Fluff

Things are starting to really get going. We were on hold while for some of the stuff while we had to get an engineer to approve a plan to keep the roof from falling down. Not that I am an expert on such things, but it seemed like a good idea to me.

To the left you see the new nifty super supportive beams that were added where the chimney used to tower. The orange pieces of lumber are the new pieces that inspector requested we have completed.

In addition, we needed to add a new support piece between the bedroom area and the sitting room area. You see the couple of feet we had to add right there. There is another fancy support board on the top this piece. The original roof line was still up the ceiling of the upstairs. It was never really supported when they expanded in the early 50's we are guessing. In the picture to the right you can see the heating vents have been installed.

Plus, for those interested (and I assuming you are at this point...) the insulation is starting to be put in. Actually the foam parts are already complete. The roof peaks have some sort of other stuff that gets added. I know, I know I should ask more questions, but they could tell me they are putting jelly bellies and I wouldn't know the difference. Well, actually if it was jelly bellies I think I would now the difference, but if it was some sort of fluff thing that smelled funny - they could call it anything. Like OllieBaba... Umm .... Anyway, so the inspectors have done their thing for now, so the rest of the electric work and plumbing work is the more minor pieces. Next steps will include sheetrock and then we will get in there and prime that piece. The windows maybe another week yet and the cabinets soon after that. The tile and the rest are near the end. We are still waiting on some tests to see what we can do about the floor.

More updates in a week!

The hidden parts and more...

The plumbing is nearly complete at this point. You can see the nifty pipes and shower drain. Plus Karyn came over to check it out.


We have gotten to the stage where lots of people come over and seem to be dragging stuff around through our walls and ask you questions that seem easy, but that you later regret your answer.

For example, "Where do you want the pendant light to be over your bed, near the pillows?" I think about it for 3 nanoseconds and say "Yeah, that will be fine!" Then seven minutes later I realize how wrong I was and then eight seconds after that I forget to call them to change it. Kathy's approach is much different. If they get a hold of her, she thinks about it a little longer, she may call and consult me if she thinks it matters and then makes a decision. In case you are wondering, it is less expensive with Kathy's approach.

This picture you can see that the chimney is gone. We are saving the limestone bricks to use around our flower beds this spring. So, this really opens up the whole entry to bedroom. They will be building a closet where the air compressor is in the picture.

The other fun stuff is that we will have heating and cooling in our upstairs, which as strange as it seems is a big deal in Minnesota. Lots of people have these features in their bedrooms and now we will too!

This where the sitting area will be with plenty of outlets for our rocking stereo system. Or maybe something more practical, like a espresso machine.

The next steps are finishing the framing and get to get the city inspector to allow us to continue.

It is starting to look like something...

Well here we go.

It is starting to look like something afterall. Most of the walls are now up and the upstairs is starting to take shape. Kathy is pretending to be taking a shower where the show will be. She normally does not wear her slippers in the shower. You can see some of the old venting sticking up from the floor in this picture. The main pipes still exist from the old bathroom layout. (You can click on any of these pictures to see a better view).


Some of the fun has been trying to figure out where the clothes you packed away a month ago now reside. Things like an extra pair of pajamas have turned out to be more of a priority than I thought!









As you can see a lot of the basic work is just starting now. We are looking forward to seeing the rest of the framing and more pretending that the upstairs is finished is coming soon. Below you can see the sitting area shaping up. This is the most surprising to me. In the drawings, it looked kind of nice but it acutally is a lot larger than I thought. Of course there is no furniture in it yet either.
So that is it for now. I hope to update this again on Sunday - a lot of work is expected to be done this week.

Do you wonder?

I do wonder. I wonder what the heck we decided to do some of this?

Anywho. We have completed the rip-down portion and some of the framing is underway.

You can see some of the work here. The wall between the room is gone and framing for the future closet dealies are being framed in. We do not know what we will do for that area, but we are building the frame work once we can do that piece (and pay for it!)



Some of the work on the closets are framed in. The wall is gone to create the entry way into the bedroom, kind of right where the chimney is currently. The chimney will be gone soon.

This week should get started on the rest of the framing and the you will see the idea of what the future holds. Not the future for much, just the future of the work upstairs.

We will get an idea of what the floors in the bedroom will be like soon. We have some people coming over soon to give some ideas.


The final shot in today's entry is the new look of the bathroom. Everything is finally gutted! It took a little longer that I had thought but it is done. These pipes will be re-routed shortly.

This week should have a bunch of new information, unless the contractor leaves us high and dry and runs away with our money. But we at least have his air compressor, so you would think he would want to come back for that. Plus we have a lot of extra duct tape, which is always fun to play with in so many ways.