Halloween

Ethan (aka the Duct Tape Warrior) is menaced by zombies Colin and best friend Elijah...

The zombies did their own makeup (and did a great job). Ethan designed and created his own duct tape shield and knife.

Totally scored on the candy, venturing up towards Mount Tabor, finally locating the legendary Jaciva's house (where they give out amazing chocolate suckers). I sidled up to the door hoping that they might be generous to a nice-looking mom, but no such luck... the boys have been resistent to bribes and threats.

Stairs!

So the facades, front and back, are done!

(that's Ken, putting in an extra day on Saturday)



The cedar will remain on the new upstairs. On the lower part, the shingles will be painted the same color as the rest of the house.

On the inside, they completed the new stairs this week! There are windows at the top of the stairs, bringing in a lot of light to a previously dark part of our house.

Advantages to having a deaf cat

When we were first talking to the architect about how our remodel would affect our lives, I asked her about the cats and she told us bluntly: "They'll run away."

Dang!

Luckily, as it turns out, that hasn't happened.

Gus (above) is nearly stone deaf and, honestly, doesn't seem much affected, other than having to regroup if his cat bed gets moved.

Joey is pretty mellow and, while the noise occasionally startles him, he has taken it in stride.

The contractors have been working on putting the pretty details on the back of the house.

Before:

And now:



On the front, he's removed the siding from the area right under our original roofline, exposing the natural 100-year old wood. This will be covered with new shingle.

The addition, above, is being covered with cedar.... pretty!



Here you can see the lovely cedar a bit better... The siding guys place each shingle up to make sure that there is a pleasing, random-looking arrangement before nailing it down.

So moving right along!

Siding is on two parts of the addition. Next week, the roof gets put on and the rest of the siding. Then they move inside! We may be getting a new staircase soon.... yeah!

So much progress!

It's been too long since my last post.

The contractors have done a GREAT job since! See the upstairs really taking shape? They've added the decorative swooshes on the top and brought the roof forward to match the original roof, below... it looks wonderful!

Remember our dark, low, crowded upstairs?

The same viewpoint a few months later, when all was stripped down:

And now today... the ceiling is lots higher and there are fresh, lovely walls all framed in:

And, way back when, the back of our house:

And here's the back of the house now... you can see the new upper part. They are making it pretty now:

And another shot of the front of the house. You can see how the angles and decorative finishes are mirroring the original structure nicely: