More photos for you

Here are some new photos for you. First up, we're going to drop the ceiling over the cabinets in the kitchen. Although our super tall ceilings will be amazing, it wouldn't be amazing having to constantly dust on top of our cabinets (guess who would get that job?). Also, this allows us to install additional lights in the dropped ceiling just outside the cabinet door to illuminate inside when needed. This one should be a great feature.

Below is the retaining wall going in for the patio. It will be capped with bricks.

This one shows some of the framing finally going in around the awesome skylights over the staircase.

And the view of the skylights/hatch to the roof deck from the roof!

More brick, skylights in

Slow and steady wins the race...or that's what we keep telling ourselves. I didn't realize it had been so long since the last blog post.

The exterior brick work continues and its looking fantastic.

Just to remind everyone, this is what we started with. Amazing change isn't it?

Also, the skylights over the stairwell are finally in place. The tarp is still over them until the seals are done, but you get the picture. Its going to let amazing light filter down throughout the stairwell.

New updates

A couple of new updates for you. First, we no longer have to climb a ladder between the basement and the first floor. This level of the stairwell has finally been built.


And second, exterior brick work continues. Now that it has been grouted, look how great it looks! There is still a lot to be done here, but the work is encouraging.


A few more slow downs that we have been dealing with lately, but all to be expected at this point. We have a new brick contractor starting next week and the concrete floor should be redone this week (some parts of it weren't quite level the first time). We are still awaiting the windows and hatch for the roof addition and various other projects still need to be completed before we can start on drywall and finishes. One of these days!

Roof addition

The roof addition has now been approved by historical and the city, so we can finally cover up the hole in the roof! These pictures show the structure built - but most of this will actually be windows to let light down into the stairwell and the house and the actual roof access hatch. The windows and hatch are being ordered, so they're covered with plywood for now.

And...work continues on the exterior brick. Much to our surprise, the exterior brick is actually a very deep red while the inside is lighter with more orange! If you look closely, you can tell that the lower level has already been stripped of paint.

We have windows!

Yes, the time has finally come for our house to begin looking like a house from the outside and not just inside. The windows are going in. They are one-over-one (no cross in the middle) per the historical guidelines. The color will not stay like this; they will be painted. And clearly, the red paint still needs to be cleaned off and the bricks re-pointed.

And, other than the hole still in the roof (that will remain until we can get our addition/portico/roof access point approved by the city and in place), our roof is complete! This photo shows the roof before the tar membrane was added. I'll try to get one up that shows the membrane too. Notice the lip that we created. Among other reasons, it will be good for no one to be able to easily walk off the roof.

And one more to show the continuing work on re-pointing the interior brick. The new mortar is in but the brick will still be cleaned and sealed.

Roof work

We got a few straight days of predicted sun this week, so the roof replacement has begun. Not only are they raising one side of the roof to make it flat, but it will be structurally very sound to hold up that future roof deck and as many friends as we can fit up there! The blue tint is the sun shining through the blue tarp protecting all of the work in the house that's already been done.

A lot of work has been done on the inside; eventually, the outside will catch up.

Also, now that the concrete has been poured, the framing is finally going up in the basement. Ryon assures me it looks quite extraordinary when you walk in to an actual floor. No more dirt piles in our house!

Concrete poured

Good news this week. The concrete floor in the basement has been poured. It looks a little cloudy in the photo but will be sanded and polished since we're doing polished concrete floors in the basement (Ryon won that battle).

They also continue to clean up the brick walls that we will keep exposed. This is one of the fireplaces.

A few more photos of the HVAC system.

We also got our new roof permits, so work should start on that soon. Roof deck parties? I think so!

Another update

Work continues. We're hoping that the concrete floor in the basement will be poured this week since the city inspector approved the underground plumbing. Sorry, these photos aren't as exciting. Hang in there and eventually we will get to real walls, cabinets, etc.

In this one you can see the duct work run in addition to the light cans, etc in the ceiling.

Plumbing and duct work in the half bathroom on the main floor.

Duct work running in the mechanical wall between the half bathroom and the kitchen on the main floor.

That's all for now. Hopefully more soon!

We have stairs!

These are photos from April 22. And we finally have stairs! Well, at least in between the 2nd and 3rd floors there are stairs, but that counts. Still waiting on the city inspection for the underground plumbing, but once that is done the concrete floor can be poured and the stairs can be built between the 1st and 2nd floors. Also, electrical and mechanical are going in. Its a busy few weeks.

No explanation needed.


Looking down from the 3rd floor.

Can lights - I think this in the living room.


The AC vent in the floor of the master bedroom.


Ryon making sure everything is running smoothly.

Photos from April 16

It was really exciting to finally see all of the work being done on the house in person - so much better than these photos! Work continues to progress. These photos, from Saturday the 16th, show the guest bedroom framed out as well as the upstairs hall bath. More to come soon when I have a chance to do another update.

This is looking into the guest bedroom on the top floor (office is to the right). You can see the framing for the pocket door on the floor in the right bottom corner of the photo.

The port window in the guest bedroom.

The ceiling over the guest bedroom and bathroom. The roof will be raised some to flatten it for our future roofdeck (it currently has a steep pitch). We dropped the ceiling over the guest bed and bath so we can have attic crawl space.

The guest bathroom.

Plumbing

Work has been a little slower the last few weeks. We've had to make a few changes to the structural plans, etc and get the approval from the city to hook up the gas line, so it has taken a bit of time. But we want to make sure that everything is done correctly and we foresee all potential future issues with improvements we want to make to the house (i.e. the structural plans need to be detailed to the point that they show the roof load can hold our future roof deck). This all has to be completed before we re-do the roof.

This week, the plumbing is going in. See photos below. We hope that next week the concrete floor will be poured and they can begin removing and replacing the roof.

The first 'room' framed

Okay, and now I'm caught up on my posts. Ryon took these yesterday. The first shows more framing going up on the main floor. Notice all the old, peeling plaster is off of the walls.

And our dining room windows are framed. Actually glass windows coming soon?

And the most exciting, the first rooms framed in the house! (Also known as the coat closet and the powder room).

Two in one

Work is moving so fast on the house, I can't keep up with my posts. So here is two in one. First, the second floor joists and subfloor were completed last week.

This one shows the main floor looking towards the living room. You can see how tall the ceilings are.

This is looking into the master bedroom on the top floor - 15' ceilings up here!

The next few are from several days later - the start of framing! The interior walls (the long one shared with the house next door) will have exposed brick but we have to insulate all of the exterior walls.

Here is the main floor looking into the back corner of the kitchen. There will be cabinets in this corner so we need drywall here.

These are the kitchen windows. All of the old, rotting wooden window frames have been pulled out. There will be an amazing amount of light in our kitchen.

A new window frame, looking out onto 8th Street from the main floor.

A few more photos

Here are a few more photos from Tuesday.

Second floor joists going up! This one is taken in the living room on the main floor looking towards the kitchen. The second floor joists that are in will be where the guest bedroom is.

Still the first floor looking towards the living room, but all of the subfloor is down.

From the first floor looking up through the second floor to the other port window in the back of the guest bedroom.