Finally

We've been waiting for quite some time to see how the roof line would look after the entryway was completed.  Here it is!  Now we just need to find someone to start building out our (overly complicated but extremely cool) soffits.  So far, four companies have said no.  Hmmm...

Full Court Press

This is going to be a busy, busy week.  There were about 8 men at the job site today!

The windows should get delivered today and will be installed over the next 2 days.  We are so excited about how large the windows will be, although apparently they will require a special contraption to hoist them up.

The roof, fascia and gutters will be completed this week.  Our funky, angular soffits still won't be designed until the siding team gets started.  

Our first inspection was completed today... and so the new foundation for the entryway should be poured tomorrow.  The framing of the entryway will happen on Wednesday.  This is when the exterior of the house will really take shape.  There will be another extended soffit over the entryway as well.

There are temporary stairs up to the second floor now so we can go upstairs and walk around.  Now I can finally get up there and determine if our hallway is too small... although nothing I can do about at this point.  If it feels too small or narrow, we may have to consider a special wallpaper or design idea (maybe different lighting?) that will make the space feel larger and more open.

It seems like the perfect time for a trip to Tucson - with low 80s and gorgeous views - so we're off.  Hoping to finally spot the (mythical?) javelinas (also known as a skunk pig).  My dad says, they are so ugly that they are cute.  But anything with the nickname "skunk pig" can't have much going for it.

Build house, drink margaritas.  And as Quinn says, "Can we have some of that green stuff?" (AKA guacamole)

Raise the roof

The lower section of the roof is on!  (The lower section will be 8'3" and the upper section will be 10'.)

We are able to get a peek at our extra deep soffits.  They'll stick out 4 1/2 feet in the front and back, and 18" on the sides.  I just read an article about how Frank Lloyd Wright's deep overhang's have been "out of fashion" for awhile now... especially now that people are buying more heat pumps to help with heating and cooling their homes.  But we're bringing 'em back!  (And I certainly don't agree that they've gone out of fashion anyway.)

Apparently, there is a mathematical relationship among roof overhang, roof slope, soffit height and the sun, which allows the deep overhang to keep the house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.  Interesting but entirely useless.  I'm pretty sure that the science of solar angles did not factor into our architect's soffit design; it was all aesthetics.  And I thank her for making them deeper than I ever would have considered because they are going to look fabulous!

Truss arrives

The truss to support the roof structure has finally arrived.  It was manufactured off-site and then delivered in one piece by crane truck.  The truck had to lift the truss (approx. 40 ft. long) over our alley fence and onto the house.  I missed all of the excitement and don't have any photos of the crane truck but here is the truss:

Robert confirms that the lower section of the roof should be completed today, and the upper section will be completed tomorrow.

I thought it was pretty exciting to see this much anticipated truss finally here.  Jules, not so much... she slept through the adventure.

 

Progress... and more progress!

I hadn't been inside the house for a week, and wow, a lot of progress was made.  I kept driving by waiting for the roof to go up... but as it turns out, the roof was delayed until next week and so they took a hammer to the inside.  More like a sledgehammer.  No bathroom, no kitchen, no bedrooms, no walls... just memories and dust.   

The wall is now gone between the kitchen and Jules' bedroom.  Our kitchen will be located in the same location as before but the dining room will be moved to the back of the house where Jules' bedroom was located.  With the walls gone, it feels much more open.

This photo is looking from the living room into the new dining area.  We removed the original brick fireplace to create flow and openness.  Finally, the house doesn't feel like a 1940s box house - it's starting to feel like it was built in this era.

Here is a photo of the former main bathroom.  The tub (and everything else) is gone and it will be converted into a funky powder room.  IMHO, powder rooms are the place to go nuts.  So we will.  Pretty much anything goes.

This is a photo looking from the new living room/entry area across the home and into... the powder bath.  (Yuck.)  I really REALLY did not want a floor plan where you could see into the bathroom from the main living space.  We originally created a little "nook" off the powder bath so that you could not see right in, but at this point, we're not sure that the nook is the answer.  We're brain storming ideas so that we can keep the open floor plan without a line of sight into the bathroom.  Hmmm...

Overall, I am very pleased with the work.  The team of 6 is working hard and gettin' it done. 

Tarps with holes...

Tarps with holes... don't hold water.  And under this weekend's very wet and very windy conditions, the tarps failed.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either.  The basement, which was supposed to be untouched during this project, has water soaking through the drywall in the downstairs bathroom and the furnace room.  Kuddos to our hard working construction team that did their best to contain the water during one of Seattle's worst September storms in history.  Good time to have a house with no roof.

Despite, stress level is still fairly low.

The 2nd floor framing should be visible by the end of the week.  It will be exciting to start to see the structure's size and shape come together during framing.

Roof comes off! And the rain starts up...

After just one day of prep work, the roof comes off!  The goal is to beat the weather and get the house weather-tight as soon as possible.  And we've really got to hurry because the weather report calls for 2-3 inches of rain over the weekend and 30-40 mph wind gusts.

(Ben is wearing this shirt because he wanted to match the tarps.  Ha!)

The job site is messy, but from the outside, there is still some resemblance of our beloved home.  The inside is a different story... the doors are gone, the fireplace is gone, it's dirty... really dirty.  It's starting to look like a real project.  That's a good thing.  Ben and I are relieved that the process of the construction loan is over (yes, it finally closed and funded, or so we're told - though we've yet to hear from the "Renovation Draw Specialist" who should have contacted us days ago).

Our biggest problem currently, according to our contractor, Robert, is the upcoming winds.  Surprisingly, my stress level is low (and no, I haven't been popping Xanax - I save those babies for cross-country flights).  I have yet to tell Robert that my lifelong motto has been "when you fail to plan, you plan to fail."  I sure hope he's got a solid plan for this weekend wind storm!

Our second biggest problem: we have 16 wine glasses and a large box of alcohol (accidentally) left in the garage and blocked behind this amazing pile of roof rubble.  Ironically, in our pre-remodeled house, we never had enough room for a dinner party with 16 people so we never had a need for 16 glasses (exceptions to every rule: Volksgiving), but in our new Madison Park rental house, we actually have a table that could seat 16 and now we only have 8 glasses.  Oh well, we probably couldn't convince 16 friends to drive all the way to Madison Park for a dinner party anyway.

Groundbreaking!

Official Groundbreaking!*  Wednesday, September 25, 2013

* These photos were actually taken awhile back when our structural engineer asked us to verify the size of our footings.  Quinn and Ben dug about 3' down but never did find the footing.

The real "groundbreaking" wasn't groundbreaking at all - it was chimney breaking.

Chimney is gone! 

The roof should be coming off soon.  Just in time for the inch and a half of rain that is predicted over the next two days!