A picture story of the entry way and its roof

Since Monday, the contractor has been working hard at getting the front porch walls and roof done.  It's just about complete.

The weather forecast calls for sprinkles this weekend and rain next Tuesday.  We will see how much they can get done on the roof by then.

Rain, rain, go away....

Today is September 25th...and it's raining.  I know you guys on the East Coast deal with rain in the summer all the time, but in California it usually doesn't start raining until late October or November.  Our poor contractor was coming back from his grandson's birthday party in Sacramento yesterday to see gray clouds moving inland.  He was worried about the rain, so he and his son came by around 6 pm to put tarps up on the roof.  My husband felt so bad that when he got home at 6:30 pm, he scarfed down some dinner and went up on the roof to help them.  Sure enough, by 11 am this morning, it started to rain.  The funny thing is, the contractor's dad, who used to be a contractor himself, told his son that it was going to rain in September.  I want to know how he was able to predict that....

Here comes the rain clouds.

Here you can see a little bit of the tarp on the roof.

You can see how much they had to cover.



Bummer....at about 1:30 pm I looked outside onto the front porch and noticed water dripping from the roof. It wasn't raining anymore, but the water that was sitting on the tarps found it's way down. So we ended up with two water puddles near the new entryway. I swept it off and put buckets under the drips to catch the rest of the standing water. I don't think we will see the rain anymore the rest of the day...it will just be cloudy. By the end of the week, the weather person says it's going to be in the 90's again.

My little helper!

At least this will be dry by the end of the week!

More roofing and walls

So in the past two days the contractors worked on the roof some more. They have put up the roof sheating on half of the addition and today they framed the interior entry closet and the framing for the front door! One more week to go before the roofing material gets put on.  That means the front porch will be done next week!

You can see here the right side is now covered.

Here is where the front door will be.

This will be the entry closet.

The roof takes shape!

At the end of the 19th day, the contractor started on the roof over the new bedrooms and at the porch - just so we can get the idea of the height.

The roof over the new bedrooms.

Here you get an idea of the height of the roof.

 


By the end of the 20th day, he got much of the roof framed over the addition.  I was going to go out and take some pictures from the street, but CT went out early this morning and got this roof shot - much better than from the street view, that's for sure!

What a view!

 
When the contractor worked on tearing the roof apart and giving us the "skylights" in the old bedrooms, we had to move the boys out of their rooms.  The two younger boys slept in the family room for two nights.  They could not sleep...they thought it was a slumber party!  They could have moved back in after the first night, but there was still debris coming off the roof and into the bedrooms.  So the contractor staples some plastic sheets over the plywood and that seems to do the trick in keeping bits of old roofing material out of the bedrooms.

Yesterday I locked myself at home and made myself put the boys rooms back together (I say that loosely).  Mostly just their mattress and a few other items like a lamp, etc. to make it liveable/useable.  CET was so excited to have his "room" back that he put an extra blanket over his bed, got out of his clothes and into his pajamas, got some books and put himself into bed and started reading.  It was too cute.  I even took video....but don't ask me to post it unless someone can tell me how to do that.

Oh, look....blogger makes this so easy!  Here's the video...sorry it's sideways!

Skylights anyone?

Well, if the boys want skylights in their room, they certainly got it today.  Half the ceiling was opened up so that the new beam can be put in.

But for safety reasons, the contractor put plywood back up on the ceiling so that intruders can't come in.  Really?  Intruders will scale the walls to climb up the roof into the boy's room?  Well, I guess it is desperate times.  No star watching tonight from the bedrooms!

Wanna see the rest of the house?  Wanna see how we will be living the next couple months?  Here's a sneak peek...and only a peek.  I really feel like someone from the Hoarders show will be calling us if I post too many pictures.  Yikes!  Brace yourself!

The dining room is actually not that bad anymore.  I was able to clean up and organize a tad after this picture was taken.

The good news is the contractor told me that he finished what he needed to do and the boys can move back into the bedrooms until he needs to do more work in those area - they will get about another month in their bedrooms.  Although I have to clarify if it's both bedrooms or just one.  One of the bedroom will turn into the hallway/powder room/laundry room, so he may need access to that bedroom.  Will keep you posted.  Good night!

What I got for my birthday....

Wall framing!  Whoo Hoo!  You can start to see the rooms take shape!  Isn't this exciting!  Although, our contractor said, "You haven't seen nothing yet!".  Hmmm...can't wait.

So, on the 15th day of construction, plywood sheeting was put up.  And more of the interior walls were framed.

This is the view of the house from across the street.  You can see the whole house...sort of.

KWT's new room.

CAT's new room.

Day 16.  Here is a little peek at what the entry will look like.  The contractor is trying to show us where the front door will be in relation to the porch and the arch that is created as the entry to the front porch.  We also have to figure out how to deal with the existing garage overhang.

The 2x4's in the back, under the ramp, is where the front door will be.  You can see half of the arch and the piece of wood above the arch is the ceiling of the front porch.

KWT's room also had a header installed for the future window.  This will later become CET's room.

So, I apologize for not posting any pictures for a whole week....and keeping you in suspense...'cause I know you were dying to check out the new walls!  But, now you are all caught up!

On the 12th day of construction, my contractor gave to me...

no roof over me....well, almost.  Most of the roof was torn out where the new construction will begin.  It's much brighter in our kitchen now...same with the entry!

Poor KWT has lost his closet.  Tonight he can see the stars if he goes into his closet and takes the towels down that are stuffed in between the rafters.  I hope it won't be a cold night!

This picture shows the inside of the garage.  Sorry for the messy shelves...but see the light?  That's just sunshine.  I didn't have the lights turned on in the garage.

Tomorrow we should see some walls going up!  Can't wait!

Four days of work!

In the four days after Labor Day, the girders were installed, the floor insulated and the subfloor is down...

The girders are in.

Insulation

The subfloor!  Now we have a stage in our front yard!

Now the fun part begins! Stay tuned....

Welcome to the Thompson House Remodel!

I though I would start this blog so that family and friends can see the progress...especially those who live far away.  We finally started Thursday, August 25th, 2011!  I think it's been 2, maybe 3 years from the initial concept.  We will go from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath to a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath and have a brand new kitchen!  We are so excited!  I will try to do updates every week.  I'm at least going to take pictures once a week so that we can see the progress later down the road...and laugh at how we had to live during construction.

The house before construction.

Another view, before construction.

The sewer pipe had to be moved.  C.E.T. is backfilling the trench.
What were the other two doing?  Watching TV and playing a video game...it figures!

After grading.  Some of the siding comes off the house.

They guys pouring concrete.

Concrete is poured!

Form boards come off on Labor Day.

In the last seven days, they have set the grade, dug the holes for the footings and poured the concrete for the foundation.  Whew!  A lot of hard work and sweat during the last two weeks!  The weather did cooperate by only being the the 80's....yes, it's been another "cool" summer.