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.

Day 36 -- Closed In....Almost

We are so close to being totally closed in! One dormer still needs to have the plywood put on it and the peak at the front of the house needs to be built. It rained again today so the guys were working from beneath a tarp. I love the look of these dormers from the inside. I think I'm really glad we changed the pitch of them. I like the look of the steeper pitch.

Here's a direct view of one of the dormers.

We also met with DAYT today (David, Matt and Beauen) because we had a few questions here and there. I am continually impressed with their service. They are so accommodating and address all of our concerns right away. I am still amazed at how they are handling the repairs as a result of the flood. They are taking care of all the details. It is such a relief to know that we don't need to worry about coming up with more money to fix what the flood ruined. Everyone I talk to about this is shocked at how good these guys are. I haven't heard anyone that has had a good experience with their contractor. We really can't complain in any way shape or form thus far. Thanks DAYT!

P.S. I got word that the ideas I had last night about using the dead space in the closet (and also some in the bedroom) are totally doable. I think it'll give us quite a bit more storage space in there. I'm pumped!

P.P.S. Check out the orbs on the second photo. I better get my EMF detector out. I heart GH.

Day 35 -- STILL Raining...No Matter

I can't believe how much these guys are able to get done in this weather. The front of the house is almost closed in. We should be there EOD tomorrow. I think it's looking great. I'm totally stoked. It is amazing the difference in being able to see the space. I was just up there with a flashlight and all these ideas were coming to me that I can't wait to talk to Badger about to see if he can realize them. If it's at all possible, we might be able to gain around 30% more space in our closet.


Another pleasant surprise for the day was the delivery of our windows and french doors. We weren't expecting them until Friday. I'd love to see those go in sometime in the next few days. Also, I was home for a couple hours before I realized that the electrician had been here. We now can turn on the lights in the basement from the basement. Before, the old switches were hanging on a nail at the top of the stairs, one of the canned lights was laying on the landing and the power to our garbage disposal was cut. Try living without a garbage disposal for a week (and the first couple day's not knowing it)....I wouldn't recommend it.

Day 34 -- Frakkin' Flappin' Tarp

(Yes, I watch Battlestar Galactica.)...I'm beat. Last night was rough. The huge blue tarp came loose on one side and the wind was totally crazy. I went out there to try to secure it myself and a gust of wind almost knocked me on my butt. It was flapping all night. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep. Since we had an inner tarp secured, we didn't have any leaks, thankfully. It's raining again right now. It's supposed to rain every day this week until Saturday. We'll be fully closed in just in time for the sunny June weather.


Today we met with Ed Merrill from RDG to discuss the roof pitch problem mentioned in yesterday's post. We decided the best thing to do was to change the pitch to a steeper one on all peaks on the front of the house as we had talked about yesterday. Badger & company was able to get the center pitch redone today. The dormers still haven't been redone. You can get a glimpse of what our view will be like from the deck.




One exciting development from today is that we got the new flooring delivered. The old floors were red oak. Since the old floors were ruined, DAYT promised to pick up the tab for replacement red oak. Since we are putting walnut upstairs, we decided to pay the difference and upgrade to walnut. It will be beautiful! I am totally stoked to see it when it's done. We'll be putting it in the dining room, front room, hallway, and office.







Another item that they worked on today was the back roof line. I'm also in the process of picking which color of asphalt shingles to get. Look for a possible opinion poll later on.

Day 33 -- How's THAT Supposed To Work?

When I got home, I was totally stoked to see that the dormers as well as the doorway to the balcony was up. Then I started really looking at it. There is supposed to be a few feet between the small dormers and the center dormer. In the first picture, you can see that the small dormer ends at the same place the main dormer begins. This would cause a problem with the roof line between the two. Apparently what happened is that since the steel beam was moved back a couple feet, this caused the pitch of the main dormer to be too shallow. In order to create the space between the two, we're going to need to change the pitch of the main dormer to a steeper one. Which means that we'll need to change the pitch of the small dormers to match. Arg. Luckily, Badger didn't flip out on me when I told him he had to take down most of what they had accomplished today and do it differently. I felt really bad, but I also knew it would bug the crap out of me if we left it the way it was. He was really nice about it and he and his guys were really helpful in coming up with an alternative. I hope it won't put them behind too far. In the second photo, I've drawn a line that is closer to what it should look like.