Stairs and a bit of rain

During the last half of the week, they finished up the floor for the second story - they had to add a small section of floor joists and extend the pony walls over the sunroom. Once that was done, they started framing up the second floor walls and had the east and west sides pretty much complete by Saturday. Same for the basic walls in the front two dormer rooms - interior walls and closet walls.

On Saturday, they got the delivery of the stair boards and spent most of the day building the stairs. They look really cool where they are, with a solid wall on one side and an open banister area on the side next to the living room. (Of course the banister won't go in until right before we move in.)

Friday brought a bit of rain, and since I was up on the second floor anyway, I helped pull some tarps over the area. Saturday they worked to get a better / bigger tarp in place to cover the new second story walls, since the original one was for just one story. Saturday and today it rained a couple of times - scattered showers that scattered its rain on us. All is OK, though - but the less rain for the next week or so, the better. I noticed while I was upstairs looking around this afternoon that the tarp had collected some rain water, and due to the weight, had pushed one of the 2x4 studs over, and a wall is leaning. Once it all gets the right support, that won't be a problem, but until then, let's keep the rain away!

What a view!

I stood on our second floor today and looked out the 'windows' - how cool is that?!? For the first time, I walked around upstairs and got a feel for what the new rooms will be like. Very nice, indeed.

Blue Tarps for a Roof

Week 4 was a huge week in terms of productivity. The past few weeks were slow and steady in preparing the house for the second story. Tearing off the roof, clearing out walls, basic demolition.

Last week, they finished all the significant demolition and started actually building something. They got the pony walls up to begin the structure of the second flooor addition, and they got all the ceilng joists for the first floor swapped out from the original 2x4s to stronger 2x6s. They also moved a wall in the living room about 4 inches so that they have room for the stairs to go up the middle of the house.

Surprises so far have been few, but most notably was the fact that we needed new ceiling joists. Other than that, the only time I really freaked out was when they busted out the hall closet - I had thought we'd be able to keep it, but turns out that we needed the room for the stairs and the pantry. They also had to take out the bookcases in the TV room for the stairs - they jutted out into the stairwell too much. We may be able to put them back, but not sure. Right now they're laying in the boys old room area.

The roof is still MIA - as expected; so the house is covered with blue tarps to keep the elements out as much as possible. By the end of this week, they should have the second floor joists in place, have the second floor subfloor down, and the stairs roughed in. After that, they can frame up the second floor and roof - so we're still about 2 weeks from having the basic shape in place, and a more solid roof over the house.

I'll finalize the window selection this week so that they can get those ordered. Otherwise, we're in good shape for now.