Week 8 East walls

The east living room wall is up and the east kitchen wall is almost framed. They will put it up tomorrow.


They also added more sheeting to the west and north walls of the living room.

Oh, and Tina will have to share the jonny...one was taken away today!

Wood Shed

With one last tug on the remaining pole...the wood shed is down. Now the real work begins...the clean-up!!!!

Closet- north wall

Today was a day of digging a trench, putting up treated plywood, and filling in the trench. Two sides down, two to go!

Week 7 North and South walls

We now have 3 walls in the living room! The south wall has 3 windows framed but 2 are covered over. We had planned to put in just the center one now and the others later. With the wall up we are thinking that we need all three. Look at that view! How can we cover that up, even if it is only temporary!!

The north wall will only have one window- at the top of the stairs on the left hand side. The rest of the north "wall" is the current living room wall that will come down and overlook the new living room. The stairs turn to a balcony with a dormer to go into the current upstairs bedrooms.

Week 7 West wall

Today they framed the west living room wall (toward the barn) and put it up into place. The middle lower window is supposed to be a double door- easy fix. The three upper windows are framed in but we are going to have them covered over for now. The picture of the outside wall gives some perspective of the size in comparison to the rest of the house.

They also have most of the south wall (toward the creek) framed. On the that wall there will be 3 picture windows the same size as the ones you can see on the west wall. Only 1 goes in right at this time. Windows are so expensive!!!!! Tomorrow they plan to finish the south wall and do the north wall, which is 18 ft tall!

Week 7 kitchen subfloor

All of the floor joists are in and the subfloor is down. They started chalk lines on the living room floor for framing the walls. Dave and I took some masking tape and marked out the bathroom and stairwell on the kitchen floor.....it's not big enough!!!

There was a mix-up on the lumber delivery. The builder gave the lumber company a list of supplies along with the drawings of the house and addition. The order was given to a trainee who had materials delivered to build the whole house!!! They'll have to come back to retrieve the excess!

As I was finishing up this post we heard a commotion on the deck and smelled this horrible odor. We thought the stray cats were getting into the trash. Dave turned on the light and opened the door to see a bear running off the deck and across the yard. The bear had torn open a bag of trash and knocked over the metal trash can that has dog food in it. Dave cleaned up the deck and brought the dog food inside. We expect the bear will be back.

Week 7 Do-Over

Today they fixed the corner of the kitchen where the breakfast bar overlaps the living room. They also put a post in the kitchen basement to support the beam. There was another load of lumber delivered today, but it didn't include the remaining kitchen floor joists. Dave spent a couple of hours with the builder today, discussing the project, roof lines, windows, etc. so we were all on the same page and we end up with what we really want.

Week 7 Kitchen floor joists

They finished the subfloor for the living room today. They also placed the beam for the kitchen floor joists and put most of them on. They were short 4 joists, probably because they hadn't accounted for the landing and breakfast bar area that overlaps the living room. They also made the breakfast bar the whole 20 ft width of the kitchen and it was only supposed to be 16. Dave is going to meet with the builder in the morning to talk about it and to discuss the roof angle and connecting to the existing roof.

Closet, wood shed

After church we worked on taking down the wood shed. It has been an ongoing project for a year! It took a long time to get all the roof off but the walls are going much easier. Most of three walls are down now. Maybe in a couple more weeks we'll have it all the way down. We are going to lose a lot of privacy along the road but we plan to eventually put up a fence.

Dave also wanted to get the piece of siding on the closet where he had dug the trench and get it backfilled before someone ended up falling into it.

Closet - subfloor, girts

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While I was at a garage sale scavenger hunt with the women from church, Dave started digging the trenches to put up the plywood siding. He also started putting up the girts. When I came home we got the subfloor glued and nailed into place. It was a hot miserable day and we had to take frequent breaks in the shade to avoid heatstroke!

Week 6 His and Hers

I guess one jonny isn't enough! We came home today to find two!

Week 6 Floor Joists

Today they put the support beam and floor joists for the living room. The beam is beautiful. I wanted to crop one of the photos to show the detail but Dave's computer doesn't seem to want to let me do that. This evening they came back and laid the subfloor for half of the room before it started getting too dark. We spent the evening sitting on the deck watching them.

It is suppose to be near 100 degrees tomorrow so they are going to work on a project involving a culvert for a stream. I don't blame them!!! They'll be in the creek anyway so they should stay cool. They will be back here Monday morning.

Week 6 August 19, 2009

We now have a jonny-on-the-spot parked right next to the road. I bet our neighbor loves that! There was also a load of lumber delivered today. The workers have their sawhorses and other equipment set up and they put in the sill plates all around today. I think we'll see much faster progress now! I found the cord for my camera so I am able to download pics again.

Week 6 August 18, 2009

They poured the kitchen basement floor today, and put our cornerstone in place. Framing should start tomorrow or Thursday.

Week 6 August 17, 2009

We had no water again tonight. Dave called the builder and he came right out. When they were diverting the electric line for the water pump, a breaker switch on the pump was tripped. He flipped the switch and we have water again! Yea!!!

The kitchen basement is ready for cement now. They should be here in the morning to pour. I may not have photos on for this week until the weekend. My son is rebuilding my laptop this week. I usually just put the SD card in the slot to download the photos. Dave's computer doesn't have a slot!! I'll add pics as soon as I get them downloaded.

