Monday, January 10, 2011

We do Kitchens

I really loved this job (below).  The large breakfront was a mix of alley finds.  The doors came off something else, and the whole thing was badly damaged, warped and split in places.  We replaced a number of pieces and installed a crown molding on it.  Note that the lower and upper cabinets do not match.  They are all purchases from the Habitat ReStore and all got the same color paint.  The floor is a very interesting and very inexpensive cork.  I can't take all the credit for most of the creativity on this one.  The owners found most of the items here, and asked me if it would be cost effective to use them.  The color choices were theirs. They splurged on the granite counter tops, the sink and the new appliances.  We were able to reduce projected costs on this job by more than $20,000.
 
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This project (below) was a difficult arrangement.  The kitchen was tiny and very disorganized.  The half bath was almost impossible to use.  There was no way to remodel this home without moving a lot of walls.  We took the open and huge living room and dining area and turning that into three more than adequate rooms: a parlor, a family room and a formal dining room.  As for the kitchen, we did it as a galley kitchen with an addition beyond that flows into the landscaped yard and a roofed passageway to the garage.  We were able to get a half bath on the first floor and make the kitchen into something usable by eliminating the short hall and door to the garage, and creating a new door into the garage from the back yard.  We moved the basement staircase as well.  Every other alternative was prohibitively expensive and would have taken a major room addition to the house.  The floor is porcelain tiles.  That provides the best traction of any kind of floor, and is also very easy to keep clean.  In this case, the color blend is perfect. 
 
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(Below)  If you have a big room to start with, it is easy to build a kitchen that has everything. This room was (and still is) short on daylight, but it now has a lot of artificial light sources plus a skylight. With the additional LED lights on, it gets very bright, even at night.
 
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This kitchen (below) is heavy on the copper and black combination.  I originally thought the colors would be too overwhelming, but the woman of the house had her color scheme all agreed on before meeting me.  It turned out beautifully.  This photo is an after dark shot.  The room has a lot of sunlight in the daytime, and the copper back splash and granite counter top sparkle.  The granite is so exquisite, it looks like you can see deep into a liquid and sparkling stone.
 
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Once again, having a lot of space available makes it easy to work with the home.  This kitchen was once the kitchen, back porch, pantry, storeroom, and some dead space between walls.  We opened it up and this is the result.  Behind the photographer (me) is a wall of cabinets, a very long counter top for party buffets, and the breakfast area.  The cabinets in this photo are all recycled from the Habitat ReStore.  A new custom island had not yet been delivered when this photo was taken. We had just finished the floor when this shot was taken.
 
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Nothing gives you more counter space than a huge U-shaped kitchen like the one below.  I took the photo, but something is out of place.  Where's the clutter?  Where are the dishes behind the glass doors?  All that changed the next day.  Kids, dogs, food, homework and counter top appliances.
 
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This one (below) also has good memories.  The sweet Lab stood and watched us for hours.  His tail never stopped wagging!  He was happy if we were in the way, but he was even happier if he could get back to his favorite resting place.  I particularly like the floor design.
Robert A. Cox, Hopper Construction Company
314-757-9292
robacox@yahoo.com

You can give me a call any time to discuss possibilities. Sometimes I can do the designing.  Sometimes, we work with architects.  In all cases, we try to ensure that the results will add enjoyment and value to your home.

We do Bathrooms

These before and after photos are the best thing for showing what can be done.  I'm definitely not a "pink" person, and I don't like the frilly sink.  I'm into marble, granite, slate and white and primary colors.  That said, it's not my house and i don't have to use that bathroom.  But, these transformations can be phenomenal. 


























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If you like a lot of varnished wood, and can't get over your nautical days, this bathroom is for you.  The owner and I laughed about that, because he does love to sail.  Humor aside, this bathroom is comfortable, with a warm, radiant heated marble floor, separate shower and cast iron antique tub, heated towel warmers, his and her everything, and a complete exercise room on one side and large walk in closets, master suite laundry room and bedroom on the other.  Three bedrooms, several closets and some poorly designed wasted space in a six bedroom home became a single suite.


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If money is no object, these three photos show what can be done.  Realistically, I think I'm likely to get one tile job like this a decade.  Few of us could afford the tile alone, let alone the installation costs.

