Week 18

This week they finally stopped taking things apart & finally started putting things back together.


Monday

Something happened on Monday -- someone was here cutting wood, but I couldn't figure out what for.


Tuesday

Ok, one more thing taken off -- a yellowed old piece of sheetrock over that triangle of lath:

But many more things were put on. Such as tar paper:

Wednesday

Siding has arrived:

More tar paper added:

Tar paper & window holes!

Window holes, from the inside:

This looks encouraging, sitting next to the window holes:

Windows!

Windows, with dog for scale:

Doors!

Glass panels for either side of the doors:

Drains & vents:

But note that the temporary blue kitchen sink drain hose is now disconnected again & nothing has replaced it.

Where the new kitchen sink vent will go -- under the kitchen sink (& then up through the roof):

Thursday

A new triangular piece of sheetrock:

And windows are in!

The guys's Hawaiian Punch is also in...the fridge:

Kitchen sink drain is back!

New drain & new vent are now poking up through the hole:

Susie, always an intrepid chef, came over on Thursday for Action Adventure Cooking, dodging scary electrical fire hazard wires hanging from the ceiling:

I also met with the electrician to go over lighting, switch locations, removing the random fuse box in the basement, etc.


Friday

Cabinets! The cabinets are back!

Two of them are reversed, but hey, we're just so happy they're there!

The doors are in!

The washing machine plumbing is in!

Saturday

Mr. Bunkport said the roofer was coming on Saturday. The roofer didn't show up, but the excavator/framing/concrete guys showed up again unannounced. Surprise!

They got the holes the cribs were sitting in ready for concrete:

And then poured the concrete:

They also ground down the threshold that had been cut into the foundation more, & poured some concrete in there to make a smooth step:

Pickles approves.

They filled concrete in around the foundation:

And they also removed most of their stuff, including that big orange box. Great!

Next up: finishing plumbing, finishing electrical, roofing, and inspections on the nailing pattern in the shearwalls (wow, ok!).

Week 17

This week, we had another surprise, but also good progress on wrapping up the framing.


Monday

On Monday, we came home to this:

Where did the cabinets go? Oh, here they are:

Where did all the stuff inside them go? Oh, here it is:

Why did this happen? So the rest of the kitchen ceiling could be opened up:

Ok, then. 

We spent a little time that evening getting breakable things out of harm's way, & getting all the food into the main part of the house, behind the sturdy door that gets closed & latched every night. The last thing we need is some kind of critter to waltz into the kitchen in the middle of the night, drawn in by the feast. In addition to the mice, rats, cats, & possums plaguing the neighborhood, long-time readers may recall some of the other fearsome animals we contend with on a daily basis:

The guys also did another massive clean up on Monday:

The shock of the cabinet situation was somewhat tempered by the relief at having a yard and walkway again.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, they made more progress in the kitchen.

The engineer's plans call for a post to remain at the end of the counter, because we weren't planning on making any changes to the ceiling (not knowing what was under that soffit that weirdly dropped the ceiling height by 2 feet in the middle of the kitchen), and that post holds up the low beam supporting the roof:

Once we asked them to leave the ceiling over the sink & stove open (rather than replace the weird soffit), they went ahead & figured out a way to raise that low beam a whole foot, & have it supported by that heavy duty header they put in last week:

This is the spectacular sight that we came home to on Tuesday:

Conceivably, we could comfortably seat 6-8 people at that counter, by the way. We're very excited at how this has shaped up.

They also finished off the south wall upstairs, which stopped the loud Tyvek flapping that was disturbing poor Pickles:

Downstairs, they cut the openings for two of the windows:

Wednesday

On Wednesday, the bathroom wall was framed:

And the chunk of the original foundation started getting knocked out to make the threshold for the door from the garage. 

View from the garage:

View from the room:

Thursday

This was another big cleanup day, and the threshold for the door was finished:

The framers -- one of whom has a hardhat shaped like a cowboy hat -- are getting ready to wrap up and move on, and Mr. Bunkport is getting ready to move his own crew in. Following AJ's lead, where she has declared that she does not ever again want to hear another estimate on when something is going to happen (since, infuriatingly, the timeframe is almost never right), instead of saying what should happen next week, I'll just say what comes next: completion of roofing, electrical, plumbing & concrete, and beginning of exterior finishes (siding, and installation of windows & doors).