Pilgrims Pit - Design & Build - Page 2

The DC is because I used to live in Washington DC. I am now a couple of miles away from the dog track near you.

The shutoff regulator was an add on. We paid the plumber's cost for the part which was $140. The whole tank was supposed to be in a tin pan that would have held some of the mess if it burst. The guys doing the HVAC move were supposed to supply the pan, but there was a snafu. They think they can retro-fit it in by lifting the h/w heater (with 80 gallons of water in it). I am pretty skeptical on that one. I'll live either way.

The relo costs were $1250 by a licensed plumber and his apprentice. The two of them were at my house for about 7 hours and had to do a fair bit of re-working the plumbing lines. I moved it from one end of my house to the other. Not cheap, but makes the space more useable.

Here is a quick diagram of where the furnace and H/W heater were moved from:

Good point - Judson, I'll try to take a look at that also. Seems like a more appealing price point. All I want is dimming 2-3 kinds of lights with a remote control.

I guess independant control is preferable. But if Dim all makes it go from couple - several hundred to fifty bucks, I might consider that, especially if upgradable (replaceable) later. The budget is a bit haywire.

The $50 thought was a moment of weakness. Spend, spend spend is the nature of things for these projects. Old tightwad habits kick in. Meanwhile I try to rationalize upping the receiver budget.

Interesting that the spacer system's limitations. I guess this is why I asked.

This thread on insteon is interesting and helpful:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...light=LIGHTING

Here are some updates. HVAC is getting close. Zoning system was installed, and we ran with two zones last night. Basement zone won't be activated until the basement is done. They have some cleaning up to do.

Here are the new runs.


There are several dampners on these runs

Close up of two dampners

The control panel

The caffeine that powered the install

Also, here are the pics of the sump pump installed. We may need to frame around this or make the pipe a decorative column some how. Plumber put it in straight up/down instead of hugging the wall. Also might need to move the charger and battery to a more compact location.

Get pumped


The lay of the land

Contractor came to the house today. I am out of town on business, but my wife sent me some shots. They sealed the walls and floors using Kwik-Seal (I think?). I had a tthread going trying to figure out what to treat my walls in. Timing got tight, work got crazy, and I am sorry to admit we went with what the contractor recomended, as opposed to some of the products recomended in that thread. I was very intruiged by the Kryton product Soundood mentioned.

The contractors strategy was two coats sealer in portions of the basement, let dry, then move all the stuff onto those areas so they can repeat the process tomorrow.

Here are the pics:
The playroom

The theater


Utility room (the moisture is from the bulkhead door being open a lot lately)


My wife also went to a specialty tile store after we were kinda lost at Lowes/HD to look for tile for the bath. It will be a neutral tile, these were the samples she brought home.

I like 1&2 based on the picks, but its hard without being able to contrast colors.

We have also been working on the lighting / lighting control plan.

We nixed the sconces (have 8 halogen sconces available cheap if anyone wants) and will instead go with a tight cropping of 4" cans in the perimeter soffit (either 11 or 9 lights). This is essentially a total ripoff of Greg Power's look (lighting and walls) - hope he doesn't mind. We think the lighting he chose really emphasizes the wall panels, which we want to emulate. I am hoping to avoid LV lights, just because I think they make it more complicated (transformer needed? noisy? dimable?) - but I am not an expert.

We will also be putting two 6" cans in the ceiling, just for clean up duty. I might try to make Gary Kagan boxes for them, or I might try to get by with airtight designs. All the cans will be IC.

Finally we are planning to add rope light to the soffit. I am thinking blue tinted as the overall color scheme will be blues, grays, blacks (and ?). I am thinking of going with Grafik Eye to control the dimming. Perhaps the 2404/2403 model, but its pricey. Seems to just work though.

Here is the latest revision to the diagram (updated the first post too):

Quick update since I am travelling.

More sealing has gone on, and the dricore panels arrived. Timely result since we got our first water intrusion since we bought the house. Contractor is going to apply a waterproofing cement and seal it. Its underneath our bulkhead door.

Funny thing is the contractor thought the dricore was a waste of money until he saw it in comparison to the leak. Then he told us it was the best money we could have spent, and kept repeating that he wished he had invented it.

Could use some feedback on the Graphic Eye. Posted in the thread, but no response. My basic question is, does the controller box have buttons on it that let you "turn on the lights" without needing a separate switch?

Here are a few pics:


The intrusion:

Close up:

The puddle that made the contractor believe dricore is a good product

My daughter checking out the panels, loosely laid out

Thanks Jason. I snagged a 3104 on e-bay for less than I expected the 2404 to be. Hope it works out.

My wife reports the lumber has arrived. Framing starts tomorrow.

ta-da

More (dricore looks nice)

I am not looking to expand it, and I need it to be available now so my electrician can install it. I was originally thought of going for insteon. But I wasn't 100% sold on it because it didn't have its IR emitter in, could use the x-10 one, I suppose.

I looked at spacer system, as Judson mentioned, but it couldn't control the lights independantly. At the end of the day G-E seemed to 'just work' $310 for a 3104 on e-bay, buy it now, and I grabbed it. There was a 3106 up for $370, which I considered, but decided not too push my budget (any more than already).

