Current house

We purchased our new home after Christmas 2017 and started an ambitious remodel, completely gutting the basement to add a second master space and create a Data Center. We also elected to covert it to 100% geothermal heating and air-conditioning and install tankless hot water (to supplement the "free" geothermal hot water). Geothermal is dedicated to the geothermal installation process and results.

Pictures to Process

Just uploading these for now, I need to add the background later.

New pool heater

Basement Remodel

We bought this house to get closer to the city, but still have some property and privacy, and to move my in-laws in. They don't need help now, but they might someday, and my wife wanted to be able to spend some quality time with them as they enjoy their retirement. We wanted to get them single-floor living, so if they do end up needing surgeries or have any mobility issues it won't be that hard, but we didn't want to give up having our own very nice space either.

This house provided that opportunity, it's large enough, and although it has a sunken family room and a couple steps to get into, is pretty flat with a first floor master, kitchen, laundry, and office for them. It also sits well up, so the spacious basement is only about 3' under grade, and so we were able to put in lots of windows and build a complete second master bedroom, bath, closet, full office, kitchen, and family room in the basement, in addition to a billiards room (it came with a table) and the data center.

It has 3 bedrooms upstairs for guests, and with the geothermal heating and air system we were able to zone it with 7 independent zones of heating an air so everyone can be comfortable (and we have tankless hot water for unlimited showering and laundry). When done it will really be extremely nice. One of the nice features of this home is every floor has a long, straight central hallway with stairs at both ends. This does make it hard to locate people, though, as it's big and they might be using the other stairwell.

A nice feature that I worked into the basement remodel is sound throughout. Our last house had built-in speakers, and I really liked it. I'd paired those (driven by simple stand-alone amplifiers) to Apple Airport Express units so I could "Airplay" music to them. Around the time we moved I got interested in the Sonos Connect:Amp product as an integrated amplifier and connected-device in one unit. I picked up a few for the first floor and really liked those, so I bought a bunch (7) more for the basement and threw them into the data center, one for each major room (although the master bedroom and closet share a unit/zone). I wanted to keep the power and data infrastructure in the rack, with UPS (battery backup) and the Tivos, etc. so I mounted local volume controls in each room and ran the main speaker wire back to the data center. This is nice because although you can control the overall volume from the Sonos app, and easily group and ungroup the Amps into multiple independent areas and individually or collectively control the volume, sometimes when you're actually in the room it seems too loud. The Sonos allows a lot of different music sources, Apple Music, Amazon, Plex, your iTunes library, TuneIn, and Line in. I'm using one Line In from an Airport Express to enable Airplay, which the original Sonos do not support, and I had another big idea. My older Apple TV (the new ones did away with it) and Tivos all have Digital Audio Output. I ran Toslink/SPDIF cable from each TV location to the data center, and picked up some digital-to-analog converters for the data center and connected the analog side to the individual Sonos amps, and now I can output my TV sound to the built-in speakers! Too cool, and great for Superbowl parties and the like.

Another idea this enabled is the "TV behind a 2-way mirror" trick! I built in a TV mount behind my vanity mirror and placed electric, network, and digital audio inside the space, and an IR receiver/retransmitter into the mirror mount so I could turn the TV on and off, and now I can watch TV through the mirror and get the sound on the in-ceiling speakers!

