Easy Guard...

So Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all good work days at the house -- first Friday -- I showed up at about 9:45 and the roof was almost half done. Imar and his crew did a great job and got the shingles on in one day. Mark E was also at the house and finished most of the basement floor. On Saturday Leigh and I worked for a few hours -- she primed water tables that will be installed this week and put Styrofoam vents in between the rafters on the second floor while I used an electric planer to plane the tybeams in the upstairs guest bedroom and to put a beveled edge on them -- sorry not photos of that...

Then on Sunday, I finished applying most of the house wrap and tyvek tape so that no more water can get in the house. This is also almost the last step before siding starts. Early this coming week, Ed and crew will attach the water tables (bottom trim board) and then I can go to town with the shingles. Imar and one of his crew will be back this week to do two days of work. The goal for the end of this week is to have the house closed in with the exception of a few windows we are waiting on. This means building the front entry, installing doors, re framing the middle part of the front of the house.

I'm hoping by the end of the week, that the front of the house will be ready to start applying the clap boards...cross your fingers!

Finally, we're about ready to get started on the septic system - we're just waiting for one more bid before we get started.

So it's actually starting to look like a house with windows and trim and interior walls...things are moving right along. Today two guys worked on getting corner boards on and two worked on getting windows in. I cut out some windows, put on some ice and water shield and did some house wrap taping and got some of the site cleaned up. Here you're looking at our dining room as seen from the entry hall. Standing in the living room looking to the side door and towards the kitchen,

The kitchen...

We're trying to figure out now if we do actually want to do cedar shingles for most of the house or if we want to go back to the old plan of clapboards on most of the house and shingles on part. Still not sure and would welcome suggestions.

The great guys from Newburyport Water Department came to take away 8 or so loads of fill that has been a fixture in our side yard for quite some time...so nice of them. We also had National Grid at the house to install the gas line -- now we have power, gas and water.

You can see in this photo, to the right of the door, we had to cheat the trim board over a few feet so that it lined up with the roof of the addition. Hopefully it won't look too weird when it is sided.

Here's a nice look at what will be the main entrance to the house. Tomorrow Imar and his helper will start shingling the roof and Mark E is coming to finish the floor. I'm hoping that Ed and I can get some of the water tables done and that Leigh and I can go to town on shingles this Saturday. We'll see.

I was only at the house for about an hour today but here are a few photos of what's been accomplished over the last couple of days. Here you can see that Mark E has been working on the chimney in the guest bedroom... The chimney has been re-built to its original height and is setting. When the mortar has dried, Mark will put a blue stone chimney cap on top.

Ed, Hector and one of Ed's old employees have been installing the trim around the roof line so that the roof can be put on. This has taken priority over other things like getting the sheathing on and putting windows in etc. Obviously it's important to get the roof on before too much longer!

Here's another view of the chimney. Mark E was able to reuse the old bricks so it will look original.

I'm anxious to start getting siding on and I've been trying to push Ed to get a wall ready for us to do this Saturday. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get one wall done over the weekend. I think it's looking pretty good...it will be quite a milestone when the house is finally buttoned up.

Other things today -- the electric service was hooked up so we have power! and I met with Henry Richards a local contractor about installing the septic system. Stay tuned...

Just a bit of bad news, Mike, one of the guys who has been working on the job may not be able to continue and he's done a great job. We'll hope to see him again.

We'll we ended the week on a good note -- the kitchen roof was framed and we started to put the house wrap on -- and actually installed one window...that should keep the rain out this weekend. As you can see - the house is really coming together. We had a dead brain moment this morning and thought that the pitch of the roof wouldn't work with the window in the top right of the photo -- but as you can see -- it worked out. The Kitchen ceiling will be vaulted and there will be a window in the peak, right where that vertical board is now.

The other moment of pause came today when Ed gave me the quote for the 8 new windows we have to order...one of them is supposed to be tempered glass because it's near the tub and it was going to cost $1100 for one window. So I re-designed the bathroom and moved the tub. Now it can be a regular window...

Here you can see the house wrap...we're not going to put external insulation on because the house is now framed with 2x6 studs. Plus every contractor that we have spoken with pretty much thinks it's a bad idea.

