Exhausting...

That's what it is. A LOT of work, but progress is being made. I spent the evening cleaning up at the work-site, and am too tired to post more than a brief, but important note:

The foundations are poured! It was (note the past tense) beautiful today, so my work crew decided it was a great day to pour concrete. Unfortunately, it started raining while they were leveling it off, and it was pouring by the time it was done. Nevertheless, the task is accomplished and the addition is becoming a reality. Thanks Richard, Devin and David!

The almost 400 square feet will contain a garage/workshop on the ground floor, with a master bedroom suite above, complete with ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet. There will also be a small den. I like the name den, it sounds so much more promising than spare-bedroom. It could be a sewing room, or photo-album room (can't quite call it scrapbooking, since I don't really "scrapbook"), or anything I can think of. I think I really like the idea of an ironing room. At the moment my sewing machine sits on a desk in my bedroom, so sewing is already easy, but a room where I can just leave the ironing board and iron out ready to go at a moments notice sounds so nice. Then ironing the few things that need it does not seem such an ordeal. But who would want to call it ironing room? So I can call it a sewing room, and what is more natural than leaving the ironing board out while you are sewing? Thanks for joining me in my rambles tonight. Next I need to post pictures of my beautiful new windows...

Gutted

We gutted the entire basement, and put a couple of beams in to give it a nice open feel. Here are some pictures of the work in progress:

 

And almost done, just the old stairs have to come out yet:

 

 

Workers

Just some pictures of the people that have been working on the house (not in chronological order):

My youngest son Daniel has been doing most of the work, since he is the only one that does not have another job, but hopes to start school in November. Some of the latest work he has done was land clearing until late in the evening, when we rented a mini-excavator to dig the foundations:

His wife Becky has been helping with cleanup where ever Dan goes:

 

David works as a framer, and is not available to help very much, although the past week he had several days off, and worked on several projects. Here are just a few of them. Digging foundations:

 

Conferencing with his brother Daniel:

 

Working with Daniel and Richard (thanks for stopping by to help!) to disassemble part of the carport roof:

 

Cutting off rotten beams from the deck.

 

 

Brian also helped us for a day with some framing issues and digging foundations:

 

 

That same day we received our building permit. Yeay!!!

 

Devin helped us put up forms for the foundation:

 

 

And today Tim quietly went to work outside, and cleaned up a lot of junk (including the deck) on the east side.

 

Somehow I have no pictures of Robert at work, but he has helped in so many different areas. He drew and amended the plans, is available for advice at any time, built these stairs, and checks up on the job frequently.

 

Thank you all!

 



Disposal

We rented a huge container, and managed to fill it to the brim:

This week Daniel and Becky finished tearing out the basement, kitchen and front stairs going up. David took down the workshop and started cleaning up the roof on the carport. Today, Robert and Daniel built a full set of stairs by the front door. Must take more pictures of our hard workers!!!

Upstairs

Pardon the many pictures. Here is the upstairs. There is a tiny galley kitchen, a horrible bathroom, and a living room, dining area and 2 bedrooms that need a really good refresh:

... and in!

We are tearing out the entire basement. We started removing junk and smelly carpets in these pictures: