Update! Episode 3!

The electrical inspector came this morning and gave his stamp of approval. These pics were taken earlier in the day and I haven't gotten more recent ones. Below, I am standing in the kitchen with the old part of the house on the left and looking towards the small coat closet and the kitchen door (on the extreme left). They have since stapled plastic to all of this.



I am standing in the same spot, but turned toward the back of the new part of the house. The windows on the left are in the breakfast area. The window on the right (obscurred, use your imagination!) is the window over what will be the sink. The section of wall between the two will have some cabinets and the new refrigerator.

This is taken back towards that small coat closet in the kitchen looking the opposite direction. The old part of the house is now on the right and you're looking into what will be my father's suite. The framed room on the left is his bathroom.

And, hallelujah...we have sheetrock! The guys were upstairs today doing all of this. Once they get all the ceiling sheetrock up(probably tomorrow), they will be blowing in some fiberglass insulation on top of it. I haven't been upstairs since taking these pics and they were working for several hours after this, so I don't know exactly how much they got done up there. I'll figure it out tomorrow. The below pic is the bedroom above the kitchen. Until we have children to put in here, this will be a guest bedroom. It will definitely be done by Christmas! Maybe we'll host Christmas dinner this year for the family! We'll see. Anyway, the only other thing to report is that today marks the first day of the season that we fired up the wood furnace. We'd been using the gas furnace (the heat bill ought to be lovely with all the colder weather we've been having!) More later!

October 28th in Northern New York

Hope you're getting a good laugh at this, Janice! How utterly depressing! On the bright side, it's supposed to be 60 degrees on Friday!



This sucks! (Take note of the snow plow already installed on Dean's truck!)

We finished up most of the walls and started running Pex tubing for our water supply. Insulation was delivered and should be installed tomorrow, hopefully getting a little sheetrock done, too, but we'll see. I believe most of the electrical is run downstairs. My dad's shower and our whirlpool-tub are here and waiting to be installed as well. PVC pipes and ductwork need to go in soon. Not much else new to report.

Update! Episode 2!

Another post without pics...sorry! Dean went back to work this morning, you know, his REAL job? Kenny and the guys came over and finished installing all the windows upstairs, except for the two front ones which are still being used in the old part of the house. So one is temporarily boarded up to keep out the wind and weather and the other is open to allow access. After windows went in, they got to work building some interior walls upstairs. We now have three bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom! Yay! (Well, of course we still need to insulate and sheetrock and wire and plumb and....well, you know how it goes!) Apparently we're supposed to get between 8-12 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow, so who knows what this will mean for construction, but the addition is at least weathered in. Now that the windows are in, it would be interesting to see if we have any more leaking issues. I imagine there may be a few since we still have no Tyvek on the gable ends of the roof. Anyway, the last few days, Dean has been diligently doing his own thing after Kenny has left and has managed to wire most of the downstairs and install all the light, switch and outlet boxes. We have all our plumbing supplies and that'll get done eventually. I'm working on siding color schemes. I think we're going with a dark brown roof, a cedar-looking color for siding and white trim for soffet (sp?), fascia (sp?), windows, etc. I will probably add a very tiny splash of some bright color, like red or wine or something here and there. Not sure how that'll work out in the end. Maybe I could shoot for bright red doors??? Maybe not! We'll see. I'm also hard at work trying to find the right lighting fixtures for over the island and over the breakfast table. We don't neccessarily need to hang them right away, but I do need to tell Dean how many light boxes need to be installed and where, so that's my mission tomorrow! If the ground dries up a little, both my dad and Dean's dad have plans to take the dump truck and the tractor to the back of our field and get some of the dirt that we dug out to build the foundation and bring it back to backfill now that the drain pipe is in place and covered with gravel. SO many things left to do and so little time before we get dumped on by snow and cold! At least we're weathered in...maybe. I actually wish it would rain for about 2-3 hours so we could check for more leaks before we insulate. I think Dean has been convinced to postpone the hottub deck in favor of siding THIS year as opposed to next. I'm glad, I'd feel much better knowing the house is completely weather-proofed for our nasty winters! Anyway, now I'm just rambling. Until next time...hopefully I'll drag my camera up the ladder for some pics!

Brownies!

Today was Drew's very first Girl Scout meeting. We missed the first one as we were camping at Jellystone that weekend. Today's meeting happened to be their Halloween party so the girls came dressed up in their costumes. Below, Drew recites the pledge along with the group.



The girls study a map of the world in preparation for a community service for which they can also earn a patch.



