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.

Roof Framing has begun

Walls goin up

It was kind of rainy the other day when we went to have a look at the framing progress.

Floor framing continues

We had quite a scare there yesterday when we found out the porch floor framing had been installed at the wrong height, and would have to be re-done. Then we found a way to work around it. Work continues...

Floor framed

The Band

The band is halfway done. The band is the perimeter of the floor framing, that sits atop (and is bolted to) the concrete piers. Today they will complete the screen porch and hallway sections, and perhaps get up a wall frame or two.





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Rainy, muddy

Today I spent the morning chatting with roofers, plumbers, electricians and an HVAC guy, absorbing and processing all their information, in order to make a decision on who is going to do that work, how, and when. It rained ALL DAY today, so the ground was really muddy. And today was also the day that Home Depot made the gigantic drop of framing materials, which will begin to go into action after this weekend. AND our refrigerator was delivered today! What else: oh yeah - mud.

Piers sheathing removed, foundation holes filled

Hey, look - the piers are all done already! And the foundation holes are all filled-in! The gigantic load of framing materials from Home Depot is supposed to arrive sometime today, and soon construction of the band (the big beam that will run the perimeter of the floor) will start.

Piers poured today, met with Craig at night

Today the concrete crew poured the piers, and tonight we met with Craig (architect) about our plans for the kitchen cabinet situation. Stephanie came over to see the place for the first time, and weighed-in on some interior design ideas, as it is her profession. And she had some damn good ones! Thanks, Stephanie and Craig.

pouring the foundation

This morning we passed the engineering inspection for the foundation holes' depth and placement, so we were able to give the concrete crew the go ahead to pour. In a couple of days the pier footings will be dry, and it will be time to pour the actual piers on top of them. Then, framing will begin.

Foundation holes being dug, old wallpaper

Here are a couple pics of the holes which are being dug for the new addition's foundation, as well as some colorful old wallpaper we uncovered while removing drywall from the former kitchen/future guest bedroom.

tearing down drywall in former kitchen

Our friend Tristan came by today to help us remove the remainder of the drywall (and trim, ceiling fan, light fixtures, switchplates, outlet covers and AC vent) from our old kitchen today, and he was a BIG HELP. Having renovated his own place rather extensively, he is very knowledgeable about the myriad various home fix-up responsibilities, and even showed up with his own tool belt. Thanks, Tristan!

PS - if you look closely at the third photo, you start to get a sense of what a circus the old ceilng/wall wallpaper combination must have been. Very colorful!

More holes cut for doors, foundation planning

Today was full of stress, a lot of back and forth between different ideas about the new addition's foundation. Time was taken away from cool stuff like cutting new doorways, and absorbed by the question of what kind of piers we needed to be planning to pour. Until a large enough hole was dug around one of the house's original piers, we couldn't see it well enough to determine whether we'd need to spend 100% or 500% of our pier budget to match it for the addition. We finally determined that it was 100%, long story short. Whew.