end of week 4 --- addition under roof!

The new profile for the house is taking shape. I really didn't want the appearance of the house to be any different when you come down the driveway. That was close to my number one concern.

But I also was the person who envisioned having the new sun room and the stairs running to the sun room. (By the way how do you spell that? Is it sun room like living-space-room or dining-space-room, or is it like the words bedroom and bathroom with no spaces?)



The first picture shows the addition of the sun room from the perspective of the driveway. A new dormer is being constructed that matches the shape of the second floor of the original house.

They will be re-using original exterior wood from the house for the exterior walls.




Below, the guys are getting the roof covered with tarpaper before they get ready to depart for the weekend. It's a long way down from that roof!

Here's a wonderful view. The windows are going to be HUGE!!

And here I am looking out one of the windows. Not such a great expression.

Anyway, so now, obviously, there will be some modification to the overall appearance of the house as you approach. And if you look at it from the honeymoon-suite cabin, the change will be huge. Once the exterior staining is done, and the roof, I hope everything will blend well together. We are being asked to select the roofing shingle color, to select the style for the kitchen exterior door, to decide on cabinet style, and to make decisions concerning placement of electrical outlets, light switches, etc. It seems like decisions are coming at us very fast! This is the first time in my life that I've participated in building new construction (and I expect it be the last time, too). Up til now, I've just accepted the qualities and quirks of whatever house we decided to buy. This time, we get to declare preferences and hopefully avoid having quirks that do not appeal to us. There WILL be some non-standard features that will contribute to the overall character of the house. For instance, wait til you see the placement of the wine rack!

Kitchen size, stairs, and sunroom

I know, it's very weird. This photo was taken on Monday, March 23. I am standing at the top of the stairs in the existing hall and looking down the steps to the first landing you would hit as you travel downstairs. That is where the power tools are lying. Instead of the wall at the back of the landing, the wall has been taken down and there is an opening where the new stairs will go up to the sun room. What you see below, on the first floor, is the hallway between the kitchen and the half bath that are being built on the first floor.

In this shot, which I love, I have started upstairs from the first floor and I'm looking at the banister for the second flight of stairs, with the opening to where the new stairs will go having been cut out of the wall of the original house.

This is exciting --- the original exterior wall of the kitchen has been removed, so you begin to see the size of the new kitchen and the windows that will give the new kitchen more light! If you look close, you can see the door to the eating porch behind Brad. That door will have windows in it when all is said and done. Double click any photo to enlarge it.

The picture above was taken on Monday March 21. At this time we were excited that the kitchen walls had been put up, so we could see the windows and back door, as well as the small window on the right that will be in the hallway leading to the half bath. The builders had started putting in the floor for the sunroom.

Here, two of our builders, Matt and Justin, are showing us possible roofing samples for re-roofing the house.

Here, I'm standing in the upstairs hall, at the same place as on Monday when there was just a hole in the wall, and now you can see how the new set of 5 stairs will lead up to the sun room. These are temporary stairs but this "staircase" allows you to walk up to the sun room!

Now I'm standing in the sun room in the area near the front yard and looking back. The doorway area on the left is where the stairs come up to the sun room, and the window behind Matt looks out toward the Roost and the driveway. You can see the pasture near the vegetable garden in the distance.

And finally, the piece de resistance for today, here is how the windows will look on the front looking out toward the yard where many a croquet game has been played. In the next two days, the builders will finish the wall on the cabin side of the sunroom, with 3 large windows like the two you see here. The sun room is going to be AWESOME!!

Amazing work happening!

What a difference a day makes!

This view is for Eddie. The weeping willow tree you gave me last year is putting out leaves.

Wow, our builders did some cool stuff on Friday! They put up walls for the kitchen addition!

They also started work on the flooring for the sun room! Brad is standing on the corner lookingout toward the pasture and dam area --- awesome view!

Here you see the window in the new half bath --- that's kind of a big window for a bathroom! Guess I will have to make curtains for it. Also you can see how the sun room will be cantilevered.

Brad is checking out the interior of the new half-bath.

This shot was taken from the open window of the original bathroom on the second floor.

You can see how the floor for the sunroom has been started.

ouch!

My husband is amazing. He spent the morning on his hands and knees crawling around under the house, moving old piles of wood that had been there who knows how long. It's pebbly under there and that has to hurt! Not to mention dark and a bit dusty. This is a man who had a knee replacement four years ago! The truck bed is loaded with the stuff he removed and took to the dump. Thank you, Brad, for doing a really tough job! I love you.


This next picture was as close as I ever want to get. I put the camera through the original wall opening --- the one that has been covered with a grate --- near the faucet under the eating porch. You are looking straight ahead under the eating porch and can see the faint light of another grate opening under the drinking porch on the left. You can see the layout of the floor in the crawl space. Along the right side new posts have been erected (from treated wood) that will form the basis of a wall that will be insulated, so that the crawl space under the house stays warm.The posts are about 3 feet tall.

Kitchen addition going up

So, in the last few days there has been some visible progress. First, the builders laid the subflooring for the kitchen, hallway-pantry, and half bath. Then they started framing in this new addition as well. One big job was to install a very heavy beam that will support the second floor. It's called an LVL beam --- I don't know what that stands for.


