The day started with Dave, Eric, Pat and Trevor getting the joists set up.  Trevor wasn't feeling well so he spilt after about a half an hour.  Dave helped  Eric and Pat get ready to lay in the joists.  After a couple of hours it was just Eric and Pat hammering out the second floor.

Tomorow we are hoping to start laying down sheeting.  We'll actually have an addition on the second floor!  On an other front Bonnie comes home tonight so tomorrow will be good even if we don't get to sheeting.

Today we got a couple of the big heavy beams, that frame the second floor, in place.  It took Dave, Eric, Pat, and myself to place the first one against the existing house.  Then,  thankfully Trevor was able to swing by to help us with the larger beam that runs perpendicular to the first beam we placed.  Eric and Pat got the task of cutting the very expensive beams to length. 

 At the end of the day we got the two beams, the rim joist on the back wall and most of the rim joist on the front wall in place.

In the end the second level addition will be 22 feet out from the existing house.  Tomorrow Finn and I are going to hang out and maybe have some fun at a water park.  Eric Pat and Trevor will finish off the rim joists and start to put in joists.

Pat came up first thing this morning and started hammering.  Our goal was to get to a the point where we could add the first couple of glue lam beams to the structure.  That mean getting all of the main level walls done and a start on the wing wall.  The wing wall will support the canted portion of the master bedroom.

Tomorrow Eric and Pat will be back up late morning.  Dave will swing by about the same time and the four of us will install the two main beams in the second floor framing.

Father's Day through Tuesday

We haven't posted a new entry for a few days as we took Father's Day as our first official day off.  Todd rode down to Palm Desert where Bonnie and Finn picked him up at the Santa Rosa visitors center. It was good for him to get a bike ride.  As many of you know, he is alittle addicted to the sport so to have cut back so drastically on his main summer source of entertainment has been hard.  After a good ride, Bonnie and Finn took him to lunch at the Yard House and we ran some errands around in the desert.  Luckily it was only about 98 degrees so the weather was pretty mild for this time of year.  We also ordered the MLB.tv package so we can watch the Brewer games via the FoxSports Wisconsin coverage.  We are trying to make the best being so far away from our usual summer activities.

The past couple of days it's just been Todd and Bonnie.  It's been pretty cool building our new home together just the pair of us.  Dave has been coming by and available by phone to field questions and offer confirmation.  It's been great having him on hand to help us out along the way, we are sure that we couldn't pull this off without him.  Tomorrow Pat is coming up and Bonnie heads out of town for a conference until Friday.  We also get Trevor and Eric back on later in the week.       



As you can see we've been hammering way on the main level walls.  In the next couple of days we hope to be adding the second level floor.

Saturday

Progress was slow today yet the work we did do looks significant.  This is the first year that we are here for our neighborhood picnic.  Our Daffodil hill neighbors are great friends and that is part of the reason we decided to add on to our current house, rather than just move.  We love the neighborhood and the people in it. 

Beautiful view from the neighborhood picnic

Finn enjoying the bubbles

...and homemade ice cream

While Bonnie and Finn partied a little longer, Todd headed back to get more work done.  Bonnie joined Todd in putting up some of the dining room walls while Finn napped.  He partied hard in the hot weather.

View looking up at the new wall.  Todd is standing in the french doors

View from the big rock in the dining room looking down at the new wall

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Now that the walls are going up the space is starting to take shape.   Todd has been losing some sleep at night worrying about the details, so hopefully this forward progress will help him sleep well tonight.

Friday progress

New entry steps from down from the currect dining room window

Dave (the architect), Finn and Todd evaluating the plans

Finn getting quite good with a hammer

So by the end of the day, we completed the steps from the entry way to the main floor and marked the layout for the walls. The guys (Eric and Pat) did the demo on the current house in order to find the second story.  We needed to find the beam on the side of the house that will connect to the new portion and then support the second story bedroom.  It is amazing how much light that lets into the house just having that 2' of overhang on the side of the house.

Yesterday Bonnie got an early start and completed scribing the boulder.  Eric and Pat finished laying in the main level floor.

 The rest of the day we worked on getting the entry way landing in. 

 This is the view from the landing looking up to the main level.

By the end of the day we had got to a place that we needed Dave to come by and advise us on the next step.  This morning he'll stop by first thing and get us up to speed.  After today it'll just be Bonnie and I working on the house for the next few days.