Weeks 7 & 8 - Grill Chimney and Choices

October 18 - 29

Our castle has really become our castle in the last two weeks. The grill chimney is a striking addition to the front of the house. I told Rowan it is like we are building a damn castle in the front yard. Makes her feel like she is back in bloody old England! It is REALLY going to be wonderful to have the grill inside the chimney so all of that greasy smoke can be sucked up the stack and out of the front porch dining area. I fear we will never eat inside again :o)

The carpenters finished up the inside framing for all of the walls so now we can see how our new vaulted ceilings are really going to open up the living space. The electricians also started running the miles of wire to all of the light fixture locations, recessed cans, switches, outlets, fire alarms, etc., etc...... all the while Rowan and I are starting to spend a lot of time looking at samples of this and samples of that. Lights & flooring are the main attractions at the moment. It can just make your head spin at how many things there are out there to choose from. It would be so much easier if we only had four or five choices for these things. Doesn't make it any easier that we are trying to be environmentally conscious about our choices too. Ugh!

Here are some photos:

The living room ceiling. You can see we have added an opening in the wall up high so we can see the skylights from the kitchen. This will be a great spot to sit some of our art glass collection.

The kitchen ceiling

The boys framing in the archway between the entry and new dining room.

The stone porch and grill chimney taking form.

The huge stone mantlepiece for the grill chimney. It is amazing how these guys lift these stones. There will be roughly 16 tons of stone in the porch when it is finished and these three guys will be moving, cutting and laying all of it!

The grill chimney is getting more exciting by the moment.

I can almost taste those grilled pork ribs! :o)

The top chimney cap taking form

We started getting REALLY excited once the guys turned the corner and started laying the front wall of the porch.

We are so impressed how these rough-around-the-edges stone masons can take this limestone and make it sooooo beautiful. It is really something!

The finished product. We can't wait to see how the addition of the arch between the top of the posts will look once it is added. We have a completely different house.

The search for the perfect flooring and lighting is endless. Here is a photo of my desk where most of the organization for the project is taking place (the paperwork is endless). We are starting to narrow our choices down a bit and think we will use quarry tile in the new entry foyer (you can see it on my desk).............

.....and, we have chosen Marmoleum tiles (similar to vinyl composition tile) in 6 to 9 different colors for the washroom/pantry. We are still refining our choice of colors, but they will come out of what you see in the photo below. The small 7x8 ft. room should be very playful with a colorful floor.

We have also been looking through endless lighting catalogues - mostly the latest in LED technology. It makes one's head spin how much is available in this exploding new technology. We have decided to use recessed cans that can take traditional screw-in base lights that are now being made with LED technology. The advantage of a no-heat bulb that lasts 18 years is what makes the LED so attractive. The bulbs are more expensive now, but will become widely available to the home consumer market in the next 12 to 18 months. We believe the extra cost will pay for itself by year 5 of it's 18 year life. :o)

My calendar is the one thing that is helping to keep me from going absolutely mad (besides Rowan's calming nature). It helps me to not schedule the plumber the same time as the flooring installation and to get the carpenters out of the house while the electricians are here to wire everything.

It looks like we are finally about half way through our project. Stay tuned for 6 to 8 weeks of more excitement coming soon..........

Week 6 -A Room With A View & Native Stone

Week 6 - Oct 11-15

Our world was opened up to the great outdoors this week. The installation of 7 new windows makes a great impact of how much of our outside world is now visible to the inside of the house. The new light is just fantastic. The front porch framing has also been completed, so the stone masons began their work on the stone pillars and grill chimney. This is going to be the most dramatic change to the front of the house.

The front porch framing being finished

New windows in the new dining room

New windows in the living room

Chris is the George Clooney of our crew. Too cute for words.

We had over 4 tons of local limestone delivered to our driveway this week. the stone is cut to lay in the Ashler pattern. A historical note on Indiana limestone: The Empire State Building in New York City is built from our local Indiana limestone. There are also many other major pieces of architecture in the US built with our local stone. Go here for more information and the history of our largest local natural resource - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Limestone

Sam, Billy and Bubba beginning the stone laying

The large wall in the center is the beginning of the grill chimney that will hold the gas grill and vent the smoke out of the chimney top.

This stone addition to the front of the house is going to be spectacular. We can't wait to see it finished!

Stay tuned for more exciting news from week 7!

Weeks 4 & 5 Part 2 - The Sky's The Limit & Something for Dad

More from Sept. 27 - Oct. 8

Let There Be Light! Natural light.........

It is amazing how one goes through every detail to put a solid, secure, water-tight roof on a house and then has the nerve to cut big holes in it for vents and other things like skylights. Well, we are living through the stress of doing just that. We decided early on to include skylights to let more natural light into the living room and kitchen where we spend most of our time. Our thinking is that we will use less electricity during daylight hours to help do our part in saving the planet.... We are using Velux No Leak Skylights, currently one of the best on the market. Fingers crossed, they are telling the truth about that. If it ever does rain here again, we may be able to test that claim :o).

Here are photos of the kitchen and living room skylights being installed in the new vaulted ceilings.

Pat cuts the first hole in the kitchen ceiling. Yes, I am holding my breath!

The skylights have three levels of flashing to prevent leaks.

We are also installing a sun tube to beam natural light into the basement stairwell (see photo below). This will help shoot natural light into the stairwell during the day and eliminate the need to turn on the light during the day as we enter the house through the new garage into the basement at the back of the house. Before the installation, I draped the basement stairwell in plastic and sealed off the end so the plaster that fell from the ceiling didn't cover our basement living space and temporary kitchen with dust. God forbid!! How can we possibly live with any dust!!!! HA! I am still finding little no-see-um dusty things with crunchy bits in the dishes!!!

Here is the sun tube before it is connected to the basement globe. You can see how much natural sunlight comes down through it. A wonderful natural light source for a one time cost of about $160. No light switch needed.

This next photo is just for my dad. The HVAC guys came to extend the duct work from the heating/cooling system into the new dining room space. This photo shows one of the guys in the new crawl space running/extending the new supply and return ducts. My dad spent his whole working life as a sheet metal man crawling around in spaces like this (most not as clean as this brand new crawl). Daddy, I promise I'll let you go down there on your next visit! :o)

Here you can see the old and new materials used for venting. The old sheet metal return duct on the left and the new double insulated flexible duct covered in black plastic on the right. Hmmmm, the one on the left has been in the house since 1953. How long do you think the new one on the right will last?

Can't wait for next week. Windows, doors and stone porch to begin.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :o)

Weeks 4 & 5 Part 1- Roof & Porch

Sept. 27 - Oct 8

There have been big changes on the house in the last two weeks. The lack of rain is making it easy to move right along. There has been only one day of rain in the last 8 weeks (something we appreciate as we have had no roof on the house for a couple of weeks). Unusual weather for us in the Ohio Valley Region. Lawns and gardens are always green here as it usually rains at least 5 to 10 times a month year round when rain/snow and thunder storms move through. I have actually had to turn the sprinkler on the dirt where the front porch slab will go so that it begins to settle before the concrete is poured. Watering dirt, a wacky concept!

Here are photos of the remainder of roof construction and the front porch taking form.

The carsiding being extended over the eves.

Chris, our youngest carpenter, will often hang out during lunch and play his guitar. He loves Johnny Cash.

The back part of the roof being framed. You will notice the old roof in the foreground. It is much shorter and less steep than the new roof. That's Pat sitting up on the massive ridge beam.

So, the guys made this big ridge beam wrench out of a 2x12. You can see it below at the end of the beam going off to the right. It is notched around the ridge beam and is used to twist the beam into square as the trusses are put into place. One of the guys pulls down on it to do this. An amazing invention!

From left, Chris, Mike, Jim and Jenni on the new roof waiting for the shingles to be dropped from the delivery truck.

The back of the house showing how much higher the new roof extension is than the old roof line.

Beginning the framing for the front porch. It is VERY exciting!!!

Here is Jim creating the most fabulous 'cricket' where the two front peaks of the roof meet (that is what that structure you see is called). This will help the rain and leaf debris drain from this complicated part of the roof line.

The under side of the porch roof.

The 3 new peaks on the front of the house. A completely different look than the original (see 7/18/10 post - Time For A Change, for old photo of house).

Stay tuned for more developments in Part 2 of this post..............