Under Roof!

This week has been very busy for our contractor! They put in two very long days to be prepared for today. The roofers were scheduled, so they were a bit behind the eight ball. On Monday it was quite chilly, but it did not keep them from stringing the rafters and roof trusses over the master bedroom section to the front of the addition. You can see the beautiful blue sky, and the sun was out, but it was definitely still winter!

I like this view Poppy caught, looking from the hallway upstairs out towards the lake. You would never have caught me out there high on the ladder 21' above the floor of the bedroom.

By late in the day, they were ready to begin covering this framing with sheathing.

You can tell by the long shadows the setting sun cast, they finished out a very long day by covering the dormer roofs and began cutting eve length and adding the facia boards.

Then fast forward about 24 hours. On Tuesday they got all that sheathing covering the roof, cut all the eve edges and added facia boards along the gutter lines. They worked right up until night-fall and lost their light to finish the last section.

But, not to worry, they were out there bright and early today, hammering away at 7 am! That was good, because by 8 the roofing crew arrived. After hauling out all their tools and air hoses, the crew of four were on the roof running around like a bunch of monkeys. It was amazing how fast they worked. Each guy had his responsibility and you could tell they were used to working together very efficiently as a team.

By about 8:30 the truck arrived to boom the pallets of shingles up to the roof. They were about ready to start laying shingles, as they already had all the drip edging on and the tar paper down on most of the surface.

By about 2:30 in the afternoon I looked out and they were packing up to leave. What an efficient crew, no time was wasted. We now have a roof over our heads!

The contractor and his assistant took today to do a few easy jobs. They had worked way too hard on Monday & Tuesday! So, when the roofers left, they did just a few things, including cutting out the window openings in preparation for window installation.

We will have a nice double casement window in our bedroom overlooking the deck and giving us a view down the length of the lake to the south. Eventually they will be redoing the deck overhang so it does not hang down in the way of this window. So many details!

Here I caught an action shot. If you look closely, you can see the contractor inside with the saw removing the rest of the OSB covering the window that will be above the whirlpool tub in the master bath. (If you double click on the photos, they should enlarge for better viewing. Then, click the "back" button to return to the blog.)

Here is a view of the north side of the addition. The window to the front is in the master bedroom and the skinny one up higher is the one above the tub. Then there is the service door to the garage further back.

We are very excited to see this all come together. They are calling for possible rain tomorrow, so they can work inside finishing up the framing and be able to stay dry under the finished roof. Next big events will be installing the windows, moving all the extra dirt around and excavating the lot, and finally siding. It won't be long now and it will be ready for Poppy to get to the inside work of wiring and plumbing! He sure will be keeping plenty busy!!

Fighting the Elements!

This past week has been rather frustrating for the contractor. They were able to work Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday brought heavy rain and Thursday high winds and threatening snow off and on. Finally Friday they returned bright and early, but it was very cold. After putting in a full day, they had most of the roof sheeting over what they had framed up and the dormers were taking shape. They have yet to get rafters and framing above our bedroom section to the front, but that will happen this coming week.

The shed dormer off the north side will give the front upstairs bedroom lots of light and air with a double casement window.

Over the garage on the south side of the addition, dormers will add dimension and style to the roof line. I want Poppy to build window seats in these dormer nooks so one can snuggle up with a book and relax in the sunshine coming in the window.

They have sheeting over the dormers now too, but it has been too nasty of a weekend to get out and take photos of it for the blog. If I had a photo of today, you would see about an inch of snow laying on the roof!

The contractor hopes to have the roof ready for shingles by the end of this coming week so he can call in the roofing crew. That will really button it up weather tight and then they will get windows in for a sealed up structure. That will be an exciting time to look forward to! Keep watching here for further progress. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

Movin' On UP!!

Well, things are really coming along this past week. Despite very heavy winds and a day of yucky rain, the sun has prevailed the beginning and end of the week and progress has been made. As I write this, the contractor and his assistant are packing up to call it a day. I will be anxious to go back outside to see what it looks like now, as I think they have installed many more rafters to form the roof line over the upstairs bedrooms. Here you see the stairway that was completed a week ago. This allowed them to get up to floor the 2nd story and begin framing.

This is what we had after Monday! This window will look out the north side of the house from the front bedroom. This is where the grand children will have their own space. The opening on the lower level will be a service door into the garage. Other lower level windows have not been cut out yet.

Today it really fell into shape as they began running rafters. This shows the road side above the garage where the window will give light and breeze to the back bedroom upstairs. The windows on the lower level to the road side are in the garage.

