Old Happens, Part 2: This Old House

This is the second installment in a three-piece series. If you missed the first post, find it here.

After 33 years, this old house feels like an extension of us. So much of our story has unfolded within these walls. Initially a one-bedroom, 850-square-foot cottage built in 1940, the house was completely inadequate for our family of five when we bought it in 1992. But after years of renovations and one addition, we’ve lived comfortably as the house conformed to us through various seasons of life.

Because my mother lived with us for the last six years of her life, we got to preview in real time how the house did — and did not — work for a person with mobility challenges. After deciding to stay put for our retirement years, and given the inevitable decline of old age, we turned our attention to making this old house work for us in our final season as its residents.

For all our renovations over the years, the main floor of the house still felt very 1940. Designed long before the concept of the “master bedroom suite,” its only bedroom was scaled for a full-size bed and a spartan wardrobe. The nearby bathroom is smaller than most closets. If the house was going to serve our needs into old age, we needed to build a master bedroom suite and bring the laundry room up from the basement.

Creating the Plan

We might have resembled Joshua prepping for the battle of Jericho as we circled our house, debating which direction might work for the addition. South and west were the only real options. A major consideration for me was maintaining as much natural light in the basement as possible. Although it was never intended as living space, the basement originally had decent-sized windows on three sides. We lost two of them when we built the kitchen addition, and I was loathe to lose more. Building on the west side of the house would only cost one of three basement windows on that side, leaving plenty of natural light downstairs.

Before I get into the plan details, I need to level with you about something. Building projects often lead to marital strife! We are approaching the end of the project, and I’m happy to report that we’ve come through in great shape. The trick is to stagger your meltdowns, so one person remains rational at all times. It also helps if both accept the need to compromise, because you surely won’t agree on everything. We were in solid agreement on the plan in general, and we agreed that cost would not be the top priority in our decision making. But MERCY! Building costs are exorbitant, and we both made compromises to keep costs under control. (Okay, maybe he did most of the compromising! :))

When we built our kitchen addition, we relied completely on friends and family for the construction. This project was too involved for that, and besides, our friends and family got old in the intervening years! We would need to hire a general contractor, and we didn’t know any. Nor did we know anything about the process of engaging the services of a contractor. We started asking around for referrals and took a crash Google course in construction projects.

With a preliminary computer sketch drafted by a builder, we also made the crucial decision to hire an interior designer. It won’t surprise you that this was Roger’s first compromise. Neither of us really knew the value proposition of working with a designer, but after an initial consultation with Suzie Atkin, I had a strong intuition that engaging her services would be money well spent. I was right.

As we near the end of this project, we fully appreciate how critical the selection of a contractor and designer turned out to be. We are beyond grateful to have found Josh and Suzie!

Engaging the Team

Any significant building project requires a million decisions, and no one gets them all right. But our top advice is this: don’t whiff on your contractor and designer. These two partners carry the weight of the project from concept to occupancy.

Interior Designer

In the order of events, the interior designer’s work launches the project and is 90% complete by the time the general contractor takes over. But the two collaborate with each other throughout the project, so we vetted our general contractor candidates at the same time as the designer. Their synergy was essential.

General contractors often fulfill the role of the designer, and some would rather not have another cook in the kitchen. But when it works as intended, a good interior designer makes the contractor’s job much easier. That was our experience.

How do you know when you need the services of a designer? These were the considerations for us:

• Our project involved new construction and renovation. Adding new to old is always a challenge, and adding on to a rock house took the complexity up a couple notches.
• We needed to keep the footprint of the new addition as compact as possible, making the most efficient use of space.
• We had specific needs to make the space senior-friendly — wide doorways, a zero-entry shower, traffic flows that work for a walker or wheelchair, etc. We drew on the designer’s experience in this area.
• We wanted the new space to feel as if it had always been there. Achieving that cohesion involved both construction and aesthetic decisions.
• I have a decent “design eye” and know what I like, but I tend to second guess myself. I knew I’d have more confidence in my decisions with the help of an expert.
• Making all the fixture decisions up front helped us get a better sense of the cost. I didn’t know this at the time, but it also greatly reduced my stress during construction.
• Starting with a highly detailed plan enabled us to order all our fixtures immediately. We began the project when new tariffs were being announced almost daily, making it impossible to nail down costs. We purchased many of our fixtures just before price hikes went into effect.

