Closing it up....

Closing it up....

Sept. 5 - 6th --  The main focus these days is on closing up the house.  The roofers continue to do their thing, the framers are trying to stay at least one step ahead of the roofers, and the new windows have arrived and are being installed in the original part of the house.

The roofers continue their death-defying antics on the roof as shown below.

Before

After

Here is a close up shot (I'm smart enough to NOT be on the roof) as the roofers are starting to apply the actual "bullet-proof" shingles.  The shot below looks a bit "fuzzy" as I am standing on the other side of a window with a screen.

Here is the view of how the roof line of the original house ties into the roof line of the addition -- this is the upper-level master bedroom roof.

Before:

After:

Here is a view of the north-side of the house where you can see how the framers are busy building the covered deck off the master bedroom, while the roofers are nipping at their heels and have already stacked a pile of shingles to install.

The framers are working on the siding and the cedar shakes, while to the upper-left, the roofer is applying his shingles.

The window guys are the next ones to have the roofers breathing down their necks.  Although just about all of the windows have been installed in the new construction, the windows are also being replaced in the original parts of the house.  This involved me having to clear away items from the parts of the house where I'm living during this process, as well as me scheduling a few more days out of town.

Here is a shot of the window installer working in the upper-level bedroom (my home office and current sleeping/living area during this project).  And, you'll see (in the photos below) that on the other side of this window, there is a roofer working on the roof above the front porch.

Here is another window guy working on the south-side of the house, while in the upper-left hand corner you can see another roofer working on the west end of the house.

Here is the new picture window in the front of the house, followed by a pair of new double-hung windows in the room outside my home office on the upper level.

These windows are pretty cool -- they are wood, double-pane, double-hung with a high energy efficiency rating.  They also tilt out for cleaning.

I've managed to snag a few of the original 110-year-old windows, which I'll use for cold-frames to start my early crops in the veggie garden next spring (e.g., spinach, lettuce, etc)

As the roofers close in on the window crew and the framing crew, I had to include the next shots as they represent part of my fascination of how the project emerges from the architect's drawings to the reality of construction.  Below you'll see the actual plans that the framers have nailed to the studs in what will be the master bathroom and master bedroom.  

In particular, the framers keep checking these plans to make sure that they install the cedar shakes and fiberboard siding on the exterior of the house according to the detailed design of the architect.

At the same time, the framers' work should be appreciated one more time -- sad to think that all of this intricate woodwork will soon be covered by wallboard and paint!

                                    

  And, here is the west view (to your left) of the rear of the house, and the north view (to your right) in the two photos below.

90 degrees in the shade.....

90 degrees in the shade....

August 4th -- 90 degrees in the shade is the name of a classic cocktail that a friend (and you know who you are!) has promised to make for me, and what I hope to be drinking one day during the hottest day of the year next summer as I sit on the covered deck off the master bedroom.

The most significant event today was the framing of the covered deck -- finally, and wow is this going to be great.

The next three photos show the covered deck from the north side of the house.

Here is a view of the deck as it faces west and as you look at the back of the house.  The best architect in the world designed the deck so that it will be possible to sit outside as the sun shines while there will be enough shade  to actually enjoy a classic cocktail

While I dream of sipping classic cocktails next summer as I sit on the covered deck off the master bedroom, the amazing guys on the roofing crew continue to put in 11 hour days, doing what has to be one of the most dangerous and dirty jobs in construction.  At least there was a good deal of cloud cover today so they didn't have to work with the sun beating mercilessly down on them.  

The primary goal now is to get all the exterior framing done as soon as possible and the roof for the entire structure completed (which was why the covered deck was framed so it can be roofed, before the rest of the siding was installed).  Then, the new furnace will be installed, along with the venting required for the planned zone heating system.  Once the furnace is in, then the structural support post can be placed in the basement so that an interior load-bearing wall can be moved to accommodate at least a double-sized bed in the guest suite.

The contractor came by today for my meeting with the kitchen designer.  The kitchen designer and I have already met twice at his showroom, but this was the first time he was on site to make some preliminary measurements. Although the demolition of the original back wall of the house is not yet complete (about 2 feet of brick needs to be removed and a lentil installed), the kitchen designer and the contractor discussed important fine details, such as which ceiling joists should hold the venting for the range hood.  In the mean time, my imagination is running wild as I begin to think of the amazing cabinets, granite counter tops and new appliances that will form the galley-style kitchen....but, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The new windows -- for the existing part of the house, including the sliding glass doors (the replacement for the current double windows) that will open to the pergola-covered deck on the south side yard -- are scheduled to arrive on site before the week is over.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. John F. Kennedy

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."  JFK 

Sept. 3 -- I just returned from a few days away from the construction zone to enjoy the long Labor Day holiday weekend.  I would like to think that we've hit the half-way mark on this project, but when you're in the uber-zen mode, what is time anyway?

Labor Day is supposed to be the last official weekend of summer and ushers in the coming of fall.  With record-breaking heat, it looks like summer is going out kicking and screaming.  

Whenever I escape the construction zone for a few days, it is always amazing to see what has been going on in my absence.  There have been advances on two fronts.

 First, the members of the framing crew were still working on the siding and almost all windows have now been installed in the new construction of the house.  The doors have yet to appear on site.

This next shot shows the three windows in the new master bathroom with cedar shingles (this picks up the theme of the cedar shingles on the shed dormer to the left) and to the right are the three windows in the dormer that is the new master bedroom.  Below the master bedroom windows you can see the three windows in the stairwell that leads to the basement.  (Note to self -- ask the architect what the deal is about windows that come in threes).

The next sequence of shots are close-ups of the installation of the siding

The second front where there has been great progress is shown in this last photo as a preview -- you can see a few members of the roofing crew, to which we now turn our attention.

The pitch on the roof of the original house is, to put it in simple terms, insanely steep.  You seriously need to be a thrill-seeker / daredevil type to want to get on the top of this roof -- not for the faint of heart or me.  Yet, it was amazing to see the members of the roofing crew do their work -- some of them wore safety harnesses so that they were tethered to the roof, but others simply wore a safety harness that wasn't attached to anything!

As I mentioned in a previous post, in 1903 the original roof was constructed with wooden rafters and then cedar shingles were applied. Over the years three layers of shingles were applied.   Today, roof joists form the rafters and plywood sheeting covers the rafters, roof paper is applied and then the composite shingles go on top of the paper.  The roofers had to remove the current layers of shingles and scrape all the way down to the original rafters.  

This next photos shows one of the roofers (with no safety harness!) scraping the original roofing materials down to the bare slats over the rafters.

Here is a view of the roof debris piling up before it is shoved off the side of the roof to land below in a tarp so that it can be carried off to the construction dumpster.

This photo provides some context:  The steep pitch of the roof, the crew balancing on the top, the roofing supplies truck with a telescopic conveyor belt that sends up sheets of plywood, roofing shingles and the like.

The next few shots give a general sense of the process involved..

 

The members of the roofing crew work until well after 6:00pm, and they make sure to cover the exposed parts of the roof in the event of showers.

At this rate, a new roof should cover the entire house before the week is over!