Time Flies.

Well it's the last day of 2011.  I would like to say that this was a great year, but as you know if you've been reading the blog all along, it's been an extremely difficult year for my family.  


In April, my beloved Grandpa died.  It's still hard to say that aloud.  If there is any blessing in it, it's that he did not have to suffer for long, or deal with a prolonged illness like my Grandma did.  Still, for our own guilty reasons, losing someone you love sucks.  Not a day, or probably even an hour goes by without something reminding me of him.  It's a healing process that is absolutely no fun, but I know he wouldn't want us to dwell on the past or focus on the sadness of losing him.

Grandpa in July 2010.

This might be new information for some of you, but while Grandpa was sick, he told us to keep on track with plans he already had to put his house on the market.  It turned out, the day before he passed, the sign went in the front yard.  He luckily never had to see his home of over 50 years for sale.  As the house was on the market, we started to worry that it was not priced correctly.  In June, My mom and I started going to open houses in a similar price range.  One of the houses was actually one street over from the new house.  While we were there, the real estate agent mentioned a house the next street over that was for sale.  Obviously we knew the house and decided to go through it.  I think we were both hit with the overwhelming sadness of seeing other people in OUR home.  From that point on the process of thinking of buying the house began.

Now, some six months after we started thinking of buying the house, we are WAY past the point of no return.  Remember the post I put of earlier this week where they were just starting to put in sub-flooring in the back room?  Yeah.  We've moved by leaps and bounds this week.  These are pictures from 12/30 actually.  There are pictures from 12/31 but I don't have them in my possession yet.  

This was the morning of 12/30/11

This was the afternoon round one.  The giant piece Mom is standing in front of is where the double sliding door will be.  

This is the afternoon round two.

As you can see, now that the basement covered, the renovation is going to be moving crazy fast.  It's really exciting that you can now see more changes in the progress on a daily basis.

It's also really crazy that as of midnight tonight, we're going to be in the year that we move.  2012 is already looking like an amazing and unforgettable year.  I can't wait for all of you to see the progress alongside us! 

In an Effort to Catch Up

Rather than three separate posts with a few pictures each, I thought one SUPER post would be better.  We'll just get it all done!  The good news is that with this post I will be completely caught up...for the time being.


First up: recent pictures of the first floor of the house.

The tub is from the first floor bathroom prior to the home being torn to pieces.  It's awesome and old and weighs about a billion pounds.  We're saving it to put in the upstairs bathroom.  The brick wall you can see there is the back wall of the house/ the end of the master bathroom/closet.

This was originally the den and will soon be the master bathroom/closet.  We're saving a few things from the house before, such as the tub, toilet, wood bin, and wood stove.

The stairs going up, and the soon to be wall of the living room.  The giant piece of plywood you can kind of see in the back, is covering the opening that will be the walkway between the dining room and the family room.

The slab for the front porch was poured this week too:

I guess something else will eventually be poured on top of this too and that's where the posts will go.  Did I just wow you with my construction terms?

Next, the supports for the floor in the back room were built.  Getting this done is huge, as building the new kitchen and addition are probably one of the most substantial parts of the project.

Last weekend (12.18.11) they started building the supports for the floor of the back room/ family room/kitchen.

Later in the week once the "I" beams were attached.

Again.  As you can see from this photo, the concrete in the basement was never poured.  The weather still has not been dry long enough for the ground to be dry enough.  The construction workers decided to continue on without it, and when the time comes, the concrete will be poured through the windows on the far side of the room.  Not ideal, but at least the project can still move forwards this way.

Even later in the week.  Mom standing on the addition.

I can't say enough about the amazing workers who have been tirelessly working on the house.  Last weekend they worked Saturday and Sunday because the weather was nice enough to work actually.  Luckily they took the weekend off for Christmas and took today off as well.  It rained this afternoon and evening so who knows what tomorrow brings.

So remember at the beginning of the post when I was boasting that I was finally caught up on posts?  Well in the duration of writing this, I was informed that there are more pictures waiting for me.  Oh well, more for you!

