Welcome to The Kester House & Garden Project!
This site has been created to document our rather in-depth home renovation project. Friends and family ask about the status from time to time, so this will serve as a place to keep track of our progress. I also use the site as a place to store photos, plans, and technical information (like paint colors, etc.) so I can find that information when I need it.
All the household wiring is finished!
If you're visiting the site for the first time, after having a look at this Welcome page I recommend reading the House and Inspiration sections before you dive right in, so you'll have an idea of what we started with and what we're hoping to end up with. I've been writing about the project in the order we've been working on it, so the Garden sections would be next, followed by the Exterior sections and finally the Interior sections.
I often add new information or photos to various sections, so the News section below will always have links to the latest updates. There's also a Table of Contents at the bottom of this page with a brief description of every page on the site. Additionally, if you're looking for information about a particular project, you may find the table available on the Project Timeline useful, since you may click on the project name to go directly to the information regarding that specific work.
News
2023.09.29
The House: The last couple weeks have been spent taking care of a few details regarding the bedroom and closet
renovation — the closet ceiling has been leveled, and with that carpentry work done I set about getting the last of the household wiring work
completed. The remainder of the wall outlets were installed for the bedroom and closet, as well as the last few light switches and smoke alarm
wire runs in the attic. I still need to get that 1/4-inch thick plywood for the bedroom ceiling, along with a couple sheets of drywall for the
closet ceiling (hopefully this weekend), then it's back to attic work.
The Site: I added a couple new paragraphs to the Wiring page within the
Mechanical section, which address the updated wiring plans and the
last of the household wiring work. I also added more information regarding the final few
Lutron® Caséta® switches we installed to wrap up the
wiring upgrades section of that page. Getting the wiring finished also got me to take the time to
double-check the Specifications page listing of Receptacles, Switches & Wall Plates and
ensure it has the correct information to match what's been recently removed and replaced. As always, this stuff has been put on the
Project Timeline along with an update to the search index.
2023.09.12
The House: Still bangin' away on the bedroom & walk-in closet/laundry room, although the bedroom is mostly
wrapped up for the moment. The new partition walls are up and the attic access hatch has been framed, which also allowed me to take care of
the wiring for the bedroom lighting and light switches. Next for that space is to get a load of 1/4-inch thick plywood to apply as the
ceiling"underlayment", which will let me get back to the attic to finish the rest of the raised floor and attic insulation work. In the
mean time I've decided to go ahead and get the ceiling leveled for the walk-in closet/laundry room (I was going to skip the leveling work
for that little room, but it's just too wonky to leave as is so I'm dealing with it now).
The Site: The Bedroom page of the Interior section got
another round of updates with details of re-arranging the laundry equipment connections in case we decide to
replace those appliances at some point (which also got me to finally update the 30 pages of wiring circuit plans on the
Specifications main page). I've also added more text and photos regarding the construction of the
new bedroom partition walls and the attic access hatch framing work.
All this stuff has also been added to the Project Timeline along with an updated the search index, as usual.
2023.08.20
The House: Work continues at a good pace on the bedroom and closet/laundry room. After most of the new
truss boards were installed (the couple that are left will need to wait until I get the new hatch opening cut in
the ceiling joists… which has to wait until the new walls are up), I also dealt with getting a couple new recessed light fixtures in place,
along with the other couple ceiling electrical boxes (and those goofy things in the photo above). Next, the old "hardware store"
was completely emptied, so I could remove the last of the old flooring and ceiling tiles, then get the final couple sheets of new OSB underlayment
installed. So more good progress, if I do say so myself!
The Site: The Bedroom page of the Interior section got
more updates with details of the bedroom ceiling extras that were worked on since there's no way
to get at the front of the space from above, and I've also added more text and photos regarding the removal of the old flooring and installation
of the last of the new OSB underlayment. As usual, I added the latest work to the
Project Timeline, and updated the search index once more.
2023.08.09
The House: As mentioned in the last update, we dedicated a fair amount of time to getting all the stuff from the attic,
bedroom, and closet re-organized into bins so I can re-arrange it easily while doing work on those areas of the house. With that done, the last
few weeks I've been quite busy working on the bedroom and attic over the bedroom. I've removed almost all of the remaining original framing and
surface finishes from the bedroom and closet (there's a few ceiling tiles and a couple sheets of linoleum flooring in the closet, but
that's it), then got a fresh set of plans ready for the bedroom framing work for the new wall and attic hatch. That allowed me to make some
good progress on bedroom carpentry work, including getting the bedroom ceiling joists level, like I'd done in the living room earlier this year.
