Framing progress

East view of the house. See the icky electrical panel on the left.


West view of the house. Notice how they're duplicating the curved eaves (left side of photo) -- without even being asked! Our contractor also agrees that the beadboard detail on the underside of the roof overhangs should be repeated. Mmm.


The future bay windows, below: kitchen (left) and sitting room (right).


This is framed so low because the homeowner (that would be me) insisted on a bay window that you can actually sit in without feet dangling.

(later note: I wish this bay window were normal height now!)

This will be a nice touch: this space under the stair landing will be used for storage. On one side, it will be accessible through an opening in the back of the sitting room closet. On another side, it will be accessible through an opening in the back wall of this slanted utility closet under the stair case. Kids will have great fun crawling through it.

Contractor expects water-tight by Sept. 8th. I believe him! I've never seen a contractor work this way. He plans out milestones from the first day of demolition, and keeps everyone, including and especially us, on schedule to meet those milestones.

Sheathing

The exterior of the house is almost sheathed now. Our contractor is keeping things moving and on schedule, despite just about every surprise upgrade possible (electrical, plumbing, framing, subfloor).

No doubt the most difficult thing to keep on schedule is those flaky homeowners coming up with new ideas and changes at the last minute. Such as: will fiber-cement shingles work for the 2nd story siding?

One bummer is that the new electrical panel will have to go right in this east view (with the new dormer), on the right side of the door opening. Surface-mounted, to boot. Ug-lee!

The east view.


The west view.


Unfortunately, the upstairs windows had to be removed after all, disturbing all the fine and expensive interior finish work around them (stained trim with integrated shutters). The entire upstairs will likely have to be painted too. Many design decisions were made around not disturbing the upstairs, but it was inevitable with all the problems found when the walls came down. Whoever heard of floor joists whose ends are hanging in mid-air, completely unsupported?

The scope of the project is daunting, even without the numerous extra things that have come up, each of which is a project in and of itself. I'm holding my breath.

Framing started

Framing has started! The east-facing dormer is starting to take shape.


Underfloor radiant heat is in. Additions have insulation and subfloor too.

Still have an issue with the south wall along the property line -- does the entire wall, including the existing, have to be fire-rated? No overhangs within 3' of property line though, so the original south-facing overhang was torn down. Bummer.

We do have to order a new kitchen window, as the 45-degree bay we ordered will project within 3' of the property line. Our window guy is looking into a 30-degree bay, or maybe a 15-degree bow.

New problem with entry door. The custom door company's CAD drawing is considerably different than the door we were trying to imitate, an IWP (formerly Jen-Weld) model we hacked up to add glass area.


Re-order, start over. Another 10-12 weeks.