2 Weeks of Progress

So, I got really busy with.... well, life these last two weeks, and I let my posting duties slip a bit. That doesn't mean that things haven't been happening on the house though, so this will be an overall, bring-everyone-up-to-speed-on-what's-been-happening kind of post.

June 16, 2008

When we last left off, the walls had just been insulated and most of the windows had been installed.

All of the windows are in here, but there's still just a hole for the front door.

The formwork has been removed from the new foundation wall, and it looks great. After the house was set down on to it's new foundation wall, they were able to finish sheathing this wall and install the window.

On the inside, the insulation for the ceilings arrived on-site, but hadn't been installed yet. This is R-30 batts from JohnsManville so it is formaldehyde free just like the wall insulation.

Our new heater was installed in just one day. There are our new, shiny ducts running up in the attic space!

June 18, 2008

Here's the new back (kitchen) door installed. It arrived last Tuesday. The doors not being on site has really been a cause of delay for us. The front door still is not there, but is supposed to be delivered tomorrow morning. One of the reasons it was late was that they installed the wrong glass in it at first (white laminate!) and had to replace it (with clear).

June 20, 2008

This day felt like a big transformation. Dan, the contractor, had all of the paper and stucco lathe on the house and was installing the notorious window trim. The redwood trim has been the cause of many conversations, questions and headaches (how to waterproof, how to fasten, etc), but now that it is being put into place, it feels like it was worth it. We think it really makes the windows look like they 'pop'. :)

Here's the view from the backyard.

This is one of the rear bedroom windows.

June 21, 2008

It's one day later and all of the trim is now on.

Here is the kitchen door and window.

A detail shot of the door trim.

This shot really shows the depth that we like with this detail.

Also, drywall was installed....

.....inside of the whole house in just one day!

June 25, 2008

This was the scene at the house today. There was full crew outside taping off all of the openings and applying the first coat of stucco.

They were mixing it up in the front yard.

Here is the front of the house half way covered. They are still trying to avoid the door area until tomorrow when the door will be delivered.

The chimney is going to be stucco too.

There was also a second crew inside taping and mudding the drywall.

This is the view from the kitchen into the living room.

And here is the opposite view back into the kitchen. What a mess!

Next time, a front door and more stucco!!

Insulation

The insulation is going in! It's Johns Manville Formaldehyde Free so it won't be off-gassing any nasty fumes into the house. R-13 for the walls and R-30 for the ceilings.....the walls are about 2/3 done, but ceilings aren't in at all yet. That will probably be happening tomorrow. We're insulating all of the interior walls of the house for acoustic reasons too.

Here's the part of the house that's not insulated yet. It's the part that needed the new foundation wall....


....which was poured this past Wednesday. After the forms come off and the new sill plate and rim joist are put in, the contractor will be able to finish the north wall by sheathing it with the OSB and installing the last window.



Here is where the new foundation meets the existing chimney.

This is basically our exterior palette. The boards are the redwood that will be the window and door trim. They have been treated with Cabot Clear Solution in the Cedar tint. The two 'pie tins' are possible stucco colors. This past weekend, we mixed up the two stucco colors that we're trying to choose between because those paper color charts just never are quite right. The one on the left actually looks much darker and more blue than it does in the photo. We are currently leaning towards the one on the right....

This is the rear kitchen window and door. We've had a little scheduling problem with getting our doors in a timely manner. The back door is supposed to be in early next week, and the front door will, hopefully, follow soon after that.

Here's the obligatory overall shot from the front of the house.

And finally, here you can see that some of the windows have their metal, corner strapping in place. These walls are going to be rock solid when we are done!

Next week, we look forward to stucco lathe and drywall!!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

A lot has happened at the house in the last week. It went from looking like a mess of sticks back to somewhat resembling a house again. Check these out:

Here's the view from the back yard last week....

... and here it is yesterday. All of the openings are framed and the OSB sheathing has been installed.

This is the front door and stoop last week. Note the ugly little awning and barely framed window opening.

Here it was on Saturday. The awning was removed, the door and window framed and the OSB partially installed.

This was the view from the street on Saturday.

Saturday was also the day we received some bad news. The north wall (the one with the chimney above) had a pretty damaged foundation. Several cracks were visible and, as you will see below, it was leaning out of plane too.

This is a level we are trying to hold up against the edge of the wall. It was not possible because of how far the foundation was skewed.

2 1/2"!!!

Here is one of the cracks in the foundation.

Was the Bird of Paradise to blame? We're not sure....

It was pretty obvious that we needed a new foundation on the north wall. So, we got the permits to fix it, and Dan, our contractor, dug out the old one. In the photo above, the house has been temporarily supported from underneath, and the sill plate, rim joist, old concrete and plantings have all been removed and a new trench dug out. New rebar and formwork is in place just waiting for the concrete.

Getting to happier news, I know the above photo is a little confusing, but this is the new header between the living room and the kitchen being installed. There are temporary braces on either side of it to support the ceiling while the beam was put into place. The contractor is putting it so that the bottom of the beam is at the ceiling level. This will allow us to have a nice, open floor plan with no exposed beam after the wall is removed.

Here is a better shot of the new beam.

And here is the best news of all - Windows!! As of yesterday, two of the new windows had been installed!

Here's a shot from the inside of the living room...

...and another one from the front yard.

Here is the house's current occupant - look closely for the eyes!

Finally, amidst all of this chaos, Jason's little garden continues to grow. Check out this great tomato!!