Wright Chat

mr. pharding.



how does it go with your house?



where how far are you?



i like you are comments.



i envy you for chance. like living you.



i enjoy drive by on way home from job once so often.



thanks.



sorry. english 2 language.

Scary!

Although the phony English is my second language routine is not believable, I will offer a few comments on what is in progress.



We are in the homestretch. The difficult, time-consuming structural work is complete. HVAC installation is underway. HVAC has been extremely difficult because of the space limitations, historic preservation, and my desire for a super quiet system. Making all of this fit together has been more like watch making than normal construction. An architect from our office on Tuesday March 21 will visit the Meyer May House in Grand Rapids to match the size, color, texture, and bond of the 3/4" tile for our bathroom. The tile itself will be fabricated in China. It will then be attached to the mesh backing by a shop in New Jersey. A week later he will travel to Florida to inspect and test the moisture of the 200 plus year old recovered Cypress to be used for exterior siding where we do not have enough of the original Cypress. The original Cypress was taken down, stored, and will be reinstalled. Mold resistant insulation is now on site and will be installed after the completion of the second floor ductwork. The exterior wall assembly is being designed to breathe so that moisture is not trapped and we can avoid mold. This will also reduce maintenance costs and preserve the exterior Cypress.



Project accounting has been updated. Contingency for the balance of the project has been increased to 15%. Project funding has been increased. Minor compromises were made to work with the budget. All remaining tasks have been identified and tightly scheduled with milestones using MS Project. Phase 1 scope is finalized with some work deferred to Phase 2.



We have the report from our historic wood finish consultant and we will begin preparing samples to establish the control samples for interior wood finishing. Then finish samples of the poplar kitchen cabinets will be developed. Several light fixtures will be relocated by the electrician because I changed my mind since they were installed 10 months ago. Meetings are scheduled to meet subcontractors for audio video, security, and computer network. Rock lath installation and plastering will begin on or about April 22.



The original exterior stain was Cabot's. Their lab will analyze exterior wood samples to develop recommendations for the exterior wood finish system and color. Phase 1 includes stained wood shingles at the restored roof extension only with the balance of the roof to remain temporarily with asphalt shingles. If sufficient contingency is left, the balance of the stained roof shingles will be installed. The overall results of our restoration look to be quite remarkable.

So Paul...after all this exposure and such...I guess we should expect you to be listing your house for $5.75M too? Why else?

Anonymous wrote:So Paul...after all this exposure and such...I guess we should expect you to be listing your house for $5.75M too? Why else?

The game plan has always been to restore the house and live in the house for the next 30 years, God willing. Admittedly I am enjoying the whole thing immensely and I am spending more than I probably should as a result. I am intentionally pushing the envelope for the restoration of a private FLW residence because it fascinates me on a technical and intellectual level. I believe that some of what we are doing clearly advances the state of the art for FLW restoration. I also admire the house as an important work of FLW which was grossly disfigured in 1931 that will contribute to the understanding of FLW's work when restoration is complete.

Good answer! I commend you. I am just glad you will be living and enjoying it for many many years instead of doing a

[quote="Anonymous"]Good answer! I commend you. I am just glad you will be living and enjoying it for many many years instead of doing a

I enjoy books about FLW that focus on a single project, such as Jack Quinan's on Larkin, Jon Lippman's on S. C. Johnson, and the various homeowner books. Have you thought about putting your entire experience into a book? It would definitely sell and help you recover some of your cost. It would also be an invaluable record.

I agree with the book idea. I have read sevreal FLW books written by homeowners. The only problem is I don't care for all the personal stuff which always seems to make up 75% of the book.

I have already been approached by an architectural book publisher who wants to do a book on the house and its restoration. I am not interested in including extraneous stuff about personal experiences. The book will be about the history of the house, iterations of the design, its final design, other neighborhood houses for the same budget, its place in relation to other FLW houses, Japanese influences common to the time, Japanese influences on FLW, the technology of the original house, flaws of the original technology, disfigurement in 1931, restoration process, why restoration decisions were made, technology of the restoration, concealed technology within the interstitial spaces, drawings of the iterations, photographs, original contract with FLW, FLW closeout documents. I have photographs of the construction in progress. Since Hedrich Blessing photographs the majority of my firm's work, they will likely do the photography. We have started gathering materials for the book, but it will not happen until the whole project is complete. Hopefully the completed project will include reproductions of FLW furniture.