I've got a little more work to do in the bedroom attic, then we can take care of the closet and get the new bedroom wall built. Progress!
The Site: The Bedroom page of the Interior section got
a major update to include the new plans, document all the work on leveling
the ceiling, as well as a section regarding the installation of some of the new attic truss boards
to keep the ceiling where it's supposed to be. I also added all the latest work to the Project
Timeline, and then updated the search index to include all this new stuff.
2023.07.22
The House: Apologies for the slightly delayed update, but there hasn't been too much to share so far this Summer. We have been very busy
with the "clean-up & clear out" project since May, but it's not real exciting stuff. As I mentioned below, once the attic floor was re-built over the living room,
that area of the attic was filled with bins of Christmas decorations, some outdoor recreation gear, puzzles & games, and lots of kitchen "extras" that we rarely use.
All the remaining bins from the attic came down, along with eight file boxes of old paperwork (bank statements, paid bills, tax returns, etc.). The first thing we
tackled were the bins of clothes we never wear anymore, so all those went into nine trash bags for a pick-up from
SimpleRecycling.com
,
which freed up a load of bins. They also took a handful of dishes and kitchen stuff we don't need, and I confirmed they'll even take our exercise equipment with our next
pick-up (likely another two or three bags of bedding and towels). I also managed to dis-assemble an old bookshelf, and we filled seven totes with books which were
donated to the local library. Another chore was to go through all those boxes of paperwork and feed nearly everything into a shredder to put out with the recycling for pick-up each
week.
The final chore was to deal with the "hardware store", which is what we call the laundry room. That space has been accumulating building materials, paints & stains,
hardware & fasteners, and all manner of tools for years. It's all going to have to be moved to make any progress on building out the bedroom ceiling and the rest of the
attic, so I figured I'd put everything in plastic bins so I can move it around when doing demolition and carpentry work in there. The space had three, cheap metal, 5-foot high
shelf units, and another pair of 3-foot high units that were absolutely packed with supplies. I started by filling the bins we'd emptied from the attic, but that only took care
of a single shelf units worth of stuff. I then made a Home Depot run for a bunch of their "HDX" black & yellow stacking bins, and kept emptying shelves and attempting
to organize everything into new bins. After a few weeks of that and 19 new bins (along with another 10 we'd emptying of other stuff) the "hardware store" shelves were
empty, and everything can be easily moved as needed. The goal was to separate supplies that cannot freeze from everything else, so everything else can go into the attic when it
comes time to build the laundry room/walk-in closet. At this point, the only stuff that will end up in the attic again is the single box of paperwork (tax returns, house
purchase documentation, and a handful of other records we basically should keep forever), and a bin or two of off season clothes that won't stay in the closet or bedroom dressers.
Everything else from the "hardware store" will live in the garage loft someday. It's quite satisfying to make all that un-used "stuff" go-away, and a bit of a relief
to know we won't burden our family with all of it when we're gone.
We also made a little progress on the yard work, and got the pond up and running. I still need to take care of repairing the pull starter on the leaf machine, otherwise regular
mowing and pruning is happening when the weather is good. I also managed to get my old Porter-Cable® Job Boss™ 4.5gal. oil-lubricated air
compressor working again! I'd been tripping over that thing in the tent garage for nearly a year, and decided to open it up to see if the motor could be replaced, or if it was
scrap metal. It turns out the power cord connector inside the end of the motor had gotten wet at some point and was badly corroded. I trimmed back the wire, crimped on a new
connector, and the thing ran perfectly! After a decent cleaning of the whole thing and fresh lube, I've now got an extra compressor available!
The Site: Like last time, none of what's been going on here for the last few weeks really warrants a site update. I did sort out this news page
and get all the 2022 stuff over to its own 2022 News Archive page, but that's all for now.
2023.05.31
The House: Most of April was spent crawling around in the attic, playing with the 7/16" OSB to get the half of the attic floor
over the living room installed. That work was completed after a few weeks, and then it was time to go through all the boxes and bins we'd moved to make room for floor work, and
try to consolidate everything we are keeping over to the new floor to open up the area over the bedroom. There's a lot more space over the bedroom (because there are
none of those "sorta-truss" boards between the ceiling joists and the rafters), so we only managed to get about half of the bins stashed over the living room.
Everything else up there will need to go away, or get stacked in the bedroom and living room to open up the attic for the remaining work to be done over the bedroom.
It's pretty slow going, but we're making progress. Now it's just a matter of finding time to work up there when it's not too hot (usually on rainy days when we can't do yard work).
I did receive that used motherboard and got my system up and running again, so that's good (although because of the new hardware, I couldn't re-activate my old version of
MS Office so I had to upgrade all that stuff). That allowed me to get the taxes done on time, which is also a good thing.
