A Climate Controlled Nest

March 19, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 1 Comment

If you’ve ever lived (or even vacationed) with Matthew Newton, then you know he is king of the thermostat! So, obviously, quality climate control is a high priority in the Newton Nest.

True to form, we have completely removed all the old ductwork and reconfigured the HVAC system in our little nest. The most drastic change between new and old is the relocation of the furnace and a/c unit from the basement to the attic. Why, you say? Because the original ductwork – all running from the downstairs up – was not up to code (too small, weak and no real intake registers). So, to install new, updated ducts in the original layout required us to run large intake ducts through the laundry room and two of the downstairs bedroom closets. Losing all that storage space was a total deal breaker for us. So, cue the creative thinking caps!

Side Note: Matthew hates to be hot, so he keeps the 'stat set pretty low year-round. So low that Miss Pepper sometimes has to wear her winter hat to keep warm!

Miss Pepper’s creative cap also keeps her warm when her dad cranks up the air conditioning!

Our solution was to run all the new stuff from the upstairs down, so we could route all the ductwork through the attic, putting vents in the ceilings of the downstairs instead of along the baseboards. This setup is pretty unusual for our area, but it’s very common to have heating and cooling units in the attics of homes on the coast. The only concession we had to make to accommodate this arrangement was cutting through three out of the four dormers upstairs to allow for ductwork. Yes, this was less than ideal, but we decided it was much more appealing to sacrifice space in the upstairs bonus room rather than our main living areas downstairs – plus, we will gain some super cute window seats in these little nooks to conceal the ductwork. Not a bad trade, right??

Here’s a look at the heart of our HVAC system tucked away in the attic. 🙂

Ductwork going in!

It’s all hiding up there in the ceilings…

Ductwork running through the dormers.

Can you picture a cute little window seat here?

Vents installed in the ceilings.

Now we just need to pick out our thermostat!
We feel like this one might be calling our names….

It’s called “The Nest!” How could we resist? 😉

Plumbing Rough-In: Check!

March 4, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / Leave a comment

Our H2O is ready to go!

That’s right. Our old pipes are gone and they’ve been replaced with all new plumbing. We made quite a few changes to the original plumbing layout, so here’s the run down:

We added a tiny powder room tucked into the corner of the office, located just off the formal living room and kitchen. This addition will give us a bathroom that is convenient to the most high-traffic living spaces. Adding the waste pipe for the toilet was a little tricky because the office/powder room was once a porch (closed in by a previous owner) and it has a concrete floor that is nearly six inches thick! Needless to say, drilling a hole through that baby required a little extra brawn. Our plumber might not agree, but we think it was worth the additional effort. 🙂
We added a shower head to the hall bath which was only a tub with a hand-held spray attachment.
We said goodbye to the two old, rusty water heaters in the basement and replaced them with a tankless system. Energy efficiency and an endless supply of hot water? Yes, please!
We added plumbing for his-and-hers dual sinks in the master bathroom.
We relocated the laundry room. (To make way for a large master closet, oh yeah!)
And, lastly, we had our plumber stub-in hot/cold water and a waste pipe upstairs to give us the option to add a half bath to the bonus space upstairs should we decide we want to do that down the road.

Hello, new toilet hookup!

Our itsy-bitsy powder room! (You can see the toilet rough-in on the floor in the far left corner.)

Kitchen sink rough-in.

Hall bathroom shower is in!

Master bathroom plumbing.

Laundry!

Pipes for our upstairs “maybe one day” bathroom. 🙂

So, as you can see, we have replaced everything! Well, almost everything… the only plumbing items being spared are the original cast-iron tubs. They need a good cleaning and to be reglazed, but we think they’re pretty special. (And they’re also pretty heavy, so leaving them in place is easier on everyone! ha!)

Master Bath | Hall Bath

Replacing the water line from the street to the house was always in the plan, but the biggest “question mark” during this whole re-plumbing process was whether or not the waste/sewer pipes leading from the house to the street (which are buried underground) were in good shape. Many times with old houses like ours the underground pipes have cracks, debris, roots that have grown into them, and all kinds of other problems that can be an expensive fix. So, we had a professional come use a nifty little camera scope tool to take a gander at our pipes… miraculously, we passed muster and did NOT have to dig up and replace our waste line! Hallelujah!!

Water line trench… thank goodness we didn’t have to dig up the waste line, too!

Now, all this pipe talk is a little boring, but as part of this exercise, we got to make our plumbing fixture choices, too. Finally! We get to pick out some “pretties” for the house! Here’s a glimpse of what we chose:

Plumbing pretties!!

As a fitting finish to the plumbing update…… let’s all wave goodbye to the Nest’s old, nasty hot water heaters!

A couple of local scrappers took these beauties off our hands.

Hooray for new pipes!

Snow Day!

