Trusses!

John has a few days off so yesterday morning he called for a boom truck to lift the trusses up on the garage then James, John and Big John unbundled them and proceeded to get them layed out so they could put them up today. Not for the faint hearted like me to watch. So of course I had to take pictures. John Turner plays in a band and he said he would be singing soprano last night. James got bruised up pretty good but Big John remained unscathed. Tomorrow Eric will be here and they plan to set them. Not sure if I will watch that or not. It will be nice to get some roof going though. The next step is to tear off the existing roof over my family room so I have some packing and moving of furniture to do. Looks like things will start getting messier inside and much smaller for a while.

And the garage begins to take shape

After several more days of rain the guys were able to begin working on the front of the garage by building the front wall and hanging the header over the new garage door. Big John has been working very long days at the post office in Muskegon six days a week so he hasn't been able to be here much. He is very tired and is working on transferring back to his route in Hudsonville for the duration of this project. As you can see James is beat as well at the end of the day. We have been really grateful for the help of Eric, Chad, John Turner, Trevor and everyone else who has put in hours.

When we had our excavator dig the holes for the additions we also had him pull one of the clothesline poles out of the ground. What we found was approximately a cubic yard of concrete on the end of each pole. It became a challange first to find someone who could actually tip the pole over and get it to stay laying down because it would just bounce back to a standing position and then to find someone with the determination to break the concrete from the poles. We ended up offering $50.00 to whoever succeded in getting the poles clean and the concrete picked up. Trevor was able to get the poles laying down but Nate was money hungry enough to work for the $50.00. Thanks Nate! The second set of poles we just cut at ground level and will be buried forever only to be found by the next owners and the challange will be theirs to conquer.

And the garage roof comes down

After several days of rain we were blessed with a couple days of warm temperatures and sunshine so the guys decided to start tearing off the roof of the garage. James did the high work, John Turner did the cutting, Chad hauled away the debris and Big John played supervisor and ran for anything they needed.

Frame and Block, Frame and Block

The framing continues and the blocking is unending. Blocking is all the little pieces of wood that holds the framing together. I didn't know that, maybe you didn't either. Siding and trim have been delivered as well as our new HUGE picture window. The rest of the windows were here but were delivered as replacement windows instead of new construction windows so back they went for some rework to make them acceptable to our trusty contractor. The guys have also begun sheeting the outside and putting up tyvec (?) - plastic - to keep the wood dry. A good thing since we have begun to have a lot of rain. The crawl spaces and existing basement have flooded once already making for a long ugly night of clean-up. James says he has fixed what caused that so we should have no more surprises there. We really need a roof now but the forcast gives us only a day or two at a time with out rain.

Framing Begins!

Finally the guys can start framing the master bedroom and then the dining room, craftroom, laundryroom and halfbath. James gave Jeremy a lesson on skating the floor decking into place and Eric worked on his own on the other side placing the wall plate (?) in place. I am learning all kinds of new construction terms, but I am sure I am not getting them all correct, so forgive me if I use them inappropriately. It's good to see progress.

Finishing block and flooring

The block has been filled with concrete and the floors of the crawl spaces have been poured. Eric still does his fine work with his toungue just as he did as a boy. Jeremy found that the hose really was heavy and James sat on the wall a little too early. Things are moving along, but the weather is beginning to change and rain is in the forcast. Framing is next...come on roof.

Golf Outing

Home Remodel (cont)

Block for days, will their hands ever get a break. They all have blisters and mortor burns. I know, comes with the business, they really are working hard. And John's hands are pretty girly now. *grin* They did finish the block. They had a deal that if they finished it Saturday, they would go golfing on Sunday and John would have to go along. Well, they did....and He had to. So I rode along and took pictures for proof. John has always called it "Cow pasture pool" "never saw a use for using a stick to knock a rock down a gopher hole". Well guess what, Mr. "Know-so-much actually likes is and says he wants his own clubs. He had fun. It was great to watch them play and have a good time after several tough days. Today they finished grading and were going to pour the walls and floor of the crawl space, but could not due to rain, so that will happen tomorrow around 2 I believe. I'll try to do better about keeping you informed. Take Care..

Home Remodel (cont)

With the dirt moved and the footings poured and James seems to have made friends with the guy from the city planners. He was really impressed with James' work on the forms and some cages he had to build out of rebar do to inadequate workmanship on a previous owners addition. Good for us. It's nice to be confident in your contractor. We are now on to the blockwork. Unfortunately the mason is too busy and is unable to help James so he is on his own. Eric shows up a couple of days in and is able to learn so he helps him finish it off late Saturday night by the headlights of Big Blue. John spent alot of time grading shoveling running for block and mortor and running to the lumber yard, calling for estimates etc. The kids moved many, many, many block!

Home Remodel (Cont)

We've had quite a few people helping out so far. James hires Chad, my youngest daughter's husband to work on Monday-Wednesday as his job is Thursday-Saturday. We have also had several volunteers, Rob, Nate, Trevor, My son Eric, and a few kids that John hired that needed a few bucks here and there. The guy with head and feet in the hole is Chad. Who knew he was so flexible.