Taking shape!

 The workers stayed late on Thursday, hustling to get the trusses up and sheathing on because of the rain forecast for Friday. They put a big tarp over everything and no rain made it in!

Shot of all roof trusses from outside

On Friday, the crew started building out the end wall--the wall that will have a center column with the fireplace & TV, two sliding glass doors to the future deck, and side windows.

Below is the frame for the new gas fireplace. it will be low on the wall, and it's a horizontal fireplace.

This is the tile that we'd like to use on the column, by the way: 

Yesterday, Monday, October 24, the workers started framing the windows and doors--we can now see what the space is going to look like when it's finished!

View of the back wall. Fireplace in the center, with two glass doors on either side. There will also be triangular transom windows above the doors.

Back wall and a side window. Sorry for the funky angle on this--I was taking pictures around the plastic tarp sealing off the space from the rest of the house.

A view of the back wall without the glare of the sun.

Raising the roof! (Construction day 8)

The roof trusses went up over the sunroom today.

The trusses for tomorrow are waiting on the ground. Those will go over the current living room.

The weather is lovely--it was up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit today and tomorrow it's supposed to be warm as well. All the better for raising a roof! There is a chance of precipitation on Friday, so hopefully they can get it covered up by then!

Slow, slow, quick, quick (Days 2 and 3 of construction/destruction)

After so many months of waiting, things are now moving at light speed. Yesterday, the workers filled the enormous dumpster with old siding, ceiling, windows, and walls. There is now plastic between the former living room/sunroom area and the dining room, and more plastic sealing off the entryway and bedrooms in the old part of the house.

View of the sunroom ceiling, held up by temporary posts.

The dumpster full of old siding, windows, and wood.

The former fireplace, which will be covered over by wallboard. The new fireplace will be on the back wall.

A view of the space under the sunroom, and looking out over the back yard.

The dumpster was emptied on day 3, ready to be filled with more construction debris.

Looking down into the space beneath the former sunroom.

The area to the left is where the stoop to the back door used to be.

A view of the underside of the roof.

We're using a folding table in the kitchen for our meals (we would be on the screened-in porch, but it's a little too cool outside.) It's kind of fun, and it feels very informal. After dinner, we fold up the table and do the dishes.

Today when I came home, all of the flooring had been removed from the old sunroom. Apparently some water was getting through, so our contractor is trying to figure out how to prevent that from happening again.

There were a couple of discoveries--there used to be a door leading into what is now the laundry room, before the porch (which later became the sunroom) was added on. They also found that the fireplace surround used to be brick (instead of black ceramic tile.)

Tomorrow they will put in the new subfloor in the area that used to be the sunroom.

There's no way they'll start in the rain...

That was our thinking, until I looked out the window and saw a truck pull up in the front yard! Despite the rain, demolition for our project began today.

First a huge truck brought an enormous dumpster into the back yard--unfortunately, the truck was then unable to get out of the back yard because of the rain--they had to bring a big truck with a winch and a steel cable to help extricate the truck. Sadly, our lawn is a little worse for wear because of it, but that's one of the hazards of renovation, and we'll deal with it later.

On the bright side, the crew was able to get a lot of demolition done. They brought in scaffolding, ripped out the ceiling in the sunroom, took out the picture window between the living room and the sunroom, and took out the part of the wall in the sunroom so they could easily move debris into the dumpster. 

The room seems enormous! 

I've covered over the hole with plastic for the weekend so that the cat can't get outside, and birds and other animals can't get inside.