Plaster Fun Time

The plasterers showed up today and made a mess. But a good mess like the kind of mess you have to make while doing something awesome. If they clean up when they finish tomorrow it will be even more awesome. I got pictures, but as has been the trend, they'll go up later. Things continue to go really well so knock on something for us...

I was lazy, the workers were not

Things got busy over the weekend and I only got a couple pictures which I never even downloaded from the camera. The insulation was completed on Friday and they started putting up the sheetrock. I figure that will be done today and there's a real chance of it being plastered this week. The siders also showed up Friday and finished the whole front of the house and around the corner to the chimney. For some odd reason our already big addition looked bigger once we got the siding on. I'd be surprised if those guys can also finish today, but maybe if things go really well they'll be close. We need to finalize our color selection for the exterior trim... ideally this would have been done before the siding went up, but the timing didn't work out that well so it will just be a little extra caution the painters need to use. Things continue to come together well and I started guessing at completion dates over the weekend, but I don't want to jinx it so I won't get too hung up on that.

Lots and lots of material for the next steps

Last night I got home to find my entire garage packed with boxes of vinyl siding and large portions of the upstairs packed with blue board. Apparently the boys got a show yesterday as they used the boom on the delivery truck to lift all the blue board up through the window to the second floor. Not sure if installation of either is going to start today so we'll have to wait and see when I get home.

More recent progress

The set below mostly summarizes the past two weeks of progress. The siding would have been started if it weren't for us being away and not being able to verify the color for them to go buy it. There's already talk of siding, insulation, and sheetrock for this week so that could be exciting. Photo journaling will continue this week as time allows. Worst case I'll catch up again next weekend.

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

All sorts of surprises

We just got back from a week away and found that all sorts of good stuff happened while we were gone. The windows are in, the door is in, the rough plumbing is done, the shower is in, the rough electrical is largely done, the heating system is roughed in, and some additional outside trim is in. I'll have time tomorrow to get pictures and stuff so tune in then for more details.

This week in house construction

New progress Friday was that the vast majority of the rough plumbing was done, the old siding was stripped off, the front steps got moved to the new location, and some other odds and ends were tied off. Photos are in reverse chronological order again so start at the bottom if you want to see the progression.

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

Stairway to Heaven

Ok, so it's just the stairway to upstairs, but I had to do something with the post titles. Yes, as of last night we can now walk (carefully) up the new staircase to the quickly developing upstairs. Of course this takes a little bit of gymnastics because the front door has been moved and is now just hanging out in space until the front stairs are moved to line up with it. 95% of the upstairs framing is done so you can now see the sizes of the rooms and the general alignment of everything. There's a little more to do in and around the bathroom to support the utilities, but that will come together quickly. They may be able to finish off all the rough framing today and then next week looks like it will be rough wiring and plumbing. One of these days there's also going to be a truck load of windows that show up.

The photo gallery will develop tonight and tomorrow when I'll finally have a little time. Week 1 of football for the boys this week really killed any spare time I didn't really have to start with.

Day 8

I either need to start coming up with more clever titles or by the end of this it's going to turn into the video journals from Avatar... "Day... aw hell, I don't even know... the days just blend together..."

Anyways... it's seeming like once a week picture posting is going to be the way to go and there'll be a gap in charting progress next week while we're on vacation. I had pictures last night, but we were computerless until about 10 p.m. and then I lost motivation. Yesterday I came home to a false wall splitting my dining room in half to establish the construction zone and the liveable zone. Of course that only helps so much when cutting in the stairway involves ripping the ceiling out of the basement staircase in the liveable zone. I peeked upstairs and the majority of the interior framing is done. The opening for the staircase and balcony are in and the inside of the front wall was torn apart. The new door is in the garage and I think they're going to town with re-framing that area today. Being away for a week is going to be stressful, but they've been good about calling me as needed. It will also be fun to come back and see what's happened.

Day 7

The pictures got taken, but I ended up being computerless as a side-effect of moving stuff around to make way for construction. Yesterday the chimney got extended (couldn't believe he did it in one day), the roof got shingled, the old roofs from previous additions that tie into the new part got re-flashed and patched up, and the floor plan for upstairs got marked out and the first pieces of the interior walls laid in place. Things continue to come together well... let's see what surprises today holds.

Day 6

I missed the photo op because I got home late and left early, but all the exterior trim was done, there was staging set up around the chimney, there was lots and lots of masonry stuff in my driveway, and I think some inside walls got framed, but I didn't climb up there. Pictures tonight of where things stand.

Tomorrow things get interesting because they will punch through into the first floor. Then things get messy.

Week 1

I've been taking pictures of the house construction daily, but fell behind instantly with posting them. To catch everyone up, here's a view of week one. Pictures run in reverse order from newest to oldest:

End of week 1, mostly closed up and looking like a house again:


Interior still to be framed:
The new view from up top:
End of Day 4... exterior walls went up in one day and they even started late due to rain:
Soon to be my new roof:
End of Day 3. Deck down and there's some walls hiding under there. Rain expected overnight:

End of Day 2. Most of joists down and the electrical cleanup done:

End of Day 1. This stuff...
Used to be up there:

Day 0... Our little shack waits quietly for the men with power tools: