Dormer work

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We didn’t start dormer 2 this weekend – due to the supposed rain on sunday – that never came and it was beautiful on sunday – all well!  Ryan got a few things buttoned up on the first dormer and built the first wall for dormer 2 so it’s ready to go next weekend.

Window cut and seams taped

Another view

We also got more brush burned and a tree taken down (dead one) for firewood this winter.  We have a few more dead trees we’ll take down to burn and another pile of brush to work our way through still. We had a visit from a heron while we burned wood:

They drain the lake down in the winter so by our dock is just mud with a little water in the center.  It’s a great opportunity to clean up our area and get some downed trees and branches out – just need to bring my mud boots next weekend!

Roof!

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This weekend Ryan and his Dad spent most of the weekend closing up and putting a roof on the first dormer!  It was a lot of work but it’s pretty close to done now (obviously we are waiting on windows to arrive and we have to buy siding too which I think I found the matching kind so we may be good there now too).

So the soffit was closed up, the roof was taped, the valley was flashed and the new roof is on and is VERY close to matching the old!

Dormer has a roof

Another view

Now we need 2 more weekends and some evening time to do another one which will hopefully go a little faster the second time around we think.

Dormer work this week

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So far Tuesday and Wednesday night we’ve been at the house so Ryan and his dad could work.  Mark got the chimney finished up – I think it needs one last cap piece to cover the center but otherwise it’s finished… it looks awesome!

Check out that fanciness!

I don’t have an updated picture of the dormer because they work until well after dark.  This is a picture from Monday I think so it shows the roof was started…

As of last night the roof is closed up but not yet taped.  That front triangle is still open.  So this weekend the plan is to finish this dormer up completely (get it taped up, closed up), frame out that window in the front etc.  We’ll wait until a future weekend before starting the next one!

We officially have internet at the new house too… Go Exede!

Check out that sharp looking dish

It’s been a long weekend/week, I hope/think we are taking tonight off and we’ll probably be back to the house Friday night and all weekend.  Tonight and tomorrow I need to work on Halloween costumes!

Busy Weekend – Dormer!

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This weekend started out with Friday night – Ryan’s dad came over after work and continued work on the chimney!  It’s very close to done now and looks great with diamonds along the top!

On Saturday we had to go pick up our boat in the morning and got to the house around noon.  Ryan started on the first dormer right away, first finding center and cutting a hole in the roof!  Figures it started to hail shortly after that!  We had some cold weather for a weekend with a big hole in the roof!

Ryan’s dad helped all weekend and by the end of Saturday they had the hole all cut and the window all built and put up.  They had started the flashing (putting it under the shingles) until it was too dark to continue.  Sunday was an earlier start and they got the side walls up and closed in, then the roof put on.  The roof still needs to be covered and the soffit has to be finished.  They aren’t going to cut the window hole out until we get our windows.  I left early with the kids Sunday so the only picture I have is in progress but I’ll share what I have.  They covered it all up with a tarp and hopefully some night this week we can get over to work on it a bit.  It gets dark so early it’s tough.

Next weekend for sure Ryan will finish that one up and I assume start on the next.

A good view of hte size of the dormer. This was when I was leaving.

From the inside as they had started the roof

When I showed up sunday morning, flashing was done and the first side wall was about to go up!

I got some burning of brush done in our new pit, the girls helped out once quiet/nap time was over.  It was cold though so I got about 1/3 of one pile done before taking the kids back in.  The house was so cold even with heat on (hello hole in the roof) so the baby was not too happy on Sunday 🙂  She also doesn’t like running around doing errands and we had to do that a bit.

Here’s hoping for warmer weather next weekend – it sure was cold this morning with ice everywhere!

Fire pit and chimney

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On Sunday Ryan built us a fire pit in the back yard – down near the lake.  The weather is exactly perfect for it and we’ll be able to burn our leaves and brush this fall.  It’s in a flat spot too so we can sit around it for an evening fire when we want!

On Monday Ryan and his dad had the day off so they started working on rebuilding the chimney!  What a beautiful job they did!  It looks so nice and once we get a new fireplace insert we can have indoor fires this winter too!

