Day 12 ~ Total Days Under Construction 24 ~

Friday ~ June 4, 2010



As you can see the floor is up and we now have a covered patio! The shade is bliss! I wanted a pergola for the pool area to provide us with some much needed shade from the blistering heat of summer but I think this will suffice nicely.




















Views from the upstairs window.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Day 11

Beam me up!

A lot of work done today. All the main floor beams were put into place.

This lift looked like a "fun" toy to have. Too bad it was only a rental. But it made lifting those heavy beams into place a cinch!

I think Eric finally felt left out of all the "fun" so he got his ladder out and helped.

This is the interior beam that will extend the upstairs to make room for the hallway.

With the "lift" getting the beam raised wasn't so much of a problem. The problem was in angling it just right to get in through the hole to connect outside and under the stairs. The lift only goes straight up not at an angle.

Rob got that job of physically lifting it up enough to fit through the hole.

Then they just had to match it under the stairs and put a new post underneath for support.

And voila the beam was in!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Day 10 ~ Total days under construction ~ 22

After a four day weekend due to the holiday and the brackets still not in the framers were ready to work hard. So early Wednesday they were at it. The posts went up and the beams were put on.

The bracket that we were waiting for is the gray on that sits on top of the post holding the beam. We needed a couple of those.

May 27 & 28 ~ Days 8 & 9

The framers took Wednesday off, Rob, (the boss) had a child graduating that day so they took the day off. Tis the season and totally understandable. But they showed up bright and early Thursday to get back to work.

Thursday they removed some drywall and moved some of the framing wood and beams from our driveway to the backyard.

Friday they did pretty much the same, although they did remove the corner from the landing.

As soon as they were done, Ryne was ready to get to work!

But I must say this...whenever they have made "any" mess, big or small, they have been extremely good about cleaning it up before they leave.

If I could only get my kids to follow their example!

Real Workmen

Tuesday, May 25 ~Day 7, Total days ~13

Today they finished taking off most of the stucco and started prep work for the framing.

I had to throw in a couple of pics of the "supervisors" of course. This is our framer and Duane Crook our contractor.

Eric's favorite spot. Now that's how a real supervisor works...and he's a pro!

But Brendan just "had" to get in on the work...any way he could...even if it was by a far. And of course he remembered the most important thing...safety first!

Projects, honey do's & just things that come up

Ok, so you know how when you start a "major" project it always seems to happen that a dozen more just seem to pop up. And of course no home addition would be complete without some of those so here are just a "few" of the projects that have "sprung" up in the last few weeks.







We have been trying to get the pool ready for summer, but the algae was just too much, so we decided to drain it. Eric even pressure washed it but there was too much calcium build up and so it needed to be acid washed. It is now filled and *sparkling* just waiting for the kids to jump in and have purple lips and chattering teeth...it's still a little chilly, but I'm sure the kids won't care one bit.

While we were draining it, we tried to drain it into a pipe that we thought was a drain pipe but instead it led back to the pool area where it was actually broken underground which resulted in the flooding of the pool area. Eric found the area where it was "bubbling" up and started digging. Finding quite a few pipes and no idea where they lead.

And of course the excess water caused one of the posts on the pool gate to "finish" deteriorating" and break off. Another thing that will have to be fixed.

While the workmen were digging the area for the patio/foundation they had to disconnect and cap off a sprinkler pipe and for some reason the rest of the sprinkling system was shut off. Don't know why, but after seeing the plants and grass starting to die we searched for the reason and found there was no power going to the sprinklers. Luckily I don't think any irrepairable damage was done to all of our plants. Whew!

Of course these are all things that just "pop up" and Eric has to take the time to fix in his "spare" time. There are many more things that are on my honey do list. Which is why I have a contractor in charge of the addition otherwise it would NEVER get done.

BANG BANG BANG!

Monday, May 24, 2010 ~ Day 6 (of actual work)
Total days under construction ~12

Well as usual there was another delay. The workers showed up on Friday, unfortunately the framers had not finished their previous job and so could not start ours. After waiting a little while, the workers left. I guess they figured they couldn't remove much stucco without the scaffolding. Which was funny because when they started today they removed the side accessed by the roof and really didn't use the scaffolding anyway.

Oh well...I guess that's life under construction, but we're under way now.

The "BIG TRUCK" came today too!

I LOVE the smell of wood. Guess that's from my sawmillin', woodworkin' family's side. And for a little while I get to have a lumberyard in my driveway! Yeah!

I guess it's a good thing that both houses on either side of us are currently vacant. They would be soooo mad at us. ;)