framing day 1

framing begins around noon


the basement under the new master suite - taken at 7pm




the library and the master suite from the front of the house perspective - 7pm




library and master from back of house perspective - 7pm

have to share

I just had to share this picture that our neighbor emailed me this morning. It's hard to remember some days that our home is beautiful.

pictures

That's me standing on our new side porch. The gravel filled area is our new screened back porch.

Here's a shot from the corner of the master bath into the area that is the master bedroom and then the family room and then the kitchen to the side porch. Note the electrical work in the background.


This picture is the basement under the new library and master suite.


Things are jumping with the lack of rain this week. We took some pictures this morning and by this afternoon, there was a load of lumber in our yard. Framing is to commence!
Oh, and the electrical guys were back today. We'll be getting our electricity from a pole that can be accessed from our own driveway thanks to those men moving our transformer.

Catastrophe avoided - #1

I hope there's not a #2 or #3, etc.

Today Brent took our recycle boxes to our house for the curb pick-up and noticed that the new garage floor was VERY much higher (like a foot!) than the existing garage. Then, after my dental appt, I drove by to see how things looked since I was gone last week. I physically restrained myself from using my cell to call Brent and ask what was wrong with the garage floor figuring I'd be home in 5 minutes and could speak directly with him. Mind you, I don't want to be labled as an over-reactor. So I casually come in with the groceries and Brent jumps right into, "Are you ready for this?" in that special, something is really wrong tone. After a few minutes of banter about the conversation that took place with the builder, we decided it was good to keep an active eye on things. Yadda, yadda, yadda on why it was going to be wrong - it was going to be wrong and that would have been BAD. So we asked for an impromptu meeting and within an hour had a solution that only involved moving every wall in the back hall/bath/mudroom. We're satisfied with the changes as long as they don't turn out to look ridiculous when we begin to frame (next week!!!).

Now, we've already had another foundation issue, but it didn't really seem to have an impact on the overall asthetics. The new basement (which is and will remain unfinished) is 10 feet - that's how our builder likes it and we don't care, but the new stairs from outside to the new basement are only 8 feet. You can do the quick math and figure out that doesn't quite equal... solution was to pour steps inside the basement. Not attractive, but again, we felt not a huge deal. So hopefully since the foundation is done, there won't be any more major issues.

Also funny today:
While Brent was at the house the electric guy approached him asking if he was the homeowner. When Brent answered yes, he chuckeled. Never a good sign. Apparently the guy had asked the people who live behind us if he could drive his truck into their driveway in order to make our necessary electrically changes (that's 100 amps to 400 amps for those of you who are curious). Then the guy says to Brent that he can't repeat what the lady said to him, but his paraphrase was 'no, he could not drive his truck into their driveway to provide electrical services for us with a vulgar gesture to boot.' So Brent left with about 4 guys from the electrical company scratching their heads on how to get to that pole...
Now, back to a previous post about how we love our neighbors... I would be referring to the neighbors that we actually know, not these lovely people whom we've never met. Hopefully a nice young couple with kids will buy their house when they kick.

Never a dull moment!

spring break

Hiddy Ho! I've been on spring break with the kiddos, so I only know what Brent has told me this past week. We've been backfilled!! (must go take pictures.) Brent also received a copy of our electrical layout for us to double check and mull over. And, we're really hoping the geothermal hvac system will work for us. Our builder pokes fun that it's a nice shade of GREEN - meaning enviornmentally friendly. Here's an interesting aside -- I'm not all granola, like, I don't have hairy armpits and wear Birkenstocks all year, but I do want to do my part to be friendly to the earth that sustains me and my family, so we recycle, etc. I've wanted to add some nice 'green' items to our project and so have been doing a tiny bit of reasearch. Well, some granola-guy ticked me off via a website. Basically he'd written that anyone not living in a 1950's 1500sf house retrofitted for everything green is using too much energy. I can't even contain myself enough to write what he said about big houses - hello! we're a family of 6! anyway. Brent tried to keep it real by pointing out that we are making our home more energy efficient with this addition and renovation. His point was well taken because I noticed that the energy bill for the rental is the same as the bill for our house that is about 2-3 times smaller than the rental. I digress...
Not much info on progress on-site, but we are busily making selections for all manner of items to keep the ball rolling once the weather allows for framing.

the swimming pool

no, we actually nixed the pool (at least during this project- maybe in a few years), but you wouldn't know that by looking at our backyard right now. About 6" of rain yesterday and today means no work. Ironically, we did get the foundation waterproofed Wednesday.

Anyway, in the mean time we have made a final decision on plumbing fixtures, windows, and I think we are getting close on a new front door with side lights. We're still working on HVAC, a back-up generator, and cabinetry for the whole house. The kitchen proves interesting. We want those little cabinets that go on top of the regular cabinets - totally decorative, not at all functional - but between beams on the ceiling and our 1946 ceiling height, we're wondering if we're trying to put too many ideas in one space. As our builder puts it - trying to put 10 lbs of __ into a 5 lb bag...

hopefully next week will be sunny enough to get the plumbing pipes run, the floor poured, and the hole backfilled.

a verbal sketch

picture across the back of the house
shot of the front/side of the house from the road

Ok, here's what you've been looking at. The picture across the back of the house will be a new long porch extending toward the backyard with a "friend's entrance." Just inside that space will be the new kitchen with a screened porch out back. Next, as you look across the back of the house, the concrete outlines the new family room. Then it's the master bed and bath. From the front yard pictures you can see the basement walls for the new library on the side of the house facing the street and then behind that will be the, yes, you guessed, the master suite. That's where the front/side and back meet.