There goes the yard...

The plumber trenched the back yard to tie into the sewer last week, so now we have piles of dirt all over until the inspection happens and we can fill it all back in. Joy.

We also decided to pull all the drywall out and insulate the exterior walls of the old section of the house, so that happened today.

I've also started pulling conduit for low-voltage cabling (CAT-5, coax, speakers, etc.). Thankfully, my brother-in-law will be coming down in a couple of weeks to help out with that effort. He has an ability to make even the most complex cabling installation look elegant, which is a very under-appreciated art form, I think.

Click here for more pictures.

We're back!

So I'm finally getting around to posting progress from the past couple of weeks.

Updates:
The insulation foam was sprayed onto the underside of the roof two weeks ago, and the HVAC installation began a couple of days later.

The electric and the plumbing are both currently being installed. We are also currently working on getting bids for both solar hot water and solar photovoltaic electric systems. The south side of the second story roof will be shingled (as opposed to tiled with mexican clay tile) to accommodate the solar panels.

We also decided to eliminate the ductwork in the old hallway and raise that roof to 8 feet to match the existing bedrooms on that side of the house. The electric will also be upgraded in those rooms, as it is the old style wiring with no ground circuit.

Lastly, the windows arrived yesterday, and all the windows for the new construction were installed today. The last five will be done tomorrow - they are in the old part of the house, so the old windows have to be removed before the new ones go in.

Click here for a slew of new photos.

Framing STILL almost done...

So we made a few changes to the framing, so it isn't quite done yet.

We decided to recess the area where the refrigerator goes so that it can be flush with the front of the cabinets. We also wanted to close up the old doorway into the hallway and put a new, wider pass-through in a little further down the wall.

We also wanted to expand the area of the kitchen by about 1 1/2 feet to accomodate our desired kitchen cabinet design.

...so the framing should be done tomorrow.

Here's a few more pictures.

Framing almost done

The framing is nearing completion. The first to second floor stairs were finished today and look great. They will eventually get stained dark to match the new kitchen cabinets.

Here are the rest of the pictures from today.

Two buildings into one

The new construction was tied back into the original house today, so the framing is almost complete. The stringers for the first to second floor staircase were also installed.

Click here for all of today's images.

a slight problem...

I know what you're all thinking, but no, this isn't the result of our neighbor using our bathroom after another night of binge drinking. This time.

We had a lot of rain last Friday. A LOT of rain. And apparently the less-than-stellar weatherproofing job of one of the workers allowed rain to get into the attic where it soaked the insulation and caused most of the ceiling to collapse in the bathroom.

Our neighbor might actually be under there somewhere - we haven't heard from him in several days. If he is, I hope we get to him before the DTs set in, because THAT would be ugly.

Huzzah!! New pictures!!!

The framing finally continued again towards the end of last week, so here are some current pictures. They will start to connect the old and new structures tomorrow, so the framing should be done very soon.

Click here for scads of new images.