Windows and Stairs

Eventually we'll have floating stairs... but this is the current view with the original stairway wall opened up and the temporary stairs going to the new upstairs.

And, the first of the windows are in!  They are Anderson 100 Series - antique bronze on the outside and white on the inside.

HVAC and plumbing will get started tomorrow.  

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)

Goodbye

Today, we said goodbye to our exterior siding (at least in the rear) and our front porch and stairs.  One by one, the old windows are also coming out and making way for new, much larger, ones.  We're donating the old windows to the Re-Store in Seattle (they say the value is about $75/window) - along with our original interior doors, our fireplace mantle and our cabinet pulls.  We'll have a tax donation of about $2,000 and hopefully someone will want our "junk."  It was easy to do.  The rep from Re-Store took a tour through the home and made a list of what they wanted, and then we "blue taped" the items so the workers could set them aside.  The Re-Store picked everything up and then they emailed me a tax receipt.  Easy, breezy.  

It took about two days to get rid of the porch and front steps but they are finally gone.  We'll be adding a new front porch to the home, along with a larger, interior entry area (with coat closet and bench).  The new entryway will actually pop out, towards the street, giving us more living space inside.  Our yard in the front is essentially useless so we aren't losing much of importance - maybe a large shrub and a little grass.*

Quinn is just so excited to be back at the job site!

* Weeds and moss. 

Floor Two

These photos aren't great but Ben was able to climb the ladder this morning and get a peek at the upstairs.  You start to get a good feel for the size of the windows.  They are going to be BIG - much larger than before.  We really enjoy mid-century architecture, and though we decided against buying a mid-century home (real estate professionals assure us that it is a fad with a 20% markup), we wanted to incorporate as many elements of mid-century architecture as we could.  We worked hard to place large windows in most of the rooms to bring light in and to arrange the windows on the exterior so that everything looked well balanced.

We also created a wall of clerestory windows (pronounced "clear story" but not spelled that way!) in the master bedroom to eliminate the line of sight into our neighbor's house and vice versa.  In fact, every window, except one, on the South side of the house will be a clerestory window.  The clerestory windows are a great way to create privacy for our family - which is hard to do on a skinny, 4,000 sq. ft. lot.

Master Bedroom - looking towards Master Bath

Kids' Bathroom

The weather is looking great for the next week so we should be able to get the roof on without any further rain damage to the existing house.