The Writing's On the Wall

Probably the only time we'll ever get to grab a Sharpie and start writing all over the walls of our house. Marking up all of the walls where we wanted backing to go was on our "todo" list last weekend. This allows us to hang things without having to worry about finding the wall studs.



Probably one of the more challenging parts of the project as far as carpentry goes were the stairs. There were diagrams scribbled in various places around the downstairs brainstorming designs for our stairs. This particular one was etched into the temporary workbench that they've built downstairs.



A pile of sheet metal that will be the ductwork that runs mostly around the ceiling downstairs.



The carpenters' best friend, or worst enemy, depending on how you look at it. We took at a look at it out of curiosity and it had too many pages and the font was too small and it mentioned things like "egress" and so we stopped looking at it.



This is the cutout area where the door from the office out to the deck will be. The door was ordered just this week. We're hoping it will be installed next week.



This is most of the wall from the deck where all the siding has been torn out along with a couple of old windows. When finished, it will have a door, and three large windows.



Not much progress on the deck lately but the beadboard ceiling on the deck is well underway and looks pretty good.



Perhaps the biggest accomplishment has been stair access from our main floor of the house. No more climbing up ladders or through windows to inspect the downstairs (woo-hoo!). This is a shot from the main floor of the house looking down.



This is a shot from the landing of the stairs looking up to the door to the main floor. This door use to lead into a coat closet.



This is a stack of our new windows. They are nice casement windows from Milgard.



This is a picture of the new way that the ductwork has been routed with the nice shiny sheet metal. The old way of doing the ductwork, which used that large black ugly plastic thing, can be seen below it.

Our closet has a hole in it, and other oddities

This is what our hall coat closet looked like earlier last week. This is going to be the way to access the downstairs from the main floor of the house.



This is what our hall closet looked like a little later in the week. It was kind of strange to open the door and find workers in there instead of carpeted floor.



This is a picture of the same coat closet but from the downstairs perspective.



This is a picture of what the shower stall is going to look like in the bathroom downstairs.



This is the landing in the stairs going down from the main floor of the house. There was quite the debate over the stairs the other day when it was realized that the height from floor to the closet door was not high enough for the amount of stairs needed for this level. So it will end up that there will be two stairs in the landing that will be placed diagonally such that they will curve around the landing to the last set of stairs. It's impossible to explain and so there will be pictures when they have been built.



This opening here will be where the closet doors will go for the secondary bedroom walk in closet.



This is a shot from the master bedroom through the master bedroom door to the rest of the floor.



Work would be impossible without a set of plans down there somewhere.



This is a picture of the stair risers that go up to the landing.



And back to the deck...they were able to finish the waterproofing layer on the top deck last week because the weather was finally working with us. So now they can continue progress on the rest of the deck. This is a picture of the bead board that will go up on the ceiling of the second level of the deck.



This is the last layer of the waterproofing process. It'll blind you if you look directly at it in the sun.

Just Pretend There Are Walls...

...and there would be rooms everywhere down here. Actually, there seems like there is more and more framing where the walls are going to go every day we go down there to inspect. So actually, these pictures are already a little outdated. But, since these are the latest and greatest pictures that we have, these will have to suffice for the time being...


This is where the future secondary bedroom will be located. This is on the east side of the house.



This is where the future master bedroom will be located. This faces the backyard on the south side of the house.



Another shot of the master bedroom. The area behind the framing on the far right of the picture is where the bathroom and closet area will be.



A view of the downstairs hallway. This would be the direction you would be facing if you just came down the stairs from the main level of the house.



This is where the future home theater room will be. This is toward the north side of the house. This part is completely underground and therefore can have no windows. It makes for a perfect movie room.



Just a shot of the whole expanse of the downstairs.

On Solid Ground

We finally have a floor, sort of, that we can walk on. One of us was more adventurous than the other and so one of us stayed down in the storage area and took a picture of the other one up through the temporary hole that the carpenters are using to get up there by a ladder.




This is a picture through one of the windows that will be in our office. You can see the new deck out through it.



This is a picture of where our future media room will be located.



This is a picture of where the secondary bedroom will be located.



This is a picture of the storage area underneath the new downstairs floor.



This is a picture of the overall new floor looking out where the office and master bedroom will be.



This is a picture of where the master bedroom will be.



This is a picture taken from where the master bedroom will be out across through the office to where the secondary bedroom will be located at the end there where the window is.





Another picture of the master bedroom nook of windows.



The ladder that one of us climbed up to walk around on the new floor.







This is a picture of what our current duct work looks like above the new floor. This will all have to be moved eventually.