February 17, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 1 Comment

Brrrrrrrrr! We are weathering our once-a-year South Carolina snowstorm…so, of course, we had to run over to the Nest to snap a picture of it covered with a dusting of the white stuff!

Truthfully, we were a little anxious about how the big, beautiful trees in our yard would hold up under all the ice. Thankfully, we only had damage to some smaller trees and few little limbs come down. Whew! We were very lucky. We are in the queue with a local tree trimming company to come take a look at our four giant water oaks and do some basic maintenance, taking down some large limbs that hang over the house and our neighbor’s yard, etc. Hopefully, we will get this done before the sap starts to rise in early spring.

Here’s a shot of our little cottage in the snow:

How cute! Now, c’mon SPRING!!

Cedar Fever—our shingles are here!

February 10, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 2 Comments

Moving right along! Our pallet of Cedar Shake replacements has arrived (Boy, do they smell good!) and repairs are underway. Our plan is to salvage as much of the original Cedar Shake siding as possible and patch in wherever necessary.

“Feathering” these shakes into the existing siding is a painstakingly tedious job, but our guys seem to be making great strides each day. Provided we have good shakin’ weather, this project should be complete by next week.

Here’s a sneak peep at our Nest’s new feathers:

Our new shakes bring all the boys to the yard!

Shake upgrades underway!

Matthew loves the smell of Cedar and progress in the morning…

Out with the old, in with the new – brand new windows to take in the views!

February 8, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 2 Comments

This is a game changer, y’all! We searched and researched, discussed and debated window styles, brands, and what best suited the era and architecture of our little nest. If you’ve ever shopped for windows, then you know – it’s a lot to take in.

Matthew and I felt like we deserved a graduate degree in window terminology by the time we had made our final selection. Muntins, Mullions, and Mullings, oh my! The lingo is intense, but all very interesting…

So, for those of you who speak this language and are interested in the details of what we chose: Matthew and I went with Windsor brand windows, a double-hung, aluminum clad wood, architectural grade window with simulated divided light in a “six over six” light pattern with muntins (or grilles) on the inside, outside, and in-between the glass.

Or this:

Basically, we went super traditional. We were set on keeping the new look as close to the original true divided light wood windows as possible. Windsor also gives you the option to have exterior trim added to the window at the factory, which was very appealing to us since none of the original window trim was salvageable. Brand new windows + trim = instant gratification! Easy decision. 🙂

Although most of the original windows were far beyond repair, we were able to save two of the most special ones and have them restored by a local company. The little round one in our master bedroom and the master bathroom window with a diamond pattern were definitely worth keeping!

Here’s a look at the removal and installation process:

Removing the old windows!

First window is about to go in…

Yay! Master bedroom window is in.

All front windows are installed.

Rear windows going in! (This is our Great Room / rear entrance.) We added the round window after we vaulted the ceiling in this room and added two casement windows in place of a bank of three double hung windows because our TV will go against this wall. 🙂

Side yard windows are in!

All rear windows are installed.

View from the inside (Formal Living Room).

Master Bedroom

Great Room / Kitchen

Master bathroom window was restored, but hasn’t been installed yet. Can’t wait to see this one go in!

Miss Pepper has found her new favorite vantage point... no squirrel is safe!

Miss Pepper has found her new favorite vantage point. Look sharp, Aberdeen Drive! She takes her Neighborhood Watch duties very seriously…

Windows, windows, windows!

January 21, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 4 Comments

What a day! Not only was it 68 degrees and sunny in January, but our brand new, beautiful windows arrived! We can barely wait for these babies to be installed tomorrow. Stay tuned!

We’re wired!

January 16, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / Leave a comment

As you know from our Give it the Juice post, the electrical wiring running through our little nest was a Grade A death trap extremely unsafe. So, we made the decision to replace every last wire, outlet, and switch. Enter our amazingly talented brother in law, Jamie.

Jamie is a Captain with the Greenville Fire Department by day, but he has the skills and experience to wire an entire house and, for that (and him!), we are grateful.

Here are some shots of Jamie and his handy work:

Jamie has all the fancy tools— he didn’t even need a ladder to drill holes in the ceiling joists!

Great Room can lights are in!

Butler’s Pantry, too!

Switches!

It was super tricky to rewire the second floor bonus space because we did not want to remove the paneling to open up the walls like in the downstairs space. We don’t know how Jamie did it, but we are impressed!

Genius at work! Our minds are blown… how does anyone make sense of so many wires???

So, now that our little nest is wired, we have to schedule an initial inspection and once we pass, we will be able to come back and add in the switches and outlets, etc.

Considering that we have never seen our house with the lights on, this is a huge deal. We can’t wait to be able to hook up the power and see her with the brights on. Feels good to be one step closer! 🙂

Up next at the nest… H2O and Climate Control!

New Year, New Nest

January 10, 2015March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / Leave a comment

Happy New Year, everyone! We took a little – much needed – break from our renovation adventure during the holidays, but now our attention is back on the project at hand and things are moving FAST! It’s hard to believe that within the year we will be LIVING in our home.

Just a little preview of all the things “hatching” in the next few weeks at the Nest:

Electrical work is underway.
Plumbing begins on Monday.
HVAC ductwork installation will also begin next week.
New Windows arrive January 22!
Repairs to the Cedar shake siding will follow window installation.
Masonry work/Great Room fireplace repair sometime in January/early February.
…and SO much more!

You know we will keep you posted as these projects progress!
Now, just for fun, let’s look back on just how far we’ve come…

Before and After: Front Exterior

Kitchen before clean up and mid-demo

Kitchen now

Before and After: Master Bedroom

Speaking of how far we’ve come…

Lauren and Matthew, circa 2001 and The Newtons, May 3, 2014.

Lauren and Matthew, circa 2001 | The Newtons, May 3, 2014.

P.S. As we start a new year, we can’t help but reflect on the one that has just passed. 2014 will certainly go down in history as a big one for us…after a dozen years of dating, we finally tied the knot; Lauren took a new job in Greenville; and, of course, the newly-minted Newtons took on one heck of a house project!

So many of you who follow us on this little blog have given us invaluable words of wisdom, shown us love, cheered us on, and even gotten your hands dirty working alongside us. We are truly grateful for all of you. Thank you and cheers to a brand new year!

Up on the rooftop…

December 23, 2014March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 1 Comment

…click, click, click. That’s the sound of our roofers, not St. Nick.

Just in time for Christmas, we have a brand new runway for Santa’s sleigh! Well, that’s not the only reason we are replacing the roof, but it seems like good timing, right?

As you know by now, our little nest hasn’t exactly been water tight over the years and most recently, after removing all the plaster ceilings, we realized that a leaky roof was part of the problem. None of the leaks were terrible, in fact, without removing the ceilings, we probably wouldn’t have known for a long time that we had a slowly growing problem because all the little drips were being absorbed into the attic insulation. We were hoping to avoid replacing the roof, but truthfully, I think we are a little relieved to have it done now instead of kicking that can down the road. We’re looking at it as an “insurance policy” for all the work we’re doing on the inside…

Scraping off three layers of old shingles!

Waterproof barrier is on (the bright green stuff).

New shingles going on!

Santa, is that you?

New roof! Front view.

New roof! Rear view.

Saddle up Santa, we’re all ready for you!
(Hint, hint: we like power tools and home improvement gift cards!)

She’s got good bones.

December 9, 2014March 25, 2015 / Lauren Harper Newton / 7 Comments

Two weeks later, framing is complete. And it is GLORIOUS!

First on our list was fixing the weak links. Because of the age of our home and its state of disrepair, we had a few trouble spots to address where there were rotten or otherwise compromised studs and/or support joists. Many of these places were around windows that had begun to leak slowly over the years and underneath the super-heavy cast iron tubs in the bathrooms. Common theme: water. Don’t let it fool you; water can be the destroyer of worlds if you leave it unchecked! Thankfully, we had mostly superficial, ugly-but-not-serious damage. We only had two relatively small “surprises” where floor joists needed to be shored up from underneath the house…both cases in the bathrooms underneath three and five hundred pound tubs. (Can’t say I’m surprised that a few of those poor joists needed some reinforcements after carrying weight like that for 70+ years.)

Damage control:

A couple of nasty rotten spots caused by slow leaks.

Two front doors? Nope! Repairing the joists under the master bathtub/beside the front porch.

Worst water damage of all… the wall in the great room slowly separated from the chimney around the fireplace, creating such serious water damage that the entire wall had to be rebuilt. (Luckily, this was once a garage that was closed-in to make a den, so the floor is concrete and was not compromised.)

Wowzer! It’s pretty clear where the water was coming in…

Okay, now on to the fun stuff…

You may remember from the Best Laid Plans post that we decided to make minimal structural changes to the floor plans, but these small tweaks bring pretty substantial rewards, making our house a lot more functional. So, now that framing is complete, here’s the bird’s eye view of our nest’s anatomy.

Newton Nest - Aberdeen Floorplans 12.9.14

Notable tweaks: opening up the kitchen to the great room, creating a powder room within the office, splitting the butler’s pantry to make a laundry room, and reconfiguring the bedroom hallway to create a true foyer, more privacy and a large closet for the master suite.

Pretty good bones, am I right?

The most exciting part of this framing expedition – something you can’t see on a 2D blueprint – is that because of some unusable attic space and a little creative thinking, we were able to vault the ceiling of the great room…and, as a special surprise… our MASTER BEDROOM! Yay! Talk about a transformation…

You just have to see it for yourselves, y’all! Here goes: