Raising the Support Beam

Dom arrived at the house just in time to watch Mike and his crew lift the support beams into place for the Master Bedroom and Kitchen.  They had to rent a huge crane to lift the beams. It is a full-on construction site at the end of our street.

Our house from below the bluff

Construction Equipment and Spring Blossoms

Dropping Steel Beam into Floor

Building the Dormer

The demo phase isn't over, but it is fun to see some construction taking place.  Here are a few shots Dom took, showing the beginning of the framing for the second story dormer.  You can also see framing for where the French Doors will go in on the main floor.

DEMO: Kitchen that will become our Dining Room

Rhys and Bobby totally dominated the kitchen demolition. It was impressive!  They turned our 1950s kitchen into studs and boards in one morning.  Once they finished, Andrew worked his tail off scraping up our flooring. What a transformation!

We are opening up the entrance to this space.  Instead of a pocket door, we will have an open floor plan between the Living Room and Dining area.  I don't think we want to make an archway, per say, but there will be something to define the two spaces.

DEMO: Opening up the Stairway

Since Mike and Ben have taken over the demo, things have really been moving fast.  They've done a lot more work on the interior of the house and we can really see the progress.  They opened up the stairwell, which totally made my day.  I love having the wall down and stairs exposed, instead of hidden behind a door.

BEFORE

BEFORE: The stairwell was hidden behind what looked like a closet door.

AFTER: Open and bright!

I had to add this picture below to the montage. 

Check out how the front entry looks with drywall - June 2014.  

Such a wonderful change!

DEMO: for the Dormer

Mike Anderson and his co-worker, Ben, have been working like crazy on our house. They have been taking advantage of the nice weather to demo the second floor and frame out the dormer.  We have decided to extend the dormer the length of the second story to create room for an additional bedroom upstairs.  We will have the master bedroom and bath, and then two guestrooms across the hall.  Dom went over and took some photos while the guys were working and said the view was incredible!  Now he wishes we were building another deck for the second floor.

our AMAZING view

 Hard at Work - We love these guys.

Here are a few pre- and post-demo photos to really show the progress the guys have made with the dormer.

BEFORE: Standing in guest room looking at the Master bedrm.

DEMO: Standing in guest room looking at the Master bedrm.

BEFORE - Guestroom built-in and closet -

DEMO - Guestroom built-in and closet

DEMO: Siding and Roof

We are excited to see even more progress on the exterior demo!  Mike has taken down the siding and roof. It is so cool to see the house stripped down to the boards. I think it looks pretty neat.  You can see how solidly the house was built... way back in 1952!

Sunlight shines through the roof into the Master Bedroom.  You can see the existing roofline, that will be opened up with the addition of the shed dormer. 

The arbor and grapes were a trademark of Dom's Grandma's house. While we are sad to see them go, I love seeing the empty space where our deck will be built.  We have ordered french doors that will lead from the dining area to the deck. They will be placed in about the same spot as the center window (that is boarded up).  It is going to be beautiful.

DEMO: Garage

The garage has come down!  Our contractor, Mike Anderson, has taken down three walls of the garage. We are turning the existing one-car garage into a two-car garage.  We will extend the garage West, towards the house, creating space for a mudroom and direct entry from the garage to the house.  This also means we will need to move the front door!