framing the second floor

Today they framed the second floor. The stairs are in, so Tanner, Gramma and I went upstairs to check things out.

Looking up at the east wall framework. To match the pitch of Mom's roof, the roof is tall!

Tanner was the first one up the stairs.

Tanner's standing in front of the end wall that will be the location of his bedroom. The bathroom will be on the right side of his room (looking this direction). He thinks that the bathroom is part of his room, but it is not; it is just beside his room.

These are the windows that are for the "craft" room and "den". They will really be small bedrooms for visiting family & friends.

This will be attic space for storage or a secret hiding place for kids!

Looking toward Mom's garage. There will be a door going into her garage attic. 

No more climbing up ladders for her!

This is the wall & windows directly across from the den & craft rooms. It will be the bonus room. Tanner calls it the kids' hang out room.

Here's Mom at the foot of the stairs.

This space under the garage will be for a full-size washer & dryer.

more framing

The first floor is almost done and the second floor joists are almost up too. Today when I tried to visit Mom (and check the progress of the framing!), I couldn't get in because they were delivering a BIG load of framing materials--should have taken a picture. Tanner's getting more and more excited because he knows that soon they will be starting on the second floor--his domain!
They also built the second temporary wall in front of the wall that forms Mom's back door. They also took out the short exterior side wall that was part of the living room. Tanner could walk the little "hallway" between the temporary wall on the former dining nook wall. Tomorrow they are moving the back door wall out six feet to enlarge the dining nook space (hope that makes sense).

Looking through the first floor framing to the second floor joists.

Interior walls of the first floor have been framed in. This is looking from Mom's back porch into the family room.

Just some of the building materials unloaded today. At least it didn't rain today!

Floor joists.

Tanner between the old wall and the new temporary wall in the dining nook.

Here's the little "hallway" between the two walls.

Here's Mom's dining nook--now with access only from the garage and the kitchen (and no windows).

At the top of the photo you can see the new beam that will support the roof and help open up the dining nook and the living room.

Tanner standing in the new back entry hallway (kind of in the same place as the old walkway to the back door). This is shot from Mom's back porch which is now on the same level as the addition.

It's all pretty exciting for us.

the walls go up

This week the project has really made visible progress. The floor decking was added (in the pouring rain) and the first floor walls are being built and raised in place. The two framers build the walls on the ground and then raise them into place with jacks. It's very fun to watch.

I have loved watching the progress. When it was just the decking, I could see where the bathroom and kitchen sink would be. Now that the framing is going up, I can see where all the rooms are. Tanner is actually enjoying this part and is interested in the location of his room. It's fun to see the blueprints come to life. 

false walls go up

In preparation for framing (hopefully starting wednesday), false walls were built today in Mom's dining nook--separating both the outdoor wall and the living room. The walls will keep out the cold air and the dust from the construction. Here are different views of the new walls...

Looking from the hallway toward the dining nook.

looking from the garage door toward the living room.

Looking from the kitchen into the nook.

Looking from the garage door toward the kitchen.

They're opening walls which is very exciting! At least they left the lights (and the phone) hooked up in here!

rough ins

Mom's house was a hive of activity yesterday as rough plumbing and ductwork were installed in preparation for an inspection on Monday. All the heating ducts are insulated (the insulation looked like big black plastic sleeves with white, fuzzy lining that the ducts slid into).

Parts of the living room and the dining nook were cleared out and the trim was removed in preparation for a temporary wall that will protect the rest of the house from the demolition. We brought in a card table in place of the dining table; we're hoping part of the dining nook will still be accessible!

Today, Steve Stoelk (our contractor), Mom and I headed to IKEA to finalize the design of the kitchen in the addition. IKEA is having a sale, and we wanted to see if their price was competitive with one of Steve's regular cabinet guys.

I had already designed the kitchen online; it was so much fun to look at the products and tweak the design. The price is so much better than anywhere else that we were able to include a cooktop and a COOL sink faucet and several closet built ins and still come in UNDER the kitchen cabinet budget. I think it even impressed Steve! It made up for the stupid kitchen design program we had to work with and the busy atmosphere at IKEA.

joists

Every title I think of is a yucky play on words, so I'll just keep it simple. This week the garage door & window were taken out and the plumbing was removed from the wall.

Also, the framers came in and added the floor joists.

The excavator came back to backfill around the foundation.

To get ready for the framing next week (and the destruction of the two walls of Mom's house), Mom had to start clearing out the bookcases on the half wall. Now it's all clear and looks great. I will post pics of that later. 

She is sorting through boxes from the garage (we have to be able to park 3 cars in the garage!) and showed me some games & other stuff; flannelboard stories that I remember from childhood--FAGG-O (a bingo game Mom made for us) and The White Witch (a flannelboard story). Seeing her work on this time-consuming task makes me determined not to put off my purging....

foundation revealed

The day after they poured the foundation, the crew came back to remove the forms. The foundation was revealed! Tanner was interested and had to touch it several times to see if it was hard. I told him that the cement needed to "cure" for several days before they could start framing. "So if I break into the middle of the cement, it will still be gooey?" he asked. Hard to explain how something hard needs to harden some more...

 The view from the back porch.

 The view from the driveway. The cutout in the front of the pic will be the new back porch & back door.

 The view from Mom's garden.

Here is Mom's laundry closet with the shelves in and the painting completed.