A whole new house!

A lot has been happening, though for most of last week there wasn't much to photograph. But this week, TADA!!!! We have a neary finished exterior, new front door, tile floors, and textured walls. Next week will be interior trim work, then painting and flooring by early July.

Sheetrock and Siding, this house is taking shape!

Front view with the lower part sided, see the kids waving from their windows?!
Aliya's charming face

Front view for Michelle... now that the trailer is no longer parked on my lawn!

New dining room
New laundry room
View of stairs from the bottom View of stairs from the top

Loft and bathroom

Carter's room with the AWESOME views

Mercia's BIG room - to be shared with Eliana someday!

Rain rain, go away!

Who sent this wet Washington weather our way?! Sunday it poured and dripped through the cracks in the incomplete roof, pooling under the stacks of sheetrock. We caught the rain in buckets, and thanked God this is only temporary! By evening the sky cleared, and we're back to out sunny summer weather. Everything dried out by morning, so all's well that end's well.

This view is our "moat" in front of the house, next to the new foundation.

Demolition done, sheetrock stocked

This is our last view of the studs before the sheetrock goes in Monday.

A cool crane lifted the sheetrock thru the upstairs window, then the framer installed the last window and said good bye. Thanks Mark, for all your work! We'll miss having you around. ;-)

Brrr... but we finally have insulation!

Over the weekend, we had temps near 100 degrees. Now it is rainy, windy, and cold the last few days. We're in the in-between time of having walls, but only the old furnace and no insulation until today. We turned off the furnace while the garage door was open all day (and we were gone), and now the thermostat is slowly climbing back into the 60's. Yes, indoors! Glad we still have access to our winter PJ's tonight! And the black plastic sheeting helps keep the warm air where it needs to be, instead of floating into the un-insulated ceilings.

Wall insulation is now up, so sheetrock will be delivered tomorrow and installed on Monday. All the inspections have passed, and the siding should go on soon as well. Things are really clicking around here!

And the WALL came down!

Interior walls are OUT! Compare this to the preceeding posts...

Below is the entry way, taken from the new dining room. The front door is to the left behind that small wall. And the new dining room with VAULTED ceilings! This is a bonus, as we didn't think the trusses would allow for it - but now the entire great room will have continuous vaulted ceilings, and it feels really big!
Here is Carter standing in front of the new stairwell (behind the plastic). See his feet, where the carpet was and a small corner shelf has been taken out. The hallway/stairwell area is nice and open now - I love it!

Tami's brain mapping

My brain during the addition: Every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something that needs to be done, a decision or a problem that needs to be solved.

Thanks for sending me this, Judy. Today it was especially true! ;-)

Inside Demolition

Sorry no photos today, Steve left my camera at work. ;-( But today was a big day, the interior demolition took place. There is now a black plastic sheet where the wall used to be. The old front bedroom is all opened up to the vaulted ceilings, and can I say? I LOVE IT!!!

It takes some getting used to, but I think it is going to be so nice to have the big open space between the great room kitchen/nook/living room/formal dining room all open with hardwood floors. I can't wait to see the flooring bring it all together!

Today I camped at Tim & Kim's house while they are on vacation. I stopped by after picking up the kids from school to check the progress, and the demolition was done and all cleaned up. I probably could have stayed the whole day after all, but it was nice to have a simple and peaceful day with Mercia and Eliana. I even made dinner for everyone there, and did some laundry. Then we cleaned up and came home in time for homework and bedtime.

Tomorrow I will stay home though, as there as just a few places to be framed. One wall of our closet will be demolished tomorrow (our closet is being expanded to include the under stairs area), so I had to clear out half my closet tonight. Steve & I said early on that this would be the most stressful phase - demolition in the great room and closet. But so far it's not a big deal, and very do-able indeed. Can I say I'm actually ENJOYING this all? Expecting the inconvenience makes it so much easier, and more of an adventure. It is truly amazing seeing it all take shape.

I promise to post some pictures soon! For now I can show a picture of the wall that is no more...

Tigerwood - rharraa!

Here's the flooring we choose, 3'5" wide planks for solid tigerwood. The sample we have looks very similar to our cherry cabinets, but it has a lot of variation in the dark "tiger" striping throughout. The wood is actually Kao wood, popular yet available to few in Hawaii.