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).