We'll Leave the Light On...

Well we will once Mark, our electrician, finishes wiring the house!  He has made great progress despite the frigid temperatures inside.  We have met several times to determine where each light switch, outlet, ceiling and wall fixture will be placed.  Most of you know that I have definite opinions on these things, and he has been more than nice in accommodating my every wish.  He even was able to situate our second electrical panel that will power the back part of the house in the space underneath the middle staircase.  The other option was on the wall of my office area which would have been okay except that I was going to have to cover it with a painting:)  I much prefer where it is now.

Mark is going to separate our indoor and outdoor light switches to make it easier for Joel and I to know which toggle to flip when the time comes.

While Mark installs the electrical wires and boxes, Steve has been coming up with different ways that he can support the Yoga room roof in preparation for the vaulting of the ceiling and the addition of the upstairs deck off the back.  That is quite a bit of weight pushing and pulling on the walls so the solution needs to be very strong and sturdy.  He had this massive LVL beam made which he will be hanging lengthwise in the peak very soon.  Once this room is secure, he can finish framing out our closet and be done with the upstairs floor plan.

Earlier in the week he completed the frames for the walls of my mini closet in our bedroom and the wall that will separate the upstairs hallway just at the top of the middle stairs from our bedroom.

For months now I have been having fun on Pinterest, picking out wallpaper patterns, lighting fixtures, appliances, tiles etc. for each room in the house.  It seemed so far away at the time, but I have been making some definitive decisions lately as size and placement of many of these items is being determined now.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!!

Our New Floorplans are Underway

Winter is definitely upon us, and Steve is working inside full time now.  He has created a workstation upstairs to cut boards for all the framing that needs to be done.  Our two bathrooms, with a spacious hallway separating them, are beginning to take shape which is very exciting because I can now start to place the sinks and toilets etc. in the spaces (well, at least mark them with little slips of paper!)  Since Paige has been home for the holiday season we head up to the house every day to see what new progress has been made.  She enjoyed testing out the guest room shower:)

You will notice that the stall seems little, and it is...36" by 36," but that is because this room is going to feature a spectacular oval whirlpool soaking tub that takes up quite a bit of floor space.

This angled wall mimics the one that was already there.  Steve just made it longer and moved it back several inches, thus keeping the cool slant where I plan to place a pedestal sink and mirror in our master bathroom.  The space in the background where the boards are piled up is my future laundry room.

Steve is also working on the Yoga Room.  Joel and I decided to grab some space from the west side of the room and have Steve create a large walk-in closet that we can share.  As he prepared to move the existing wall and build a new one further into the room, the roof began to sag.  Steve knew this was going to happen and is not concerned so I will not worry either!

LOTS of Pics...few words!

front hall closet and downstairs bath

side entrance hall

front office space and den beyond

dining room fire place all opened up

kitchen mock up

                                                                    new side door

                                                             MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

This Just In!

A week or so ago Joe, from Rizio and Calandra Plumbing/Excavating, told me that when he and his crew began digging for our septic system installation they uncovered an old well just off the east side of the house where our new piping was going in.  I remember talking with both Terry and Lyn Wardwell back in the summer about where the wells and septic tanks may have been located back when they lived in the house.  Well we found one!  Joe just sent a bunch of cool pictures from their 4 or so days on the job.  This next one is of the leach field piping

Since Oliver left late last week for Florida, Steve is working solo again.  Each day he adds to the structural integrity of the back of the house by placing LVL's in the ceiling of the Rustic Room to support the Yoga Room above.  That is a long expanse! I appreciate that he explains his progress to me each step of the way so that I understand the "guts" of the house.  Once we start sheet rocking and making the rooms all pretty again, at least I will know how solid and sturdy things are underneath.

view of new beams from kitchen into Rustic Room

looking down over new support beam into kitchen

new floor joists in Rustic Room

I met with Mark, our electrician, over the weekend to lay out the plans for lighting these back rooms.  He will be getting started with the wiring and installation soon!

Feeling so Blessed on this Thanksgiving Day

The turkey is in the oven.  Family will soon be arriving.  I am happy and excited to share this day with everyone whether they are here in our home or far away enjoying their own holiday.  Cheers all!!

So, winter came fast and furious this year.  Last Friday it was 70 and sunny when my friend Maria came to see the house.  We snapped this selfie from the upstairs yoga room to the open outdoors.  A mere 24 hours later the temperature had dropped 40 degrees, and a short while after that it snowed.  Steve and Oliver were able to get the second story sliding glass door in and the whole back of the house buttoned up just in time.  Now they are working on the support beams in that back part of the house.  I am having to make decisions on where electrical outlets and plugs etc. will go in the rustic room as the electrician is coming next week to set us up for the winter work space.

