Moving along...

The first half of the porch windows are in. They spent yesterday finishing up the stabilizing of the porch and framing out of the windows. I am pleased with the windows, though a mistake was made with the ordering and the picture window is 6 foot instead of the 5 foot it should have been. They were able to accommodate the size and not have to reorder. I'm sure we will enjoy the nice view out the porch now. We are ordering preformed front steps that will be brought in a couple of weeks. They should be much nicer that what we had and will drain the proper direction.
We were able to have the dumpster removed today. We had filled it to the brim and were already into the "extra charge" period so it had to go. We will have very little garbage after this point even though we still have one old window and 3 old doors on the house. We are still awaiting the arrival of the doors. We have had so much rain since the screen doors were taken off that all the doors are swollen and hard to open and close so we are anxiously awaiting their arrival. Keep watching, I'll post more as things progress.....

Sidetracked

A little side tracked today. We discovered there was some rot where the front stoop met the house but when we pulled the siding off, it was a little more than we expected. The reason it was there was because the stoop was draining toward the house instead of away. The only solution was to remove the stoop and repair the porch walls. We had the local excavator come and haul it away. It will be re-poured sometime next week we hope. While we were all torn apart, we decided to shore up and insulate the porch floor. That is what the guys are doing here. They did not quite finish so the porch is covered for the weekend. Our goal is to turn the porch into more of a three season room, usable expect during extreme temperatures. We will not be running HVAC to it though since the HVAC man said it was very costly to go through the original foundation but the electrician will be here tomorrow to add more outlets out there. The windows are here but won't go in until the repair work is done. More next week...

Record Rains

Received notice yesterday that the porch windows would be delivered on Friday. Seemed like a perfect time since all the house windows were installed, minus the one that was not ordered. The game plan was to remove all the porch windows on Thursday so that on Friday when the windows came, the porch would be all ready to go. Sounds perfect right?? Well, what we did not plan on was the record rains we would have this afternoon and evening.

These pictures show a sequence of events. While the windows were being taken out, it was a beautiful day, very hot and humid but nice none the less. As the rain approached, the guys put up tarps to cover for the night. The last picture was taken after it had been raining (and hailing) for quite a while. It is hard to tell in the picture how wet the tarps are. Fortuately, even with all the rain, the porch was only damp and had minor dripping into it. I would have been very surprised if it stayed dry. The lastest report I heard was that we had 5 inches of rain!! I know it also hailed at least twice. When I get on the National Weather Service radar, it looks like more is coming. We will just keep out fingers crossed. I post again when the new porch windows are in.

All but one...

Did not get a chance to post yesterday, too much going on around here. Here are a few picutres showing the past two days. As you can see, just one external window to go. This one was missed in the initial order so we are in a waiting period until it comes. Meanwhile, they will replace the two internal windows we are having replaced; the picture window in the living room and the one in the spare (game) room. Both open into the front porch. We are still awaiting the arrival of the doors also, supposedly the first week in August. More tomorrow......

Around the next corner...

The two windows in our bedroom were done today and they met up with the lower windows and the first side. You can't see due to the tree in the picture but that only leaves one double window on this side. We are slowly but surely getting toward our goal. This has been a much slower process than I anticipated. I hope that once we get through the windows and doors (which may not arrive until the first week in August!), the siding will go on quickly. My next project will be staining the interior wood of the windows. Carl (the contractor) and Nancy (his wife) came by tonight to give me some pointers on how to do that. It will be a big job but I think I will enjoy doing it. Tom has taken most of the responsibility of this so far and I want to be part so this will be my part. I will start in the bedrooms since right now we have no window coverings and don't want to put the blinds back on until the wood is stained. We also have some cleanup to do around the yard this weekend, plus the kids want the see the new "Harry Potter" movie, shopping to do, laundry, etc...just a normal weekend. Hope you have a great one!!

One more room done...

Two new pictures to show the progress. Good thing Ben and I spent a large portion of the evening last night cleaning his room since they went straight there this morning. Not sure he even knows that he has two new windows since he has not been home most of the day. I am glad to see the progress they made today. Moving around the corner of the house and closing in on the side they started on. They have left the last 2 double windows for now, don't think they are looking forward to getting a heavy window up to the second floor. Pretty soon our whole house will be a lovey shade of blue...well, at least temporarily. At least no rain today and a dry forecast for the next week or so. YEAH!! More later....