Most of May has been dedicated to continued attic clean up, and starting to take care of the yard. Both the lawn mower and the leaf picker-upper needed some repairs to get
working again this year, so that took a while. I also needed to do a few repairs to the deck (a couple boards popped up, and a few screw plugs had gone missing), so I ended
up cleaning the whole deck and re-staining the thing. Still lots of leaves to collect from last year, then I'll need to get the pond cleaned up and running in the next week or two.
It also appears that we may have lost all of the bamboo, due to a few days of consistent below zero temperatures last Winter. After all those years to finally finish a proper
bamboo barrier, it will be a bummer if the stuff doesn't recover.
The Site: Not a lot of what's been going on here for the last few weeks warrants a site update, although I did get a couple more paragraphs
and a handful of photos in to the The Energy Efficiency page of the Mechanical section to describe the second layer of Attic Insulation
and the Floor Installation work. As usual, I also updated the Project Timeline to include the recent work, and once more was
able to refresh the search index.
2023.04.02
The House: The last little task for the living room ceiling, getting the openings cut for the in-ceiling speakers, was taken care of in
early March. Installing all the gypsum wall board in there is next, but that will have to wait until a friend with a pick-up truck has time to assist with getting
it over here. In the mean time there's plenty of work to take care of in the attic above the living room and kitchen, so I've been working up there quite a bit. The
first project up there was to get the remaining HRV supply and exhaust ductwork installed, then balance the HRV air flows (which is a project I had started
back in 2005!). Next I worked on raising the attic floor to make room for more insulation, and then get the first layer of R-19 insulation down over that half of the house.
I also decided to re-locate the doorbell bell to the boiler room (since it was much quieter with the living room ceiling and insulation in place). I also took care of
getting the speaker wires for all the surround speakers routed properly across the living room ceiling, as well as run the next bit of wiring to connect the genkan
smoke detector with the one in the kitchen, then over to the one that goes outside the bathroom near the bedroom.
So lots of progress on the house is the good news, but there's also bad news… On the evening of March 30th our power blinked on and off a couple
times before it finally went out for a few hours. No wind or storms happening, it just went out. Not a big deal though — all the computers are connected to
nice APC uninterruptible power supplies so those things just started beepin' and I simply shut down all the systems without issues. The next morning I powered up everything, starting
with the servers and networking stuff, then tried my workstation once everything else was up and running. No joy. No POST beep, no nothin'. It seemed to be completely
dead. I tried unhooking all the peripherals, removed the graphics card and connected the monitor directly to the motherboard, and even replaced the CMOS battery.
Nope. I've ordered a used replacement motherboard to see if I can resurrect the thing, but I suspect it may be gone for good. I kinda figured it was about time for a
new PC this year, but I'd like to get this thing running again to take care of the taxes, then gradually migrate everything to a new system in a few months. Damn.
The Site: With no workstation available (and no ability for gaming to waste time), I managed to take care of getting a few updates done
for all the recent work by working on one of the servers. These include photos and descriptions for the last of the work (for now) for the Living Room page of the Interior section
with the installation of the Ceiling "Underlayment" Plywood. The Energy Efficiency page of the Mechanical section got a new addition
regarding new Attic Insulation work, as well as the Attic
Floor support work. I also took care of the update for the HRV Exhaust Ductwork which wraps up the HRV installation work
at long last. Lastly, I updated the Project Timeline to include the recent work, but won't be able to refresh the search index until I get
the old system up and running again. That'll do for now.
2023.02.17
The House: All of the living room rough carpentry and wiring work is completed, so we're ready to get the new vapor barrier installed and
move forward with finished ceiling installation. I also sent a note along earlier this week to our town's Building Department to ask what the next step is to
"renew" that 14 year old building permit we got when we started the interior renovation work. The Administrative Assistant for the Building Department has changed
from the old days, as have all the inspectors, so I figured this was going to be a somewhat detailed and fairly expensive undertaking to make everything right again. I was
rather surprised to get a response almost immediately that my message had been forwarded to the new Building Inspector, and I should expect a phone call soon... a couple
hours later I got the call, and started to explain a bit of the project history as well as the reasons for all the delays in progress. I was a bit shocked when he told me
it wasn't a problem at all, and that they generally don't worry too much about the length of time required for work completion that homeowners are doing themselves
(as opposed to work that contractors are doing, which must get some manner of inspection for the various stages of the work at least once a year). He said if I have
the original permit with the signatures from previous "partial rough-in" and electrical inspections (I do), we could just keep that one going — no
new permit paperwork and no new fees. Unbelievable!