It came with a fountain!
This is what it looked like before we started wrecking it. Lovely
A light sensor for the outdoor lighting!
Existing layout upstairs
First Floor
Moving in
We gutted the basement and started from scratch
This water heater gets moved, and this back section becomes our master closet
This piping comes into the kitchen island
The existing shower will be replaced, and the geothermal lines will enter here
Shower room
These lights were over the old shower vanity, now this will be an opening into the addition
Vanity lights from another angle
Utility room, our laundry will go next to here
Laundry connections
These windows will get bigger, and another will be added
Master shower drain
Master vanity plumbing
5'x9' master shower with two 8' linear drains
the shower slopes to the linear drain side
Because we have two 4' linear drains in the shower, with 2 rain heads, a handwand, and 6 body sprays we need a larger drain pipe to the sewer
Master Vanity with have a TV behind a 2-way mirror
We moved a post to make the family-to-kitchen opening larger, so we had to pour a new footer
Old post location, and new footer
Reducting to add zone control
Billards storage
Preparing for the data center
Data center will have a raised floor, partly to hide wire chases, partly to protect from water intrusion
Pulling cable to data center (cat 6a)
Split AC unit for data center
Data cabling in hallway
Temporary network
Data Center wall/door - an 8 footer!
Server power
Exercise equipment
Kitchen plumbing
Reframing
That's the office, and that window gets replaced
Looking into the master bathroom
Billards room framed
New window in master bedroom
An angled hall will connect the master closet to the bath, so when one of us gets up we can close the bedroom off and move back and forth without distrubing anyone
This beam needs reinforced as we're pulling a column out
It got full-length 'C' channels on both sides
and the wood suport on this end was reinforced with steel
Before pulling the post (the wall will no longer be under this beam)
The beam on the other end of the master bedroom gets the same treatment
HVAC reducted in closet
My office, these windows get bigger
Voila!
A lot of ductwork
Powder room plumbing
More powder room
Cameras mounted around the house
Including Ring flood light cameras
And Ubiquiti UVC-Pro cameras
Basement kitchen island waterproofing
Starting basement tile
Multi-zone climate controls

Basement Master Bedroom

Our master bedroom is about 17'x18' with french doors opening to the rear stairway next to the "extra" shower and basement entrance to the addition. The addtion has a walkout set of french doors that gives us easy access to the hot tub. We enlarged the window area to three 3'x5' windows for natural light, which open to the side yard at grade behind the addition overlooking the wooded creek, so it's pretty private. The master has it's own zone of HVAC, a security panel, and connects to a small hallway between the master bath and closet thorugh a pocket door so I can get up and get ready for work without distrubing Elizabeth. It has 9' ceilings iwth a fan, and the same brushed, exterior-grade Italian marble that the basement has thorughout.

The electrical outlets above the windows are for HomeKit remote controlled/powered blinds or shades that will open and close automatically based on time of day, day of the week, and weather (or difference between indoor and outdoor temperature and sunniness).

Master Bedroom
Basement master bedroom tile complete, Ikea cabinet paks for closet
Master fan and windows, and in-ceiling sound, and note the glass-break sensor near the windows for security
Master bedroom window to walkout
Master bedroom window to back yard
Hallway entrance to master (solid french doors) near addition connection - this will not have a door once it's heated, office is to the right of this picture and the extra shower is directly across from the master next to the stairs
3 Views of the connector hallway, from Bedroom (note the thermostat and security panel near doorway)
...from Bathroom, closet ahead, bedroom to the right...
...and from closet to bathroom, bedroom to the left

Basement Master Closet

The master closet is about 18'x18' with an additional pocket of about 9'x4' where our stacking washer and dryer will go. It has sound, just like every other room in the basement, and the walls are covered with IKEA storage cabinets with white glass doors with soft-close sliders and automatic lighting that comes on when the door is opened. This will provide tons of hanging storage as well as a bunch of shelving, and a (not yet pictured/installed) island will house our sundries (socks and undies) and give us a place to lay your wallet and keys down while changing, and it will have a bench on either end to sit on while you put your shoes and socks on. I really, really like everything to be tidy, and these cabinets are a nice compromise since Elizabeth doesn't ahve to put everything away every single day for it to appear tidy.

The closet, like most of the rooms in the basement has HomeKit WiFi controllable, and dimmable lighting switches in the wall, so that with dimmable LED bulbs mounted I can achieve nearly any lighting level. My idea is to have a motion sensor in the connector hallway (which has it's own lighting circuit) that will turn on the lights in the master bathroom and closet at a low (15% mabye) level when I get up so I can safely reach them, but dim enough not to disturb anyone until I can get the pocket door closed behind me. Then I can raise the light level to whatever level I want.

In the rear wall are shut-off valves for the water going to the pool cabana. We had them piped to the drain in the utility room while we were building, so we can just open the access panel and drain the cabana each fall directly to the sewer. Around the corner from the main set of cabinets is a nook for a full size stackable washer/dryer.

