Most of W3's accomplishments involved the infrastructure of the house - for plumbing, that meant running all new water lines in the attic and walls, new water supply line between the meter and the house, new plumbing ventilation stacks, new drains and P-traps where required by our building plan or current building code.
We are utilizing a PEX manifold only for the cold water distribution in the house, because we wanted to have a more sensible hot water solution than running water down the drain waiting for it to get hot. For the hot water distribution, we specified what is called "structured plumbing system", wherein a hot water line runs in a loop through the attic, and smaller lines drop down from the loop to supply each fixture. An "on-demand water circulation pump" is installed near the water heater to circulate water through the loop, and it is activated by a simple doorbell-wired button installed at each hot water location.
The pump we chose, after much research, was the Chilipepper CP2011. We are very excited about the potential savings not only in water down the drain, but of time spent waiting for the water to get hot in the master shower, which is as far away in the house as you can get from the water heater! (This water pump was originally designed as a minimally-invasive water conservation solution for older homes. Read up on it if you are interested.)
We did pretty well in our plumbing design, requiring only the master shower drain to be relocated, which did require busting through the foundation. The master toilet, although not moving, had an issue with drain route (or something), which required them to bust through the perimeter of the foundation (another thing altogether, and they figured out how to minimize that impact--if you have to cut through the rebar reinforcing the concrete foundation perimeter, that is apparently a Bad Thing, and they were able to narrowly avoid having to do so). All other plumbing rearrangements were able to utilize existing drain lines (and therefore, roof penetrations,)!
Because we are installing real hardwood floors, the floor "height" will increase by 1.5 inches. What does that mean? Every doorway in the house must be raised 1.5 inches, even those doors whose position/type did not change. For all of the new doors/doorways, they simply framed the opening 1.5 inches higher. For the rest of the doors, they have to raise the existing door framing. This includes all of the exterior doors, so although we saw the new doors in the laundry room and front entry briefly last week, those came down so the openings could be reframed. Since we reversed the hinge side of the entry door, they have to use the new door, but it is now securely encased in sheathing to protect it from damage til it needs to be painted. The laundry room door is back to being the old steel door.
The one nod to the "current style" common in the remodeled houses in our area is the arched doorway. We changed the square opening between the front entry and the living room to be a cased arched opening. We think it looks nice already and defines the space with more panache.
Also notable in the living room is the specialty electrical box we purchased for the TV wall. It handles electrical and cabling (coaxial, cat6, and whatever audio wire you want) in a recess, which allows a flat panel TV to be installed flat against the wall. Although we don't own a TV, we figure there's a pretty good chance the next owners will. :)We also decided to install a similar box, but without the space for audio cables, in the master bedroom.
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