Porch & Deck

As of Memorial Day, the porch and deck are done . . . or at least the framing. The porch still needs to be screened in, door hung, etc., but I think that will happen further down the road.



View from the master bedroom deck


View from the living room onto the screened porch - Evan is particularly fond of the metal ceiling

All Framed Up and Nowhere to Go

Things are really moving along! We have a fully framed 2nd story now, and stairs (which is key, because I was starting to plan an escapade that involved ladders and rope swings).

Friday, 5/15
Notice the workers up on the roof!




Saturday, 5/16
Stairs!


What will be the master bedroom - that opening will eventually lead to a deck


Charlie coming out of his closet

2nd Story

Despite tornadoes in the area on Tuesday and lots of rain this week, we've seen quite a bit of progress on the house. We now have a 2nd story, and hopefully the roof will follow shortly.

First Story Framing

We have a fully framed first story, and what looks like our first minor problem. One of the downstairs windows (or at least the framing for the window) is a few feet too far to the left. This has made me appreciate all the more that we are able to stop by often and check things out.

Extension for 9 ft ceilings


The house has a back!


New framed wall between the future living room & guest room


The incorrectly placed window


In other news, we picked out a front door today. It's an Arts & Crafts style mahogany job with 6 tiny windows (which I've learned are called "lights" when on a door). It's very lovely, and we got a great deal on it - hooray!

We've had lots of folks ask how Charlie has been affected by this. So far, not at all. If you ask him what's happening to his house, he says, "The guys are fixin' it." The kid is totally unflappable. He also distinguishes between the "old house" and "rental house" with ease, as if this is a totally normal.

!

Nothing could have prepared me for how totally insane our house looks. I walked through it a bit, and all of the rooms felt so weirdly small, despite being open to the sky and/or the backyard. Tomorrow looks clear, but after that we're going to have 5 days of rain. The big question on both of our minds is: Will the world's biggest tarp be enough to protect our floors?





View from the front door towards the backyard

Roofless in Raleigh

This is the vision that greeted us today:





I couldn't help myself, and went inside and climbed up the pull-down ladder into the attic. Kind of a cool view, as long as you don't actually have to live in the house!


The backyard crap pile - and you can [sort of] see the slab has been poured


Another surprise: These irises finally bloomed this year! I took this as a sign (although of what, exactly, I'm not sure).

Progress

We have a hole! And as soon as it stops raining (again), it will be filled with glorious concrete. That's our 4-foot extension, which looked way smaller but Evan measured it and now I'm convinced.