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:

Upstairs all framed up!

We left for a long weekend and Mike and his crew had completed framing up the upstairs.



That last little bit on the end will remain. It used to be part of the playroom and will become either a mini-office or storage. It will stay to make the house look cute still from the front.



Above, Ethan hanging out the window that will overlook the new stairs.



And Colin joins him hanging outside the window.

Trusses going up!

Yesterday, the trusses started going up.

Mike's working on a third of the house at a time, demo'ing one section, putting up the walls and putting up the trusses. Today, he'll cover the trusses.



Here's the view from the back of the house:



It's really taking shape now! Seeing the windows really makes it come to life.

Roof coming off!

At long last, despite rainy weather, the roof is coming off!

Mike's really been looking forward to this for a long time...

His plan is to stage things so that the roof comes off a third of the house at a time, starting with the Eastern third of the house.

We can only get in through a window at the front of the house now. Below is a view of the upstairs looking from the front to the back of the house:



You can see sunlight where the roof is gone. The new walls are on the sides, held up by supports.



Above is the wall on the south side of the house. The two windows on the left will be our bedroom windows. The little window is the one that goes over our toilet in the new bathroom.

With the windows in place, it's easier to see what the dimensions of the rooms will end up looking like.



Here's a view looking back towards the front of the house.

It's finally happening!