Let There Be Light! - Day 25

On the 25th Day (or so)... He said "Let There Be Light" ...And it was Good!
Check out the French doors on the back side of the house!

You can see how the crew took out the old smaller windows and replaced them with these awesome 8 feet tall French doors. Then the brick mason expertly filled in the spaces between, recycling the old bricks that were taken out of our chimney and from the upper sides of the house. The brick will eventually be painted white with the rest of the house. Here's a closer look as Kristin and Grace give them an inspection.

And now for a look from the inside. This was late in the day, about an hour before dusk. Isn't all of that light great? This is taken from the kitchen side of the room looking toward what used to be the old guest room, Jack-n-Jill bathroom and our master bedroom at the other end with the green wall. You can also see the old window that was bricked in. There will eventually be bookshelves and a space for the TV on that wall.

And from another angle. This is taken from about where that bricked in window from the picture above is located. Grace is standing on what used to be our Jack-n-Jill bathroom that joined the old master bedroom and guest room. A total of three walls were taken out to create this larger kitchen/entertaining area.

Here's a look at the railing at the top of the staircase on the second floor landing. Those will eventually all be bookshelves.

The will be lots of great sunlight coming through the big picture window to the left (not installed yet), especially late in the day. Perfect to just chill out in a nice easy chair and read.

And now, another look at Grace's room and the lovely window that will provide some natural light to her reading loft.

Below is one of the closets that has now been enclosed. This is in the upstairs spare room and is on the side where there are a couple of eaves, so it has a fun angle to it. Maybe Harry Potter can sleep in there!

I must admit, I didn't think we'd be this far along after just one month. I know things will slow down to an excruciating pace in the next couple of weeks, especially for the Christmas holidays, but this has been utterly amazing. Cheers!

Thankful To Be Back Home - Day 24

The crew made incredible progress on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then again over the weekend. We had a wonderful time in Athens with family for the long holiday. Lots of eating and watching of football (probably too much!). UGA losing to GA Tech in football sort of put a damper on an otherwise awesome holiday, but the cousins sure got some quality time together.

I don't know all of what was completed on which day(s) so I have divided up the pictures over the course of a couple of entries. You can see Kristin and Grace checking out progress on the front porch.

Nearly all of the windows are now in, with only the large picture window that we're moving from the first floor to the second floor's landing remaining to be installed. Below you can see the new, smaller window which is in the bar/butler pantry area and the mason bricked in the empty space.

The workers also installed two sets of pocket door inserts to our master bathroom and walk-in closet (below). One more will be put in downstairs to set off the in-law suite from the rest of the house.

The carpenters also switched out the temporary supports on the porch for the real columns that now hold up the roof of the porch. They will eventually be trimmed out and painted.

There's still some work to do beneath the porch because a gas line and sump pump pipe have to be moved to another location.

The picture below is of the first floor bathroom which will also be part of the in-law suite. We decided to re-do it when we saw how bad a shape it looked compared to the rest of the house. The floor joists were replaced in an earlier posting, so at least there's a sub-floor now.

I also got to take a look downstairs and see the finished product of the brand new downstairs/first floor HVAC system. Pretty exciting, right? Hard to stop a "Trane."

The next installment will reveal the long-awaited addition to the rear of the house!

Pane-Full Day - Day 22

Another very busy day at the work-site, as the crew wrapped the entire second floor and put in the majority of the new windows.

It's amazing to see how quickly the facade of the house changes when the big empty holes are now actually filled with the windows.

They also started on putting the wooden planks for the deck on the front porch.

The HVAC crew finished up their work and the electricians were back at the house as well to finish up some of the wiring.

I didn't actually go inside today since I was in a hurry to join the family for Thanksgiving in Athens.

I always look forward to spending some quality time with the family and see the cousins have a good time together. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year, and we're grateful to all of the people in our lives who are giving us positive thoughts and prayers.

Airing It Out - Day 21

In the last post I mentioned that the Heating and Cooling guys had begun to put the air ducts and HVAC units in. The picture below is from the corner of our master bedroom looking up into our tray ceiling. You can see the second floor HVAC unit and duct system in the attic above. Very complicated, intricate work.

The crew was really cooking today and by the time I arrived after work on Monday, they had already installed all of the air ducts and the second floor unit. The shot below is taken from Grace's bedroom looking up into the attic. On the upper left you can see a bit of the open space where G's reading loft will be. Kids these days...

They had also put in the duct openings on the first floor and basement and were in the process of installing the actual mechanical unit as well as the ducts and insulation. It's sort of a mess, but you can see our old water heater in the upper right. That sucker was probably ten years past its warranty, so a new larger model is certainly in order.

It's a pretty incredible process and looking up into the attic sort of makes the unit look like an alien or a giant foil-covered octopus. This shot is looking up through the space where the pull down stairs to the attic will go.

Here's a shot of the laundry room with its ventilation duct. There will be a washing sink along with some counter space, the washer and dryer and plenty of shelves and cabinets. It will be much nicer to have our laundry up on the second floor and not in our basement 'dungeon'. LOL

Here's another shot below, looking from the back patio into our backyard. For those who haven't seen it in person, our back property line ends right behind that large Oak tree in the center, about 120+ feet behind the house. It gives us a nice sound buffer between our neighbors on the other side of the fence.

