The Floors are here... and other adventures

Installation of the hardwood floors has started!!!!



Floors in the hallway and half of the living room have been installed!


Red Oak. I may, or may not have the floors stained. I kinda like the color the way it is right now!

This is a view of the intake vents for heating/air. Normally this is covered by a giant grill (which had to be removed to install the floor. My curious cats took advantage of this opening to go "exploring"....

I was able to remove Frankie and Orbit by reaching down into this icky vent and just pulling them out (I think that rotary brush cleaning is in order once construction is complete). Georgie Pie proved to be a little more troublesome. His adventure took him deep into the maze of vents and no amount of coaxing on my part, nor the tasty can of cat food that I was wafting in front of the vent, would bring him out (though I could hear his amplified meowing in the metal vent). I eventually went downstairs to turn off the heater (figuring that he might start frying soon), and discovered him in a vent in the basement. After unscrewing the downstairs vent cover (in even greater need of a good rotary brush cleaning), Georgie Pie emerged with a few dust bunnies clinging to his fur and a good story to tell his friends. Cats must be imprisoned for the duration of construction....

New Stairs and Stoop!

Butch the cement guy does his thing and pours, then finishes the cement for the new stoop and stairs.

Sweet!

the CONSTRUCTION zone

Welcome to the CONSTRUCTION ZONE!!

I have a new front door! Isn't it pretty! (ha-ha)

Much was done this week: in addition to the installation of the construction door, the new front stoop and steps were framed in preparation for a cement pour on Monday morning (if it isn't raining).

Everything was insulated...

And dry wall put up....

the kitchen/dining room photos aren't all that exciting when it's just a picture of a plain old wall.....

Now that the dry wall is up, I'm going to have to pony up some more coin for Gary the contractor. Sigh. Maybe I'll win the lottery.......

Learn From My Mistakes!

Do you ever find yourself fiddling around on the old computer, checking out what the old girl can do, and then you suddenly decide to change the language setting on your computer?

Well, DON'T.

It might be easier on a PC, but I'm doing this on a Mac (I know, everything is supposed to be easier on a Mac, but if you've been raised on a PC, it's hard to switch), and after I switched the language setting (to see if it would actually work!) I couldn't figure out how to get it back to English.

This is all you need to know: Google's Blogspot feature can support just about any language you can think of (even the strange and obscure ones). Just leave it in English. Learn from my mistake!

The Latest News

Work continues, and much has been done, but there isn't a lot of "bang" (in terms of photographic evidence) to show for the work.

Electrical has been completed: I now have an outlet outside the front door, so this year, I can put up Christmas lights without having to loop an extension cord into the garage (which is one of the reasons that I have put up outdoor Christmas lights exactly once since I've lived here!).

So, what's been done that shows up in a photo?

Well, the entire upstairs (living room, dining room, hall way, and kitchen) have had a new sub-floor laid down on top of the old (and perfectly good) existing sub-floor. Why? Because the original was stapled to the cross joists, and if the new hardwood floor were screwed into a stapled sub-floor, I would have a very squeaky floor in just a few short years. So, there's a new sub-floor, and it's screwed through the old floor and into the joists. Also wall vent in dining room has been converted into a floor vent (to make room for the sliding door).

Framing of the new entry way is also complete (as is the electrical) and everything is covered in Tyvek and tarp. It's hard to see, but there are also two lights that will frame the front door. The old front door is (barely) visible through the opening of the new front door.... the old door will eventually be removed to create the newly expanded and spacious entryway.

As many of your know, my wonderful dog (Lucy) has been staying with her "away from home" family, The Barros. I am so lucky to have a family that is able to care for my baby girl Lucy when I travel for work, and when I'm on vacation, and now, during construction. While Lucy is staying with the Barros during construction, I do go to visit and take her for walks (I miss her!!!), and I also bring her to the destruction/construction zone (so that she remembers where she lives). Lucy took a nap while I worked on this blog (NOT EASY, this business of blogging), and I snapped a few pictures of her while she was napping.

... and then I woke her up.

Lucy will be ten years old this Thanksgiving. She's a senior citizen and has quite a bit of gray hair around her muzzle to prove it!

On the construction agenda for next week is:

-dry wall (or, as they say in MN "sheet rock") for the kitchen
-installation of the new front door (then, once it's framed in, it will be immediately removed and stored in the garage so that it isn't damaged during the removal of the old door and creation of the new inner opening). While the beautiful new door is "resting" in the garage, it will be replaced with a temporary, construction grade door.

More Construction News!!

This view is from the living room into the dining room.

Opening was increased by 15" on each side, and a softer arch was added.

Here's a kitchen shot. Notice where the old back door used to be.. it's all sealed up now and ready to be a pantry and a counter!

Here's a view of the new sliding door from the outside. New cedar siding was added to match the old (the window that was formerly in the dining room was almost 9' wide, but the door is only 6' feet wide). It was less expensive to put in a standard 6 foot door and fill in the extra than to order a custom size sliding door....

This is an outside shot of where the old back door used to be.

Foundation is poured.....

Cement for the new porch is poured and then a new front entry is immediately built!

Things are moving right along!!!!

There's a Whole Lotta Constructin' Goin' On....

Carpenters have removed the old portico.....

And now the back hoe digs a new foundation for the new front entry and porch....

(for readers in California: the foundation has to go down 42 inches below the frost line, and I don't even know how many inches the frost line is below the surface. It's a deep hole).



The foundation is poured!

This is an interior shot from the living room looking into the kitchen. Notice the slightly wider (by 6 whole inches!) opening, and the new arch.



This is a view from the kitchen into the dining room. Notice the MUCH WIDER opening (from 36" to 5+ feet) and the softer arch (remember how ugly the old arch was??) Also notice the new sliding glass door; this is the new deck entry.