Totally Floored

The contractors have put plywood over the joists, completely covering our original stairway opening (which will go away) and the new hole in the ceiling in our entry way (they'll cut a new hole for the new stairs later).

For now, the only way to get into the upstairs is up a ladder and through the window in the back of the house.



Here's the view from that window. You can see the plywood that is now the new floor. On the left and right are the glue-lams which are the beginnings of the new exterior walls.

Next week: they begin to demo the roof!

Glue Lams

So above is the view from the front porch, looking into the house. Our entry way now has a huge hole in the ceiling where the stairs will end up being.

Climb up the ladder and you can see the upstairs in progress:



In the next day or so, they'll be laying plywood to be the new floors.

See that big beam in the background?

Here's a better shot of it:



There are two of them, running along the length of the house. They rest on the joists and are supported by all the supporting posts that they've been working on all these weeks, that go from the basement, through our main floor, up to the new upstairs.

They are the beginnings of the new walls of the new upstairs.

Here's the other one:



They're called "glue lams" -- spelling might be totally wrong, but they're basically ginormous beams made stronger because they're made up of smaller boards glued and laminated together.

Once the new floors go in, Mike will begin to tear the roof off.... yeah!

Sister Sister and Truss Issues

You learn things when you do a remodel.

Apparently, the joists in our house where the floor of our second floor would be, are too small to support the weight of the new upper floor, so our contractor's had to "sister" the joists to build them up.

The old joists are the darker wood, above.

Mike and Ken have been busy sistering up the joists last week. After that, they'll put in a new floor (plywood for now) -- whoo hoo!

Last week, all the trusses were delivered (aka "the big roof-shaped things"). They're sitting out in the backyard now, serving as cat roosts for Joey.

Next week, Mike says he'll be able to start cutting the roof off. THAT'S when things will really get exciting!

Floorless

Before:

Now:

Beat the Heat

The boys found a way to cool off... zip lock baggies of ice on their heads...

Fun at the Beach

One of my kids lost his head...

Buttoned Down

So the holes in our walls are all covered over now. There's some kind of board covering them up now.

The plastic's been taken off the furniture (boy, I've never been so grateful to be able to use a dining room table before! Home remodeling really makes you grateful for the simplest of conveniences).



The city's inspectors have okayed the supports -- Mike (the contractor) says that they just sailed though things. We've really done well with all approvals from the city, from the plans on forward. I think we made some good decisions with the people we picked!



Next week, Mike gets to move on with the more interesting part of the job. Everything up til now has been laying the foundation and getting things squared away so he can get up to the upper level and really start on the new addition.

Exciting!

Not All is Dust and Toil

We took the weekend off a week ago to go camping at Cascadia State Park. Great swimming on the South Santiam River, short little hikes to Soda Falls and to see petroglyphs.

Altogether a very refreshing experience!