I had found Suzie Atkin Intentional Design online a few months earlier when I engaged Suzie’s services as a wedding gift for my son and daughter-in-law. To vet her for our project, we started with a 2-hour consultation. As I walked her through our home, Suzie wanted to know how the house had grown and changed with us through the years. She noticed small details. She wasn’t just getting to know us, she was getting to know the house, as if it were a sentient member of the family. With a keen ear, she listened to the heartbeat of our home and the arc of our family narrative.

When I received her proposal a few days later, it was clear and straightforward. It felt like a lot of money, but even with only a cursory understanding, I believed it would be a worthwhile investment. I also knew I would have a blast working with Suzie!

Over the next several weeks, Suzie and I met a couple times to pick out plumbing fixtures, lighting, paint, tile, countertops, and cabinet hardware. In between, we passed the digital floorplan back and forth, fine tuning with each iteration. I had created Pinterest boards for each room, and little by little I refined my choices until I finally arrived at the look I wanted. Suzie’s input during this winnowing was invaluable.

I’m grateful that Suzie steered me toward retaining the history of the home as much as possible. At one point I wanted to replace the current five-panel bathroom door with an updated style to match all the new doors in that same hallway. She suggested instead that we keep the old door and match our new doors to the old door style. That door is the last original door in the house, and I love that she steered me toward keeping it.

At the end of our engagement, she delivered multiple pages of floorplan detail, including 3-D renderings of each room from different angles. The drawings are so detailed, every inch of space is marked. For example, the electrician’s schedule shows the location of every outlet, and the configuration of each switch. A window and door schedule lists the dimensions and style of each window and door. The drawings were sized for large-format printing, making it easy for every subcontractor to see the detail for his part.

General Contractor

We vetted two general contractors and, brilliantly, we chose the most expensive! I’ll explain our thought process, but first, let’s talk about vetting the candidate pool generally.

Joplin is a small city, so already the pool is limited. Some contractors only do new construction. Some only do remodels, excluding additions. Many are booked out for months. The complication of building on to a rock house was a dicey detail. In the end, we found two small contractors who were willing to tackle our project.

You can find a number of checklists online for how to vet a contractor, so I won’t reinvent the wheel here. Instead, let me tell you the five deciding factors that tipped us in favor of Josh Vandiver.

• Responsiveness. The first contractor we considered was personable in our meetings, but did not follow through with items he had promised. And I’m not talking days, I’m talking weeks. We always had to contact him again to remind him that we were waiting to hear from him. That got old in a hurry. By contrast, Josh was prompt and thorough.
• Communication. I’ll be honest, there isn’t a contractor alive who communicates at my desired level and frequency. But we do need to be speaking the same language, and that didn’t seem to be the case with the first guy. Now, in fairness, we were so green, it would be hard for any expert to speak at our novice level. But after multiple conversations, details should have come into focus and they just didn’t. Conversation was much easier with Josh. He was able to communicate at our level and was patient with our questions.
• Quality of subcontractors. Josh knew that his bid was likely higher than our previous bid, but he was unapologetic about it. He explained that he only used the best subcontractors, and he gave us details about each one. This told us two things: he had good, long-standing relationships with his subs, and he was committed to quality craftsmanship. We were willing to pay for quality.
• Collaboration with designer. Josh was not only willing to work with our designer, he was excited about it. Our first contractor expressed a reluctant willingness. After introducing Josh and Suzie, both assured us they would enjoy the partnership.
• Transparency. The coup de grace in Josh’s sales pitch was his promise that he would be completely transparent with us. If something went wrong, he would let us know immediately. He would keep us apprised of the schedule and plan. We would have every invoice, and there would be no mark-up on materials. We recognized his integrity and that was essential.

It should go without saying, but of course we contacted references for both contractors. We wanted to know how close the contractor came to meeting budget and timelines, how they communicated, how they handled problems, and anything the homeowner would do differently in hindsight. References were good for both contractors. After a months-long process, we had complete peace of mind when we finally signed a contract with Josh.

Work In Progress

The project moved from concept to reality when demolition of the rock exterior began in early June. The addition is 24 x 24 (576 square feet) and includes a master bedroom, master bath, walk-in closet and laundry room. The construction mess was isolated from the rest of the house until it was time to break through the exterior wall from the old bedroom. Our plans included renovation of the old bedroom into an office, with built-in cabinetry and french pocket doors into the living room.