After the discussion part of the meeting, it was time to have some fun! Here the girls do a foam craft.

Halloween bats made from handprint tracings!

Below is the entire troop, eight girls in all. The little one in the front row in the red dress (you know, the one that's almost as tall as Drew?) is only two and is the little sister of one of the girls, which is why there are 9 girls in this picture. Front L to R: (not sure of this little girl's name yet!), Brynn, Drew and Megan. Back row L to R: Olivia, Claire, Hannah R., Hannah S., and Jordyn.

After crafts, the girls got to bob for apples. It started out calmly enough...

Then it got a little crazier...

But it was time to pull out all the stops and dive right in!

Hannah got the first apple!

Olivia was VERY determined to get her apple!

After bobbing, here's what was left!

Next, the girls paired up and got a roll of toilet paper to make mummies!

She makes a really cute mummy!

When this was done, they were allowed to start ripping and shredding it all over the place! They loved it!

One of the girl's aunt made some scary Halloween treats for the girls.

Drew got some glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth in a goody bag and thought she'd show them off!

Sorry, no pics of the latest construction stuff. It rained ALL day here today, so we got no outside work done, but Dean managed to wire most of the downstairs, get some recessed lighting in the ceiling in the kitchen and move around two huge piles of sheetrock with my brother since the rain was getting them wet! The windows have yet to be installed upstairs, so we had LOTS of leaking going on today. Dean's heading back to work after taking the last two weeks off to get as much house stuff done as he could. I'm not sure how much more comp time he has, but it certainly doesn't take him long to accumulate it back up since they call him in to work everytime something breaks..which seems to be rather often. They were very nice to him this week, he wasn't called in once, so he got lots done! Now, if the rain would just hold off for a few days, we could get even more done!

Exciting stuff...for me!

Let's see, we got the moisture membrane on the basement walls (but we need just a little more to finish it completely...I'm sure I'll be sent on that mission tomorrow! We got the drainpipe along the basement walls set in place. If my dad is up to it, he'll probably backfill in the morning. We ordered and received our shingles and the store brought their boom truck to deliver those right up to the roof, as shown below.



They also delivered our sheet-rock.

Not sure what Kenny was laughing at...

This stuff was delivered right through an open window! That'll save a lot of sore backs!

After the shingles were delivered, Kenny got right to work laying them. If you click on the picture, you'll get a closer view...these are way better than 3-tab shingles!

Don't adjust your monitor...yes there is a huge gap in this window opening, but it wasn't a mistake! At the time Dean built it, we weren't entirely sure where our kitchen sink was going to land along this wall, so he made the opening extra large so we could shift the window one way or the other. As it turns out, we laid out the entire downstairs interior wall scheme along with cabinet placement on the sub-floor with chalk lines, and this window will now be all the way to Dean's left.

Here are the two BIG windows near what will be the breakfast area in our kitchen!

They got one half of the new roof shingled completely and in the morning, they will be stripping the old shingles off the old part of the roof and reshingling that, too. Today they managed to get all the downstairs windows installed along with the exterior door in the kitchen. They didn't get to the exterior door in what will be my dad's room...tomorrow. Also the rest of the windows should be installed tomorrow as well. I'll keep you updated!

Roofing time!

More roofing stuff today. The guys built the bridge from the old roof to the new one. I found out today it is actually called a cricket...why? Don't know, but there it is. You can see the old roof and old dilapitated shingles all the way to the right. The new shingles will be a dark brown architectural...am I saying/spelling that right?...shingle instead of the old fashined 3-tab style which is rather boring to my eye. It ought to look sharp! In case you're wondering...I did NOT get up on the roof for these pics nor did I allow my expensive camera up there! Dean took the old Fuji up there and snapped these. Also, in these pictures, the rubberized membrane you see was only partially completed, but I believe it is done now. Tomorrow they shingle and install my windows and doors! Yay!



Looking the other way.

This is shot from inside the upstairs of the new part looking into the old attic. You can see the old lathe and plaster. (Remember, the house was built in 1860!)

Guess that's it for today! Hopefully I'll have some really good stuff tomorrow! Can't wait!

Status update

No pics...sorry! Just letting those who care to know the status of construction. Well, it has rained all day here, so no work today :-( , but yesterday we got the eaves built and the roof sheeted. We also ordered our cabinets and countertop. This morning, on our way home from a funeral of one of Dean's co-workers, I got a call from Kraftmaid that they would have our cabinets ready to be delivered by 11/18. Not sure if we'll be ready for them by then, so she's going to call me back on Thursday to try and get a confirmed delivery date. Whether I'll have a better idea in two days about when we'll be ready or not seems unlikely, but I'll do my best!

A very constructive day!

Today Dan came over to lend a hand to Dean and Kenny and together got the trusses in place! Here's the first gable end truss going up.

Here's all the trusses up from the inside of the second floor.

And another shot from the ground.

Tomorrow, the doors and windows arrive, but won't be installed until we build the bridge from the existing roof to the new roof and then sheet it. We also need to pick out and purchase shingles and all the other materials needed to put those on. We'll be shingling the entire house with the new shingles as the existing shingles are in sad shape from both age and a nasty windstorm earlier this year. What an improvement that will be! Kenny has also convinced Dean to build that small deck off our new bedroom for the hottub now rather than later. I didn't really care one way or the other, but at least we won't have any nasty accidents involving opening a door out to nowhere! I also get to order my kitchen cabinets and GRANITE countertops tomorrow...Yay!! We're also second guessing our choice of flooring in the kitchen. PERHAPS we may go with hardwood instead of tile...I don't know if Kenny has convinced him of this yet or not. Time will tell. This is another point which I really don't care about...as long as it's not linoleum, I'll be happy. Anyway, guess that's all the news to date. As always, I'll keep you posted!

Moving right along!

Gotta love progress! Yesterday, Dean, my brother and two hired guys, one is Dean's buddy, Kenny, finished sheeting the downstairs and wrapping it with Tyvek. Below, my brother weilds the cap nailer.



Meanwhile, the guys were busy building walls for the upstairs.

Dean cut away part of the eave on the old house to make way for the new walls.

And the first wall of the upstairs goes into place! Below, L to R, Kenny, Paul, Thadd (my brother) and Dean.

Here's one aspect of how Dean and I differ...you'd never catch me up on a ladder this high right next to a ledge! Eeeks! Makes me cringe just looking at the picture! This was taken this morning.

Another wall section...

Kenny is a super-fast worker!

After lunch, Kenny brought his daughter Trista back to our house to play with the girls. He also brought her small 80 4-wheeler which the girls were excited about! Unfortunately, after just a little bit of riding, it petered out, so we let Trista ride ours, which is not small...but she did very well! Kenny thanked us profusely as now his daughter wants a big one! Drew decided she wanted to ride it by herself, so Papa put her on it and off she went! Her feet won't reach to switch gears, so she rode in first or second for the whole ride and she drove all the way to the back of our property and around the cornfield...by herself! She took off before I could get a picture, but I'm sure she'll be begging to do it again tomorrow, so I might get lucky then. Below is Trista's small 4-wheeler. Uncle's trying to figure out what's wrong with it.

Anyway, back to construction...another wall section goes up.

The guys built three complete walls and left the fourth open to bring up the trusses. Here's the stack...which should be hung tomorrow!!

And the final upstairs wall goes up! Yay! L to R, Dan (Dean's brother), Kenny, Earl (Dean's dad) and Dean.

Here's the whole structure looking north. The big window openings on the first floor will be a breakfast area in the kitchen, there's another window like these two directly around the corner from these.

I am now looking west, standing in front of the old part of the house looking back. The guys are in what will be a bedroom and in the downstairs, you'll see a door. We'll build a deck in front of the door with steps, this is the kitchen door and will be the door we'll most often as we'll have a small mudroom type area just inside of it with a closet for coats and boots/shoes.

And here's where we left off this evening. I am standing behind the house, looking south-east. This is one massive addition! At just under 1500 square feet, it is actually larger than the old part of the house! Once complete, if you counted the 1/2 story in the upstairs of the old house as a full floor, the entire house would be approx 2800 sq feet! The "crawl space" doesn't count towards that total, though we certainly could as it has a head clearance of nearly 7 feet! (That's why I put quotes around "crawl space"!) In the downstairs, the two windows you see will be my dad's new bedroom/bath suite. In the upstairs, we put one window centered in this wall and brought the other around back next to the door opening in which the ladder rests. The tyvek is covering the window opening, so you can't see it. This will be our new master bed/bath suite. The door will someday open out to an enclosed deck on which Dean plans to put our hottub. Hopefully we'll be able to do that next year as it's not really high on the priority list right now. Monday, all the windows and doors will be delivered. Dean hopes to hang all the trusses and then sheet the roof with plywood tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

I took this from the upstairs of the new addition. Drew loves to hang from this bar!

Trista takes the girls for a ride!