To be honest with you, those are my reasons, but I don't have a great handle on the tech.

I probably would have bought Insteon if I could have figured out what pieces I would need. I looked at the starter kit, on smarthome, but I wasn't sure what part I'd use for what. Then I read the thread suggesting QC and heat issues, and I said forget it.

Given that all I want was something to control the dimming, in a semi-smart way, not interested in further automation, I figured I'd go with Lutron on its general reputation, in the forum and the market. I almost nixed when I thought I'd need to spend $180 just for wall switch. But if you can "hit a button" on the GE walking in the room, I am good. It was hard to figure that out too. The GE thread is alot about taking it to another level.

Soon I'll have to decide where to put it. My gut is out the door by the EQ rack at the entrance. Then have it fed by an IR repeatter. But haven't decided 100%.

No, I didn't take it as a negative comment. I might be a little hesitant about it, because it is a tough one to figure out if you are just reading on the web. And, it isn't particularly cheap. $300 for a glorified light switch. But, here we are. . .

If I knew more, and was DIYing the build, I would have thought harder about jumping on the bleeding edge. The threads in the automation forum are pretty neat.

Well, something and not much.

I am hiring the labor, so they weren't here (for a change, actually). We hauled some more junk out to make the carpenter's life easier. Put it in the garage, and ejecting my car to the driveway. So the snow is sure to come now. My daughter will like that.

We also got some babysitting (thanks mom), and were able to finalize tile for the bath and carpet for the playroom. We've also been sketching out the builtins for the playroom.

No pictures of note. One walls been framed in the HT - but its basic and boring. Should be some jack-hammering for the bathroom this week, and some real framing shots. Big week ahead.

Well, the HT is largely framed, as is the basement. Still a few spots to be done, but definitely some progress.

Here is the screenwall - yup covering up the window:

Here is a bit of flex for the 1st story, that will have to be soffitted. Maybe a soffit in the soffit - need to figure out how to isolate this. Suggestions?

There were some compromises on the stag-stud wall. My builder wound up spacing away from the concrete for the three walls adjacent to exterior walls instead of using the larger baseplate. Since it is still a deeper cavity, w/mechanical decoupling, I don't think it is a big deal. The reason for this was some of the plumbing lines intrude into the wall space, and would narrow the room unnecessarily.

For the wall between the H.T. and the utility room, I spec'd staggered stud - but it appears my carpenter didn't quite follow, as all the studs were flush with the H.T., and there seemed to be quite a few more than 16 o.c. (didn't measure though). He used a 2x6 baseplate, so it shouldn't be a problem to add the studs on the other side for the sheetrock to go in the utility room. Here is a shot from in the util room. (Managed to encase all my lally columns in walls).

In other news, santa-e-bay arrived, looking good. G-E 3104:

We are also working on an "office in the closet" in the playroom. Basically a desk with a computer behind some bifold doors, with enough room that you can push the chair under the desk and close the doors.

In doing so, we are trying to figure out any smart ways to handle a laser printer, inkjet and scanner. Its a tight space, so pull out drawers below the desk haven't been working (hits the bifold).

The other options are arrayed on a shelf above the desk (takes up a lot of real estate) or placed (stacked shelves) on a rolling cart under the desk (some concern about wire management).

I think the cart idea is the front runner at the moment. Its a smaller space.

Called a drywall supply store RC-1 is the same as "hat channel" for RSIC applications, right? They come in 12' lengths. My room is 17x13. I am debating whether they could be run lengthwise at 12' and just stagger the last 1' every other channel. Not sure if that would work. I gotta read up. Would make it an easier install process.

Its a PITA balancing the contractors. Electrician has been hard to run to ground. Finally came today to eval the work. Seems to be on board. HVAC guy is irritated at the carpenter for how he soffitted the trunk lines. Plumber is waiting for bathroom walls to be framed, and concrete to be demo'd.

That was started today. They jack hammered the floor today. Tomorrow they dig.

Its not the thickness of the foundation . . . .

Could use some input on my soffit.

If you look at my floorplan it is to be for lighting (9 or 11 small cans), conduit (all outlets in columns, so soffit runs the wires), and presumably treatment (bass trapping?).


Here is the existing setup with a sewage pipe and a bit of flex that feeds the first floor encroaching in the space. I think I need to soffit them, and drywall them for sound isolation purposes.

I started a quick and dirty sketchup:

Here is a sketch of what I think I should do - soffits in 2 phases. Phase 1 in green, enclose pipe (w/access) and flex duct in the double drywall + GG shell. (in green)

Phase 2 would then be the conduit/treatment/lighting/etc space (in purple)


My questions are -
- Does this approach make sense?
- Will the "phase 1" soffit areas change my accoustic treatment plans?
- Does it make sense to plan to use the soffit for treatment given this irregularity?
- Or maybe exclude the side soffits should be excluded from treatment?

May be notable that the screen is AT (SMX), and there will be some space behind the screenwall for treatment also.

I posted in bocapimp's thread to figure out how Ruben/Boca handled getting treatment and lighting into the soffit space, but would welcome input on that as well.

Finally, general dimensions - I was thinking an 18" out, 12" down. Seem reasonable?

Thanks for any input.