A Room With a View and Other Stuff

There were a couple weeks where there were so many people coming and going I just opened the door and let everyone in.  At one point I had plumbers, electricians, heating and air, and my contractor all in my house at once.  My front yard looked like a redneck parking lot!!

It was great to see the windows and doors go in and know that the critters were no longer allowed to roam in my new house.

I especially like this bump out in the dining room.  It mimics the bay window in the front of the house and the extra room around the table in nice.  It will eventually get a little deck off from it.

Here's a back view of the house with the new windows.  You may also notice my washing machine at the back of the house.  I was really glad to have it hooked up but it's not really the ideal laundry room!

 While the windows were going in so was the electrical, plumbing, and insulation.  We upgraded the insulation and got spray foam on the roof and blow in for the walls.  It was amazing the difference that made in the upstairs of the house right away.  I think we will be having warm winters and cool summers now.

Here's a good view of the spray on insulation in the ceiling.

And another good view.  You can see how it just fills in every little nook and cranny.

Here's a view of the walls in an upstairs bedroom.

So I think we are ready for sheet rock!!  Boy, that's going to change the look of things!

Connecting the Old and New

I realized I am so far behind on blog posts!!  The actual house is almost done but from my blog you wouldn't know it.  The house has been sucking up so much of our time that I haven't even had time to post anything.  I'll try and catch up!

The moment finally arrived to connect the old side of the house to the new.  I was really excited to see that happen.  I had only been in the upstairs of the new side once and I had to climb a ladder to do it.  I'm not a big fan of climbing ladders!

There was a small hole cut first so I could peak through, adding to the anticipation!  Can you peak through and see the new side?

A couple days later the "extra" parts of the house were removed and the two sides were joined together.

This view was taken standing on the stairs looking upward into the new part of the house.  The old house ended at the top of the stairs.  There was a wall at the top of the stairs and they curved left sending you to the two old bedrooms.

Here's another view standing at the top of the stairs looking into the new part.  The kid's bathroom is straight ahead with two bedrooms to the right.  There ended up being enough space outside the bathroom and bedrooms to put a little family room up there for the kids.  Bonus!! 

This is the view from the kid's bathroom looking into the old part of the house.  The new bedrooms are to the left and you get a view of the family room.

I'm just adding this last photo so you can get a sense of the mess we have been living in for the past few months!!  Yuck!!  This is right at the connection of the old and new house.  Notice the gaping hole in the floor!  Hope you don't sleep walk because at my house it could be deadly!!

The New Dormer

Work is progressing and the house is starting to take shape.  One area that really needed attention was a small area upstairs by the two old bedrooms.  The original house only had two bedrooms upstairs...that's it!  Neither one had a closet so a TINY little closet was put in between the two bedrooms.  You can see it pictured below.  The roof slanted in it and you could hardly get a coat hanger in it but it was a closet and at least a little storage space.

That little space upstairs was really dark so we thought a dormer window would be perfect to let in light and open that space a bit.  The original engineer who drew up our plans put the dormer in the plans but was skeptical weather it was actually possible to put on there.  These old homes were built long before any building codes.  The bedroom doors weren't even framed with headers!  Our contractor looked at it and had his doubts.  We decided to reinforce a couple things and go for it.

Here's another view of the before.  Even in the day we had to keep the light on to see up there.

Here they are tearing out the closet and roof.

You can see the contractor put headers over the doors and framed them correctly and then put a large beam between the two doors.

We had a gaping hole in the house for a few days and of course it decided to rain!!  Never fails!!

When it was all said and done it made ALL the difference!  I love the dormer and it lets so much light in!  It made a nice little area up there too.  I may put a desk or chair and book shelf or something there.

And look, no more funky wallpaper!