Category — Green Renovation

I had a great meeting today with Jesse Korsban from Stafford Home Services’ low voltage and audio/video department. We discussed the location of TV screens (can we even call them that anymore? I guess I should have said, Flat Panels), the speakers and the consolidation of the hardware. Stafford will be consolidating all of my equipment (receiver, Cable box, Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, OPPO DVD player, DVD recorder, iPod station, and Mac Mini) to a single location under the basement stair. [Read more →]

The Stafford team descended on Desonyer this week like an parachute brigade. A particularly effective and talented brigade at that. The week started with George from Stafford HVAC laying out the ducts and discussing placement of ducts as well as the placement of the new furnace and AC unit. He was very patient and helpful, offering many options and their benefits. These guys don’t just know how to do things one way, they are full of ideas and are flexible as heck. That’s a good thing in my book. [Read more →]

In going through this process, I am amazed at the difficulty of making decisions on floorplans and architectural details based on lines on paper. I think the thing that really gets me is the finality of those decisions. Give me the digital world and I can make decisions in a heartbeat, and stick to them. Give me a choice on a placement of a physical wall and I go blank. [Read more →]

Landscape Architects Inc.

Stephen Mastey, Principal at Landscape Architecture Inc. Came over today and discussed fixing the grading on the East side of the house. The current situation is dire with a deep recession in the middle and a high berm in the front and elevated area in the back. This is a recipe for disaster. The only reason that the basement is dry is because of the fine sugar sand below which drains like the dickens. [Read more →]

As we did our original walkthrough, Kris, from Stafford Home Services, said that recessed lighting would make a dramatic difference in the space, especially in the bedrooms. Boy was he right. Today the Stafford Home Services Electrical guys installed the lighting in the bedrooms and hallways. What an amazing difference. The ceilings are not short but they certainly seemed lower with the old ceiling units in there. [Read more →]

Stafford Home Services has come in and torn out the old HVAC system. They will be installing a new, 95% energy efficient Bryant furnace and AC unit as well as new ducts. Dan, a partner at Stafford, will be focusing on energy savings and as well as space saving designs. Stay tuned as he has some interesting ideas.

Stinson Builder roughed in the space in the rear addition for the three windows that will be going in next week. We have selected three energy efficient, 6′ wide Marvin Integrity windows. Each window consists of one large 5’x6′ fixed pane with two 20″x3′ awning windows on the bottom. Two will be along the left of the NW corner, with a double patio door to the left to them and one other on the adjacent corner.

Fast and furious framing! Brandon and his team bumped out the kitchen wall, made a new stairway (after removing the old), framed the new bedroom wall and the basement (as well as added Foamular insulation panels) and moved two windows. Watching those guys work was quite a wonder. [Read more →]

I met with the brilliant people at Landscape Architecture inc. today and went over their designs and ideas. It’s amazing seeing the level of creativity and knowledge these people have. We had met once before; walking around the property and me babbling on. [Read more →]

OK, so I recently bought this house. It’s a small 1955 rambler on the border of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in Desnoyer Park (a very unknown gem in the Twin Cities.) I purchased it with some significant renovation work in mind. I have a limited budget and I would like to go “Green” as well. Through this renovation blog you can learn the process I went through, learn from my mistakes and successes (mistakes can be successes too!) and hopefully have a good time doing it. Wish me luck.

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