Second Story - Week 7, Saturday

I literally started clapping and squealing as we drove up to the house today. I can't believe the transformation in just the last 3 days! There is a second story and a stairwell! We immediately had to try them out of course. I'm glad we were right in our assumption that the structure is sound for curious homeowners to explore. 

It was very cool to walk into our house and see where the walls are, feel the spaces, walk up the stairs and stare in awe at the huge upper floor! It was crazy to see how big the house looks all of the sudden. It really looks ENORMOUS now. I hope the neighbors aren't freaking out. I would be if the house next door doubled in size overnight :)

Front of house with the second story exterior. It looks a little strange hanging out there like that right now, but there will be porch columns supporting the front of the house. It will look all connected and cohesive when finished.

Back of house with second story exterior wall. It is TALL.

Living room with additional framing

Main level with skeletal walls 

Dining room from stairwell. The small wall behind the ladder is where the coat closet will be. The kitchen is to the right just beyond that.

Going up! Riley all smiles :)

Top of stairs and first glimpse of the upper floor

Looking to location of master suite on the front of the house

Master suite/front of house window framing

Side of house & stairwell entrance to upper floor

 Here is a 360º video of the main level. You can see where the room divisions will be by the open framing.

Sorry Riley, I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the audio on this video. To answer his question though, stairs. He will put more stairs, the ones to the basement to be exact.

 I think we both knew the answer to his question as it was coming out of his mouth, haha. It's ok, it's the weekend :)

 Follow up on the plumbing debacle: Not resolved.
We had our meeting and the person who helped us at Ferguson's was extremely helpful, only problem was Riley and I had different ideas of what needed to be where and I was have a particularly indecisive day. Not a very productive combo. We left the 3 hour meeting feeling frustrated with only a kitchen sink picked out. The showroom person left us with the tools we need to make our choices though and seemed optimistic that we just need one more meeting to nail down our selections for the whole house. What we did decide was a style we like and that we want to do all Polished Nickel finishes throughout.
That was Friday morning. After cooling down, we revisited the information we were given and decided to go with all Rohl fittings. They have a few style options that are exactly what we are looking for, the quality is great, and they have our elusive Polished Nickel finish available.
I hope our choices work well with our budget and we can move on from plumbing. I thought this part would be fun and easy. Unfortunately, it was not.
Oh well, on to the next! I hope I'm sure fixtures, appliances, counters, floors, and tiles go smoother :)

A Ceiling & Some Walls! - Week 7, Wednesday

Very exciting to see the house today! There is officially the start of the upper floor and the main level is now enclosed. No more tarps! There are also the start of walls and definition between the rooms. We are glad to see some major changes since our last visit. We caught the framers on their lunch break. They were cool about being in the photos :)

Front of house looking a little Corbusier...or Saarinen Airport-like. It's pretty funny to just have the front wing sticking off the house like this.  Before too long this overhang will be the porch ceiling and floor for the master suite.

Back of house all enclosed and ready for the second floor.

View inside from the future home of the back porch french doors.

Interior framing! Like the stairwell? We went minimalist-ladder, stairs are so last year.

Another interior framing shot.

More Walls & "Big Beams" - Week 6, Saturday

Here are some more progress photos. All four exterior walls are now up on the main level and the first two support beams for the upper level are in place.

Front of house

Front/Side of house. The upper level beams show how far out the upper floor will come out over the front porch. Kind of looks like a bug or a spacecraft with them sticking out :)

Interior walls in living room being propped up by temporary supports.

More supports in the dining room.

View into kitchen. The spaces along the back left corner will be 5 windows the wrap the kitchen and the large space next to it is for the french doors to the back porch.

Basement access all sealed up!

Last of the basement dirt in the bin to the left and the bak corner of the house on the right. 

It was pretty neat to be able to walk around and see where everything will be! It's kind of strange, but without walls the house looks TINY. Oliver said it will look small until all the walls are up, look large when the spaces are defined, look small again when the sheetrock goes up and look big again when the paint and finishes go in. I told him I'll remember that and I won't complain as long as it ends looking larger rather than small :)

Call the Plumber

I had a meeting with Oliver a while back to get a schedule of when all the finishes need to be chosen and first up is the plumbing fittings and fixtures (shower valves, faucets, sinks, toilets, bathtubs, etc.). I had NO IDEA how many options there are! There is every finish, style, brand, price imaginable out there. Picking the right combination of these things has been a little daunting. We are meeting with a showroom specialist recommended by Oliver at Ferguson's to help us make our selections. I really hope he can clear this all up for me. The pressure balance, volume controls and thermostatic valves have gotten me in a twitter. 

Just to give you an idea of the look we are going for, here is a photo of a faucet set we really like. We want to keep the permanent house parts in the look of a 1920's home. We're hoping to have the perfect balance of modern amenities with historic styling for an updated, timeless, craftsman-eqsue look.

Newport Brass Faucet set from Ferguson's - Riley and I loved this little guy. I'm a sucker for the "Chaud" & "Froid" lettering on the level caps. Of course it was the most expensive option we looked at. We're hoping to have this faucet set in the main bath and balance out the cost with some less expensive choices in other fittings.

Leveling, Framing, & Basement Work - Week 6, Monday

Week 5 didn't bring a whole lot of exciting visual changes. I spoke with the contractor on site about the progress and he said that most of the last weeks work was more behind the scenes, less photographic. They found that the house had settled a little, as all Portland 1920's houses have, and there was about a 3/4" drop from the front of the house to the back and spent a few days leveling the house again. Didn't sound like a big deal to me, but I'm glad they did it! He said it wouldn't be noticeable on the first floor, but the upstairs would have been a little wonky without the fix. 

Other efforts were also in the basement. Those big beams from my last post went in and the digging is finally complete. They had to bring out A LOT of mud and concrete to drop the floor that extra 1.5' or so. It just looks like a massive mud pit down there. Hum....idea. Maybe we can host some "underground" mud wrestling matches to recoup some of the labor costs? Yeah? Anyone?

Front of the house with a glimpse of the back wall and interior framing progress

Side of house. You can see the shims they put in to level the house under the main floor beam.

The word on the street, well word from the contractor, is that this week will be less visible changes, but the next few weeks will be much more exciting. He said the framing will go really fast now that the structural base is sound. He also said that we are on track to have faming complete with windows and a roof by Christmas! Can't wait to start seeing those walls!

Big Blue - Week 4, Friday

 There she is! Our new home. We'll call 'er Big Blue. This is 5 days after the last photos and it doesn't look like a whole lot has happened. A lot of the efforts were moved to emptying out the basement to get the 8.5' ceilings we want and getting it ready for the little fellas below to go in the ceiling. It has been REALLY wet and nasty out so I can understand why there is a tarp on the house and everyone went underground.

I love that these are actually called "Big Beam".
"Hey Mr. Rosboro, what should we name these high performance big beams here?"
"Uh, I don't know? How about 'Big Beam'?"

Playing Catch-Up

I've been a bad blogger...Time seems to be flying by! I've been visiting the house and taking pictures as usual, but I am embarrassed to say it's been almost a month since I have posted any. So today, there will be a few posts :)