walls, walls, everywhere

for a quick IKEA update... we did make it. i'll post hilarious photos of that later. we bought A LOT.

this week at the house we were focusing on framing walls. mostly partition walls, but a few that were a little more complicated than most. my dad came to town (he was dying to see the work in progress) and helped out some while we were at our day jobs. we've really gotten a lot done... enough in fact, that the plumber should be in tomorrow to start rough-in...maybe. a moment we thought we might never get to.

photos to tell the story...

dad doing demo...

robby joining in after work:

this header (another LVL) over the pocket door in the master bedroom was a beast...

it took a sledge hammer for robby to get it in.

this LVL will forever bare the marks of how painful it was to get in...

the windows arrived early and robby couldn't wait to get a few in:

the two casements that are over the kitchen sink

robby cutting holes for the little slit windows even though those aren't in yet...

a sea of studs.... walls and rooms, but it's hard to tell

safety is #1 on our job site

success!

the window in the kitchen

from the outside

construction as art...

this is some of the plaster mesh my dad revealed during demo... i think it's beautiful:

enterprise-rent-a-NOTHING

to all the raleigh readers: DO NOT EVER use the enterprise-rent-a-car downtown branch....

we were supposed to be on our way up to IKEA in woodbridge, VA to pick up our kitchen cabinets and all sorts of other goodies today... but oh no. i reserved a cargo van from that enterprise and when we show up to pick it up today, they don't have one?! i mean, who does that? it's their sole purpose of existence to have cars/vans to rent.

so basically the guy was a total a**. he didn't even offer a coupon for a free or discounted rental next time. (what happened to customer service?) so there were no vans available to rent anywhere today. (not that the enterprise guy helped us in trying to look for one) so we will have to go tomorrow. but we've wasted 5 hours of work time prepping to go... very angry we are.

so really... i know it's convenient for all of us downtown raleigh folks... but DON'T go to that enterprise!

if you want to destroy my sweater...

...hold this thread as i walk away. we haven't really destroyed our house so much as dismantled it. but a few times in the past few days it felt like it might take a lot to get it rewoven. as usual, though, robby the rock star pulled through and by the end of the weekend it felt much more manageable. and also like a really big house!

progress as of friday after work....

tarp on the roof, house wrap on, sheathing on (no window holes cut since the windows won't be in for another 1.5 weeks)

interior shot from front door looking back towards the addition:

first thing was to rip up the old linoleum and subfloor... it was tough work getting out old rusty nails...

then the old back door and kitchen window came out:

and another window from the dining room:

as we left it late friday night, same shot as from above:

then saturday arrives. robby gets up and over to the house and by the time i get there (after a birthday party i photographed) he's done all this...

put up temporary walls and knocked out part of the existing old load bearing exterior wall... he's fast.

then came time for the triple 9.25" LVLs. these take the place of the load bearing wall that was there. we {heart} structure that keeps the house from falling down! however, this was no easy task. here we are (meredith came to help saturday) taking a break from just carrying it in from the back. it was so heavy robby needed a beer!

as we rested we took turns kidding around with it as it was sitting up on top of the ladders...

then brian came over to lend a big helping hand and we got it up!

hello big open space.

we worked late saturday night...

today wasn't the most productive... but we got one partition wall almost finished inside.

today as we finished up, from the front door looking back. see the difference from the first of this shot? (sorry for the big fridge in the way!)

we had a crazy storm this evening...

that proved the cricket sheds water!

final shot from the weekend... composite from a corner in the soon-to-be kitchen. you can see the partition wall up that we did today. it is amazing how big and open it feels now. i think we're going to like it. (as usual click on the image and it will get bigger)

(laziness)

so i've not posted in a while, and i would post new photos tonight, but laziness has hit me. not really, it's more like busy-ness has hit. i just haven't made it to the house with my camera in a while, and it was a crazy weekend with graduation at UNC (Susanna Birdsong, MSW!!) and nasty weather. we did purchase our appliances, which is a huge check off the list. we got a great deal at HH Gregg... if you're out there and need appliances i highly recommend it. robby even scored a free 19" LCD tv. pretty sweet little deal.

the progress we have made includes sheathing on the house and roof, the house wrap is on and more demo inside. robby (and ryan) get the credit for all this. i've been sweating over cabinet choices and arrangement. i've also had to balance the construction budget since we closed on our loan last week and had some bills to pay.

so a new post soon, i promise.

robby rocked the cricket!

some of you have intelligently asked us about how we're dealing with rain in the valley created between the old roof and the new. this is the answer... well, half the answer at least!

this is the cricket. a crazy little angled roof that connects the two main roofs at a high point in the middle and slopes down either way to get water off the roof. robby got half of it built tonight... figuring out all those compound cuts was quite a task... too bad real life doesn't have a mirror command for the other side. it will get sheathed and finished with shingles like the rest of the roof.

this is the view from the low end:


this is the view from the high end:




higher up on the roof:





robby thinks he's the bee's knees now....


fun times on the roof