Seeing the light..

Two more windows went in today, one replacing the orange hole in our house (see prior post). The other is our new kitchen window and I must say I LOVE IT!! It is longer than the other window was so has a better view of the driveway and lets in more light. As pretty as the old window was, all the wood on it blocked a lot of light. I know I am going to enjoy this one. (Mel, we were only able to salvage the doors from the old window, they are yours if you want them). We are still awaiting the arrival of all 3 new doors. I guess there was a work slow down at the factory due to low orders so things are taking longer than usual. I guess that is what we get for ordering a custom color. This is how we have been living lately with no screen door. Never realized how much I appreciated it until it was gone.

Oh yeah, it rained again today...

Why is it ....?

Murphys Law #85647 - If you take all the siding off your house and start creating gaping holes where windows used to be, it will rain. Good thing to keep in mind during dry spells.

As the picture tells they did get a little progress today even with the forecast of rain. All three windows partially finished yesterday are now in. Plus they left us with this on the garage side of this house (refeing to the second picture). Normally, I would not mind, I was pleased to see they had thought to cover it well. Unfortunately, about 5 minutes after I took these pictures, it started to rain...hard....again. Now, I would have to think long and hard to remember when the last time was that we had rain almost everyday in July. (Okay, Texans not included, I know it rains down there everyday during the summer). Usually our plants start drooping and the grass goes brown and dormant this time of year, but of course, not while our house is stripped to it's bones. Lucky, the tarp held in the downpour we received and all is still dry inside.

More tomorrow....

Rain Delay.... or so I thought

Left for work this morning in a light rain, hoping that it would let up a little before the guys showed up to work. Tom called about 8 AM to let me know they came and had already left because rain was in the forecast all day. I was bummed most of the day thinking we had lost another day of work. As the weather improved during the day, it got more depressing to think how much could be getting done but was not. Fortunately, I arrived home to find they also wanted to keep the project moving and came to work sometime during the day. They got 3 windows pulled out and two in but in need of trim. I was glad just to see some progress that I had not expected. Woo hoo!! You can see in the picture the 2 new windows and you can't see the one in back which is currently just covered with Tyvek. Seeing that there is no rain in the forecast for tomorrow, they should be finishing the lower level on this side and moving to the upper level tomorrow. I don't believe the doors are here yet so that will have to wait for a later time. One GREAT thing that has come out of this is.......BEN FINALLY CLEANED HIS ROOM!! In order to move his bed away from the windows later this week, a clean out was required. I just hope that all the junk does not move back in again when they are done. I'll update on progress again tomorrow. Til' then...

Only 2 windows but at least it's a start...

Progress was slow as expected but they were still able to get 2 double windows installed. They ran into issues on the window sizes but were able to adjust by changing the insulation to a thicker model. Actually, it will give us twice the amount of insulation from the originally planned model. That will be great for our cold Wisconsin winters. They plan on finishing the bottom 3 they hoped to do today on Monday. Only 14 more to go.

Tom stayed home today to attend to other events in our life and he was able to capture the day on film. I won't bore you with all the pictures but a couple I thought everyone would enjoy. As you can see, Belle was not bothered by the large gaping hole in the living room wall as long as she could sunbathe. The boys rather enjoyed the uniqueness of having an "open air" room. More on Monday.....

Materials are here!!

Our garage has been taken over by building materials. All the windows, siding and insulation have been moved in. The windows look excellent and I am very excited about having them put in. The first few will be going in tomorrow and the guys have a schedule to install the rest of them next week. If the schedule holds true, they should all be installed by weeks end. Of course, in construction, nothing moves along as planned but hopefully it will not be too much delayed. I pulled a piece of siding out to show but the picture really does not do it justice. The color I would call a butter. It is a very pale yellow, which we will trim with white. Actually, the vent cover in the picture sitting on top of the box shows the color better. The new roof and the new doors (which have not arrived yet) will be a dark green, kind of a pop of color on a pale house. In my mind, the color scheme works; I just hope it does on the house. Tom has reminded me that the colors are Packer colors but not much we can change now. He, of course, would want to do the house in blue and orange but I shot down that idea!!
I will post pictures tomorrow (hopefully) of our first, and maybe even some subsequent, window. Till then.....

