Metal roof goes on!

Siding, flooring, new metal roof

Yesterday they tore off our entire old shingle roof, and began laying felt for the new metal one. Also they installed all the metal trim. Today they will put on all the panels. Bobby put in the new electric service box and pole. Matt connected the guest bedroom and old hallway floor with the new hallway, and it looks really cool. Bill and crew also got a bunch of new siding up on the porch wall.

Siding and flooring

More siding. More crown molding on edge of roof.




Matt devised a really nice oak threshold that ramps down 1/4" over about 6 or 7" distance, to get from the old floor to the new. Looks sharp, huh? I think it will look damn nice when it's all done.

more floor installed

Shingle removal, Reclaimed wood flooring installation

Bob is removing all the crappy shingles on the North side of the old house, because they discovered that there was a huge patch of wall (about 10'x4') that had no sheathing or vapor barrier at all - just studs right to exterior siding - and that needed to be fixed.


Matt is doing a kickass and fast job installing that old wood as a new floor in the guest room. It looks really solid and really good. Once it gets sanded-down, all that color and texture variation will be very mellowed-out, we think.

Bathroom sink faucets and reclaimed wood flooring

Yesterday we went to Lowe's and bought two toilets and some tar paper to go under the new wood flooring. While there, Laurel was bowled over by the extent of the bathroom sink faucet selection. Our plumber Ismael had his copper elbows all strewn about in the dirt and I thought it looked cool so I took a picture. Today Matt came over and we began to lay out the reclaimed flooring in the guest bedroom, to see how it's all going to look. Hard to tell at this point, but I think once it's all sanded-down and re-stained it could look pretty nice.

Siding! Windows! Piles of flooring wood!

Our kitchen island's footprint is indicated in masking tape. Windows are officially installed throughout the addition. We've got some siding up on the new bathroom's exterior, because the electrician needs to attach his box there, so we had to get that up first. You can see our future bathroom is framed-out and ready for electrical wiring. Also I thought our huge, haphazard pile of reclaimed oak wood flooring in the office was funny, so I took a picture of it.

Kitchen sink and wood flooring bought today

Today we went to Leander, to this gigantic warehouse that sells everything you can imagine, and bought a beautiful Shaw farmhouse ceramic apron sink. It weighs a million pounds, that's why they needed a forklift to get it down off the shelf. Then we went to two different locations in East Austin and picked up a total of about 400 square feet of 1940s-era oak wood flooring, which we are going to install in our new guest bedroom and hallway. Karl and Rendi helped us unload it from my dad's truck into our new house.

Roof "dried-in"

Now that the wall studs' sheathing is in place, and the roof has been what they call "dried-in," you can really get a sense of the dimensions of the new addition's interior. Next the electrician, plumber and roofer are going to go to town on their respective duties, and we're going to get an HVAC guy up in the attic to distribute the airflow properly. While we're refining our approach to attic insulation, we're also frenetically selecting fixtures, tile and finish colors, so that that's all purchased and ready to go when its time comes to be installed, which'll be fairly soon. This weekend we're going to go buy the remainder of the exterior doors, the wood flooring, and perhaps pick up a kitchen sink we bought out in Leander.