Day 54 -- Shakes and Bake!

Not a whole lot to talk about today. The shakes started going up. They did half of the back half of the house today. I love the look!

We had to hash out some stuff with the engineer today. Thank heavens Brian is here to do that stuff. I get too frustrated. He's much more level-headed and doesn't get flustered very easily. I prefer Ricky Bobby's style. Shake and Bake!

Tomorrow the plumbing should start and hopefully the HVAC will be started as well. If we're lucky, it will be a hotbed of activity and the framers will be here too finishing up the rest of their work.

Day 51 -- Two Steps Forward...

Just when we felt like we were starting to put things back together, we had to cut holes in the walls for the posts that will support the bond beam. They had to go in the front room, office, entryway and dining room...Almost every room on the main floor. You wouldn't believe the amount of dust! They actually had to jackhammer our walls. The engineer says they are necessary, but it's just so discouraging to have the room starting to come together and have to do something like this. Hopefully they'll be patched up by the end of next week.



It wasn't all bad today, though. They did fix the bricks on the front porch gable. Here's a before and after.

They also removed the ugly white vents that didn't vent anything and replaced the brick. They also replaced the brick above the dryer vent...it looked horrible before and always bugged me. Another before and after.



It rained pretty hard this evening...No leaks since they finished the roof today! It's done...really done! There was a spectacular double rainbow that I just had to take a picture of after the storm.

"There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow,"..... come on, you know the rest.

Day 49 -- Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

... a chimney, that is. The masons came today and extended the chimney. We saved a lot of bricks from the gables that we tore down so that they could use bricks that matched the house exactly. I'm impressed with how good it looks. You can't even tell it's a new addition. I also wasn't expecting it to go as high, but I really like it. I wasn't smart enough to get a good before picture, but here you can see where the roof lines were during framing.










And here is the finished product from today.










More exterior work was done today. The siding was finished on the back gable and the shingles were put on the eaves on the sides of the house. I really like the look of the trim around the windows.


Not much went on inside the house today. They're still nailing down the details with the posts that are supposed to go in the walls as well as all the plumbing and HVAC stuff. Hopefully we'll see more interior progress tomorrow.

Day 48 -- Shingles, Siding and Spitz

Over the past couple days we've seen quite a bit of progress. Our new super Brad (replaced Beauen) from DAYT seems to really be on the ball. We really appreciate all the work he's doing to keep this project moving fast. I especially appreciate his patience with a particular woman who sometimes can't seem to make up her mind. I had to call him this morning to tell him that I changed my mind about how we were going to run the HVAC vents...something we took 30 minutes to decide last night. Sorry.

Another decision I wasn't so sure about was the shingle color I picked out. We got to see that decision come to fruition today and I think Brad steered me in the right direction. I really like it. They have the front of the house and the back porch done.

Another exterior item they're now working on is the siding. They've gotten a lot of the fascia and soffit done and have put up the fiber cement siding on one side of the house. Don't worry, we're not leaving it gray. It will be painted tan as the plans show. Up at the top will be a decorative vent to kind of break up the space since there won't be a window here.






Back on the inside, they've laid almost all of the new walnut flooring on the main floor. Once it is sealed, it will be amazing. They had to rip out the tiles on the hearth since they were now at a different height. Thankfully, they were able to find the exact same tiles to replace them with so we won't have to redo the surround.







They have also put in most of the canned lights, junction boxes, and outlet boxes upstairs along with running the wires to them.



And the photo of the day...

You know you're either on a construction site or in my team's bull pen at my office when you see a bag of sunflower seeds nailed to the wall. Of course, if we were at my office, they'd be Zotes.

Day 46 -- Fascia and Soffit

They started working on the fascia and soffit on Friday. They've also started papering the sides of the house. They will be focusing on the exterior this week. Roofing, siding, etc. We found out that we can't use regular shingles on the roof toward the back of the house. The pitch is so shallow that if we shingle it, water will get under the shingles and cause leaks. So apparently we have to use a membrane that doesn't require nails. It has a sandy finish on it so it looks similar to the shingles.
Thankfully, you can't really see that roof from the ground anywhere near the house. Our neighbors will have to deal with looking at two different roofing materials, though. The roof on the front of the house will be shingles as planned.

They also worked a little bit more on the framing in the hall and entryway. They finished framing the hall along the stairs. Also, we decided to expand the floor all the way to the wall behind the bench in the entryway. The second picture is the new bench area. The third picture is the door way to the storage area under the stairs (directly under the bench area).


Brian thinks the new mudroom area may be his favorite part of the whole addition. I have to agree that it feels a million times better than that tiny little landing we used to have there. I can't wait to see it all finished!

