House Project Update

Well, reader (Mom). I have been meaning to post this update for quite some time now, but for some reason, I am suffering from a very serious gumption shortage, and it has seemed too time-consuming and brain-straining. So instead, I've been reading other people's blogs and watching Dora the Explorer.

But I've finally realized that this sucker a) isn't going to write itself, and b) isn't going to be any shorter the longer I delay. So here we go.

One nice addition to our addition is windows and a door. It's still not airtight, since the soffit (???) area is still wide open, as is my kitchen ceiling. As a related side note, it has been a terrible year for flies and fruit flies in our house. Yuck. You can see we're still waiting to install the window upstairs in Judah's room--it was left open to facilitate removal of demolition stuff, but now that the demolition is done, it can be installed any day. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but there's a skylight in the downstairs bath, so no windows on the sides of the house for that one, just in the roof.

Here's the big window at the back of the kitchen addition. It's a really nice one that Abe was able to pick up at an auction for a fraction of what it would have cost retail.

Here's a view from the south side of the house. It has also had windows installed: the horizontal window is in the future laundry/mud room. The large vertical window, which was actually a sliding glass door in its former life, was re-framed by our contractor friend and hung as a permanent window in the basement stairwell. I am really excited about the amount of light it lets into the area--you really can't tell there's any window there at all.

Here's Tim installing the laundry/mud room window. It's another nice one that we would not have been able to afford were it not for a business liquidation auction. Incidentally, at that same auction, Abe picked up some amazing real maple and birch hardwood flooring (which retails for about $7/sq. ft.) for $1.20 a square foot. It is better flooring than I even dared hope for. We've got miles to go before we can install it, but it's probably my favorite thing about the addition.


...unless, of course, we're talking about the upstairs bedroom. Sadly, I do not have a before picture of Judah's bedroom before we ripped it apart. In fact, here's a shot of Charis flexing her demo muscles. The room was green, orange, and deep blue with a (vague) traffic theme. It was cute. But the windows were oooolllllldddd and drafty, and the ceilings were really low with that horrible popcorn stuff on it. It needed to go.

So it did. Here's a shot taken from the same spot as the above picture. See? No wall. Judah's room (more specifically, the room that will be shared by whatever gender children we have the most of) will double in size, and it will get two new, huge beautiful windows and a skylight. We have sacrificially adopted the smallest bedroom in the house as our own, but in another universe where we didn't have young kids, this would for sure be our master bedroom. It actually has two levels to it: the upper level (which is only one step higher than the lower) will be carpeted and be the "bedroom" area. The lower level will get more of that fabulous hardwood flooring Abe was fortunate enough to procure, and it will be the "playroom" area. At least that's the current plan.

This is the view from the addition of Judah's room into the old part. Only one wall of drywall stayed, and we have yet to install the new window to replace the old one you see. Also, there's no skylight yet--it is waiting for some roof repairs Abe needs to make first. We've learned something about old houses--namely, they used what they had available and cheap when they built them. So in gutting rooms, we've seen a lot of questionable construction with very sub-standard lumber. The roof in Judah's room needs to be repaired because the rafters holding it up were recycled from a much shorter roof and sistered with additional lumber to make them long enough. It's a recipe for disaster, or, as Abe put it last night, "The bane of my existence."

Here's a cathedral-ceiling shot showing the new rafters with metal cathedral supports next to the old rafters with not much support at all. Those cross beams will be removed, and the old roof will also get those nifty metal support doohickeys. Then, the whole ceiling will be cathedral, which will make the room seem larger than it really is. I am prepared to be completely jealous.

In other house update news, Abe also got the old shower and wall ripped out in the basement and the new steel support beam put in so, you know, the house doesn't collapse. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of any of that. But since those things are done, we're now about ready to pour the basement floor concrete, which will be nice. Maybe then, they can build the basement stairs so I can actually get down to the basement without using a ladder. Sweet!

Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading! I will continue to update you on our progress (whether you like it or not!).