Almost Done with the Enclosure of the House

Even though the autumn weather has been extremely favorable for our house project, daylight savings and some very cold days foreshadow the long winter ahead.  Steve and Oliver have been working hard to get everything all buttoned up so once the snow flies we can be concentrating on the interior modifications.  This week they got what we fondly refer to as the window-door-window ensemble installed on the east side of the house in the Rustic Room.  We had to shift this whole set quite a few inches into the space to allow for the interior swing of the door.  Spike has been working right alongside the guys and has created an artistic stone wall foundation and is now building the new side steps.

Early last week the digger returned with its owners and our septic tank was put into place just off the back east corner of the main house.  That same day Lenny and his guy, Carl,  showed up to continue work on the west side chimney.  I had to park across the street and up the hill again just to pay a visit!

Meanwhile Steve has installed 2 huge support beams in the ceiling of the Rustic Room.  He also removed the back wall of the house in the Yoga Room in preparation of a structural rebuild and the installation of the sliding glass door.  Joel and I saw this new development late in the day on Thursday as darkness was falling.  I couldn't get a proper photo so I asked my dad to return on Friday to get some shots.  Not only did he take that pic, but he also captured Steve and Oliver using their brute strength to place the gorgeous large paneled window in the lakeside wall.

No Lines!

My friend Margo came in from Syracuse on Saturday for lunch and a visit to the house.  She was one of the first people that got the grand tour when we first purchased back in May.  Margo has some knowledge of energy fields, spirits, beings, and the like and she was intrigued by my experience with the red and purple lines.  I showed her all through the rooms, downstairs and up, and we eventually found ourselves in the master bedroom.  Joel was working next door in the Yoga room so we asked him to take our picture in the same spot as the lines sighting.  Nothing like that happening in this shot so we are a thumbs up!

So much work got done over the weekend thanks to Joel.  He spent most of Friday afternoon, all of Saturday, and 7 hours on Sunday taking out windows and a door, removing an upstairs bump-out closet, painting trim work, and rearranging and consolidating building materials as well as debris to go to the dump.  Just so you know, I joined him for the Sunday trim painting!  We systematically covered the tops and sides of at least 30 boards in the cream trim color so that when Steve is ready to put them up he will be good to go.  I tend to work better when there is the promise of good food and drink at the end of the project, so as lunchtime approached I zipped home and prepared a shrimp gumbo and warm cider with bourbon.  The afternoon just flew by:)

Oh, and I almost forgot...when Joel was removing a piece of ceiling sheet rock in the rustic room he disturbed this guy.  Seems like he has been making our home his home unbeknownst to us.  We can add him to the list of resident critters (remember the flying squirrels and the snake??)

In case you are having difficulty identifying the long eared creature it is a bat!

As we packed up and got ready to head home yesterday, we paused to take in the beauty of Lake Delta in the fall.  Quite nice, wouldn't you agree?

Boys and Toys

For some reason, it seems like guys have a fascination with all things mechanical, machinery in particular.  Starting at 7 am on Monday of this week we had our share of big trucks up at the house.  I've got to say, even I love to watch them do their work as proven by the fact that I set the alarm to be sure I did not miss the rustic room concrete pour.  I ended up following the cement mixer up the road and took several pictures of it dumping 6 yards through the window of our back room.  Steve and a new helper, James, quickly screed the concrete while Oliver signaled the driver when to stop and start the pour.  This was only half of the load.   Later in the day, at 3 pm, the mixer returned and poured approximately another 6 yards.  The leftover was poured in the dug-out area near the front door to fill it in a little before we lay down some crush and run gravel and then finally create a stamped concrete sidewalk and patio.  My parents and Joel were both in attendance for the second pour!  Note the digger in the foreground as the cement mixer sets up.  That was dropped off in anticipation of the septic tank installation which I have been told is on hold for the moment.  Apparently the town of Westernville let the water guy go, and our application is sitting on a desk somewhere until the position is filled again...

Meanwhile Spike has been working on our west side stoop steps (say that three times fast!) and they look gorgeous.  Steve also asked Spike to rebuild the stone foundation on the west wall of the rustic room once the wall was taken down.  Again, very nice!

So I just returned from my daily house check-in, and I have to report that yet another truck visited the property.  Joel has been working on filling in the gully on the west side of the house with discarded supports, bricks, stone, and small tress that he has been chain sawing (another machine!) down.  To cover it all up and create a usable green space, Steve arranged for 18 yards of dirt fill to be dumped on top. Joel has his work cut out for him now!

I was so happy to see that Steve and Oliver were able to install the floor joists in the rustic room today and also lay down a sub floor.  This room is really coming together!

