Framing

This week, so far, part of the old roof came off:

Exterior insulation was installed (an unexpected addition- it didn't have insulation before!): 

And, drumroll..........the first floor started getting framed!! This house is REALLY being built! It was awesome to walk through the space today and really get to see it starting to take shape.

This view is looking to the back door and what will eventually be the hallway to our bedroom in the back left corner:

View from the back of the house. Patio and back door on left, our bedroom on right:

View from standing in the old driveway/new kids play area:

This is where the hallway will be- running from the back door to our bedroom/bathroom. Most of the right side of the photo will be our master closet and the stairs to the second floor:

First Floor Footprint

Eric had a good meeting at the house yesterday with our architect and builder to go over some of the miscellaneous little (or not so little!) things that have come up. One of the bigger items was discussing what to do about the older portion of the house that isn't 100% level. From one end of the house to the other there is a one inch difference. To fix it would cost roughly $6000. Yikes! We've decided to live with it, and hope that it isn't too noticeable when we start putting trim and crown molding up. We'll keep you updated. The other items were pretty minor (treating wood for termites/bugs before drywall etc.). 

In other news,  the first floor footprint is complete! Look at these gorgeous piers! 

Framing is scheduled to being on Monday- pretty soon we will REALLY get to see what this house is going to look like! 

Whoops- lucky catch!

During our selection process it was very important to us that our interior doors had no trim or "sticking." We even went over our allowance to get the interior doors that we wanted with squared off edges.

We are getting a custom front door made with no sticking. Did I ever post that here? Not sure, so here it is:

Here is a picture of the back door that we approved:

It occurred to me last weekend that there is a raised panel and "sticking" on this door! Ops! I emailed the vendor and thankfully he was able to switch it out for us. I wonder how many other little "ops's" we'll find?! 

Piers and Patio Foundation

This week was spent preparing the foundation for the new parts of the house and shoring up the areas inside the house that will take on a bigger load from the second story. When we went by last Saturday the holes had been dug for the piers, and all this week the guys worked to prep the area for the concrete team. The structural engineer came out yesterday and as far as we know he gave his blessing for the concrete to be poured tomorrow! The "living areas" of the house will be pier and beam and the patio will be slab, so by tomorrow the patio will be done and the piers will be ready for their beams ;) It is really fun to get to see the footprint of what the first floor will look like.

Initial impressions: It looks awesome! The patio is a great size and the back part of the kitchen is a good size. The master bed seems a little small, but we measured it out at home and it is definitely big enough! Just strange how from different perspectives things can look different.

I'm sure we will get a better picture of what the house is really going to look like very soon- the first load of wood was delivered today!

Here's a picture of some of the old beams under the master bedroom. 

Nice tree stumps! Look how they weren't even touching the floor! 

Picture of back part of house last Saturday:

Here is the same angle today:

For perspective:

Wood!

Demolition Continued

Swung by the house today. The windows are out, the bathroom is gone, and the concrete in the back has been removed. It's coming along!



Bathroom before:

Now:

Before:

Now:

Look at the awesome wall paper I found in the rubbish pile! The little sliver on top came from either our master bedroom or the kitchen, and the big swatch on the bottom came from the bathroom. I'm going to put them in frames and hang them in the new house :)

History Mystery

When we went to the house today we noticed this flooring peeking out from where the kitchen island/peninsula used to be:

Eric says his office has something similar called terrazzo. What in the world is it doing under there?! Did this come first and the wood came later? I wish these walls could talk! :)

UPDATE: upon closer inspection it appears to be linoleum, we think. As far as linoleum goes it isn't super ugly, but I can see why they went back to the original hardwoods at some point. 

Demolition!

Wow, August FLEW by! We can't believe the time has finally come, but demolition started this week! The kids and I were out of town, so it was amazing to go to the house today to see it completely transformed!

Here it was a week ago:

And today, 8/31/13:

Looking in the front door last week:

Today:

Back view last week:

Same view today:

Looking from the dining room to kitchen/living room:

Today:

We can't wait to see what the next days/weeks/months bring! Our dream house has begun!