Building a Stairway

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This year was a little strange, given that it was the first year without Grandpa.  The holidays are always a rough time of year when you've lost a loved one, especially when you typically spend the holidays with that loved one.  It really reminds you not only how much you miss that person, but also how important it is to spend time with those you love.  Yesterday we had family and friends over for lunch and games.  It's tough to change traditions, but new traditions are good too.  This year was also a little strange because it will be the last one we spend in our current house.  Again, new traditions are good so we're trying to focus on the excitement of moving versus the sadness of leaving the family home of 23 years.

Moving on from the sappy moment, this is still a few weeks old, but with the Christmas craziness, I have gotten a little behind on posting again.

Since the house is older, the stairways were extremely steep.  Like climbing a ladder almost.  For the house to be up to code after the remodel, the stairways had to be taken out and rebuilt less steep.  So the stairways are not only being "flattened" but are also being widened.  The basement stairs are especially wide now.  And the stairs leading to the second floor did not have much space to "flatten" so there is an extra step into the hallway at the top, and an extra step into the living room at the bottom.  

Here are some pictures of the stairs.  Currently the stairs are temporary so that the workers can get to the different levels of the house, but are a bit narrower in depth than they will be in the end.  Still it is fun for us to see the progression. Here are some pictures so you can see too!  And the best part about these pictures is that you can probably more readily see what I'm talking about than with a lot of the other stuff.

These are the stairs into the basement.  The gap on the left side is how wide the stairs will be when they are finished.

The view of the staircase from the dining room.

Dad showing off how much wider the stairs will be.

I told you it was exciting!

The new stairs going to the second floor.  I guess the picture makes more sense with what I was saying about the step going into the living room.  The stairway will stay open about half way up like it is in the photograph.

The stairs leading up, as seen from the master bedroom

The staircase from below.  You can kind of also see into the basement this way.

The stairs leading up again.

Ok, so lots of pictures that all look a little bit similar.  At least you can kind of get a better idea.

Set in Concrete

In between all the rain, we got walls poured!!  

This is the outer wall closest to the backyard.  The extra framing to the left is for the walkout

This is the same outer wall.  The wall extending to the right will be the entrance from the garage into the kitchen

Pretty exciting, I know.  They always say things are as boring as watching paint dry...for us, things have been as boring as waiting for concrete to set.  Ok, so that's a bit of an exaggeration.  The concrete is set, but with all the rain, it hasn't been dry enough to be able to waterproof the walls.  Until this happens, we can't pour the basement and make a ceiling for the basement/floor for the back room.  Given that this is the biggest part of the project, we would really appreciate some dry weather!

I know I said I was going to keep posts short, but that was really short.  So here are some pictures of the new piping that has gone in.  Also a crucial part of the project that had to be finished before the basement floor could be poured.  I know It's pretty exciting looking at pictures of piping, but I'm just limiting this to two pictures.  

This is the new basement.  If I am not mistaken (which I very well could be) the wall that has the blindingly bright light is the wall that was already a part of the basement.  I could also pretend to tell you why there is new piping, but I'm oblivious.  I'll update this post later with a reason

This photo more than any other has stumped me.  I just spent close to five minutes trying to determine what this photograph is of.  Based on the wallpaper that used to be in the kitchen, I think this is the framing for the new powder room/the edge of the master bath.  As you can see, there is some more piping in there

Ok so there are the uber-exciting concrete and piping pictures.  I'm sure you will get to see more of each along the line.

Are you overwhelmed with posts yet? I'm still working hard to get you caught up.  I believe there are about four more sets of photos waiting to be posted (including a guest blogging post).  After that we will be all caught up with posts.  Meaning that probably starting this time next week, all posts will be CURRENT! It's about time, right?

Another Forest Glen

As exciting as the construction has been, Jessica and Peter have had a more exciting few weeks.  They made a pretty big purchase and bought their first home!!  If that's not exciting enough, the address is even better.  You see, there are three homes separating their new house from our future home (this would be the time for your "Everybody Loves Raymond" jokes).  We are all extremely excited about this.  In fact, Jessica is going to come on sometime and do a Guest Blogger post showing off their new abode.  