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Sometimes, just converting one bedroom into the master bath once she's gone off to college seems the wisest thing to do.  Doesn't it look great?  No more feeling like you're in a closet when you dry off after the shower. (I'm standing in front of the shower to take this photo.)
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This bathroom was kept reasonably priced.  The vanity is a mix of three older ones, and the cabinet interiors were remade with plywood, and painted, since the old particle board had disintegrated.  The counter top is real marble, and was recycled from a demolition site.












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I just had to throw this one in.  He's one of my friend's cats.  He has decided that his home is her bathroom.  He's almost 20 pounds and only looks ferocious to humans (he is a skilled mouser)  He lost all his hair one time, and gained the name "Samson".   
He's the bathroom cat!


Robert A. Cox, Hopper Construction Company
314-757-9292
robacox@yahoo.com

You can give me a call any time to discuss possibilities. Sometimes I can do the designing.  Sometimes, we work with architects.  In all cases, we try to ensure that the results will add enjoyment and value to your home.

How did I get the name "Hopper" for my company?  It's easy.  My last name is Cox, and it is simply too common.  I'm told it just meant "chicken" in French.  So, someone back there was a chicken farmer.  There are too many businesses with that name in them.  When I was a child, my grandmother sometimes "baby sat" me by leaving me at various museums in Chicago while she went to work.  One of my favorites was the Chicago Art Institute.  The women there were so nice.  I would eat my lunch so many times in front of the painting "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper.  I love that painting, so, it's also the name of my older schnauzer. (I name my pets after American artists and musicians.)

I have more than fifty years since I got my first construction job. How did I get my start?  My very first job was to sweep up after the carpenters when they were building houses across the street from our home in the Mississippi Delta in the 1950s.  I learned from the black workers so much about life as well as old fashioned carpentry in those years.  Life has always been mixed, one way or another, with building things ever since.  I also grew up in Mississippi and Tennessee at a time of extreme racism and violence.  I was a real rebel for a Mississippi boy.  Within a little more than a decade, I was a civil rights investigator, getting those signs taken down over water fountains and on rest room doors.  Those were the years that formed my interests and my viewpoints.  Those really smart and considerate black carpenters were the ones who taught me about tongue and groove flooring and mortise and tenon carpentry. 

For St. Louis, I am very concerned about a history for the past 50+ years of extremely bad maintenance and construction on our old brick buildings.  These buildings could last for hundreds of years to come, if they get proper maintenance and remodeling, and if they are properly improved using the best "green" techniques and materials. 

In later pages, and on new links, I will focus on what has been wrong and what can be right with regard to taking care of our masonry buildings, what is right and what is wrong with tuckpointing as it is usually done, how roofs really should be built, and what types of insulation work in different situations.  Stay tuned. 
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 We do garages

In the past year, we have rebuilt three garages and built one from the dirt up.  Our most recent was a one car garage that had been badly damaged from a dumpster fire.  The garage had been designed with clapboard about eighty years ago.  The roof was a mess even before the fire.  Someone had replaced the rafters with 2x4s on three foot centers.  The result:  the ridge line of the garage badly sagged, and it would have been unsafe for workers to install a new shingle roof.  The siding had also been damaged.  

Our solution:  tear off the old roof, deck, gutters, rafters and joists.  We left some joists to hold the walls in place.  We then rebuilt the entire upper structure with 2x6s on 16 inch centers and tied that all together with hurricane ties.  Why hurricane ties?  We don't have hurricanes here.  Right?  Correct, but we do get tornadoes, and we get some high winds and wind shear during thunderstorm on a frequent basis.  

We wrapped the garage in house wrap (Tyvek or similar) and sided the entire building in Hardie cement fiberboard siding.  The corners are done with paintable PVC, and the windows and doors were replaced.  The wood at the ends and behind the gutters was all wrapped in aluminum and eaves were created. 

The before picture is here.  The nicest thing one could say about this building is that it was 'tired".  We will add the after photo later.


The wood fence had also been burned, and this photo shows things after we had demolished the old fence.  We also scraped away at least 6" of soil, for it is almost certain that much of the paint is filled with lead.  That dirt and everything that appeared to have lead in it was hauled away and disposed of according to the new lead paint regulations, or it was "encapsulated".  At this point, the garage is now a solid building that will last another century, at least, if properly maintained.

<<<PHOTO COMING SOON>>>


Robert A. Cox, Hopper Construction Company
314-757-9292 (phone and text)
robacox@yahoo.com

You can give me a call any time to discuss possibilities. Sometimes I can do the designing.  Sometimes, we work with architects.  In all cases, we try to ensure that the results will add enjoyment, comfort and value to your home.
Robert A. Cox