Where Have I Been? - Day 20

I hate to admit it, but I got sidetracked and a bit lazy this past week. Translation: No blog postings while I traveled and there were also a couple days where I didn't take pictures. The front view looks very similar to previous shots, but some work has been done on the porch. A gas line and meter has to be moved before the crew can put the actual deck onto it and then stone work on the lower portion can begin.

Plenty of work was still going on, but it just wasn't as obvious from the outside and I neglected to whip out the camera. Below you can see the side of the house and a large first floor window with a board across it. That will be bricked in and a much smaller, single window will remain. That will look into the butler's pantry and walk-through bar area between the kitchen and formal dining room.

The electricians have already put in a lot of the wiring on the first and second floor, but this is the 'roughing in' phase which essentially shows where the outlets are going to be. The actual outlets won't be going in until after the drywall is put on. Below is a view from the second floor guest room looking into the two bathrooms. One is for Grace's room and the other is the guest room. That's someone's lunch cooler sitting on Grace's tub. :-)

The plumbers also came in and did their rough in for the pipes and connections in the kitchen and bathrooms. You can imagine that with an entire new floor and a re-worked first floor that there's a lot of pipes and wires that have to be hidden somewhere. The shot below is taken from the kitchen, looking toward the staircase upstairs on the right. To the left is the entry to the butler pantry and in the center is the area where the fridge will eventually sit. Just to the right of that doorway will be a microwave/convection oven mounted over a counter top.

We've also decided that our downstairs bathroom needs to be re-done, which wasn't in the original plan, so that created a little bit of a stir. That is in the back left of the green wall in the picture below. The picture shows the entire kitchen/great room/entertaining area. That doorway mentioned earlier will eventually be a wall. Entry to the bathroom will be from the main hallway that runs front to back from the dining room to the great room. When the workers took out all the old tile and flooring from the bathroom, they found that the joists were rotting underneath so the entire framing had to be re-worked.

I have recently been informed that we have some "fans" of the blog who'd like to see some exterior pictures which also show the yard and some of the other houses in our neighborhood for a little perspective. I gladly oblige. Enjoy

This is a view of the rear of the house taken from the edge of the grass in our backyard. There is another 10 or so feet of natural area, bushes and trees behind me that borders our rear property line.

This picture was taken from our front porch looking out onto our street. You can see our lovely port-o-potty- a neighborhood staple. Based on the other houses in this shot, you can see our home will fit right in.

The crew that's installing the HVAC system started working, so I'll show you some of those pictures in my next installment. Cheers!

Shingle Bell Rock - Day 15

The construction crew really wanted to turn up the heat on getting the roof finished before the bad weather rolled in.

They showed up early on Saturday morning, Day 15, in order to put the shingles on the roof.

As I mentioned in the previous post, they stayed late on Friday night to finish applying all of the protective liner between the plywood and the shingles.

The workers totally rocked in getting the shingles on. By the time I rolled by around noon, they'd already completed the main parts of the roof.

When I was leaving for Athens to attend the Georgia Bulldogs football game against Auburn, I dropped by one more time and they were pretty much done. They'd even started putting up some of the protective metal flashing.

There's a nasty storm coming late Sunday and through Monday that will bring a couple inches of rain and temperatures plunging below 20 degrees.

I think the crew will either take part of the day off or stick to working on as much stuff inside the friendly confines of the house to avoid the elements.

By the way- UGA beat Auburn 34-7 in an incredible ballgame. Go Dawgs!

Run for Cover - Day 14

Sorry that there was no Day 13 post. I wasn't able to make it to the house before dark, so I didn't bother taking any pictures.

Friday, Day 14 was a big day, though. The crew had finished framing the front porch and put the plywood decking for the roof on.

They also finished the eaves on the side and rear of the house and put up the boards for the remaining sides of the house that were exposed.

The big news was that they also got far enough along that they put the protective wrap on the roof to lay the foundation for putting shingles on.

Once they get the shingles on, you will really get a full perspective on how tall the house will appear.

Gimme' Shelter - Day 12

If we were building a skyscraper, Day 12 would have been the equivalent of "topping out" day. I entitled this post "Gimme' Shelter" because essentially the house is closed in, now. Obviously we're missing some windows, but those are coming- I promise!

The crew was able to put on all of the plywood decking for the entire roof and nearly all of the sides to the new part of the house.

We are getting our best look yet at what the eventual, final shape of the house will be.

Obviously there's a long way to go and things like shingles, windows and siding will give it so much more texture and personality, but this is essentially the silhouette the new place will be cutting in our neighborhood from here on out.

Kristin met with our builder Stan this morning on site, to go over a few possible changes related to some windows, walls and shelving.

I was a bit nervous, even though we'd talked about it, since just about everyone we know that's renovated has said that any time you make a change to the plans, it makes the project more expensive.

She said that with some of the changes we made, we might actually 'save' a few bucks. Ha! I'll be happy if it just keeps us Even-Steven with the other alterations I know we'll be making down the line.

This is the back side of the house and those men are standing in the master bedroom and outside of our picture window.