I think you've waited long enough

The problem is that editing pictures of drywall (yes, drywall!) is not nearly as fun as hanging out with the drywall itself. But anyway, here you go -- the latest & greatest!

This is...  well nothing, really.  It is probably only meaningful to the select few who had to tromp around in my parent's attic over the last 50 years.  This is the attic floor, probably seeing the light of day for the first time since they moved in in 1959.  Welcome back to the world, attic floor!  

And now for the good stuff:  dry wall!  This shot shows the new upstairs hallway, looking from Mom & Dad's old room to the new master bedroom. The alcove on the left is my laundry closet. 

And here's the kitchen!  This looks from the new dining room doorway all the way back to the no-garage door.  The steps on the right go down to the family room; the windows on the left are where we'll have our kitchen table.  My desk will be in that corner next to the steps, & on the other side of that wall (there's a wall now!!) is the mud room.  The two doors in the far back/left are the pantry & 1/2 bath.  And that big shovel there?  Right -- it's a big shovel.

The family room!  This was taken the next day, after the drywallers taped.  I couldn't believe how fast they got all this done -- two days to put up all the drywall & do the first go round with tape/mud.  Those undocumented workers are crazy fast!

Obviously, there's our new gas fireplace at the end; built-ins will go on either side.  The stairs there under the French doors go into the existing living room.

More of the family room.  Just cause I can.

Moving out-of-doors...  here is the final trim on the new windows.  I like!  Can't wait to see how good they look when all the nail heads are filled in & the house is painted.

And finally, here's the addition before the bricklayers came...

And here it is after!  The bricks aren't a perfect match, not that we expected them to be, but they are pretty close -- and look even better in person than they do in this picture.  The plan was (is?) to white wash them to match the original even more.  I am in favor of this, I'm not sure Rob is.  We will see how it pans out.

So, there you go!  We have settled on/ordered our kitchen cabinets (knotty alder in "Cinnamon"), backsplash (slate - love!) and countertops (my beloved soapstone), and have decided on our appliances though they aren't ordered yet.  Master & hall bath tile have also been selected, and I think we picked out carpet a long time ago.  Stone for the fireplace, done.  Faucets, also done.  We still have some flooring decisions to make (with an eye toward economy, though not at the expense of the project) and I need to figure out which version of white -- there are 100 of them you know -- we are using for the exterior paint.  I will need to have several drinks in me before I begin to contemplate lighting.  I am still thinking that candlelight may be the way to go...  after all, they're green and economical!

Hope this was worth the wait.  I am getting so excited about turning our project into our home!

Eh? Say again?

What's that you say? You want what?

Rickshaws?

Tinctures?

What?

Oh -- PICTURES?

Well, yes. I actually took some new pictures last weekend that are patiently waiting for some editing.

But now, with the big doins happening today, well... I just might have to take some newer pictures when I get home!

Looks like you're going to have to wait now, doesn't it?

So sorry!

I'm only a month behind

SO.

There were many trucks at our house yesterday.

Big, noisy diesel trucks.

Loaded up with materials.

Like bricks.

And drywall.

And -- well, I don't know. Other construction stuff.

And all of this was great -- I was happy.

BUT!

Today?

Swarms of men around my house.

I could enjoy this for many, many reasons.

But I actually only enjoy it because they were there to LAY BRICK AND HANG DRYWALL.

Oh, sweet bliss.

Playing catch-up

I have fashioned a very tenuous truce with the Shop. I am not happy with it, but it has given me the opportunity to pull together and edit a few more pictures.

Sadly, I am still not up-to-date.

As of today all of the addition, except for one narrow section, has been sided. The brick knee wall hasn't been installed yet, and the old part of the house needs to be resided to match the new, but once that's done I think it will all start to come together.

The cast iron bathtub for the hall bath was delivered today and so was the fireplace for the new family room. Skip says that Bill (the chief framer) is going to build the platform for the hearth tomorrow and then the fireplace can be installed.

We've got bids coming in for the kitchen and have decided on flooring. The thought of trying to choose lighting makes my head spin. Perhaps we will live by candlelight for awhile. :)

So here's how things looked one day about a month ago. This was a particularly busy day, with the main crew installing windows and the roofers, um -- roofing. Imagine all of the windows in and the siding on and that's where things stand today.


And here we are now. The two little windows are in the family room; right above that is Sara's room. You can see what the new siding looks like, although it still needs to be painted (Hardiplank -- love it!). I don't know why they haven't done that little strip that's facing forward. The birds appreciate it though: That little section where the Tyvek is pulled back is giving them access to the house. We haven't told Sara about this -- she would be devestated if she knew that birds were living in her room and we kicked them out!


And here's the expansion on the north side of the house. This bump-out will give us a much bigger kitchen (hooray!), a 1/2 bath, pantry & mud room down stairs and a master suite upstairs. Hard to see, thanks to the neighbor's tree.


And finally, a little reminder that Mom and Dad are never really very far away. This lone little bulb, planted by Mom I don't know how long ago, somehow managed to come up despite the digging, dragging, tracking, stacking, and demolition that dug it up and moved it several feet from its original home.

I love that.

And the verdict is...

Sara evidently likes her new room!

Skip's been here

Skip may have not-so-subtly reminded me that I've been remiss in my postings. So, in my effort at redemption, I'll start off with a post about what he's been up to this past week or so.

Think you know what he's working on?

Lovely, no?

This ought to be the give-away:

Ta-da!  A new portico!  I am quite fond of it.  He built just what we described.  He'll finish off the interior ceiling and the posts later this spring/summer (what, you don't like the treated lumber look?), but I think it looks pretty great already.

He's also been doing the far-less-glamorous but oh-so-important work of wiring around the windows for an alarm system.  Cause as you all know, I'm a bit of a wimp.

Thanks, Skip!  I'm serious:  With all the great stuff you've been doing around here for us, you could do quite nicely for yourself as the neighborhood handy man!

Whoa.

I am so terribly behind, it's pathetic.  I'm not sure what happened, but somehow in the time since my last post the builder guys have managed to fashion together something that looks quite a bit like a house.

I KNOW!

Pictures, you say?  Yes, yes.  Pictures are nice, but perhaps a bit over-rated.

No?  Not over-rated?  Well, maybe not.  But they do tend to bog down your download, right?

No again?  You have high-speed?

Huh.

But there's nothing worse than having to sit through picture after picture after picture, like you don't have better things to do with your time because after all!  You are a Very!  Busy!   Person!

No?  NO??  Geez, what do you do all day?  Sit around and read blogs or something?

OK, well -- whatever.  I'm fighting with Photoshop and currently the Shop is winning.  So no pictures.

Yet.