Just in time for Halloween....

Once again we have enjoyed the results of another productive week at the house.  I will share all the stories and pictures, but first I just have to try and explain a strange phenomenon to the best of my abilities.  Joel had to drive out to Syracuse on Thursday evening for a business meeting so, left to my own devices, I put the dogs in the car and headed up to check out what was new at the house since I had not had a chance to get there during the day.  It was dark.  It was windy.  It was raining.  I wasn't afraid...Anyway, I engaged the flashlight on my cell phone and let myself in.  The kitchen windows were in place.  Also, the sub floor in the kitchen area had been laid down.  I noticed that the upstairs master bedroom windows had been installed as I drove up, so I decided to climb the back stairs and check those out as well.  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I touched the camera app on my phone and got ready to snap some pictures.  The light from my phone exposed these really eerie green and purple horizontal lights, almost like Steve's laser level machine.  I took a picture and was surprised to see the results.  I took three more just to be sure, one with my flash off, one with it on, and one on auto flash.  Nothing made a difference.  The strange lights were there, no doubt about it.  I swiped my phone back to the photos I had just taken downstairs to compare.  No purple and green lines.  Let's just say that I locked up and left pretty darn quickly.  I showed the pictures to Joel later that night and although he listened intently, I could tell he wasn't convinced it was anything to be concerned about.  He is a man of science after all:)  I do find it interesting, though, that he mentioned the incident to Steve on Friday and confirmed that the laser machine was no where on the property!

Here is the photo that I took of the kitchen windows just moments before.

I went back up to the house this morning and took a few shots of the rustic room because Joel said that Steve and Oliver worked very hard yesterday to get it all prepped and ready for the cement mixer pour on Monday.  Remember, this is the room where we are lowering the floor because we can't raise the ceiling.  The old floor has been ripped out and several loads of bricks and debris have been dumped in and raked flat to take up some of the cavernous space so that we won't need as much cement.  We will run duct work and electrical lines on top of the cement and underneath the new floor.  This space will conveniently serve as our indoor workshop during the winter months.

View of the rustic room east wall from the outside

Rain, rain, go away....

The weather certainly could have been better towards the latter part of this week, but Steve and his crew really rallied and accomplished quite a bit despite the rain and mud.  Spike was able to get most of the side steps finished.  He got pulled off that duty to build a stone foundation on the other side of the house.  When Steve and Oliver tore off the kitchen wall, they found that the support beam underneath was rotten.  Before they can rebuild that side of the back of the house, an even, strong footing needs to be in place.

Steve called towards the end of the day on Thursday asking exactly where we would like the two upstairs master bath windows placed.  When we arrived at the house to discuss the windows we encountered quite an eerie scene.  Darkness was falling and Oliver and Steve were upstairs measuring with a self leveling laser machine.  Red and green lines were shooting through the space and the entire wall was gone, leaving a huge gaping hole to the ground below.  As soon as we made our decisions, I took my pictures and headed downstairs to safety!

We also discussed the placement of the wall separating the den from the closet/downstairs bathroom.  Instead of a door leading into this space, we decided to settle for an opening which I can later block off with a dog gate when the need arises.

When we popped up on Friday night to check on the day's progress we were delighted to find that both of the upstairs bathroom windows had been installed along with the second den window.  Steve and Oliver had also framed out the new hallway wall as well as the back wall of the hall closet.  They laid plywood on the downstairs bathroom floor which is great because I was fearful that someone (me even) was going to fall through the open floor joists to the basement!

Home!

So, after 17 long hours in the car, we finally made it home late Thursday night.  Our 2 week southern adventure was truly spectacular, but it is now time to get back to the stuff of real life, and that means house renovations!!  We were able to tie up loose ends and get to the house by Friday afternoon.  Lots of exciting things happening.  An excavator has been delivered to the front lawn in preparation for the big septic dig which will probably happen next week.  Steve and Oliver successfully jacked up the middle portion of the house which means that the Den floor is now level and even.  Our downstairs bathroom window has been installed.  Our other mason, Spike, is beginning work on the stone steps leading up to the side entrance.  Joel dug right in and over the course of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning removed all the windows on the west side of the house, ripped up the majority of the kitchen floor, continued to remove the high peak exterior molding (this time he was careful not to let any pinch bars crack his forehead!),  and hauled in another truckload of concrete block from his father's house.   Since Saturday afternoon was so beautifully fall-like, I asked Joel to take a break from work and do a Christmas card photo shoot.  Mom and Dad came up to take the pictures.  Surprisingly the dogs cooperated, and I think we got a keeper shot:)

discussion of stone steps

Joel removing exterior molding

after the photo shoot