Chad's Carpentry Remodeling Kitchens Bathrooms Basements Madison Wisconsin

Chad’s Carpentry is thrilled to be participating again in the NARI Tour of Remodeled Homes on Sunday, June 4th. What better way to kick off your remodeling plans than by touring recently remodeled homes throughout Madison? We are especially excited this year to be able to feature two of the homes we worked on over the last year. Although very different, both reflect the care and commitment we demonstrate in our work.

At 503 Pflaum Road (site 7), we feature a home that underwent extensive expansion and remodeling. We added an expanded front porch and new exterior facade. On the back, we added a two-story sunroom, expanded and remodeled the kitchen, and created a new master suite on the main level. The new master bedroom adjoins the sunroom, allowing the original third-floor master bedroom to become a guest suite. This also allows the homeowner to live entirely on the main, middle level.

We expanded the kitchen and eating areas into the backyard, adding many interesting features. Original kitchen cabinetry was integrated with newer cabinetry and trim enhancements. We collaborated with Jodie Amerell of Inner View (see article on page 2) to create a lively and energetic space—inside and out. Her work really comes to life in this space!

At 3018 Pelham Ave (site 11), we worked extensively to beautify and expand the home, while enhancing accessibility for a client in a wheelchair. We converted a family room and bedroom into an accessible master suite, complete with a screen porch addition into the backyard, and an accessible bathroom with a roll-in shower and closet. Another bedroom was converted into an office by removing the wall between the room and the hallway and adding a functional and spacious workstation, customized for the motorized wheelchair.

Ramps and larger doors and passages were added to create a comfortable living space. Additional improvements have been made by the homeowner to create a beautiful interior space, with a distinctive country feel.

There are 19 sites on the tour. Start anywhere; pay for your ticket at your first stop, where you will receive a full color guidebook with descriptions, maps, and photos. Tour around the city at your leisure; a representative at each location will peek at your ticket and punch their site number. Hours for the tour are 10:00 am to 4:30 pm. Tickets are $10. See you Sunday, June 4th!

This past March our company suffered a great loss. One of our longest-term employees, Dean (“Dino”) Wooden suffered a heart attack and passed away after working all day on a client’s home. Dino, who was 50 years old, began working for Chad’s Carpentry in 1999. An avid outdoor enthusiast, Dino was an experienced sailor and skier. He spent the majority of his working life in Madison, WI; seasonally dividing his time as a carpenter for our company and as a Midwest rep for active sports lines.

We all appreciated his fine sense of humor, his careful attention to detail, and his warm, wonderful smile. We know that our clients who have met and interacted with Dino will share our sadness at his sudden death. Because his dogs were his lifelong and constant companions, Chad’s Carpentry has made a donation in Dino’s name to the Dane County Humane Society. We miss him very much.

What’s the first thing you see when you come home after a busy day at work? Dishes stacked around the sink or an overflowing laundry basket? Tumbled shoes clumped in the entryway? Would you rather be greeted with a soothing wall color splashed with an eye-catching image? How about the sweet smell of fresh picked roses displayed in a sparkling vase in a sunlit window? Take a moment to look around your home and get a sense of its hidden messages. How do you feel when you are at home? What is your home telling you? Pay attention to what draws you into a sense of calm or what excites you. If you feel you need to refocus your attention on the inspiring rather than the never-ending household tasks, start simplifying the scenery and create planned points of interest in your home's décor.

Designing focal points or planned points of interest into your living space helps to gather your attention, create a space to linger on, subtly influence your mood, and gracefully direct your eyes and body through an interior space. Furniture arrangements, paint colors, artwork, and items on display, all contribute elements in creating successful points of interest. How you arrange and display your personal belongings in your home directly affects your attention and immediate feelings. Creating the space for your eyes to rest also creates space for your mind and emotions to rest.

Ask yourself how you want to feel when spending time at home. Then choose color schemes, furniture arrangements, and artwork that support that feeling. Remove items that do not support or contribute to the overall feeling you are trying to create. Re-evaluate artwork, pictures, and knickknacks and only keep items that have positive memories or things that make you feel good.

Create a picture with a purpose in your home. Generate fascinating spaces by enhancing a unique architectural feature, offsetting the kitchen wall with a bold color, or creating a small sitting zone at your front entrance. Focal points are powerful tools you can use to create the home of your dreams. Take advantage of their ability to enhance your surroundings and reflect how you want to live. Let your first impressions embrace you and make you feel welcome. You will live more abundantly when surrounded by the things you love.

Jodie Amerell is a professional interior designer and color specialist. Her business, Inner View, provides residential and commercial consultations. She was the principal designer at Tour Site #7; you can meet her at the Pflaum Road Site this weekend. For more info, visit: www.InnerViewConsult.com.

Many contractors still assert, incorrectly, that houses should not be built “too tight.” Some will claim, “houses need to breath,” and might leave off the house wrap, or fail to seal around outlets on the exterior walls. Houses do not breath—people do. Houses need to be “tight” to assure comfort for the occupants. A leaky home is often uncomfortable. A well insulated, airtight home is energy efficient—saving money for the occupant. We all know that fresh air is important and that moisture and other toxins can cause problems in a home without proper ventilation. Quality builders understand the big picture and therefore build tight, and ventilate right.