The addition is built over the sewer pipe that runs to the septic tank. We knew the 85-year-old cast iron pipe would likely need to be replaced, and sure enough, it was in bad shape. While we were not surprised by this complication, we were certainly dismayed. The fix required jackhammering the basement floor from the bathroom, down the hallway, and through the laundry room to make a channel for the new pipe. Ugh. It was messy and expensive, but we had no choice.

After that unpleasantness, progress clicked along. Foundation, framing, electric, plumbing, HVAC, drywall, insulation, hardwood flooring, tile, roofing, siding, masonry, cabinets, countertops, painting, finish carpentry, and final dirt work. A million little details falling into place, just as we planned. Well, mostly as planned.

Key Takeaways

We don’t foresee another building project in our future, but now I have all this wisdom with no place to go, so I’ll share it with you! Here’s what we learned in the last six months of watching this dream materialize.

• Be patient. This was my biggest challenge. We made the decision to build a full six months before we signed a contract. The painful pace stemmed from our own inexperience, slow responses in the first stage, and the general nature of the beast. I loved the design phase when I was actively involved, but the construction phase tested my patience. We were at the mercy of many other schedules, since the contractor and all the subs work on multiple projects at once. No one’s sense of urgency matched my own. And the closer we got to the finish line, the more the disruption and mess fueled my impatience. Gahhhh!
• [At the risk of TMI, the construction wasn’t the only thing stretching my patience…our 11-month-old labrador, Dolly Jo, went into heat this month. In addition to constantly cleaning up after her, I had to make sure she didn’t slip out the door while the workmen were coming and going. Unfortunately, she had a boyfriend who sneaked into the house and lifted his leg in four places before I discovered him and shooed him out. So, yeah, there was a lot going on, but she did look pretty cute in her Minion underpants!]

• Expect mistakes. I had been given this advice ahead of time, and sure enough, things did not go exactly according to plan. This is where the quality of the team is revealed. Our contractor lived up to his promised transparency, and he and our designer worked together to devise Plan B. No one’s hair was on fire. (Well, mine may have smoldered a bit…) In the end, one of our Plan Bs turned out to be a vast improvement over Plan A. Gotta love a little serendipity, right?

• Stay Involved. No matter what type of expert you are hiring (doctor, financial advisor, contractor), remember that no on cares about your _____ (health, financial wellbeing, home) more than you. At this point in life, we’ve learned to never fully outsource anything. Trust, but monitor. Trust, but ask questions. After all, no one cares about the end result more than you. It was a balancing act to stay apprised of progress without hovering and being a pest. Even so, several times I erred on the side of deferring too much to the builders’ expertise. My contractor may say I erred on the pest side, but I wish I would have been a little pestier (is that a word?). No one stays on top of a million little details perfectly.

• Hold the plan in proper tension. After all the hours Suzie and I spent perfecting every detail of this project, I had a high level of confidence in the plan. I printed giant copies for all the subcontractors and considered it all but done. But here’s the thing: each of them devoted a few minutes to reviewing the plan we had lived and breathed for weeks. Things were missed, and that led to frustrating delays and Plan Bs. I may have gotten a little testy about THE PLAN. On the other hand, sometimes the subcontractor came to me with a better idea than what the plan specified. In those cases, we happily adjusted the plan. Builders can rightly borrow a line from the State Farm commercial: “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.” Collaboration drives the best result.

• Take a break. We had planned a three-week road trip in September, scheduled around our daughter’s wedding in Seattle. If not for the wedding, we may have canceled our plans so we could keep momentum going on the construction, but it turns out we really needed that mental health break. Construction is a long slog, and taking an occasional breather is good for everyone.

• Keep the long view in mind. In the middle of the mess, it’s tempting to settle or shortcut just to stop the madness. We were sprinting to finish before Thanksgiving when we hit an unexpected snag. (I swear the universe laughs at timelines.) As we considered various workarounds, we weighed timing against satisfaction with the end result. In the end, we took a deep breath and decided to choose the option we really wanted, even if it took longer. A year from now, ten years from now, we’ll be glad we did.

We are SO CLOSE to completion, and I cannot wait to give you the tour. This old house is about to get new life, so stay tuned for the final installment of this series. Thanks for sharing the journey with us!

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