Basement master bedroom closet tile complete - the grey conduit is power to the island cabinet
Master Closet
Master Closet, the open space next to the utility closet will be Elizabeth's makeup table with mirror and chair
Master Closet - This is a little shallow cubby that we just mounted doors on, probably for shoes and sweaters
Master Closet - The main power closet is the back
Basement master closet cabinets (IKEA)
Closet coffered ceiling with sound (chandlier coming)
Island cabinet for scale (not the actual cabinet)
Closet trimmed
Rear of closet to W/D area...closer...
Rear of closet to W/D area...closer...
Washer/Dryer hookups...Viola!

Basement Master Bathroom

The master bathroom is about 15'x15', with a 9'x5' glass surround shower as the main feature, and a double vanity. Behind the mirror on my side of the vanity is a TV, with the sound wiring I mentioned above so I can listen to the morning new on the built in speakers from my Tivo or watch AppleTV. These both have RF remotes, but I have a IR repeater for the TV on/off function. The toilet is next to the shower, and as I mentioned we installed 2 of the largest tankless water heaters to make sure we can run both sets of rainheads and body-sprays without running out of hot water.

The door to the hallway will probably never really get used as the bath also has a door out the back to the pantry, and from there to the kitchen which is what I'm sure we'll use the majority of the time.

Basement Master Bath Cabinets
Basement Master Bath Cabinets
Basement Master Shower Ceiling Tile Installed
Master Bathroom Shower
Basement master shower fixtures installed
Master Bathroom
Master Bathroom to hallway and office

Basement Kitchen

Basement Kitchen Cabinets
Basement Kitchen Island
Basement Kitchen Cabinets
Basement kitchen tile complete
Basement kitchen stone backsplash installed
Basement kitchen countertop installed
Basement kitchen island nearing completion

Basement Pantry

Basement Office

Basement master bedroom window brick trim
Office
Office
Office
Basement office doors installed
Basement office windows trimmed/framed

Basement Family Room

Basement Bar

Basement Billiards Room

Billiards

Basement Powder Room

Basement hallway tile nearing completion
Hallway
Hallway

Basement Shower

Shower
Shower
Shower
Shower tile and paint

Basement Craft Room

Basement Data Center

See Data Center

Addition

We're building an addition onto the house as well as the remodel (below). Mostly we wanted some additional garage space, so we're mirroring the existing 3 car with an identical space - with my in-laws there are 4 driving adults in the house, plus lawn care equipment and workshop space. Because the existing garage has a small piece of house leading out to it, we also chose to miror this space, which will give us some additional living space we didn't really need, but it doesn't hurt to have. In the basement it will be a storage space with a walk-out to the back yard and steps into the new garage. On the first floor it will be a workout/exercise room, and an additional guest bedroom/suite (with kitchenette). There will be storage over the garage as well.

Getting ready, the parking pad will go away, and parking will suck for quite awhile
Topsoil stripped
This old sewer line will be moved back about 10', into the setback
The addition goes here
New sewer crock
The architect didn't get a real survey, with elevations, so I used my laser level to get a sense for how much the garage had to be raised to be even with the existing garage - 14" in front
22" in the back
Backfilling the sewer excavation-the foundation will cross over this...
Excavating the basement
Foundation drainage
Connection to the existing basement
Garage footer preparation
Foundation forms
Bridging the sewer excavation
The excavators nicked the existing driveway drainage... this will be rerouted around the foundation
Foundation wall prep
footer pour
Garage fill requirements now clear...
A good foundation
Annoying but inevitable construction yard damage
Using a rock-slinger to fill the foundation
Insulating the basement foundation
The existing roof drains ran across the new garage, so openings were left in footer wall for this drain pipe to carry this to the adjacent creek
Rerouting the driveway drainage and picking up the downspouts
Insulating the garage footers
Ready for the basement slab
This is the sewer drain for the garage, a direct connection. I'm not happy with this, but it works... strikes me as lazy on the part of my architect
Downspout connections
Basement slab poured
Ready for garage slab

Addition Exercise Room

Addition from exercise room to storage over garage
Addition workout room
Addition workout room
Pool end of workout room
Pool end of workout room
Addition
Addition
Addition
Addition
Addition
Addition
Addition
Addition

Addition Guest Suite

Addition Garage

addition sheathed
addition sheathed
Congress Ave end of new garage
Congress Ave end of new garage
Rear of new garage
Rear of new garage

Addition Basement Storage

16 Basement Storage
New walkout to hot tub

Addition Attic Storage

looking into new basement storage area

Geothermal Installation

In 2017 there was still a 30% Federal tax credit for residential geothermal installations, and since we bought a big house with HVAC units right at the edge of their life expectancy my (accountant) wife talked me into replacing everything with geo.

