water and some deck framing

 After an absolutely gorgeous, dry, clear autumn ideal for construction, we got rain. Two days before the flat roof was supposed to be installed. Despite our best efforts with tarps up on the roof, the water was pouring in - across the floor of the new entry, and over the edge where it delighted Miles, the cat, who can't resist running water. *He* was happy. The rest of us were not. Matt and the little girls spent about an hour down in the cellar/crawl space of the new addition mopping up the shallow pool. 

On a more productive note, Matt also was able to get behind the house to frame out the back deck. 

We're excited for this space, as it will be somewhere Bobbi can go to be outside without just sitting on the driveway. We're hoping to slightly relocate some of our raspberry bushes so she'll be able to go pick her own when they're in season! Otherwise our yard is too "off-road" for wheelchairs to get around to the backyard. Firepit area? Yes. Backyard? Not so much. It also will be an easy place to wheel Mira out when we're working in the vegetable garden behind the house. 

Touching the existing house

Most of the work on the garage has been EXTERNAL to the house so far, with the only real impact being that we are having to use the usually abandoned front door (which opens into what is now our dining room, so very inconvenient) to go in and out of the house. This door, interestingly enough, can't be latched without using a crowbar, so we just push it closed as well as we can and hope for the best. 

But THIS week, we're touching the inside! Here's how the east wall of the kitchen has looked for a while, as Matt's already got the trim pulled off the window and wall.

Out came the window, and Gavin quickly threw in some OSB so we didn't have a wide open hole to the outside.

And then, they decided to go for it! You can just see Korey outside knocking out where the new window will go, and Matt working on the inside trying to free the plaster where the new doorway will eventually go...hopefully without destroying the writing around the perimeter of the kitchen!

A view from the outside - new header over where the new window will be, just slightly to the left of where the old one was.

My view from the kitchen! :D Korey's pretending no one's taking his picture, Gavin's smiling for the camera, Krassi must have just gotten home from school, and is supervising in the background, and Matt's ready by the saw to cut whatever's needed to finish things out!

Ebs likes the new window seat!

Can't leave it open, so after Korey and Gavin went home, Matt and I got the window leveled and set...

...and by bedtime, it's good to go! Just looks a little funny!

The work we hired out is getting wrapped up - you can see there's housewrap and the windows and doors in the addition are installed. Korey came one more day to help Matt frame out the front deck - especially nice to have his help with the stairs.

And this is the view toward the existing house when you walk in the front door of the new addition! I think the old entry door sunk down two steps is so funny! Even funnier is that THAT's the door we will end up using for the next few months until we get things ready to open up into the rest of the house! As though the old way of entering into a 3' x 3' entry and lifting wheelchairs up two steps wasn't complicated enough - now we duck under and through this partial door, and THEN up the two steps! It's a circus. 😂

View from the flat roof at the end of the week - Matt's getting out all the trim boards so he can get them primed and ready for installation. Our front yard is shot. But you'll notice that I'm taking this photo from the overhang on the flat roof of the entry...

...because we're getting the fascia put on the cantilevered overhang!!

Shingles

Started off the week with a few preliminary things and finishing touches. Here Gavin and Kelley are getting the first layer of trim on the peak edge installed...

...and the roof sheathing that got started last week is now complete!

That means it's time for shingles!!! I love roofing. I didn't get to help roof the last addition because I was pregnant, so for obvious reasons Matt didn't think I should be climbing around on an 8:12 pitch roof! But that wasn't a concern this time around, so I got to help with the shingles. We started on the shorter (west) side of the roof, accessed from the flat roof.

Gloria and Ebenezer were able to help us by unpacking shingles and passing them up to us. Mostly, they just love spending time on the flat roof!!!

I don't have a lot of process photos because I was working! But here you can see that Matt is climbing down after getting everything finished that can be finished without removing the harness brackets from the ridge.

So then onto the long side!! This is a fun kind of roof because it's all just straight lines, no cutting until you get to the edges. I wish a had a photo, but at one point Matt had to leave for a meeting, so I got the nailer, Rinnah sat on a foam pad at the bottom edge of the roof and passed shingles up to me, and Eben and Gloria climbed up the ladder to feed shingles to Rinnah! My only problem was being unfamiliar with the nailer (as most roofs Matt and I have done have been with hammers!) so I couldn't reload the nails! Korey kindly showed me how a few times until I got the hang of it.

This is the only action shot I have of me up on the ridge sliding shingles down to Matt.

The weather was PERFECT until the very last day, and we ended up installing the ridge vent and cap shingles in chilly drizzle, but to have only one day like that and at the END is not bad at all!! One big piece done!

Sheathing and roof framing

It's Ebenezer!!! This stage of the project where you can run in and out of the windows is super fun.The design of the garage was deliberately low and sunk into the ground on the east and north sides to minimize the impact of this big thing in our yard, which means the window sills are quite close to grade on the outside. We were also able to reuse four of the windows from the old garage (including the one that will go here) which is one more little way to save money!

Kids in the window, of course (this one does NOT have a low sill!) But the biggest thing to notice in this picture is the roof joists up on the attic storage space!

And here Matt and Korey are lifting up, one by one, the joists for the longer east side of the garage.

Here you can see the little windows Eben was posing in earlier, as well as the big ridge beam that the joists are resting on. That one's not as big as my favorite one, but still rather impressive.

Another big part of construction is keeping the job site clean! This is a great job for the small crew. Eben's wheelbarrow is NOT just a toy!

Here Rinnah is helping Reuben pick up little bits outside.

This is my view from the top of the stairs in the existing house, looking over the flat roof of the mudroom/entry to Gavin working on sheathing the front peak of the garage.