So, here's the new kitchen back wall being framed in. There are two windows on the left and then the exterior door. The small window will be in the hall walkway/pantry that goes from the kitchen to the half bath, which will be on the right end. There is a window in the half bath, but it faces out to the driveway side. The 3 builders are all working on getting that huge beam into place though it is a little hard to see behind the framing above the new door and windows.

The former window in the kitchen has been removed, and part of the old kitchen wall. You can see where another window will be, facing to the front yard. The door below (in the cinderblock) will be the entrance to the space where the heating unit will reside. In a few weeks, all of the new foundation will be veneered with stone from the property.

Looking from the inside out. That doorway and half-wall will come down in a day or two. That is the old door that went from the kitchen to the fish-cleaning-porch/aka drink-fixing-porch in the olden days. I remember when I was in college and my favorite drinks were whiskey sour and Tom Collins. The legal drinking age was 18 back then. I can remember Daddy making drinks on that porch and how he made a mean Tom Collins!

Again, looking out. You can see where the new windows will be in the expanded kitchen.

One more from the inside out.

This weekend Brad will be working under the house to remove old wood that has been there for many years, attracting termites.

Tomorrow will be the end of the third week!

Stones for the Foundation

Back at the house, putting the last few stones on the pile for the day.

We filled these two pallets with stone this weekend.

Leigh moves the stones into the truck.

Brad finds stones in the creek & throws them up the hill (see foreground on the right)

Okay, so the pictures loaded in the reverse order from the way I entered them. So, chronologically they are backward.

Brad and I spent time yesterday and today "harvesting" stones, mostly from the creek but also from the ground in the woods. They will be used on the stone foundation for the addition. The builder had expected to be able to chisel or otherwise remove the stone "veneer" from part of the original foundation that will be covered up by the addition. Turns out the stone was not so much a "veneer" but an integral part of the foundation and the builder was unable to separate the old stones from the concrete they were set in. So the homeowners got busy finding new stone!

Something Unexpected -- Termite Damage

Well, I forgot to take my camera today. I had Eddie and Kelly with me and I was thinking about showing them around more than the camera. The big item today was a bit unexpected. Remember how the window in the kitchen, over the sink, had gotten so it did not open easily? It was a real struggle. Well, when Brad removed the interior walls of the kitchen he talked again about how that window didn't open smoothly and said the house must have settled some.

Well, it turns out there was some old termite damage that had caused the wall to settle a bit. Years ago, a freezer in the storeroom had leaked. You may recall that the floor under the freezer had rotted through and there was actually a hole there, covered by a piece of plywood. Apparently at the time the wood was wet from the leak, the termites found the wood pleasing to feast upon. And probably, once we stopped using the freezer and the wood dried thoroughly, the termites lost interest. At any rate, the builders had to replace a long support beam that had been damaged. You can see a bit of the damage on the right in photos of the new back steps. Not a huge deal, and we had already scheduled a termite treatment anyway, as part of the renovation.

Inside work being done

This is the wall in BR#3 after it has been moved one foot to make way for more room in the main bathroom.

Laundry closet at the top of the stairs in the second floor hall.

Enlarged closet in BR2 with the door re-installed. That extra 18" will make such a difference!

Bathroom floor and wall after the wall was moved one foot. They will take a floorboard from the kitchen to use in the bathroom.

We've had quite a bit of rain and more is coming our way the rest of today, so the workers are doing inside stuff. I did meet the Appalachian Power guy there this morning to discuss the new service that will be installed for the house (and run underground). Hanshill seems to have gotten more rain than we did in town. When I left, Josh was getting ready to re-hang the closet door in BR3.

More of the first week

Looking at new bathroom from BR2 ---- see the existing little door between the two bedrooms will now enter the bathroom. A new door will be built from BR2.

The head guy onsite --- Josh. He's standing in front of the new master BR closet --- you can see the hall and staircase in the background.

Obviously, the new steps. They will be covered with a stone veneer.
Okay so I figured out how to put text under each photo. I'm learning!!

the first week

Okay, so I'm new to blogging. I also want to post pics that we took on March 5, 8, and 9 (today). Then I will be up to date and able to move forward with each improvement. In this early stage of renovation, the changes are really noticeable day-to-day. Later, things won't seem to move so quickly. Running electrical wire might put us to sleep. Anyway, this is a neat way to share the progress for anyone who is interested, without e-mailing photos each day.

As of right now, the new master bedroom closet is totally done on the exterior --- the interior will be drywalled later. Same is true for the new bathroom that has been carved out of bedroom #2.
Also the laundry closet in the upstairs hall is taking shape. The benches that were in that hall have been removed. Brad plans to re-use part of that structure in the cabin. The closets in BR2 and BR3 have been enlarged, and for BR2 the existing door has already been re-installed!!

Today the builders took down the wall that separates the existing bathroom from BR3 and then re-built it moved over 1 foot into the bedroom. It makes the bathroom larger and really doesn't have that much effect in the bedroom.

Outside the foundation for the addition has been completed. We are just excited to see what will happen next. Rain is anticipated all day tomorrow.

And it begins!

It's Wednesday, March 2. Yesterday Brad and I became the owners/stewards of Hanshill, our beloved family retreat. We are in the process of transforming the house from strictly a summer getaway to our year-round home. This blog will chronicle the transformation through an aggressive renovation schedule. As Brad would say, let the games begin!