Monday, November 09, 2009

Remodeling

We are converting our attic to living space -- there will be one large room running from the front to the back of the house, with a bathroom and bedroom on the south side. They started three weeks ago, and so far have mostly been reinforcing beams and ceiling joists, which has involved opening up the ceilings downstairs. After this week, though, the work should be almost entirely upstairs. The crew has been very considerate but I will be happy to have the downstairs more or less back to normal.


Day One: Scotty, Rick & Harold removed the built-in shelves from our family room:


Next they opened up the wall between the family room & the laundry room:


By the end of the week we had a staircase there:


They closed off the skylight in the kitchen & removed the box in the attic, leaving the skylight itself as a source of light for the workers:


Then they moved to the other end of the house to work on the ceiling in our bedroom, so that the center of the house was relatively untouched for Charlotte's birthday party:


All of the ceiling joists had to be removed & replaced for reasons I can no longer explain. It was very interesting having the ceiling wide open for a couple of days!

Next they went to work on the beams / joists on either side of the kitchen. This shows the temporary beams between the kitchen and family room, which supported the joists while the beam was reinforced:

This dim shot shows both sets of temporary beams:


And this is the beam between the kitchen & living room:


Here the work has been finished & the beam reinforced; after this the temporary beams were removed. They did this in the dining room as well but one beam looks pretty much like another. There has also been a lot of work in the attic, moving roof supports to give us a clear space in the center of the room.

Then they turned their attention to the roof. We are switching from wood shingles to composite, so they need to lay decking as well as shingles.

They are starting with the areas unaffected by the remodel -- the north side over the garage and the front & back corners of the south side. Later this week they expect to frame the dormers and re-roof the middle of the house.


Here's the front of the house, dried in. The spot where the dormer will go is covered up but the plywood is carefully aligned so they will be able to take out full sheets and use them elsewhere.


You can really see the poor condition of our shingles (gone by the time you see this) -- our poor old hail-damaged roof that started us on this journey!

Friday, March 27, 2009

out for a stroll

Charlotte as she appeared in the kitchen first thing in the morning (note groggy face). Can you see who's in the stroller? Here's a closer look:

I guess the Tea Ladies needed an airing.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Wall-E World

On our way to Denver for Christmas we passed through Amarillo. I tried to take us on a short-cut but missed, so we had a tour of some odd bits of the city. We were quite surprised to find ourselves at what was clearly Wall-E's home base. It was very cool but we were trying to make good time, so we just looked at it as we drove by.

On the way home we spent the night in Amarillo, and the next morning decided to try and find Wall-E World again. It's surprisingly hard to get lost the same way twice, even if you know pretty much where something should be. Eventually, though, we found it. I had worried that it wouldn't be as interesting as it looked the first time. Instead, it was even bigger than I had imagined, covering blocks and blocks of northeastern Amarillo. There are train tracks running through it, receiving docks for trucks, and an area for drive-up sellers. It was amazing. We even found a street that ran through the middle where we could park the car and take some pictures. (You can click any of them to see the picture up close.)







It's hard to convey the scale of this -- remember, this is just one corner of the operation.

In an abstract way I think this is kind of pretty. But it sure gives me pause before I buy something else "disposable."

Monday, January 26, 2009

Flowers in winter

Thanks, Mom & Dad.


Thanks, Kate & Eric.

They both came on the same day, almost two weeks ago, and sure brightened my days -- and Charlotte's, too. She wants everyone to know that roses are her favorite flowers.

They aren't so pretty now, but many of the flowers are still in good shape. I may try my hand at combining the best of both bouquets into one new one. Thanks again to all of you.