Bathroom Addition and Deck

This page describes our continuing effort to add a second floor bathroom to the house.

Table of Contents

February 3, 2004: Revised drawings February 1, 2004: Wood windows get installed January 20, 2004: David Skilton visits January 10-11, 2004: Demolition January 7, 2004: Landmark Advisory Commission ruling January 6, 2004 at 7 p.m.: Revised exterior change request January 6, 2004 at 1 p.m.: Revised exterior change request December 14, 2003: Original exterior change request

February 3, 2004: Revised drawings

The current floor plan puts a full bathroom inside a shed dormer at the top of the stairs.

This front view shows how the shed dormer will alter the roof line. We would like to use the same composition roofing for the top of the dormer as for the rest of the house. Trim boards would be the same 5-1/2-inch boards as around windows. Casement windows to be made of wood similar in general design to the windows installed on the first floor. Siding for the dormer to be cedar shake, ship-lap, or other wood siding which is distinctive from the siding on the rest of the house. (It turns out the ship-lap siding stored in the top of the garage is an inch narrower than the siding on the rest of the house, and it also consists of bundles of three-foot pieces ... so we are undecided about whether to use this material.)

This cut-away drawing shows the profile of the shed dormer.

February 1, 2004: Wood windows get installed

	February 1, 2004: The major weekend project was installing five wood windows. According to instructions from the Landmark Advisory Commission, we used simple trim made from 5-1/2 inch boards.
	February 1, 2004: Another view of the new windows. They will look better with putty and paint.

January 20, 2004: David Skilton visits

It was a real treat to have David W. Skilton spend 90 minutes visiting the home discussing restoration strategies. He is a Design Review and Tax Incentives Specialist for the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. We took measurements of the proposed shed dormer and bathroom location. The February 3rd revised drawings (shown above) are based on what we discussed. I hope I captured our discussion correctly.

January 10-11, 2004: Demolition,

With approval to add the bathroom, I decided to prep the interior wall surfaces for the new dormer. I did this for two reasons. First, I need to run wiring and plumbing to the area before I can seal up the wall surfaces in the utility room immediately below the dormer. Second, I need to remove this material to see the existing framing, so I can prepare detailed drawings for a building permit.

	Demolition begins: most of the demolition shown in this picture was caused by the Albany fire department when the opened up these areas with a chainsaw to look for fire.
	The closet we will remove to make way for the shower.
	The view from the stairway.
	I examine existing wiring. It turns out this circuit also is used in the master bedroom, so I decided to run two new circuits to the bathroom addition area.
	I am better at knocking stuff off the wall than carrying it out to the truck.
	Both the closet and knee wall are gone.

January 7, 2004: Landmark Advisory Commission Ruling

On January 7, 2004, Albany's Landmark Advisory Commision voted 4 to 1 to allow us to put a dormer into the west side of the house. They required the dormer be a bit narrower than we requested so it wouldn't extend to the south wall. They also decided to meet in February to make further decisions about siding and exterior trim.

January 6, 2004 at 7 p.m.: Revised Exterior Change Request

At 2:40 p.m. on January 6th, David Skilton wrote:

Thanks for the quick work. The one thing you will need to make clear about the mock-up at your presentation tomorrow is that the eave on the west side of the house will continue across the toe of the dormer. The floor plan looks good too, but you might want ot consider turning the pedastel sink 90 degrees, so that it faces north rather than west. That will allow a better mirror location and will also allow another window or two. The single little window in the middle of the dormer looks pretty forlorn. I think three little square windows, ganged together and centered, is probably going to look best. Let me know how things turn out.

David W. Skilton
Design Review and Tax Incentives Specialist
Oregon State Historic Preservation Office

	To accommodate his thoughts, we prepared this revised mock-up of the bathroom addition.
	And we modified the mock-up of how the bathroom might work to incorporate his ideas.

Aside from picking up the junk, the basic demolition is done. Now we must fill out a detailed building permit before starting the rebuilding process.

January 6, 2004 at 1 p.m.: Revised Exterior Change Request

At David Skilton's suggestion, we have changed our request to place the bathroom addition over the utility room rather than the dining room.  This would place the new upstairs bathroom at the top of the stairs along the west outside wall. We like his suggestion better than our December 14th request because it will:

• Reduce the impact on the exterior appearance of the home by using a smaller shed dormer.
• Allow the bathroom to be placed in a common area, so it can be reached by both upstairs bedrooms.
• Place the plumbing directly above the utility room plumbing.
• Place the bathroom in an area damaged by the Albany fire department when they used a chainsaw to open up wall coverings to look for fire. (Note: This area wasn't actually burned, so these walls were chainsawed unnecessarily -- especially since the areas could be reached through the bedroom closet.)

	Barbara measures the distance between the top of the stairs and the outside wall where we hope to place the new bathroom. The chainsaw damage is visible behind her.
	Another view of the west wall where we would like to place a dormer for the bathroom.
	A view from the front bedroom looking south which shows the stairs.
	A view from the west wall looking east.
	A view from the west wall looking northeast.
	An exterior  view of the house today. (Note: we are having Ron Johnson in Dallas build a double-hung wood window to fit the utility room opening.)
	A mock-up of what the proposed shed dormer would look like. If approved, we will have Ron Johnson build a wood window that looks compatible with the other wood windows he is building for this house.
	A quick mock-up of one method of fitting an upstairs bathroom in the additional area provided by our requested shed dormer.

December 14, 2003: Original Exterior Change Request

These pictures are part of our building permit application to change the exterior appearance of the home. We believe adding an upstairs bathroom makes the house substantially more livable.  We've worked hard to place these modifications on the back side away from the street so they will have little visible effect on the home's historic profile. 

	A front view of the house from 5th Avenue -- the bathroom addition and deck will not be visible from this view.
	A view of the house from Baker Street -- once again, the bathroom addition and deck will not be visible.
	From this view on Baker Street, the new addition will be visible.
	In this view of the back of the house, we're looking at the kitchen addition that was constructed in the 1940's or 1950's.  We're asking to put a deck with a railing above the kitchen as well as lifting the attic's roof to create room for an upstairs bathroom.
	This simulated view of the upstairs addition was created by Paul Hightower, a local registered professional Civil Engineer.  It correctly shows how the bathroom addition will modify the roof line and shows the door to access to the deck.  It does not show the deck or its railing.
	This screen-captured image shows what the second floor would look like if we make the proposed changes.