I remember distinctly that this photo was taken on one of the Thursdays when we invited the crew in for pancakes for lunch. Eben challenged Gavin to eat 20 pancakes, but he stopped at just 10. When we came back out, there was a racoon up in the big tree!! Big day. But you can see that the sheathing is done and house-wrap is going on! Matt is happy he doesn't have to do that part. He does not love being up high on ladders with big sheets or rolls of things.

Another piece of helping - Rinnah is going for a walk with Bobbi so Dad can keep working. And what a lovely day for a walk, too! Bobbi still doesn't prefer her walker for general moving around, but it's a great form of exercise!

Ooh! Look at that! All the roof joists on, and sheathing is starting to go up on the long east side of the roof!

And a view from the back. Again, the flat roof portion on the right is where the ramp comes. The gabled part is the garage proper, with the attic storage space off-center, both to mirror the off-center peak of the 2013 addition and also to let us get the height we need for Thunder while still keeping the roof edge on the yard side nice and low (I can reach up and touch the soffit!)

Over the weekend, Bobbi took advantage of the big open space of the garage and did her 40 minute walk in circles around the garage! :D

Evania and Eben were teasing a little and throwing leaves down on her from the attic space (which doesn't have its knee wall yet, so is *completely* open! Yikes! The kids climb in and out of the space currently by taking a ladder up to the flat roof (or climbing through that aforementioned window at the top of the stairs in the original house!) and then in through the back attic window where the flat roof portion wraps around the garage (see that two photos back).

Another big framing week!

It's a new week and big stuff is happening! This is from the back of the house (you can see a bit of the bathroom addition on the far right of the photo), and what you're seeing in the center of the photo is the corner where the ramp will come up and into the mudroom. Matt and Korey are working away...

Three guys lifting up one of the larger glu-lam beams - you're looking back into the NW corner where the ramp will be built. That's a big beam, but not nearly as big as...

...this one. This is the biggest one of all - four layers deep to be lifted up one by one and then lag-bolted together to function as one single beam running front to back across the whole garage to carry the section of the floor and roof load of the attic space. I think in this picture they're strategizing how this is going to work. 

And this was my favorite single moment of the whole project - watching those four men lift those huge beams up one by one and tuck them into place - barn-raising at its finest! No machinery involved - just some brains and a lot of muscle!

I have a video of it, too, which is even better, but I can't remember where I put it!!! If I ever locate it (and can remember how to upload videos) I will share it. Those are BIG beams.

There's Krassimir! Must be about 2:30! With all four layers of the big beam up and bolted together, floor trusses for the attic storage space are getting set into place.

Eben is supervising as Kelley secures the hangers. I used to teach Sunday School for Kelley and his younger sister. And now he's building my garage. So good.

Now Eben is supervising Gavin as he cuts something to length. 

Smaller garage door is framed in to the right of the larger one (the larger one will still get shortened a little bit, but not much, because Thunder is BIG!)

And a view from the back (NE) corner as the rim gets attached to the ends of the attic floor joists. (One other guy on the crew now - *not* someone we know, but someone who grew up with Korey and Kelley.)

And on the weekend, the new space turned out to be a great space for the kids and their friends to play soccer!!!

Here's Evania and Gloria enjoying the window that will be over the ramp in the NW corner.

Overall, a VERY successful week!!

Now comes the fun part!

 Framing is always the best part of any project, because you go from "nothing" to being able to see the whole thing in real three-dimensional space in such a short amount of time!

One of the highlights of this project was having this crew working here with us. The owner has attended our church for as long as Matt can remember, and his two sons do most of the work, along with a few other guys. Not only are they part of our church, but they're also distantly related, so Korey and Kelley both have memories of coming to our house with their mom when they were little to visit Matt's grandpa! (I think I've mentioned before how Matt and I moved in with his grandpa when we were first married, and purchased the house from his estate a few years after he passed away. It's neat living on property that's been in Matt's family since 1908!) Anyway, it just felt so *wholesome* every day to have this particular crew being the ones to build this project - much less like we'd hired someone and more like a good old-fashioned barn raising! Korey's kids also just happen to be our little girls' best friends.

Bright and early Monday morning, Korey showed up to get things started. Matt's planning on working with the crew as much as possible, partly because he enjoys framing, but also because the more hours he puts in the fewer we have to pay someone else to do!

Floor framing done and subfloor installed! Fun routine with Krassi - every day getting off the bus we would wheel over and give him a chance to see what was going on. 

Next is walls!! Here's the wall with our new main entry door.

As the work progresses, more help arrives. Today Gavin (who's also grown up in our church - in between Owen and Leah's age - he's also spent time at our house over the years shooting Nerf guns in the basement at Owen's birthday parties!) arrived to help Korey. Look closely at the picture - Gavin said, "I feel like I'm on Little House on the Prarie!" 

Good call. The girls had been invited to a Laura Ingalls themed birthday party, and took a day to make bonnets for themselves that they then wore out in the yard the rest of the season!

Back to building! We've now got the upper ledger on the house and are putting on the joists for the flat roof over the mud/entry! Another great thing about having the construction crew be guys we know well is that the kids got to be very involved.

And sheathing on the outside - it's like a real room! Gavin's starting to frame up the front wall of the garage here. (Framing happens on the ground, and then the whole wall gets lifted up into place.)

Here's Korey working on the cantilevered roof over the entry. This is a fun one to see structured, because they had to install the joist hanger *upside down* on the garage door wall because those forces acting on the cantilever are stronger than gravity at that end of the rim!

The garage slab is a nice, smooth, open surface for wheeling around on! Krassimir has gotten pretty good with his one-handed-controlled wheelchair.

And here's my oldest and youngest boys twinning. :) Ebs isn't quite as tall as Krassi yet (at 6 years and 20 years) but he's working on it!