He offered to come by soon to have a look at the latest rough-in work that was completed, and to familiarize himself with the project. We set a time for yesterday morning,
and he even arrived a few minutes early. He looked over everything that was done so far, and also explained that the new Electric Inspector generally only bothers with
inspections for work that is being performed by electrical contractors on a specific electric work permit, so no need to have him look at anything (since I'm doing all
the wiring myself under the interior renovation permit). I had printed a couple extra copies of the old engineer approved floor plans for the wall we'll eventually have to
move that's between the bedroom and walk-in closet (available to view in the old Interior Floor Plans section of the main
Interior page). He mentioned that he knows the engineer I had work on those plans with me, and he took a copy to add to our file. So, the result of his visit is that
we are set to proceed with all work for the foreseeable future! He said I'll need to give him a call for the final "rough-in" inspection when the bedroom
bearing wall work is done, and that'll be it until the final interior finish inspection when all remaining work is completed.
The Site: Another bunch of text and a handful of photos of recent work have been added to the Living Room page of the Interior section. I
finished the plans and then took care of framing the tokonoma (display alcove), as well as got started on the tokobashira
(corner post) for the toko. All this can be found in the new Building the Tokonoma
section on that page. As with any update, I also tweaked the Project Timeline, and refreshed the search index.
2023.01.25
The House: The new year has been busy so far, with lots of living room renovation work underway. Over the last few weeks we've gotten almost all
the living room light fixtures installed, worked out how the finished ceiling is going to look, and even made some progress in the attic on work up there that's easier to do when
the living room ceiling is open. I still need to head to town hall and deal with our building permit that expired in 2011 (so we can get the ceiling wiring inspected),
but in the mean time I've got more rough carpentry to take care of in the attic and the living room.
The Site: More text and photos of the recent work have been added to the Living Room page of the Interior section, including
Ceiling Lights Installation, a set of New Plans to figure out the proper work order of
projects, and then the carpentry work for the Fusuma Door Header that runs the length of the room from
the bathroom to the front wall. The HVAC page of the Mechanical section also got an update with information and a few photos of the
HRV Ductwork Installation that runs above the living room and over to the boiler room. Naturally this also led to
an update to the Project Timeline page, along with the usual search index refresh. Enjoy!
For past chronological updates, please see the following pages:
2008 News Archives.
2009 News Archives.
2010 News Archives.
2011 News Archives.
2012 News Archives.
2013 News Archives.
2014 News Archives.
2015 News Archives.
2016 News Archives.
2017 News Archives.
2018-21 News Archives.
2022 News Archives.
Using the Site
Visitors should check this page to determine the most recent updates, or browse the sections listed in the navigation menu on the left. I'll try to always have a picture of the most recent project or the house itself on this page too.
Navigating the Site
The navigation menu will expand when you hover your curser over an item with a down arrow (↓) in the name.
The section you are currently visiting will display in a different color than the rest of the menu so you hopefully won't get lost.
There's an up arrow (↑) near the bottom of each page that will return you to the top of the page when clicked.
Links in the body text will display in a different color than the rest of the text.
All internal links (links in the body text or nav menu sections) will replace the contents of your browser's current window with the target's content
when clicked, so you may navigate using the 'forward' or 'back' controls of your browser.
External links (links to other sites) are in the footer and will open in a new browser window (or tab) when clicked.
If an external link is placed in the body of the page, it will be indicated with an icon: .
Receiving Updates
If you click the RSS feed icon ( 
)
in the News section above, your browser will open the news feed page that I usually update whenever I update the site. In order to have it display in
your browser, it simply runs a little code to allow it to show up, but no longer provides a means of subscribing to the feed. In order to automatically
receive updates, you'll need to use a dedicated RSS News Reader application (or browser "add-on"), then copy & paste in the address of our feed:
http://kesterhouse.com/rss/kesterhouse.xml into that reader. If Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge get their
"Collections" and "Follow" stuff worked out, perhaps I can get rid of the code and go back to just loading the XML in the browser.
Searching the Site
When you click the 'SEARCH' item in the nav menu you'll be presented with a search box to enter the keyword(s) you'd like to find.
Hit your 'enter' key or click the little magnifying glass and your browser will load the search results page with your search terms highlighted.
When you navigate to a page from the link provided in the search results, the search terms will also highlight in the new page to make them easier to find.
'Lightbox' Image Viewing
When you click on a photo it will enlarge in the browser window and the background around the image will darken to allow better viewing of the image.
If there are additional photos on the particular subject, you will find controls to view those additional photos below the bottom-right corner of the image.
