Library with front gable framed

The front gable (that extends from the front right corner of the house to just past the front door) is framed and looks gorgeous, tying into the ridgeline that runs the width of the house right in the middle of the library area. This room is shaping up to be so much bigger than I expected, and I can't wait to start finishing the interior.

Proposed and actual

Here's a side-by-side (er, top-over-bottom?) view of our proposed drawing and how our actual is shaping up, to give you a better idea of what's what. 

Front exterior

We're getting closer! Here's how things looked when I got home from Chicago on Saturday afternoon. You can really start to see our vision becoming a reality! You know my great love for pinterest, and in the spirit of sharing and pinning and liking and drooling, I thought it would be fun to share our original inspiration photo. Which I may have done already, but just in case, here it is. What do you think? We're getting close, right? So exciting!!

Chim chim churrah

Mrs. Peacock, in the library, with a wrench

This is the view as you come up the stairs, into what will be the library - an open common area. Shannon's grandmother Claire is making us a custom stained glass window for this window, and we're so excited! There was originally a wall here, and we didn't love the way it felt coming up the stairs only to be greeted by a wall in your face. We're excited to have this open area for reading, crafting, and working and just spending time together.

This gives whole new meaning to the term 'open concept.'

This is the view standing in the master, looking toward the gable above the sunroom. There won't be windows on this side, but there's one on the right just out of frame here. More to come soon!

Floor plan

Here's a snapshot of the floorplan for upstairs, to put some of the recent pictures in context. The scale is similar to the rest of our house (think cottage), but will make a huge difference for our daily lives!

Our new view

The crew already has the rear dormer base and walls framed out, as well as most of the interior walls. Here's the view from the 3 windows in the sitting area of our new master bedroom. Love it!!

Sunroof!

Framing, Day 2

We had pop-up thunderstorms today, so Mark and the crew reinforced the tarp to ensure coverage, and worked under it for most of the day. Weather is supposed to be perfect for the next 10 days, so they have their work cut out for them! Here's what I came home to last night: 

Doing a no-rain dance!

Framing has begun

Day one of framing out the upstairs addition has officially begun! Here's a photo Shannon snapped with his phone. As you can see, things are progressing nicely. And very, very quickly. You can already see the opening on the left for the small shed dormer above the living room window, and the opening on the right will be the window that will be part of the larger gable that will go from the front door to the edge of the house on the right side. 

We're so excited! Fingers crossed things continue to go smoothly.

Raise the roof

Okay so we're not actually raising the roof but it is coming off soon! We just picks our new roofing tile too. Who knew it could be so exciting? ;) It's nearly impossible to tell from the picture, but it's lovely, really. It's called driftwood and it looks great on a house... More so than on this wall at the supply shop. We drove by some sample houses today and this was our hands-down favorite. Happy to check it off the list.

Making room

The framers are coming this week, so to make room for them to come in and out with all their tools and supplies, we've been prepping the house and clearing a wide path as much as possible. We moved the desk into the guestroom and put the island against the far wall. It feels so weird having the room wide open like this!

Back it on up

The dumpster has arrived! Things are getting real.

Consult

Attic before photos

Shannon has made so much progress getting the attic ready for the big reno. He's got the floors up, the walls and ceiling down to the studs, and everything packed up and organized.   Check it. The first photo is looking toward what will be our master. The second is from the top of the stairs looking into what we're calling the library, an open area that currently has a small dormer to the right, but will have a much larger opposing gable.

More photos here. Can't wait to see the finished product! 

We're gonna need a bigger basement...

Kidding. But we have managed to fill it up! This weekend we moved everything from the attic down here so we can start work up there! 

Basement reveal

The forms have been removed, and the walls look great! We're just about ready to start moving things downstairs so we can get upstairs. Yippee! See below for the big unveil. We're waterproofed and ready to go. We even roughed in plumbing for a future bathroom, just in case. Because, you know, concrete is pretty permanent. We tried to think of everything we could potentially ever want down there and prepare for it before hte big pour. We've got the drains (under the walls, with the plastic sheeting, pipes and rocks to re-route any water that may seep down the walls), two pumps, plumbing for a small bathroom (read: for mantown showers before coming upstairs a mess) and new spots for the washer and dryer (at the foot of the stairs). Plus the new floor and walls to reinforce the foundation.

This corner used to be all red clay - now it's more storage space. Yay!

This corner is where a future bathroom may go

Just checking. Totally official.

In all, the basement job took about two weeks. Not too bad. Now comes the fun part. Framing the addition upstairs. Send us good thoughts!