Here is another angle, looking at the dormers above the garage. The dormer to the left is part of the back bedroom for cross breeze on those warm summer nights and the dormer on the right is in the hallway across from the front bedroom door.

And, finally for all those interested in what Grandmommy has been up to all week, here is the beginning of a new sweater I started. This is the back section starting from the bottom up. My first experience with cables and I love it. A nice bulky yarn with size 11 needles, which will mean it will go quite fast. Now Shell needs to get busy making my big ceramic buttons in her pottery shop to adorn the front of this v-neck cardigan. Maybe once it is done I can post a photo of me modeling it! In the mean time, I will enjoy the end of these winter months knitting away as they hammer and saw outside.

Have a great weekend everybody! Happy Valentines Day!

Making Positive Progress....FINALLY!!

OK, it was finally time for things to turn the corner and begin rebuilding! It was the very beginning of December and now we were really battling the winter weather. But, the guys showed up bundled in their insulated jumpsuits and worked as much as they could. It was really too bad they did not start the first of October like originally planned. The excavating guys returned and knocked in the old cement block foundation in order to dig the new crawl space footage and footers for the new foundation.

Within a week they were pouring the footers and completing the crawl space floor. Since part of the crawl space floor was the original basement floor, our contractor decided to make it all a cement floor, which will be really nice in the long run. A sump pit was buried and the cement pros got to work. This was then covered with insulated cement blankets and left to cure. Nothing happened over the holidays and we tried to be very patient.

By the first of the year, the cement guys were busy again. They set all the forms for the foundation and poured them the next day. Now the waiting game again, as we waited for them to set up firm.

Poppy was able to get in a few days later when the forms were removed and put the foam insulation sheets up inside the crawl space foundation.

Then, about a week later we were in mid-January and they started to set the floor joists. This was really exciting to see lumber finally making our dream take form.

The following week they had all the flooring down and started framing walls. It was bitter cold, but it did not stop the contractor and his crew. They were as ready to make progress as we were.

At the end of that first day of framing, Grandmommy just HAD to go out and see if they would let her hammer a few nails. From all my experience with building for Habitat for Humanity, I knew I could do this too. But, I must be out of shape, as one and half nails was all I could handle. Could it have been the frigid temps?

By the end of the next day, they had the living area of the first floor totally framed. This will be our new master suite (bedroom, bath and walk-in closet) as well as a half bath and utility room.

We are most excited about the wonderful view we will have out those nice big windows looking out on the lake from our bedroom! The full moon rises over the lake from the opposite shore, won't that be beautiful on a clear warm night? Not to mention the sunrises in the morning!

As January wore down, they were finally able to thaw out the large pile of dirt frozen in the middle of the garage foundation. This was necessary to be able to pour the garage floor. They finally got a day above freezing, a short window of opportunity to get this job done. They worked until after dark to prepare and lay the forms and bury the garage drain. They were all ready the next morning when they came with the cement trucks to pour that floor.

Then the snows returned. We had about eight inches and Poppy found himself shoveling out our new bedroom and bath!

After the garage floor had set for almost a week, it was finally deemed ready to begin framing the garage walls. Poppy was happy, as having an attached garage was one of his biggest desires in all this planning. So, he was right out there helping hold the I beams as they tied together the garage walls with the 2nd floor joists.

It was all really taking shape!

The Old Comes Down

When we finally got the OK from the contractor, we began to demolish the two small bedrooms that were above the basement section of the house. Grandmommy would do what she could removing trim boards when Poppy was away at work and together we would tackle the paneling and demo of the ceilings. After a few days the two small rooms became one bare cavern, ready for the walls and roof to come down.But, before we could expose the basement to the elements, the breaker box, water heater and well pump had to be relocated. We removed the stairway that had led to the bedrooms. This location soon became home to the water heater and well pump.

Then the contractor and his crew arrived to help Poppy "take down those walls!" First came the roof, which we left to the professionals.

Next came the walls and we quickly had just a mass of rubble on the groud around what used to be the north end of the house.

When that weekend arrived, we worked together to clear out the mess and fill the dumpster. A large bonfire ate up most of the wood and Grandmommy saw to keeping the "home fires" burning.

The following Monday they returned to finish off the demo job. The flooring came off leaving just the basement foundation. It was getting quite cold too, so the fire to burn up the wood was a welcome place to stand to warm your hands and feet.

By this time it was December 2.