Siding and beam

Finally got the siding back up on the rear of the house. Still needs to be painted, but hopefully any day now we'll get to that before the snow sets in.














And here's a picture of the beam installed. Pretty cool. It really opens up the space. Installing it wasn't so bad either with the help of my cousin Steve.

Bay Window

So it's been a while since I've updated the blog. You may think I was taking a break -- but NO. Well, I did take a break from the kitchen work for a little bit as I installed new casement windows in the kids' rooms (five in all). They look nice and we'll definitely enjoy being able to open the windows in the springtime. More importantly, perhaps, they're official egress size so in a pinch, the kids can now get out the windows onto the roof of the garage (perfect for when they need to sneak in as teenagers).

One item that had been on our list for the new kitchen/dining space was to replace a drafty, yucky picture window with a bay window. Well, my cousins Steven and Paul helped me the other day and we installed the bay window. SUPER HEAVY.

Once it was installed, I quickly realized that the roof overhang was not quite far enough to shield the bay window from the rain/snow, etc. There are various options, of course, for finishing the bay window, but I decided the best (though not fastest or easiest) was to extend all the roof rafter tails and effectively extend the roof/overhang so that it would protect the bay window. I got a great amount of work done today, but still need to do some more tomorrow to get it all finished off.

Interior bay window.














The original roof line -- not quite enough of an overhang for the bay window, partially prepped (torn apart) for extending the roof.














A bit of a close-up of the old roof line.














At the end of a very hard (and cold) day, the roof line has been extended, the space air sealed and insulated, and nearly ready to be buttoned up -- hopefully tomorrow.

Exciting....

So, I had to leave one of the old walls of the kitchen in for a while, because first I needed to find a beam that would carry the load without being way too big (we don't have 8' ceilings in this house, so some of the beams I explored were going to simply be too big to be practical for this application). My cousin pointed out a product called "LiteSteelBeam" which I looked into. Long story short, this product would work. The actual beam I ended up getting is over-sized for the load requirements (it was what was in stock at the regional Boise Cascade distribution center), so it's really not light, but it's not too bad.

This shows the two temporary walls needed to carry the load before removing the load bearing wall. (LiteSteelBeam in place on floor to left.)














And now the wall is gone (in the picture below).















This is a photo/view that matches with one of the pre-construction photo vantage points.














This one...

The beam, waiting for hangers, and to be set.

Not one, but THREE!

Well, it's been a bit since the last blog update, but work has continued to move forward. All three skylights are installed, roof re-shingled, and air sealing and insulation completed. We've had two serious days of rain since the skylights have been in, and so far so good (knocking on wood).

Finally, a skylight

Prepping for first skylight installation














Rough cut out -- seems awfully cloudy to install a skylight.




















Skylight set in place on roof - phew!

Skylight framing continues...

Rough framing for the three skylights continued today. I'm pretty convinced that this is really going to help brighten up this space during the looooong winters. Weather forecast isn't so great for tomorrow, but maybe Sunday I'll actually get one (or more?!?) of the skylights installed.

Putnam (on the ladder below) has been my most consistent helper on this project.

First skylight rough framed

First of three skylight shafts rough framed. This was a slow day trying to maximize the reach of the light expected from the skylight into the room, but needing to stay behind the kneewall of the upstairs bedroom. In the end I think it's going to provide quite a bit of light into the room. Hopefully framing in skylights two and three will be MUCH faster!