The deck is done!
It's a great day for relaxing, and I think we are going to have some wind out there tonight! The deck, while not huge, is big enough for up to 8 people to hang out and relax - Mark (our builder) used massive 6x6" cedar post and beam construction - it is the sturdiest deck I have ever been on.
The stonework is going in the living room and really fleshing out the fireplace...
The hardwood is in about 1/3 of the first floor now in a great random 3/4/5 pattern...
The also pulled out both of the staircases that need to be replaced, the basement in anticipation of the new basement floor being poured, and the second floor to put in wider (level) stairs.
All of the cabinets came today and are in the kitchen ready for installation as soon as we make some space.
Delayed Postings
Well, things have been crazy for the past few months around here and posting slowed because there wasn't much going on visually. Let's face it, pictures of conduit, piping and ductwork are not very inspiring! But, I will try to get you caught up in one monster post...
Like I said, there was a good month of just mechanical going in, here you can see some of the complicated plumbing/electrical/entertainment/computer areas we have due to the fact that we have virtually no internal walls on the first floor. We even had to put a false ceiling in the dining room to accommodate all the stuff for the master bath.
We were getting some cold weather so they hooked up one of the furnaces temporarily, hanging it from the ceiling so they could break up the basement floor under it and leave it hooked up in case we had a cold spring.
Once the heat was on the drywallers got in and make quick work of getting the house ready for painting:
While the drywallers were inside the outside was being sided and the chimney/fireplace was being built:
By the middle of April the siding and most of the exterior was complete and the house was really coming together:
The new main entrance door went in with the new fancy sidelights, and the painter got in and got the first coat of paint on all the walls:
Monday they finally got started on the basement and broke up the old cracked floor to put in the new french drain to keep the lake out and to pour the new floor:
While the floor in the basement was being destroyed, the new hardwood floor on the first floor was being laid:
Well, that catches you up to the first of May, and from now on the pictures are going to be exciting as more and more stuff is happening everyday!
The roof, the roof, the roof is on... THE HOUSE!
It is official, the house is now fully under roof!
The roofers will be there on Monday and by the end of the week we should have the house fully under shingle and the windows can start going in the week after. Good thing too, the weather is supposed to turn colder through this week so the guys can be working inside and keeping the house relatively warm.
My office (otherwise known as Richland) is also complete and I can really see that I am going to have a hard time getting work done up there with that lake view and all...
For those of you that don't know it, my life had come full circle: I spent all of my school years in Richland and now will begin my working years there too!
We are almost under roof!
I am counting my lucky stars for the nice weather we have had here, once we thawed out from the Thanksgiving deep freeze we have been gorgeous here. In fact the last couple of days have been around 50 degrees, and one day last week was so nice I was wishing I had the boat in to get a ski in. The warm weather has allowed them to stay on track and the rain has cooperated and stuck to Sundays or other days off.
The net result is we are almost completely under roof!
The dormers are built on both sides and all but maybe one or two rafters are in place, so they should be sheathing the roof and sides tomorrow and Saturday so they can start installing windows next week!
Oh, and Happy New Years to everyone!
Scary demo work!
We are lucky the house didn't burn down while we were living in it!
Between the extremely unsafe chimney (that the brick guy pulled down by hand) and the old fabric wrapped wiring running through the whole old part of the house we were living in a veritable death trap!
For example take a look at this frightening electrical box - it is loaded with 10amp fuses, has a mix of new and fabric wrapped wiring and a boatload of wire nuts that were splitting a number of wires off to who knows where.
I discovered that one 10am circuit was serving my entire basement, living room, porch, entry way, and outside light. All of it in fabric wrapped wire running through ancient BX flexible conduit, and spliced with electrical tape through at least 8 junction boxes nailed to the wood with no grounding.
Safety First Folks!
60yds of Demolition
Unfortunately the kid who was doing the majority of shlepping stuff around decided he wanted an education and went back to college - now I don't know too many schools open between Christmas & New Years, but apparently his was because he didn't come back.
That left this gigantic pile of $HI+ for us to move.
So instead of paying the talented guys a bunch of money to move it, Carrie and I spent two days moving it. What a mess...
But! That left the talented guys to do actual building and they were able to get the "bump out" for our dining room and master bath completed so that they can get started on the framing for the dormers for my attic office affectionately known as "Rich-land." Ironically enough, for those of you that don't know it, I grew up in Richland and went to school there - life comes full circle.
From the lake you can also see the windows for the master bedroom as well as the windows & doors for the living room to our deck.
Oh, and her is a picture of the truck I bought our builder. At least it's quieter. Maybe one day he will let me ride in it!
New roof on the old house
We had a couple of days of heavy rain on Thursday and Friday and that slowed the progress a little. At the end of the day on Wednesday we had the framing up on the new roof over the old section of the house, but not sheathed. We probably got about 6" of rain through the end of the day on Friday and the wind blew the tarp off the rafters. I am a little worried about the rain that infiltrated the bathrooms we weren't going to touch, but we will have to check it out and decide what to do. As they say, into each life a little rain must fall.
The weather cleared up and they got the sheathing on Saturday morning, but with Christmas Eve on Sunday and today being Christmas there isn't any more real progress.
The weather looks good all the rest of this week and through the weekend so some real progress should be made to get the thing under roof by the end of this year. Then the trades can get started.
This is a good view of our Master Bedroom and lake view. The whole thing isn't going to be room, our walk in closed is taking a good chunk out, but the room will still be as deep as the old master, but wider and with a sitting area and fireplace.
One piece of bad news, the young kid that was doing the schlep work of hauling all the debris away decided to go back to college (during break?) so Carrie and I are going to be hauling all the debris away next week. It's tough to see, but under that tarp is probably about 60
yds of roof, walls, ceilings and drywall that we have to haul to the dumpster. I am guessing we will fill the one we have, and one and half more before that pile is gone. The good news is that demo should be done and that pile won't get any bigger...