Sunday August 16, 2009

Closet August 15, 2009

This morning Dave went out to put in the last bolts in the floor joists while I went garage saling with Dennise. I think I had more fun than he did!! When we got back we worked on the subfloor. All of the pieces are cut and in place. Hopefully tomorrow we can glue and screw them into place.

Week 5 August 14, 2009

Week 5 August 13, 2009

They poured our roller skating rink today! It was cool watching them tromp around in ankle-deep cement! When we got home from work it had rained on it but it had cured enough to prevent any damage. There is still some work to do in the kitchen basement before they pour. The plan is to pour the floor Tuesday, depending on the weather. The carpenters should be out Monday to start work on the living room.

Week 5 August 12, 2009

The cement slab that was taken out of the living room basement makes a great "stoop" outside the doorway. Hopefully it will help prevent a big mud hole there. They also removed the pole that was holding up the house and the house didn't fall! In the one corner of the floor we are not having cement poured. They put in some framing to keep it open. This will allow for easier possibility to put a bathroom in the basement in the future. The hole in the gravel is to allow for thicker cement there for a pole that will support a beam. They plan to be here at the crack of dawn tomorrow to pour the floor in this area. The weather forecast is not too favorable for late tomorrow and Friday but they think they can get this room poured and cured enough before the rain comes in. The other area probably won't get poured until Monday or Tuesday, depending on when the weather clears.

Week 5 August 11, 2009

The water line was rerouted and excess stone removed from the kitchen basement today. It looks like that section is about ready to pour the cement floor. In the other section however, they used the osb boards we bought for our closet for a wheelbarrow path to remove the excess stone from the other section. The cement slab from the doorway cut is still half buried in stone.

We made our own version of a cornerstone for them to put in the basement floor. The shiny spots in the photo are state quarters...PA under "David", IL under "LaDonna", and MT under "Fabian." Carving the mortar mix was a lot more work than I had anticipated. I'm sure glad we had decided on just a simple design!!!

Week 5 August 10, 2009

More stones were added today. They filled in the kitchen basement with large stones, then did a layer of small stones on both sides. THEN they knocked the doorway out and dragged it through all the stones! As you can see in the top photo- they didn't quite make it!!! In the bottom photo you can see the water line that comes into the house. They still have to splice another piece of line to it, over the cement wall, into the crawl space under the house to reconnect with the line. After things are closed in we are going to have the hot water tank and the water pressure tank moved from the crawl space to the basement under the kitchen. Then it will be easier for maintenance and adding a water conditioner system in the future. And the pole that is holding up the whole house...we think they are just going to pour the cement floor and build up around it!! Maybe they are too afraid to take it out!!!

Closet -August 9

The floor joists are done (except the ones that need the bolts we need to buy) and several pieces of the flooring are cut to fit. We can't nail them in place until we get the bolts in the floor joists.

Closet - August 8

The floor joists are in place...sort of. The bolts we bought aren't long enough because the poles they gave us are bigger than we ordered. The joists at the poles are nailed into place until we can get longer bolts. The last joist is sitting in place and just needs to be nailed. It got too dark to finish. It all went together really fast and easy since everything is perfectly square....NOT!!!!!! Working with pole construction guarantees that it won't be square!

Week 4 August 7, 2009

It rained so much yesterday and last night that the gravel crew was afraid of getting stuck in the mud! The rest of the rock delivery is postponed until Monday.

Week 4 August 6, 2009

Yesterday there was no work. The truck they needed to use to shoot the rock behind the wall needed repair. They arrived bright and early this morning. It was pretty amazing how far they shoot the rock!!!! The guy had a control box around his waist to adjust the direction and speed. When it was shooting pretty fast he said it was running at 1200 rpm! It took 4 truck loads to fill in the area they dug out under the current house and the basement under the living room. It will take another truckload to do the kitchen basement. They will bring that tomorrow morning. Then they will top both basement areas with smaller rock to smooth and level it for pouring the cement next week. The weather forecast for Mon-Thurs next week is warm and sunny. That will be good for the concrete work.

Week 4 August 4, 2009

More dirt was moved today. The east yard still needs some help but the south yard toward the creek is much more level. We may even be able to have a garden party and play croquet and bocce ball!

Week 4 August 3, 2009

Wow! They moved a lot of dirt today but there is still a lot left!! The crew did a rough backfill around three sides of the addition. They didn't fill under the current house yet. They easily took down the dog kennel and moved it away since we don't need it at this point. We had planned to rebuild it but probably wouldn't have gotten to it until spring. Now it is out of their way for cement trucks, backhoes, etc. They also gave us more parking area next to the road and a turn-around spot in the driveway. Looks like Dave will stay home tomorrow morning to talk to the guys about where to put the rest of the dirt, where we want the yard more level. We have been trying to take the old woodshed down all summer but just haven't had the time to get it finished. The workers said they could take it down when they have smaller equipment so they won't disturb my flower bed that is on one side of it.

Tomorrow they will fill areas in the basement floors and prep to pour the cement slabs. Hopefully the cement truck(s) will be here Wednesday.

On the closet: We didn't actually do any work on the closet yesterday. We spent the afternoon/evening making two trips to Home Depot to get our lumber home. With just a small truck, it wouldn't all fit in one load. As it was, the first load was so heavy the front tires barely touched the road!!