Home again, home again, jiggity jog.

2008-06-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I've posted! I'm not going to update the pictures but I will add our for-sale realtor's address in: http://www.gatewaycityrealty.com/properties/brown.html

Let it sell, let it sell, let it sell... ;)

2007-08-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the sideways pictures! Here is the new closet-sized pantry in the kitchen beside the stairway into the addition. The old pantry room is going to become an "office/future master bath" since we didn't have time to make it into a master bath ourselves. This picture shows the wall color, completed kitchen floor, as well as the completed countertops, the new cabinet hardware, and the new sink (okay, so you can't really see that). It looks GREAT!
This picture shows a mid-way point of construction on the old pantry room. It now has a door on it, more electrical outlets were run to the walls and the wall has been refinished, it has a new light with an actual wall switch, and in the back you see the door to the water heater/pump room.

2007-08-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

The front landing and stairs...nearly finished.
The front side of the house, with both stairs and the deck in back.

And here is the back deck. Looks awesome!

2007-08-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the siding... Starting the siding...
And the fabulous-looking finished product.
Thanks to our friends, Ken and Aaron Kiffer, Chris and Mylin Barry, and Hans Hjort for helping Creighton and Britton with this job!

2007-08-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

The cabinets were paited white and the counters are a beautiful black granite look.

2007-08-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Well, a great deal of work has been completed since last I posted! I'm sure I'll miss some of what was done between posts, but here are some of the most recent updates...
These are pictures of the kitchen and its new ceiling, recessed lighting, and new walls.

SUCH an improvement!

2007-06-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

These are some left-to-right shots of the addition with some furniture in it. They probably won't come up on the screen in order, though! A picture of the dining area (left), center of the room (with the stove), and living area (right) housing my big furniture and STILL with plenty of room to run and play for the kids.

2007-06-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

A picture of the flooring, the painted walls and trim, and Creighton and Britton texturing the walls and ceiling --forgot to add it earlier. Doesn't that look great?!

2007-06-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been quite a while since I've added pictures to our blog! Here are pictures from the previous months' work: A picture of Emma hammering the drywall corner...she did an amazing job, though we didn't need a nail in EVERY hole!
Creighton (Britton's brother) helping putting down the underlayment. And a picture showing the walls primed and underlayment down on the floor!

2006-12-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

November 29th and 30th: Wednesday ended up being a bit of a snow-day for us, as our homestudy writer was stuck in Juneau due to the weather and wouldn't arrive till Friday. So, we took our chance to play in the snow and relax a bit.
Catherine ran the wiring and insulated the new 3rd bedroom wall, then Thursday evening Britton and I filled up the truck for our dump-run and cleaned up a bit in the addition. Talk about saw dust and drywall dust everywhere!

2006-11-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

November 28th: Britton and I finished framing the walls that are separating our current living room into a hallway and 3rd bedroom. We'll be leaving the door open for now and using the smaller space as our new mini-living room untill the addition is finished. Above you can see the electrical boxes in place and the back side of the drywall. Today (the 29th) needs to be atleast somewhat of a cleaning day with our homestudy visit tomorrow (Thursday, the 30th), so we'll see how far we get with the wiring, insulation, and inner drywall before then.
Above you can see the framing completed and the sawdust mess I clean nearly every day! It is worth it for the work we're accomplishing. Soon we'll have a very nice living and dining area with a third bedroom to boot!
Here is the framing, showing the door and the new hallway, as well as the drilled holes for our wiring to run through. Time to rearrange the living room contents! Our house is quite disheveled with all the changes.
And lastly, the hallway with the new drywall in place. We aren't going to bother with trying to mud and tape by Thursday, we'd rather get the wall completed with drywall on both sides and some electrical (Maybe even lighting?) first. We are sure making progress!

2006-11-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

November 27th: We marked the 3rd bedroom wall layout on the floor of our current living room. For now, it'll still be used as a living room untill the addition's interior is finished. Look at the lovely "matching" flooring under that carpet and pad! LOL

Here is the start of the first wall and the placement of the door. The bedroom's closet will be where you see the piano, on the far left outside wall and the current front door will become the back door with a hallway through the bedrooms.

Emma loves to "help" us build!

2006-11-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

Britton completed the lights and electrical just before Thanksgiving, and Mark Shaw came out Friday evening to help him actually hook them up. They look great!

Then over the Thanksgiving weekend we started the work on removing the once-exterior wall that devided the exhisting house from the addition. There it is lying on the floor of the addition! Boy does it open up the kitchen.
In the words of Britton, "Now we're committed!"
The pictures, once again, didn't load in order despite my efforts. ;) Here is the "before" picture of the wall, as we started stripping it down to the bones. We'll also be tearing down the suspended, false ceiling in the kitchen and replacing the lights with recessed lighting there as well...though that may have to wait for another week.

