Electricity and Framing -- Two of My Favorite Things

Electricity and Framing -- Two of My Favorite Things

July 29 and 30th --  Everyone has told me that framing is amazingly fast.  That is true, except when it is not, like when trivial little things like electric service lines get in the way.

The framers, like every other skilled worker who has been sent to the job site by the most amazing contractor...ever, are gifted craftsmen and so very nice and polite.  And, while the crew who was responsible for the foundation listened to jazz, these framers are big-time country western music lovers  -- I never thought that a side-benefit of living through a construction project would be a crash course in music appreciation (Side note:  I enjoy jazz, country-western, not so much).  Here is the view of the almost framed mudroom-rear entry (looking west on the south side of the house).  As a preview to come, in between the two windows will be a little greenhouse and in front of the greenhouse, the double windows will be sliding doors off the dining room that will lead to a deck with a pergola, but let's not get ahead of ourselves!

Here is the front of the entry to the mudroom with a framer behind what will be the rear doorway and a window to the right of the doorway.  To your left, are the south and west walls of the gathering room addition -- those 'almost corner' cutouts will house side-by-side double hung windows and what should be a sunny corner for reading during the winter months.  You can also see how the joists for the second floor (master bath and bedroom) have already been framed in.

To give some perspective, the next two shots give a view of the framed west and north-facing walls of the gathering room addition with the original back of the house peaking over the top.

This photo shows that the infamous stairwell (the star-attraction of prior posts) has not yet been framed in.

Ok, great progress as the framing is going like gangbusters just like everyone said it would, but then things come to a grinding halt.  Off the original back of the house are those tangle of wires that you will recall plagued the excavators and now are plaguing the framers.  

So, two electricians are called to the rescue and they reroute a bunch of service lines and also set up a temporary electrical box.  These guys worked to put up the electrical service box until there was no more light to work by -- you gotta love the irony of electricians working until they lose the light!  The contractor told me to expect the power to be off for about an hour the next morning, so I was able to power down the computer, router, and various other devices. 

July 30th -- And just like that, once the power was transferred after a brief outage, the framers went back to their blazing speed.  Here is the framed second-story west wall of what will be part of the master bedroom with a doorway (and adjacent window) onto a little covered deck.  I can imagine myself sitting on this deck watching the sun go down.

Here is the framed south wall of the master bedroom (looking through a screen door). There will be a built-in chest of drawers and a small fireplace near the doorway to the small deck and you can sorta see the framing for the small window.

The framers are lighting fast, but they didn't quite have enough time to get the north wall of the upstairs master bedroom in, as shown below.

These next three shots show the progress of framing in the first-floor, gathering room addition, mudroom rear-entry and the stairwell.

This shot shows how the framing of the two-story addition is coming along from the view outside the addition.

The next few shots are from the inside of the framed addition:  first the rear-entry and south-west corner of the gathering room.

Then the view of the west wall of the gathering room with the future fireplace framed in and next to that will be the future cabinetry for the AV closet.

Here is the 'hole in the floor' that will be the future stairwell to the basement with a window facing west at the top of the stairwell, and the framing of the three little windows near the top of the south wall of the stairwell. This stairwell will have killer natural light and as the architect says, a lovely view of the backyard .

And as a fitting closing shot, here are the two south-facing windows of the mudroom rear-entry that will show off the lilacs when they bloom next spring.  My architect calls this a mudroom fit for a queen (that is costing a King's ransom!).