We also got the windows all ordered for the house, they will take at least 4 weeks so we won’t get them all installed this fall but hopefully some of the upstairs ones will get put in so we can do the indoor renovations upstairs over the winter!

We are working on a heating/cooling plan, Ryan’s cousin is going to do that for us.  We are moving away from geothermal as an option after pricing it out and seeing the return on investment in the range of 30 years – which is how long before you have to replace portions of the system – not worth it 🙁  But we have a few other options and once we make some decisions we will share!

 

Sill Plate and Demo

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This past weekend Ryan replaced the rotted sill plate under the front door and finished securing the smaller beam in the basement!  Jacking up work is done!

New sill plate piece

On Sunday with the help of Ryan’s dad they got the rest of the demo done in preparation for putting in dormers.  I had to unwire/rewire a bit and we will need to do cleanup (dumpster) eventually but for now we are ready for dormers as soon as we get good weather on a weekend!

Smaller bedroom – ready for a dormer

master bedroom ready for a dormer

We were hoping for no rain this weekend (3 day weekend) but that’s not going to work out so we’ll have to work on another project this weekend instead and hope the weekend after is better.

Demo

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The weekend before last we spent all day Saturday working on filling our dumpster … so bathroom demo time!  We got a good portion of the upstairs bathrooms demo’d and I took up carpet tacks and trim off of 2 of the bedrooms upstairs when there was no room in a bathroom for 2 people 🙂

Door frames removed from closets – this one is ready for a dormer!

Back bedroom – I got most of the trim and all carpet tacks up in here. Not a lot to do in this room hopefully over all.

Master bathroom – toilet and sink/vanity removed

Small bathroom – sink and toilet removed

Looking from master bathroom through wall to smaller bathroom (where sink and toilet were)

We’re going to get the boat out of the water this week and get it ready for winter (clean it out, get it winterized and covered).  Friday we meet with the HVAC guy that did the blower test on the house to get a quote on heating system options and plans.  That’s our first thing we need to get done – heat – before it gets cold!

2 Beams done

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Technically we are done jacking up all 3 of the beams we installed (thanks to Ryan’s Dad’s help today – they got it finished up) but 2 of the beams are really finished (bracket installed).  We have to drill holes in the steal brackets for the 3rd beam still.

Bracket with 4×4 in front as extra support

Beams with the extra supports/jacks removed

We still have some jacking up to do – we have another beam to add on the other side and the front needs to be jacked up to remove the rotted sill plate in one section and replace it.

Tuesday we are having someone come out to do some tests and design out our heating system (planning on doing a geothermal system).  Once that work is done we can complete the planned demo and start working on the construction projects like dormers!

Jacking up the house

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We had a very productive weekend.  We got 2 beams (doubled LVLs) installed with jacks – the real posts are on order so we are waiting for those.  In the mean time we were able to start jacking up the original beam and our 2 new beams.  We can’t just jack up all the sag at once, just a little at a time so most nights this week we’ll go to the house and lift it a bit each time.  We anticipate lots of cracks in the sheetrock and popped tiles but that’s a good sign and all repairable down the road!

A view of most of the beams – we have one more to install on the other side of the stairs but this is a great start.

The far beam was a ton of work – we couldn’t have done it without using dad’s sheetrock lift – that was his great idea!

We also got our couch out of storage and now have a place to rest in the livingroom!

A productive weekend for sure.  Next weekend is camping!!! Can’t wait and hoping for continued good weather.

Footings done

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Last weekend Ryan finished up the footings Friday night and Sunday morning.

They look great!  We had trouble finding the right size adjustable posts and actually had to order them off of amazon of all places for building materials!  We spent our day off (Monday) making some brackets to support the beams and starting to put the first one up.  This is going to be a lot of work with Ryan doing it mostly by himself this weekend while I watch the kids.  Hopefully we can get the beams up and start jacking them up (we need to raise the house quite a bit in some places so it can’t all be done at once.

Once this project is done we can start working upstairs … after labor day since we plan on camping again this year!