Lastly, here is a picture of the nearly finished ceiling transition between the addition and the kitchen. It looks great! Britton spent a great deal of time and effort trying to get the framing for this section to work and also be level...hard to do when working in a confined space and matching a level wall/ceiling to a not-so-level one. Kudos to Britt!

2006-11-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

The new windows are going in!
Look at that beautiful white vinyl... Thanks Otis, Philip, and Britton; they're great!

2006-11-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

Here goes the sheathing!
Grandma Marion, Britton, Otis, and Philip all helped to get the wall sheathed (we'd already completed the other side of the house) and to replace windows.
Notice the black, metal-clad windows. Half of their seals were broken, some of the windows themselves were broken, and because they were metal, they sweat like crazy.

2006-11-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

Philip, Catherine's brother, requested a "siding party" while he and his family were in town...as we started removing the old siding, we realized that wasn't going to happen!

How do you like this "exterior wall sheathing?" No wonder the living room walls seemed so cold! There were large holes, as you can see, and much of the ship-lap wasn't actually "lapped" either.

This is the wall of the exhisting living room under floor level. OY!

2006-11-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

Yet another computer-user error: the pictures need to be rotated!

We've started mud & taping the drywall (about half-way there now) and our shipment of windows, interior doors, siding (boxes in the picture), and interior sub-floor and flooring have arrived!

2006-11-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

Drywall Party Time! (8-18-06) The second picture should be the first; I'm still trying to figure out this computerized mumbo-jumbo. ;) A number of friends helped us out today and we got the 600 sq ft addition's drywalling completed by mid-afternoon.
JR, Otis, Anthony, and Travis all came to help --along with Grandma, Sarah, and Lisa. What great workers!
We left the old-house/new-house transition open for the stairway framing to go in first --we didn't want to be open to the addition untill it was child safe and warm. Thanks to all!

2006-11-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

DAY...We've lost count now! I'll organize the following pages by the work that was done, as we worked on evenings and weekends and I don't have them laid out by days.
We've been preparing the room for drywalling --drilling holes for wiriting, running the electrical, attaching outlet and switch boxes, installing a false-wall to square the exhisting house, and insulating. Whew!

2006-11-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

DAY SEVEN (Saturday): On this day the gable ends were installed, the housewrapping was finished, and we took the afternoon off before Creighton and Tipton left for home. THANKS A MILLION EVERYONE! It looks fabulous.

2006-05-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

DAY SIX (Friday): Anthony came out to help before work and Otis came and spent the morning helping again. Later in the evening, Anothony returned to help and Hans and Lyle came to assist also. The roofing is started and finished in one day! While Creighton and Otis are roofing in the morning, Britton, Tipton, and Anthony install the windows.Tipton goes to work framing in our new, higher and wider opening for the stairs between the kitchen and living- /family- /great- room (whatever we finally decide it is going to be). We aren't going to open up the ceiling and doorway untill everything is well insulated and child-safe, but the support framing will all be there so we can simply remove what is needed when the time comes.
Another thank you goes out to our babysitters, Courtney and Amber, who watched the girls for a few hours Thursday and Friday evening (as well as the previous Saturday), and to their mother, Karleen, for making us dinner and dessert. It sure went fast!

2006-05-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

DAY FIVE (Thursday): It rained a little overnight, but thanks to some visqueen, we're doing okay. The sheathing goes up on the roof and then the overhangs are framed and sheathed also.

Today we had building help from Clayton and Otis again. Look at us go! The roof is on...will it rain again?

2006-05-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

DAY FOUR (Wednesday): Our third wall is completed and goes up, then Tipton sustains an "accidental" injury on the job site... ;)

As the evening approches, we lift the trusses into place and start our blocking. A big thanks to the Shaws for some babysitting help -- we needed all the hands we could get for those trusses!

2006-05-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

DAY THREE (Tuesday): Both Hans and Otis came out to help this morning - Thank you folks! The first wall is framed, sheathed, and then raised and put in place. Then comes wall two and we're starting to look like a house!
While we're framing in the first wall, Hans and Tipton hop up on the roof and start removing the overhang in preparation for the two end walls.

2006-05-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

DAY TWO (Monday): Otis came to help for the morning. Floor joists go in and part way through we learn how to do it a more efficient way. Then comes the blocking.

Last comes the sheeting/underlayment. Those nails every 6" look to be more like 2.5-4 inches apart! This floor isn't going anywhere.

2006-05-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

DAY ONE (Saturday): Sill seal and treated sills go in...Then on to the rim joist, center beam, and posts!