So, I've been crunching numbers tonight and we are quite a bit over budget and trying to figure out where we can trim some costs -- we were going to get Rhuntl radiators for their low profile design and more modern look but that would add about $4000 to the job...guess it's ugly old baseboard...alas.

Finally, if anyone knows someone who needs 8 Brosco, true divided light windows 8x8 glass 6/6. I have some that we're not going to use...please pass on the word. They are brand new, just picked up and just the wrong size. They retail for around$380 and I'll sell them for $350 each.

Some good progress today. Ed brought in a couple of extra guys to move things along. All said and done, two sides of the house were sheathed, the kitchen walls were framed and Hector built the sloped roof over the dining room -- I spent the day painting the trim boards which Ed hopes to put on tomorrow. I'm hoping that by the end of next week that the house will be closed in. Tomorrow, Ed would like to get the roof built for the kitchen. Things seem to be progressing well.

Our scheduled move in day is February 17th but Ed and I were talking today and he's pushing for a couple months from now -- which would be great. We'll see...

Electricians also came to install the electrical service today. In the photo below you can see, right next to the ladder, there is a chase for the wires from the street. We'll see how long it takes National Grid to hook up the electric now...

Though you can't see it in these photos, Mark Eldredge has broken through the roof and is building the chimney. His hope is to have the exterior part done by the end of this week!

Framing the second floor...

Second post in one day...wow. I thought it was important to show today's progress...The addition partition walls and ceiling were the event of the day -- here you're looking from our Master Bedroom into the Master Bath and beyond to the guest room and on the right the second full bath. This is the main part of the house -- the "attic" window is in the middle of the peak.

Guest bedroom on the left and bath on the right...

I've been deliquent...

Okay, loyal blog readers (all 16 of you)...I've been delinquent and let too much time pass between posts. It's been over a week and Ed and crew have taken good advantage of the time to make some excellent headway. We now have a roof, a second floor addition and are nearing weather tightness on the exterior (Ed says maybe by the end of this week). This post simply chronicles the process of building the roof for the addition. This part of the roof was done in a more conventional way. Rather than post and beam, Ed used modern dimensional lumber.

While they built the roof, I knocked down walls...

Above you can see all of the rafters for the second floor...

Here you can see that the Ice and Water shield has been applied to the back (this was done on Columbus Day by Mike and Ed who stayed until about 7:30 to finish the job because it was supposed to rain today. You can also see that the wall that I cut out was re-framed today with the attic window in again.

We continue to be impressed by the efficiency and dedication of Ed and his crew. They have no problem working 10 hour days and working on the ocassional holiday.

Ed Makes good...

So, last week, Ed told me that the roof would be sheathed and would have ice and water shield on by Friday this week AND it's done one day early. Today especially was a triumphant effort. But let's go back before we go forward. It was about a week and a half ago that we realized that the entire old roof and all of the rafters were going to have to come off. They were rotted and had been invested with powder post beatles and carpenter ants. With that done - Ed and crew replaced all of the second floor posts, the plates, tie beams and over the last week, installed rafters, perlins (sp) and the sheathing for the roof of the old part of the house. I'm sure that most contractors, who are concerned more with the bottom line than the final product, would have used conventional lumber and built the second floor and roof with 2x lumber. Not Ed! I think that the way he's restored the 1790 house will ensure that it's still here at least 300 years from now.

You can see from this picture that was taken on Tuesday that the roof is on one side of the house.

Fast forward to today and you can see the crew installing rafters and pearlins.

At about 3:30 all of the sheathing was on the roof and the guys were ready to put on the ice and water shield. Here you can see Hector standing on a palate elevated by a lal (sp) which is a fork lift with a long hydraulic arm. He's getting ready to install the ice and water shield.

And here's the ROOF from the rear of the house - the Ice and Water Shield is installed and next week the crew will be working on framing the rest of the addition and the guest bedroom on the second floor.

It will be great when the house is weather tight...even though we've had tons of sun, what little rain we've had has caused some of the old floors to warp a bit.

All in all a great week. Leigh hadn't been there since Monday and she said that she felt like she was on Extreme Makeover Home Edition because so much progress was made in one week!

Cross your fingers for another good week!