You may also hover your curser over the image to use the Next and Previous buttons when there's more than one photo in the group you're viewing,
or view the set as a slide show by using the Play and Pause buttons below the image. To open an individual photo in a new window (in case
you wish to bookmark the image, or copy it for appropriate use), click the small Expand icon in the top-right corner of the photo. To
return to the normal page view, click the small X below the image, or click anywhere on the background around the photo.
The Footer
The footer contains a link to send us an e-mail if you'd like to make a comment or suggestion.
It also contains external links (they all open in a new window) to other sites I enjoy.
Creating the Site & Compatibility
I've created the site entirely with a text editor, since I'm still a member of the 'old-fart school' of web design.
I'm using a lot of Cascading Style Sheet design controls, as well as a fair amount of Javascript to make the page do what I want it
to do - some written by me, but mostly I'm using the wonderful jQuery library with plug-ins I've found here and there.
If you've got Javascript disabled in your browser, the site should degrade gracefully and remain functional, although it's not going to look very nice.
I check the site occasionally for functionality with a smart phone or tablet, although I generally write everything in anticipation of having it read on a laptop or workstation. I have the latest versions of most Windows 10 browsers installed and have verified the pages display correctly with those. As stated above, Microsoft Edge is currently having issues with RSS feeds as they implement some new news reader features, so I'll tweak the XML as needed when and if they get it all worked out.
What's in the Sections
Here's a description of what's included in the sections - some are more complete than others but it's all getting there.- Welcome This page
- 2008 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2008.
- 2009 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2009.
- 2010 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2010.
- 2011 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2011.
- 2012 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2012.
- 2013 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2013.
- 2014 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2014.
- 2015 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2015.
- 2016 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2016.
- 2017 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2017.
- 2018-21 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2016 through 2021.
- 2022 News Archive contains the updates from the News section for 2022.
- The House is about the original structure, the purchase, the installation of (and recent repairs to) the new septic system, and lots of major tree work.
- The Garden is about the garden renovation, with information on the lot, initial landscaping, front yard, the irrigation system, Pine pruning, and dealing with Bamboo containment.
- Design addresses the decisions about the garden design and construction, including a complete plant list and details of the construction of our stone lanterns.
- Pond showcases our goldfish pond.
- Bonsai is about our (failed) attempts to get some bonsai started.
- Garden Shed is about the construction of the prettiest tool shed ever.
- Teahouse is about the construction of our Japanese-style tea house.
- Exterior introduces the exterior projects of the renovation.
- Foundation is about repairs made to the foundation.
- Roof is about the new roof design and replacement.
- Windows & Doors shows the installation of these units.
- Siding & Trim covers the siding and trim work, including gable ends and soffits.
- Engawa & Tsukimi-dai pertains to the planning and construction of the decks.
- Garage design and building is still on the drawing board.
- Interior introduces the interior projects of the renovation
- Genkan is about the new foyer.
- Kitchen is about the kitchen remodel.
- Bathroom is about the bathroom makeover.
- Living Room is about the living room remodel.
- Bedroom contains the bedroom and walk-in closet.
- Mechanical introduces the guts of the house renovation
- Wiring covers the replacing the original wiring and service panel, along with stand-by power systems and recent "smart home" device additions (lighting for each area is covered in the Interior sections above).
- Plumbing explains the water supply systems (fixtures are covered in the Interior sections above).
- HVAC is about the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (and recent repairs) used in the renovation.
- Energy Efficiency covers steps we're taking regarding weatherization, insulation, and reducing energy costs (including upgrading to LEDs).
- Inspiration attempts to address why we decided to build a Japanese style house, and why we're doing it ourselves.
- Specifications contains reference information regarding the house and equipment, plans, supplier information, etc.
- Color Palette has all color chips and color codes for finishes.
- Timeline is a chronological list of renovation projects and tasks, with links to the appropriate sections of the site.
- Hand Tools contains a list of vintage hand tool data, as well as catalogs and reference books regarding my ever-growing collection.
- Power Tools is a list of power tool data with PDF documentation for most tools.
- Et cetera contains my ramblings on this or that, not specific to the house renovation.
Currently the page contains some information regarding our sailing dinghies and vintage outboard motor, as well as a new section about
our old Volkswagens and my time at GreenWheels Electric Car Company.
- Hand Planes details the restoration and tuning of vintage metal hand planes.
- Joiner's Bench addresses the design and building of an English style joiners bench.
- Shop Equipment has information about bench vises and other shop equipment that'll end up in the garage eventually.
- Vintage Tools contains images of all my hand planes and other vintage hand tools.
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