So Many Pictures, So Little Time

Tonight I thought to myself "gosh I haven't posted on the blog since New Years". I really thought this was going to be my first post of the year.  While it hasn't been quite that long, it has been almost a week since my last post.  Remember how crazy it was that they were able to tear the roof off so quickly?  Well it's only gone faster since then.  I have three sets of pictures that need to be posted.  The first set is similar to the pictures that are normally on here.  The second two were taken by Brian using his wide-angle lens.  I am going to post them all separately, as there are quite a few per set.  This post will contain the more typical pictures.

It didn't take long before there were walls upstairs

A little bit of old, a little bit of new

The back of the house one day after the roof was torn off

The view of the back room and the new upstairs wall as seen from the garage entrance hall

So the first few pictures were from Thursday (January 5) the following pictures are from Friday (January 6).

We knew that the tresses would be put into place on Friday, but kind of assumed it would be an all day event.  That was definitely not the case.  The crane had come, done its work, and left by about 9:30 that morning.

Well hello Brian! This gives a little perspective for the vaulted ceiling.  I think it's 9 foot something at the ends of the room and a little over 12' at the highest point

Quite a few tresses here, and they were all put into place in a little over an hour.  Now that's efficient work!

It's kind of hard to see because of the tree, but you can actually start to picture rooflines now

The next picture is my new favorite of the house.  I think I've mentioned before, and I know I'll mention again that we have the greatest workers ever.  They have only taken one day off since New Years Day.  Plus, last friday when the tresses were put into place, they were there at probably 8 am (if not earlier) and didn't leave until after 6pm.  And beyond the major hours they're putting in, they are super helpful with anything we need or want to know.

Since the workers were there so late, we got this awesome picture of the house at night.  Even now, work has progressed so fast that this picture wouldn't be as cool.

I believe this was at the beginning of this week, probably January 10.  This is the old part of the basement where they had to redo the pipes.  For those of you who have been to the house before, the pipes coming out of the wall are where the washer and dryer used to be and the wall in the background is the storage shelves.

And FINALLY the new basement concrete got poured!!!

This is the old part of the basement.  This wall used to be filled with old farm antiques that Grandpa used to love to ask us the uses for.  See the two brick sections? Originally those were windows and soon will be again.

It's funny, that pile of dirt doesn't seem so big when you're standing on the second floor of the house

Dad checking out the ROOF! All of the wood for the roof was put on this week, and thanks to the placement of my window, it's pretty easy to check out the roof.

I feel like having a roof of sorts makes the house look so much more complete already.  This picture is taken from the backside of the garage.

This is what the giant ladder leaning against the side of the house (that allowed the workers to get on the roof) looks like from the bottom.  Just a little steep.

These are all the "normal" pictures as of now.  I just realized that for the first time I think I'm not including any indoor pictures.  Hopefully I can get some of those in the next few days.  Now that there is a roof, you can start to picture room sizes a little bit better.  I have a day off work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll also be able to get Brian's pictures uploaded.  Let me just tell you now, they are really cool!

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!

#9 Before Pictures

Since we just posted some pictures of the current house and the new house, I figured you should also get an idea of what the house looked like inside before my parents got ahold of the sledge hammers.  These pictures were actually taken this spring before my Grandpa passed away.  He was already planning on selling the house, and moving into a senior living community.  Labor Day weekend we actually had an estate sale and got rid of all the furniture...except for a few things  that we decided to keep.  I'm sure that will end up being a post all on its own.


So here we go, lots of pictures:  

Front Room/Living Room.  This room is probably staying most similar to how it is now.  There will be a coat closet next to the door, kind of where the dresser is now.

Another view of the front room.  The doorway on the left goes into the master bedroom.  The door on the right leads to what is now the den, bathroom, and the stairs leading to the second floor.  

Living Room.  This is taken where the doorway to the master bedroom is.  The fireplace is staying, but I believe is being converted back to wood burning.

Living room leading into the dining room.  The archway is getting raised a bit.  And, this is where things start to get a little crazy...

The dining room.  The wall on the far side, where the mirror is, is being torn down.  That's actually one of the walls for the outside of the house, but we'll get to that a little bit later.

Dining room again.  How cute is that corner shelf?  Yeah it's gone now.  As is that wall.  The doorway that you can kind of see to the left leads into the kitchen and is also where the stairs leading to the basement are.

Here's a big problem... I don't have ANY before pictures of the kitchen.  Which is really sad, and is one of the BIGGEST parts of the construction.  What was the kitchen, was centrally located in the house.  The stairs to the basement were in it, but it was beyond tiny.  So, as I said, the wall between the kitchen and dining room now consists of a few 2x4's that the construction workers will remove later.  The kitchen will now become a little powder room/bathroom.


If you walk through the kitchen, you get to the entrance to the basement.  I'm still not completely sure what is happening in the basement, so I'll just leave you with some pictures for now:  

The basement is currently covered in old barn wood and carpet. I do know for sure that the barn wood is coming down and there will be new carpeting. 

This is the view from the other side

This is the unfinished part of the basement.

The other half of the unfinished basement.

The back room is another major part of the construction. And of course, I also do not have pictures of it.  I think either Jessica or my dad does, so hopefully we can get some of those pictures up soon.  Basically the back room is going to be half family room and half kitchen.  There are currently huge picture windows looking over the backyard.  These are going to stay, but two of the windows will become french doors leading out to the patio.

Currently you can walk through the back room and get into the den.  One of the walls to the den is shared with the master bedroom.  That wall is getting knocked out and the master will extend into the den, but a walk-in closet for the master bedroom will also be made, as will a master bath, using part of the current first floor bathroom.

The desk, cabinets, and bookshelves were all built in, so they all had to be torn out.

The wall where the door is in this photo is the wall shared with the master.

Now for the master bedroom:

View number one of the master.

View number two of the master.

Now to the upstairs.  There are two rooms up here, each are getting extended out the back.  The bathroom is also being remodeled at extended so it's larger.  There is currently an attic space that is going to be extended, and will get a full height ceiling.  It is going to be an alcove type hang out area.

The super steep stairs leading up.  No wonder we have to rebuild the staircase

This is the room at the top of the stairs.  It was originally my mom's room.  After construction it will be Brian's.  For some reason he doesn't want to keep the floral wall paper and Tiffany's Blue paint.

The wall with the vent will be extended out the back to make the room much larger.

Both of the rooms have these cute little nooks overlooking the front of the house.

The hallway.  The open door will be my room and around the corner from there is the bathroom.

My new room.  Will you look at that wallpaper!  The wall that the bed is on is the one that will be extended out.

It's kind of dark in this picture, but this is the nook in my room.

Another look out into the hallway.  Halfway because I know you wanted to see that wallpaper again, and halfway because the door to Brian's room will actually be moved to the right so it is directly across from mine in the hallway.

Oh the bathroom.  Carpeted floor, a too big cabinet.  This door to the bathroom will actually be sealed and it will be a semi-private Jack-and-Jill.  One entrance will be from my room, the other will be from that alcove I mentioned before that is currently where the attic is now.

I think (hope) that is all for the before pictures.  Sorry this post took FOREVER!  Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to put up pictures from some of the construction so far.

Christina