The bad news is that when they were expanding the bench area, somewhere they messed up the electrical....We have no garbage disposal again. :)

Day 42 -- It's What's On The Ouside That Counts

They have basically finished the interior framing aside from a couple smaller items so they started on finishing the exterior. They finished framing in the eaves on the south side and now they're working on the north side...I fully expect them to be done with the north side by the time they leave tonight...I know you've heard it before, but I'll say it again.... These guys are awesome!!!

I am loving how it is looking. Also, it's nice to have it start looking the way it is designed in the plans. I'm sure our neighbors have said "I hope they're not leaving it like that." many times.

We started talking about siding today. We'll be using fiber cement board siding. Looking at the house from the side, there will be regular looking siding in the apex and there will be siding that looks like cedar shingles on the dormered out part. The front dormers and deck will have the shingled siding as well. It sounds like the fascia and soffit will be installed over the next couple of days.

I also realized that I haven't shown a picture looking out the new window in the back of the house at the top of the stairs. I love that it overlooks most of the backyard. The view pales in comparison to the front yard view, but I think in the winter we'll be able to see the Wasatch mountains.

Today we met with DAYT again for another walkthrough. I wrote out a $45000 check...ugh. I just keep telling myself that it will be well worth it.

One bummer from the day is that the door to the master closet has to be moved in a way that will kinda mess up the plan for the organization in there. No matter...it's still going to be loads bigger than what we are used to. Another bummer is that we found that the furnace that will be installed upstairs will take up almost the whole linen closet. We're going to have to find space for that kind of stuff elsewhere....maybe our closet? :)

One great thing that came from talking to Matt today is that we may have found some extra money in the budget that Brian and I were not aware of. Things like the plumbing and electrical estimates includes some allowance for fixtures which we were thinking would be in the finish materials (which we elected to do ourselves). This may allow us to do more now than we had planned. Also, there were a couple line items that we're not doing altogether. Any day you find money is a great day.

Day 41 -- French Doors, Pocket Doors, Rah! Rah! Rah!

The french doors are in! Here's a view from inside and out. Just like the windows, the exterior is brown aluminum. The interior will be painted white.

They also finished framing in the kids' rooms. Here's a shot of the closet in one of them, followed by a shot from the door of each room.








We'll have pocket doors going into both the master bath and closet. I wondered how those worked. Looks like you just buy a kit that has the track above and two posts that act similarly to studs. I think it will be nice not to have doors swinging in/out of the room.

They also redid the roof over the front porch. I am really glad Brian and Ed talked convinced me to have them redo it. I think it will look nice from the side, but it really gives a feeling of grandeur from on the porch looking up. Not that there's anything really grand about our little house, but this gets us a little closer.


Still loving this progress!

Gooooooo team!

Day 40 -- Windows and Walls

Quite a bit got done today. The framing is really coming together. In fact, they think they'll be done framing the upstairs by tomorrow -- holy cow! It's so cool to be able to finally see how big the rooms will really be. I was worried that some of them would feel too small, but I don't think that at all now. One of the bedrooms is going to have to be shrunk by about a foot and the other one will be a little bit bigger. We had to do that because one of the windows can't move over because it is right against the ridge of the main apex on the south side. Here's a picture of what's been framed so far from the corner of our bedroom. From left to right, you see our master bath, the doorway to our room, one of the kids' room, and finally, the master closet.

Here's one from the end of the hall at the top of the stairs. At the left you see the hallway going down to our room. Going right from there, you see the stairway, the master bathroom and finally the kids' bathroom.



Almost all of the windows were put in today. The only one we're waiting on is the one in the kids bedroom that is getting shrunk (the window has to move as a result). They also haven't installed the french doors in the bedroom.

For those of you wondering what we decided to do with the roof over the porch, we're going to have them extend it as per the plans. I love the way it looks now, but Brian and Ed convinced me that we need the extra length to protect against weather and sun...that door's not the most weatherproof.

The final and probably most amazing development was that it didn't rain all day! Not a drop! The curse has been broken!

Day 38 -- No Tarp?!?!

We currently have no tarp on our house. The roof has been tar papered and once our door is installed, we will be totally closed in. It rained again yesterday...and today...and I'm sure it will rain tomorrow and the next day and the next day until forever. Unless us finally being closed in is the single event that will snap this streak of insanity. Anyway, our house is finally starting to look like a house again. They worked on the balcony and the front peak yesterday and today. Here's a couple shots from different angles.




One potential problem is the roof over the entryway. The plans call for it to come out a little bit just like the roof over the windows. We're trying to decide if we're going to have them redo it or if we will leave it the way it is. I actually think it looks great now, but there will be some decorative supports on the roof by the windows and we're worried that it will look weird if there aren't the same supports on the porch as well.





The balcony is really starting to come together. I think it's going to be a great little space to relax in. The sunset was amazing tonight.



Grandma & Poppa Oi and Great Grandma & Poppa Yo-Yo came over today so Izzypop could show them our house. In the second pic, you can see that they also started framing the interior. This shot is looking toward the back of the house and where it's framed will be the bathroom areas.