You know me, I'm not great with waiting to show off pictures.  So just to get you even more excited, here are a few:

How adorable is this?  And if you notice a slight resemblance to our house, there is a good reason for that.  I'm sure Jessica will explain more

Welcome home Rodriguez's! So happy for you!

In the Trenches...

Did I recover from the title writers block I had last post or was that just way, way lame?  

So these were probably taken the same day as the last post (10/26) or maybe a few days later.  The part of the construction that has us most hung up is the new basement.  For the new family room/kitchen they had to dig a new basement.  For those of you living in St. Louis, you know that it has been raining a lot lately...meaning that we have had a giant hole filled with water multiple times.  In between the bouts of rain, they luckily have been able to pour the side walls, but are still hung up trying to waterproof them before the actual floor can be poured.

Digging the new front porch

Mom "working" hard digging the basement

Mom playing in the hole.  The door you see in the concrete was from the storm cellar/walk out that was previously there

It's a pretty deep hole

Dad on top of the giant pile of dirt from the new basement.  Just wait till you see it a bit later

Same view as the other day, just a little different with a big hole and construction equipment

See that door frame you're looking through here? Yeah.  That's the backdoor into the former back room

Working hard to make that pile of dirt even bigger

That's round one of the giant hole, the new basement, and the ever growing dirt pile.

Cheers!

{Insert Witty Title About Construction Here}

I have to admit, it's not writing the blog posts that is difficult.  Sure they take a lot of time, especially because of all this pictures, but the difficult part is figuring out clever titles for every single post.  There are only so many things you can say about construction.


So after the back room of the house was sliced out they had to take out part of the brick wall from the original house.  The part of the wall that was removed is where the dining room is, and it will be the opening between the dining room and family room once the house is completed.

There used to be a storm cellar/walk out basement steps there

The view from the inside

I know all of this is happening, and has progressed much further than this now, but I still can't get over the fact that we're actually doing this

Messy backyard.  Just wait.

That post was a lot shorter than I was expecting it to be, but like I said before: it's a lot easier for everyone if these are broken down into smaller posts.

Cheers!

So it Begins.

Good News: The semester is over!  Meaning I now have tons of extra time to get you all caught up on the happenings with the house construction.  I am going to split this up in a few different posts so it's not only sequential order but also is not completely overwhelming.  You're welcome.


So first things first, the last time I posted there were two pictures of the first two days of official construction.  They were tearing off the back room of the house and digging the new part of the basement.  I guess that's where I will begin with the new pictures then.  Sorry if I repeat myself.

Chopping off the back of the house.  So the room that was taken off was originally porch that was turned into a room.  The room really is gone in this picture, it's just a little confusing given that there is still a brick wall there

This is probably a better view of the room removal.  The brown wall on the far side used to be the wall/entrance to the back of the house

Another view, you can see all the different layers of roof here.  They had to replace it a few times when my mom was growing up in order to make the incline less severe

If you think the backyard looks messy and construction-y here, just wait!!

Why yes, there is someone standing on the roof.  We've had lots of workers at the house, they have been awesome.  There has also been a ton of construction equipment

This is the view from the dining room out the back.  That doorway was from the kitchen into the back room.  How crazy is this?

Messy, messy

So that's how he got on the roof!

Cleaning up a bit.  We've gone through a few dumpsters...

The end result for the day.  now you can see the doorway and stairs a bit better.  It's crazy to think that in about six months, a picture taken of this same location will show the kitchen.

This is Olive.  She is a big help with all remodel decisions.  As you can see, here she is guarding the pictures of how the new house will look.  

Well this is the end of post number one of a million in the next few weeks.  I am going to attempt to have at least one new post daily for the next week or so until I get caught up on everything.  Keep in mind, these pictures were from October 25th.  We have come incredibly far since then.

Cheers!