Prior to the energy crisis of the 1970s (despite the use of insulation from the 1920s into the 1970s) houses were often leaky. Building codes did not require homes to have excellent insulation, or to incorporate good air sealing practices in the construction process. Stick frame homes from colonial times up to the 1940s often had hollow walls. These homes had the virtue of being designed to dry out after getting wet. Moisture could originate from an exterior leak, or from condensation in the winter when warm interior air leaked into the exterior wall and condensed onto cold exterior surfaces. These homes were expensive to heat, but, by design, were less prone to moisture problems.

Nowadays, an entire generation has adapted to higher energy prices, and resulting changes in the building codes to create more energy-efficient homes. Initial changes simply required more insulation; and vapor barriers were introduced to prevent warm, moist air from getting into walls and condensing in the wintertime. In fact, while plastic vapor barriers trap moisture in walls, most exterior house wraps are designed to allow moisture to escape. This is important, since water needs to stay out, but vapor needs to escape if it is in the wall. Eventually, water and vapor will always find a way into our walls; therefore, our construction techniques need to be redundant to prevent failures.

The well publicized problems associated with mold, rotting walls, and “sick-building syndrome” reflect the problems caused by current building techniques when certain details are overlooked. A builder who tried to prevent “building a house too tight” by applying siding directly to plywood or OSB sheathing will have rotting walls, and potential mold problems. If a house is fairly tight, but does not have systems to allow fresh air to enter the home, then air will get sucked through cracks at random, bringing in potential pollutants, and causing potential discomfort due to drafts. If a fan is vented into an attic, then the roofing and roof framing will likely succumb to moisture problems such as rot, mold, or fungal growth. Of course, the homeowner is the one who suffers the financial loss and the health risks associated with these oversights.

A well-designed and well-built home anticipates these challenges, and works well as an integrated system. Houses require good ventilation to remove moisture, combustion fumes, and unwanted odors. These systems should always be well sealed, and vented directly to the exterior through walls or the roof. Likewise, fresh air should be brought into the home in a controlled fashion to maximize efficiency, and to help maintain the health and comfort of the occupants. Knowledgeable heating contractors can install a variety of systems to provide fresh air. A simple system brings in fresh air to the return plenum of the furnace, regulated by a barometric damper, which allows air to flow into the home whenever air is being ventilated out. A more efficient system involves an air exchange system (Heat Recovery Ventilator, or Energy Recovery Ventilator). These systems are attached to the furnace and exhaust conditioned air through a chamber that transfers some of the heat in the exhaust to the incoming fresh air, minimizing heat loss, while bringing in an ample supply of fresh air.

Fresh air is especially important considering some of the toxins that are otherwise trapped in our homes. Formaldehyde is an unwelcome additive found in many adhesives, which end up in cabinetry, furniture, fabrics, and carpets. Other toxins are also found in many products that are put in the home. Good whole house ventilation is necessary to minimize the impact of these toxins. Of course, the best approach is to avoid these toxins when choosing products. We help our customers identify these threats through our participation in the Green Remodeled Homes program. There are many good resources online to assist with choosing healthy products.

Another threat in Wisconsin is radon gas, which is prevalent in southern Wisconsin. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, next to smoking. Radon is a naturally occurring soil gas that gets into our homes through cracks in the foundation. A tight home with good ventilation will suck air into the house when exhaust fans are running, and radon can be the unintended guest. Radon has no odor, so it can only be detected by radon test kits, and plug-in detectors. We recommend purchasing the Safe Home Products plug in digital radon detector. ($100 by mail order: www.safehomeproducts.com.) While a less expensive test kit measures radon over a 1-2 day period, these one-time tests are not very useful since radon levels fluctuate depending on the season.

Radon is a classic example of our motto, build tight, and ventilate right. A tight house with good ventilation can actually raise radon levels in the home if radon detection and remediation (if necessary) are not a part of your whole-house system. Many new homes are tightly constructed, and have open or unsealed sump-pits in the basement, which allow soil gases to float into the home without detection. You might smell methane, for example, if you have a plumbing leak or problem, but radon has no odor. Such a home, when ventilation fans are operating, is under negative pressure, which will pull gases from the easiest source. A better, healthier approach would be to seal the sump system and install a radon detector. If you have radon, then a ventilation system should be attached to the space beneath your basement slab. By creating negative pressure beneath the cement slab, the radon is sucked out and vented above the roof. The radon remediation fan is located outside the home, so that if the housing develops a crack, radon is not spilled into the home.

Most of us understand the value of fresh air. We also expect energy efficiency, comfort, and durability. With changing building codes, rising energy prices, and growing awareness of the failures and problems associated with a poorly built home, savvy homeowners are demanding that contractors understand how to build a home well, so that all of these goals are achieved. We are proud of our expertise and ongoing training in these critical areas. Our partnerships with the Home Performance program and the Green Remodeled Homes program help us to assure better results for our clients. We are proud to lead the remodeling industry in this area. Give us a call the next time you want to solve a problem or improve your home, and remember, build tight, and ventilate right.

Part of our efforts at Chad’s Carpentry are to give back to the community. In addition to providing the best possible workplace for our employees, we were thrilled to partner in the 2005 NARI Caring Home Makeover. This home of a Madison family in need was given a total remodel thanks to many of the NARI Partners. See the home on this year’s Tour of Remodeled Homes (site #2, located at 4406 School Road) to see how an Extreme Home Makeover is done—Madison Style.