the project on my own, I committed myself to the task. I was confident I could do it - equivocally. In retrospect it was a success. What's more, it only took me 192 hours!

A summary of the work involved follows. First, take a look at the before and after photos of the equipment in the attic.

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Before Photo: Attic HVAC equipment after installing the mounting pad on the ceiling joists

After Photo: The behemoth residing in attic.

The chronicles: I installed an air diffuser (vent) into each room in the house. Each is connected by flexible ductwork the the behemoth.

Installing the diffusers is no easy task in cement plaster ceilings

I may not have completed the task without the uplift of an occasional acoustic serenade (Omar 'Leonel' Garza is a talented singer/songwriter who just released an amazing album: 'La Garza').

I cut a really big hole in the cement ceiling for the return air vent...

...and built a gypsum board plenum box extending from the ceiling into the attic where it connects to a 16" flexible return duct.

My qualified electrician added a 220v/60amp circuit for the exterior condensing unit and a 110v/15amp circuit serving the air handler/furnace - the behemoth - in the attic.

In the center of the photo below is the return plenum box with the return duct attached. Also pictured are the individual supply ducts and the flue which enables the furnace to exhaust through the roof

Much crawling underneath the raised floor was required. It is a tight fit!

The white pipe below is the condensate line for the fan coil. It ties into the drain I installed for the claw foot bathtub above the floor.

At the top of the photo below are the refrigerant lines for the fan coil unit. At the bottom is the rigid steel gas line. I confess, I was mildly nervous about cutting in the gas line. No explosions yet. I ran each these lines from under the house up to the unit in attic through the closet.

192 hours. Right, so that was pretty easy.

My Claw Foot Tub - A Good 'Fit'

Recovered from a field covered in a dozen layers of paint, all of which were permeated by indomitable rust, the claw foot tub which now adorns my bathroom was not exactly the perfect 'fit' for my house. Not objectively.

Fine! I could strip away all of the paint layers, kill the rust and repaint the outside of the tub. Then I could clean and restore the 90 year old porcelain on the inside. Easy!


Still, the following question remained unresolved: how could I make this tub fit in a room that is 4 inches too narrow?

In my previous post, I chronicle the work I did to frame the large holes in the bathroom floor and walls, rough in the plumbing lines and tile the bathroom. I left off somewhere around here...

I deliberately omitted several tiles (see the bottom right of the picture above) in order to leave a hole to receive the front end of the tub.

...and I bent electrical conduit in order to form a custom shower curtain track.

Then, I commissioned a team of muscle bound men to help me 'fit' the tub in place. A cast iron behemoth, this antique tub is extremely heavy. I took some measurements, removed the tub, cut the wall apart - hoping the partition wall wouldn't collapse - and tiled in the remaining area.

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It looks something like this now...

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Note the marble tile in the inset for the end of the tub, and the brown tile inlay in the floor.

Next post: Central Air Installation!

A Claw Foot Tub Too Big For a Bathroom with NO FLOOR

Below is a 'before' photo of my bathroom. A bathroom with no toilet, no sink and NO FLOOR. Can you call this a barthoom? Of course, it is equipped with a hand towel hanger !

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Progress Photo 1: Framing the Floor

Progress Photo 2: Wall board removed for plumbing work, new base board and joists

Progress Photo 3: Enjoying the fruits of the newly installed shower plumbing - I cut into the main copper piping lines under the house. Naturally, it was easy, there was no floor to get in the way.

Progress Photo 4: Water supply lines, drain line and insulation installed, floor and wall ready to be closed.

Progress Photo 5: Floor sheathing installed along with cement board to receive tile

Progress Photo 6: Cement board joints taped and mortared. Note: I deliberately cut the hole on the left to make the claw foot tub fit. It seemed more logical to alter the framing of the room than the procure a fixture that fit into it. Parker's logic.

Progress Photo 7: Thin-set tiling the 'inlay' - THANK YOU DAVID BAYSINGER for offering your masterful guidance and for spending several days with me in the trenches.

Final Progress Photo: Tile is nearly finished. Claw foot tub forthcoming...

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I leave you with a rhetorical question: How did Parker do this?

Housewaring Party this Saturday, September 12th. Music starts at 8:30pm.

Beware - floors may collapse and pipes may burst!

NEVER Choose Unfinished Stain Grade Wood

Selecting a paint grade door in lieu of an unfinished stain grade door is a prudent choice. The former can be painted in an hour and forgotten about for years. The latter will require many hours of sanding, staining and lacquering before it can be installed. To be sure, after all of this is completed the installer may experience a sense of satisfaction. Said sentiment erodes into obscurity in a short time when the process has to be repeated due to weather degradation. Paint grade is a prudent choice!

Parker is neither prudent, nor pragmatic. Observe the ardous process of transforming an unfinished stain grade, solid wood door from a chunk of wood to a finshed door.

In spite of this, Parker fell in love in the process. Twice.

Back Door, Before:

Progress 1 - Thank you Jesus

Progress 2 - Stain grade Knotty Alder door, unfinished and vulnerable

Progress Photo 2 - Stained, lacquered and awaiting trim

Progress Photo 3: Parker's first love: stained, lacquered and trimmed

The front door is composed of solid mahogany from the Phillipines.

Progress Photo 1: Sanding

Progress Photos - Staining

The final progress photo follows the 'Before' photo:

.... Parker's second love!

The Kitchen

Having replaced the majority of the copper piping underneath the house and established a functional plumbing system, it was time to move onto the 'Area Formerly Known as the Kitchen'.

Before:

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I issued requests for proposals for an architectural design competition to rebuild the 'Area Formerly Know as...' Although the international competition was fierce, the team of esteemed judges selected a local talent to complete the design.

Winning Design Rendering:

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Another Design Rendering: Note the portion of granite around the sink.

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Here is where the portion of granite around the sink came from:

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Master craftsman David Baysinger and I cut the piece above into tiles to fit around the perimeter of the proposed underhung sink. Of course, we executed all work in accordance with the winning design scheme.

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Next, my expert cabinet builder performed his work. Working with apparent ease, he made it seem like a perfunctory task.

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At the risk of seeming inappropriately optimistic, the 'Area Formerly Known as the Kitchen' may soon come under the nomenclature of 'Area Formerly Known as the 'Kitchen', but Ultimately Reinstated as the 'Kitchen''.

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More to come. Comments welcome!

Early Renovation work...

I will be terse and try to let the pictures speak for themselves:

The house had 17 door openings when I bought it. This includes both interior and exterior doors. It suffices to say that the seller did not hand over the 'keys' upon escrow closure. I like to joke that they handed over a crow bar instead.


These pictures depict the work on the front door. Thank you Parker and Robyn!











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Parkers preparing to remove the boarded up front door opening sometime after midnight:















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Did you know Jesus is a carpenter? Well, he is, and an expert one at that. Every time I open and close my exterior doors I smile and thank Jesus (aka Robyn).

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Looking better - note door in lieu of plywood:

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With the extreme caution that only an 'inadequately experienced Owner-Builder attempting a complicated plumbing installation without proper licensure' can embody, Parker and I pressurized the plumbing system after completing the plumbing work.

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Two days of blood, sweet, tears and ineffable anxiety elapsed duing said plumbing work. Seeing no leaks, I took the victory position I had coveted since the onset of escrow, nearly 3 months earlier.

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more to come...

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please comment...