Roof Details & Back Porch

The framing guys have done more work on the outside, adding some detail...

The top roof will be getting a fabricated slate (the same as is on the front porch).  It will be a dark gray color to match the real slate roof on the main house.  The materials were supposed to arrive from New Hampshire last week, but are delayed (something about the truck breaking down...)  It should be here early next week.  Fingers crossed!

The areas of roof on the sides & porch will be standing seam metal, also in dark gray.

Those window holes aren't the real size, that's just what they've been using to get in & out of the rooms.  I'm looking forward to them getting the full size windows in!

Here's a look at the architect's drawings again...

They have also now started on the back porch...

Under the Old Kitchen Cabinets

The flooring was interesting too...

But first I should explain that when we got our puppy, he ripped up a large portion of the tan linoleum (which is why you can see the plywood in the shot above!)

We weren't about to replace the flooring with the kitchen renovation approaching, but it's been one of those things we've been stepping over & cringing every day since!

Well, underneath the cabinets, we now see that they installed plywood around the cabinets and on top of another layer of linoleum!  If I would have known that, I'd have ripped up the ugly tan floor & the plywood months ago!!!

Not that the older linoleum was much better- a funky blue, yellow & gold sparkle... but at least it would have been in one piece!

I think it's a little ironic that I'm planning on the new kitchen's colors being gray, blue & yellow!

We also found some "plaid" stamps under the cabinets... I'll have to research around what years these were issued.

Attached to one of the cabinets we found a sticker that must have been from when the cabinets were re-finished.  It gives the name of a previous owner that bought the house in 1997, so we know the last kitchen renovation must have been sometime after that.

Old Kitchen Demo

We're keeping the old kitchen functioning as long as possible through the construction, but have started to demo some of the cabinets.

After emptying them all out (and piling everything in the dining room!), we decided that there are a few cabinets we'd like to keep and reuse...

The big wall cabinet will be great for in the new laundry room, so we carefully removed those.
They were HEAVY!!!

The peninsula bottom cabinet we separated and are having the workers put out in the garage... we'll use that for storage or something out there (I have a few ideas flipping around in my head!)

The other portion of bottom cabinets wasn't any good for future use, so our oldest was delighted to try his hand at demo!

Behind where the shelves were hanging, you can see several layers paint on top of wallpaper.

So the bigger cabinets are now all out of there!  We're still able to use the stove, fridge, sink & dishwasher, for the time being.  I've moved the microwave & coffee maker into the dining room- so it's a little annoying going back & forth while I make the kids' breakfasts & lunches each morning, but at least we have access to everything!  I remember washing dishes in the upstairs bathtub when we did the kitchen at our old house, and thankfully we aren't having to do that (yet!)

I'm also happy that the original base moulding was hidden behind the cabinets.  My fingers are crossed that it continues all the way around the room!  This will be the dining room when everything is complete.

Stone Walls- all the way!

When were were doing the foundation, we found out that beneath the clapboards, the walls of the house are stone.
Now that the clapboards have been removed, we're getting a look at it!

Here's the first floor...

I've asked them to try to leave a strip of rock exposed.  It will be next to the new back door and I think the transition to new sheet rock can be covered with a little moulding.  The builder said that as long as it's structurally sound that would be fine.

Below, you can see a little window or chute of some sort was framed... not sure what this was from- it's too high from the ground to be a coal chute, and too low for a window...  mystery!

And here's where the majority of those rocks are now, since they're preparing to break through the walls and connect the new construction with the main house...

The second floor looks super cool too- especially with the diagonal beams!!!

This is the back wall of the Master Bathroom.  There will be a doorway broken through the right portion of stone.  There will also be a doorway located at the place where there's the little window on the right.

This is inside the new laundry room.

More Framing- upstairs

Here are better shots of the upstairs (still had to take them through the tiny hall window though!!!


To the left foreground of this photo, is where the laundry room will be...

This shot is from right where the laundry room door will be.  There will also be a linen closet to the right.

That back section, and the little bit to the front right of the photo, is going to be our master closet!  I'm VERY excited about that- our closets are currently really small.  The doorway to the master closet will be in the master bathroom.

To the right is the master bathroom, and you can see the entrance into the master closet in the center of the photo.  In the very foreground on the right of the photo is where the linen closet is.

The bathroom entrance is going to be to the right of where I was standing to take this photo... but the wall is still intact there, so I can't get a good head-on shot of the room until that comes down!

More Framing- downstairs

Here are some additional framing shots with descriptions.

This is the view from where the back door will be.  To the immediate right is the half bath, then the kitchen, and in the background there is the butler's pantry...

Here is a reverse shot from the butler's pantry/dining room entrance, looking back into the kitchen.  The half bath is in the far back corner...

Here's a shot of the half bath...

This is from the corner in the half bath, looking out the door...  The window (currently looks into the family room) is going to be closed up, and the door on the left is going to be opened up to twice the side to pass from the kitchen into the family room.

The refrigerator is going to be where the door on the right side is (that's our old back door that was off the main hallway).

Inside View of Framing

Here's the inside view of the first floor framing:

Getting a shot of the second floor was hard, but here's a peek through the hallway window:

It now has the ceiling and the attic space framed out too.  Mike actually climbed through this tiny window the other night to check out the second floor lay out.  It was quite comical!!!

There's no way for us to see the attic space until they break through the wall up there.  It will open into the stair landing.

They should be breaking through the walls in the next day or two... that's when it's really going to get messy around here!  But it will be exciting to easily be able to access that second & third floor areas, since I haven't gotten to walk through them yet!

Framing- the attic

We're also adding attic space over the new construction (which is great since we lost some storage space when we finished off the media room)

Here's the framing up there...

Spreading the Dirt

The yard is getting cleaned up a little bit!  The tractor was used to backfill the outside of the new foundation.

There was still lots of dirt left from those big piles, so they spread it around to level out the yard.

Should be easier to use the metal detector now!

Framing the Second Floor

With the first floor all framed out, they've moved up to the second floor!

We got a peak at the wide boards that are beneath the clapboards of the house...

And some more of the stone under the boards..

The next thing we knew, it was up and mostly enclosed!

First Floor Framing- Day 2

The following day, it really stared to take shape- you can see the five windows across the back of the house...

They also did some plumbing/drainage work...

First Floor Framing- Day 1

While we were out of town, the work kept going on the house...
Here are shots taken at the end of the first day!

Stacks of Wood

All of a sudden, our backyard has been filled with wood...

You can see what a mess the backyard is... it's kind of strange with all of the pretty flowers blooming amid the mess!

The exciting stuff was about to start, right when we were leaving for Disney!

We're now back and had lots of fun on the trip, but the whole time we were wondering what was going on at the house!

Luckily our excellent house & pet sitters were out there taking photos of the progress each day- so we've got record of it all :)