We opted for the Climate Master Trilogy (Heat/AC/Hot Water) systems, a pair of 4 ton units, and a 3 ton split system for the upstairs - that's because there was no good way to get the geo piping up there, so we installed the heat exchanger/heat pump downstairs and reused the line set for the old AC system to take geo cooled refridgerant upstairs to a more traditional space pack, which has gas back-up heat.

We chose Gallagher/Hauser HVAC to do our installation, as the local company with the most experience. Their work has been technically quite good, but their customer service (for us) has been abysmal from start-to-finish, with scope creepy, cost overruns, and schedule delays at every turn so I would not recommend to anyone. For the kind of money we spent with them it's shocking how little regard they gave even the simplest requests.

The geothermal installation was really interesting to watch. First Jackson drilling showed up and installed 8 wells, each 300' deep. Each well provides 2 tons of heating/cooling capacity, through it's 600' of 1" PVC tubing, and there were two well fields installed in a line below our driveway to provide 8 tons each. The wells are 20' apart to allow them enough ground to extract heat from. The tubing was premade with a 'U' shaped connection at the tip. I think the holes are 3" in diameter, and the tubing is encased in Benseal (a bentonite mixture for casing the well) for heat dispersal. They liked drilling at our house because the asphalt made the process really clean for them, they could easily rack the tailing from the drill away and they had a nice solid base for thier rig, and since we have mostly shale and sandstone they were going through a 20' section of drilling pipe about every 2 minutes, or a well about every half hour. They made quite a mess, but the drilling was done in a couple of days. Or, rather, it would've been if they didn't break the bit on the next to last hole - and they didn't have a spare on this rig.

Drilling

1" PVC tubing
Setting up the drilling rig
The drilling started around my birthday and made quite a mess... I didn't like that, so Elizabeth got me a cake to ease the blow
The front wall by shower where the well field will enter the house
Tubing will route through here
Drilling
Sweeping the tailings away
Tubing installed
Adjacent wells
Bentonite has been pumped in
The white tube was used to feed bentonite
The last well on this field - this one is next to the gas line (but we didnt' know it)!
They typically use this pan for tailings, but didn't need to here
U bend at tip of tubing
610' of tubing per well (in a 'U')
The business end
Starting the second field
Benseal Bentonite
Benseal Bentonite

These were connected via a trench about 3' deep (pretty close to the frost line here in Cincinnati) manifold system so the could equalize the flow to each well in parallel and bring the cooling fluid (a mixture of glycol) into the house. The soutern field's last well was drilled without a boot's width of an unknown (and thus not marked by the utiltiy protection folks) of our neighbors gas line - which the ripped out while trenching. One field runs to the south end of the house into the front utility space and provides 3 tons of cooling for the front of the house through a Trilogy 45 unit service the the front of the basement and first floor, and a 4 ton split unit that feeds cooled fluid to a standand line set to the otherwise conventional HVAC unit for the second floor. The front Trilogy has cooling dampers and thermostats for the following zones.

Basement Office
First Floor Dining Room

The northern well field comes into the house in the full bath and routes up the wall and into the ceiling to reach the rear utility space where there is a 4 ton Trilogy 45 system for the back of the house - basement and first floor. In the ceiling is a T for the 3 ton HVAC unit for the addition. 1 Ton of excess capacity was planned. The rear Trilogy has cooling dampers and thermostats for the following zones.

Basement Master Bedroom
Basement Family Room
First Floor Master Bedroom
First Floor Family Room

Well Fields

The southern trench
Wells complete and trenching
The northern trench
Connecting the wells into a field
Pressure testing the tubing

Each of the 2 Trilogy units gets added efficiency by using some of the excess heat from the heat pump and well system to heat hot water for the house as well. This makes it the most efficient unit you can get in the United States. We will use this hot water as preheat to a system of tankless (Navien) hot water heaters that can provide endless full-flow hot water, and the electric backup heat in the Trilogy tanks will be deactivated.

Heat Pump Installation