Hidden Surprises

The last of the siding was removed today and the house is finally bare or you could say achieved a wonderful tan. A few spots that need to be repaired but overall the wall boards are in great condition as our builder was happy to see and commented on also. Of course, any time you are doing repairs on a house the age of ours, you find unexpected things. Today they uncovered the kitchen window area to find that at one time there were 2 large windows similar to what we have in the living room and dining room. You can see the newer wood in the second picture. I joked with Tom that I wanted to make the change and have those windows back but he reminded me that we would loose our sink and 1/2 a cupboard. Given the small amount of storage I already have in the kitchen, I am not about to give any up. Would definitely bring more light into the kitchen if we could though.

We were told today that the windows will arrive sometime on Thursday and given that this is Car Show weekend around here, I am not too sure that any will be put in this week. I guess we will see how inspired they are to get started with them.

Just one more picture to share. Tom was able to get this shot of the builders this morning way high up on the scaffolding. This is the very reason I would NEVER want to to this!!

I'll blog again soon....

Garbage Contained....???

Well, the dumpster finally arrived. The guys spent what part of the day they were here filling it, or almost filling it. My question: Will it be big enough?

You can see how much is in there and we still have 1 side of the house, all the windows and 3 doors to get in. At least all the garbage is removed from the yard and we can exist again outside. Belle actually has her area back also.

As a normal construction project goes, we are continuing to make adjustments to the job on a daily basis. This past weekend, we decided to go ahead and replace the windows on the porch. Our original decision was to just put in combination screen/storms but changed our mind since we really do not like the operation of the existing windows. Most either stick due to warping or are painted shut.

Instead of the 8 windows across, we will have 2 picture windows with a single window on each side. This will also give us a better view from the inside through the porch. Just another added cost but after spending this much, what's a few dollars more.

Anyday now, the house windows should arrive. I'll keep you posted on their installation.

Talk to you soon......

Garbage, Garbage, Garbage

The new theme around our house is GARBAGE!! As you can see, our house is currently encircled in piles of torn off siding, old gutters and lots of rusty nails. Looking forward to Monday when the dumpster arrives. Hopefully they will not have to spend all of that day moving everything to the dumpster. Must look like gold to some people because we had a neighbor come over last night and ask if he could take some to repair some siding in his garage and for building shelves. Tom also offered him our old back screen door with he took. I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Interesting (though not so entertaining) moment for this post:
-Last evening Tom was complaining that the house was getting warmer instead of cooler. On further inspection, we realized that the air conditioner was not working. Not a good thing to happen when the forecast for the weekend in well into the 90's. He called the repairman who was able to come out today and look at it. Some debris had gotten into the unit and kept it from running. Pretty easy fix fortunately.

Probably won't post again until Monday. Have a great weekend.

Day 2

Well, day two of construction. Because of the holiday, we are really on Day 3 of living in a construction zone. Here are the latest pictures:

The few things that happen during construction can be quite entertaining. I will try to mention some everytime I post. Here is today's list:

1) The contractors asked Tom to get in touch with the roofer to get a time frame on their arrival. They did not want to remove any gutters until they knew the roof was coming soon. Tom called and left a message but never heard back from them. The contractors removed the gutters anyway and guess what? (I'm sure you know!) It rained this evening.

2) The hornets nest we thought were probably dead, were not. Found out the hard way when one of the builders got stung (OUCH!!)

3) In trying to minimize costs, the dumpster we ordered is not coming until Monday. Not sure if you can tell by the pictures but we have piles of scrap all over the yard. One they put down right where the dog does her duties. She just stands there and looks at it and me as if I am going to move it. I told her to just go on top, no one would know!

More tomorrow.......

Say a fond farewell.....

Well, the progress has finally started. The 100 year-old house that we have lived in for the past 20 years is getting a facelift. The siding will be coming down, all the windows and doors will be replaced and a new steel roof will be put on. These are pictures taken about 2 weeks ago before any work had been done. Today, they came bright and early and started pulling off the siding. This is how it looked tonight as I came home from work. I plan on taking pictures and posting on this blog as time permits. I'll keep you posted.