April 26, 2009

Only 2 more days until Emma's Birthday. We are counting down until she is 8!

Since I updated the trades have come and gone. The electricians did a nice job and we ended up adding some extras since they were here. We put in 7 can lights in our office -- it is so nice to be able to see everything. And we added additional ceiling lights and outlets in the basement and put them all on a switch. Another huge improvement. Never knew how much you could appreciate outlets and lights.

The plumber routed the plumbing and gas connections for the new bathroom, new laundry room, and 2 spigots for outside. Chris now even has hot water in the garage for when he washes the car in the winter.

The HVAC didn't install the new furnace yet as he waits until the end, but he ran the new ductwork to the new spaces in the house and connected those. We have to make a decision this week whether we want to redo some of the duct work on the 2nd floor and add a central return.

They finally took down the wall between the kitchen and the new family room on Monday. But put up a plastic barrier/wall in its place, so I haven't had a chance to see what it is going to look like all opened up. We only had one day of cold with the wall removed before the insulators came after the trades inspection and insulated everything, including both garages, which we weren't expecting. Things should be nice and cozy in there in the winter.

Last week the siding crew also started. They have most of the soffits done around the house. We upgraded to beadboard soffits and they are turning out great! Good decision. We also had a change order to have all the windows on the first floor which have brick around them wrapped in the new soffit/trim color instead of white. This looks much better with the brick.

And two weeks ago we had some drainage added in the back of our lot. We are hoping this will help with the waterfall we get when we get these 2 inches in an hour bursts. They ran 4" drain pipe along the back of the whole lot and tied into a storm sewer in the back corner. It worked with some success today when we got alot of rain, but it needs to be tweaked.

This week the Miratek (composite material) trim boards and window trim be in and installed. And they probably will start on the siding. Finally! They are going to tear out the garage floor on Monday and saw cut the new opening. They also are going to pour the front porch floor. And by the middle of the week, they should be drywalling. It should be a busy week!

Fireplace/TV

New family room

Looking from new family room into "dinette"

Garages

I know... I know... Finally updated pictures

I have been "a little" delinquent in my blogging. I just have had a few other things on my mind lately.... Things have been moving along here, a little slow at times as they pulled half the crew off to start another job. But every time it rains or looks like rain we get the whole crew as they are putting a 2nd story on a ranch and like to keep that tarped.

This week they moved inside and took out the 1st floor bathroom and closet and opened that all up. They also finally opened up the wall in Sarah's room to the new addition too. The foyer is huge -- 14' x 9'. But it looks really nice and opens up the front of the house nicely. As you can expect Chris is loving this, but he left today on a business trip to Mexico and won't be back until Saturday. They have left the walls surrounding the kitchen up next to the new family room -- probably because those rooms aren't sealed up against the weather and that is a big area to open up and have all that cold air coming in.

The roof was reshingled a couple of weeks ago and they are coming to put up fascia, soffit and gutters the end of this week or beginning of next. I am most anxious for the new siding to go up as that will make a huge difference to how the outside of the house looks.

Last week they did quite a bit as they tore down the family room wall with the old fireplace and rebuilt it completely and added the three smaller windows, boxed out. They framed the walls for the new garage storage area in the old family room. They also tore out the old roof from under the new roof since it was now all waterproof with the shingles on.

The mechanicals are going to be coming in starting tomorrow to move some of the plumbing, put in new duct work and probably do some electrical work. I am really enjoying this all while trying to work from home. There is no place safe from the sound as they seem to be everywhere now that they are inside. Panera Bread has become my new home away from home!

Well, here are some pictures.