The Walls are Up!

The sheet rockers are nearly finished. Above is a picture of the MIL apartment living room from the dining area.















Another picture of the downstairs living room and dining room, this time from the front door.














Above is a picture of the dining room and kitchen; the darker coloring in areas is because they haven't dried completely yet.














Upstairs dining room this time from the kitchen.

Insulation Pictures

Sam and I stopped by the house after work today to check out the sheetrock and siding, and it was very exciting. Looking like a real house! And a new house, to boot, rather than an old house with new stuff in it. Unfortunately, coming right from work, I didn't have my camera on me, so I can't share just yet. However, here are some insulation pix to whet your appetite.

Living room, in all its Pepto-Bismol glory:


Bonus room, really starting to feel like a room at this point:


Basement living room:


And finally, one of the MIL bedrooms, also showing the new windows that Ben cut out:

The Whole Story

I don't think Sam really did the whole ADU permit ordeal justice, so I'll try to fill in some details. Not too much, mind you, since I've been spending way too much time lately staring at a computer.

Basically, this whole issue starts way back before we even bought the house. In order for the bank to sign off on our loan, we had to provide a renovation permit. And in order for us to get a construction permit, we had to show Seattle's Dept. of Planning and Development our renovation plans. This meant drawing up the house layout as it was ("the original"), and how we planned to change it ("the renovation").

When Ben drew up the plans for the original, they very clearly showed that there was already a MIL apartment in the basement -- kitchen and all. And when he drew up plans for the renovation, that kitchen was still there. DPD permitted our renovation, allowing us to go through the rest of the loan process and start the laborious rehab project that you've had the pleasure of following here on The Bagley Project.

During our first framing inspection, however, Ben found out that we were short a few permits, including one for our Accessory Dwelling Unit (the MIL). If DPD had done their due diligence back in June when we were first requesting our renovation permit, they would've known back then that the previous owner never got the necessary permits for his MIL apartment. Then they would've informed us of the need for this permit. Then they would've looked over our permit application and informed us that the ADU couldn't be approved because we lacked off-street parking for the main house, let alone the ADU. Then they would've told us that that the ADU had to be converted back into a garage in order for the house to be in full compliance. Then we wouldn't have bought the house, and we wouldn't have dumped thousands and thousands of dollars into a renovation.

But they didn't. And they didn't. And they didn't. And they didn't. So we did, and we did.

So obviously we were NOT amused when DPD realized they made a mistake and tried to tell us -- $60K in -- that we would have to turn the MIL back into a garage.

I DON'T THINK SO.

So Ben and Sam told the lady at the DPD as nicely as possible that that just wasn't going to happen. That it was their oversight that led to this mess, and that we weren't about to throw $60K down the drain just because they don't double-check their work.

Apparently this woman at the DPD took the boys very, very seriously, and sent our case directly to the department's top lawyers. Who knows what happened then, but some time later -- as Sam mentioned -- we finally found out that the lawyers agreed we should be granted an exemption from the off-street parking rule. And there was great rejoicing.

Good thing the lawyers sided with us, because otherwise we would've had to hire some lawyers of our own, and honestly, who has the energy to deal with all that?

So that's pretty much the story. As Sam mentioned, insulation is all in now, and we have pix to prove it. I'll try to upload these tomorrow. Meanwhile, Ben reports that the sheetrockers were working until 9pm today, trying to finish the entire upstairs. Ben also reports that he's put up the siding on the front of the house and about half of one of the sides. I can't wait to get over there to take a gander.

Plans and Permit in Hand

You know that relieved feeling you have when you almost tip over (perhaps in a chair, or a ladder) then catch yourself? That's the sense I had last Thursday when the e-mail came in saying the Accessory Dwelling Unit permit was approved.

From then, it took a week before I finally had the permit and revised plans in hand, so just for that yesterday was a very good day. Beyond that, this week has seen some very impressive results. On Tuesday we passed the Electrical, Plumbing, and Natural Gas inspections. Wednesday we passed the Framing inspection and today we have the final insulation going in, yet have already passed the Insulation inspection. Next week: sheet rock and siding!

We'll try to get some pictures either today or tomorrow of the walls now that they're filled in with insulation.

Can You Spot the Difference?

Work continues on the city inspector's to-do list. Ben has already rebuilt the stairs, which look oddly like the stairs he built originally. See if you can tell what changed.

New stairs:


Original stairs:


Give up? The platform at the top is slightly smaller now, and the turn is a little more gracious on big feet.

Additionally, Sam and I went through the house and shot flame retardant foam into every little hole through every stud. Apparently this buys you a few extra minutes in the event of a fire. Apparently the "very sticky" warnings are also worth following; Sam and I both have a thin but rough layer of this stuff on our hands, which Ben says will stick around for at least a few days.


The last big thing on Ben's list is to finish digging out the basement windows. We finished moving the electrical wires, which used to run just below the bedroom windows. All of the wires connecting to the main floor now sit above the windows, while all of the wires that are strictly for the MIL apartment run a few feet below the windows.


Sam and Ben finished digging out the holes outside the windows this afternoon. As you can see, they basically take up the entire walkway leading to the backyard. We're thinking of rerouting the path to the other side of the porch to compensate.


Ben then rented a concrete saw from Home Depot and started cutting through the foundation. The windows are going to be huge -- 4' x 4' -- probably too big for the MIL bedrooms, but Seattle code necessitates this disproportion. Ben cut through the foundation as far as he could and then took a sledge hammer to it. He managed to get a little bit of the foundation out -- I guess enough to give hope that he's on the right track, but not enough to finish the job today. Ben's hoping he can finish the rest tomorrow, but I guess we'll just have to see how that goes.

Ben and Sam also installed our new front door last week. This wasn't on the inspector's to-do list, but it was time well spent. What a good looking door, eh?

Setback

Well, we've been thrown off track a bit after the city inspector came on Thursday and found that much of the work was up to Bellingham but not Seattle code. Some of the changes are relatively minor -- for example, we need to fill every hole in every stud with a flame retardant -- while others are a pretty big deal.

Sounds like the two biggest problems are the stairs to the loft and the windows in the MIL bedrooms. Ben needs to rip out the stairs and rebuild them because they are too narrow in parts (where the staircase turns a corner). He also needs to make the bedroom egress windows taller, which means taking out a chunk of the foundation. This, in turn, means moving a bunch of the electrical downstairs, since most of the wires are currently running just under those bedroom windows.

Of course, this pushes all of the other work back. We were planning on having the insulators come in Friday and the sheetrockers start next week. Hopefully these fixes won't set us back more than a week, but I must admit the news is quite daunting.

The Smallest Sink You've Ever Seen (and Other Fixtures)

Here's the sink we ordered for our half bathroom. Isn't it adorable?


Here's our jetted tub, at home in the master bathroom.


Take a gander:


And here's the tub and surround for the second upstairs bathroom: