Knob and Tube be Gone!

Paul from Derock Electric did the wiring in the house. As previously mentioned, we upgraded the electrical service for the house from 100 to 200 amp service. We built an electrical closet where all the wiring for the house will be centralized. Everything has been replaced. Wiring, electrical boxes, receptacles, switches, etc. We have installed over 50 new pot lights in the house and added outside downlighting to the rear of the house. It took about 2 weeks to rewire the entire house back in January.

Catch Up!

Sorry about not posting for some time now. Its partially the amount of work and time spent at the reno and being really tired of all things reno by the end of the day. We will try to catch up in the next few weeks. Since the masonry has been completed, we have had the exterior work pretty much completed for now. That includes having all the new windows installed in the old part of the house and the aluminum trim work completed.



Work on the furnace / laundry room is completed. We had the old concrete floor removed, then new drains installed. Following that, we had John Greco come back in with his crew and pour a new concrete floor and create the basement steps from the old basement into the new basement.
The HVAC equipment is installed in the new furnace room and ductwork throughout the house. That was a big job and took some time. We put in a York 96% efficient furnace and a 14.5 seer air conditioner in order to maximize our energy retro-fit grant. Bypass humidifier, media filter and a really cool thermostat round out the install.

Derock Electric has completed the rough in of the new electrical system. The entire house has been re-wired, no more knob and tube anywhere. We also moved our electrical panel and upgraded our service to 200 amps. The house has been pre-wired for an alarm system, computer network, phones, and cable TV.

The guys from HP house framing have done a ton of work for us. All the interior framing is complete including the basement. We had them open up the wall between the living room and dining room and the crowning achievement of a new Velux skylight at the top of the stairs to the upper floor. It is spectacular and we couldn't more more happier with that decision.

Before After
Most recently the exposed interior walls of the basement, first and second floors were spray foamed insulated. We used both open cell and closed cell foam. The company we used was Air Seal Insulators and we managed to achieve R20 on the exterior walls for the entire new addition. Some of the old house walls were also sprayed with closed cell foam where we managed to achieve R13.

Stuck on you

Now that the brick is done, we are working on completing the box bay windows. We are Stuccoing the area, and including some sills and trim. Caruso Contracting is doing the work. They are fantastic and the proof is in the job they did on our garage over 5 years ago. No problems with that whatsoever. They will be applying a “Venetian” finish to the stucco to match the garage and the color has been matched to that of the window frames.


Inside the house right now, we have been doing even more demolition, having now removed all the lathe and plaster from the ceiling in the basement. This is to make way for the new heating and air conditioning system, new electrical, new gas line, and new plumbing. Upstairs Sandro from DeRock Electric continues to convert our house from old knob and tube wiring to current code.

We are also in the process of getting our HVAC permit from the city. Brian Scott our mechanical engineer put the finishing touches on the drawings for the new system and we expect to have our permit by mid October. We are currently getting pricing for this work as well. All new ductwork, hi-efficiency furnace, central air, and tankless water heater, plus the typical add-ons like media filter and bypass humidifier. We hope to have our contractor chosen this week.