November 2015 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

Windows

Ryan and his dad worked on windows on Sunday – putting them in is a two person job and now Ryan can get the trim up around them if he has time by himself! They got a lot more done than I anticipated and I can’t wait to see them later tonight!

All the upstairs windows across the back!

So there are 3 more windows downstairs in the front there to do, plus one in the livingroom which I think we bought the wrong size for. We have to buy the downstairs bathroom window (we forgot that one entirely). We are not replacing the garage ones at the moment, we’ll wait until we do dormers above the garage down the road.

Next up – siding to order!

Dormer Update (late)

First off – Ryan did an amazing job closing up the second dormer quickly. On the following Saturday he finished the roof on it (Nov 14) while I was out of town.

The windows arrived last friday and that night Ryan got the first one put in already! He put the second one in on Saturday and got them sealed up with trim on Sunday. He also installed the small window over the garage so Alex’s room has 2 new windows now! Both dormers have plywood flooring now too.

I was away with Bella Saturday night through Sunday but got photo updates as the trim went up!

We are using Azek for the trim around the windows. The brown siding is vinyl and we haven’t found a perfect match yet (we found matching style but no colors match perfectly) so we haven’t pulled the trigger on new siding yet for the dormers.

Our HVAC equipment is all here and Ryan’s cousin is starting on duct work this week (and they got the attic unit up into the attic last night). Progress everywhere – hopefully soon the outside stuff will be done and we won’t be so weather dependent – it has been COLD on the weekends!

Dormer Progress

We got hit with rain this week – especially on Wednesday which was the day Ryan and his dad hoped to finish up the dormer. THey worked in the rain but they couldn’t finish the roof shingles in the rain so they just finished up the soffit (closed it in) and Ryan got the window cut. They also put down plywood for floor in the first dormer so that floor is nice and solid now.

Hmm I didn’t seem to take pictures once it was all closed up so here are some pictures from Monday’s progress when they ad started the roof (ran out of shingles) – after this they closed up the front and as I said, as of Wednesday the soffit is closed up and the window is cut and everything is sealed. Just waiting on windows and siding now!!!

I’ll update again after this weekend – Dormer should be finished up (until we get windows which may be next week!) and Ryan will hopefully take a little break sunday as the girls miss him on weekends quite a bit!

Dormer number two

It’s not really a surprise that dormer number 2 is going a bit faster than the first – lessons learned and all that! Ryan and his dad worked 1/2 of Saturday and all day Sunday this weekend on the dormer. Saturday morning Ryan went and picked up the wood we had milled into flooring – it’s cherry we got for free from someone my dad knows, and we had it milled – it came out beautiful! It should be plenty to do both of the girls’ rooms! The person that milled it also may be able to get us another chunk of cherry for a decent price to do our master bedroom too so the whole upstairs would be cherry. He also recommended ash as an option for downstairs because it’s very hard and takes stain well and we can get it cheap. That might be our plan now!

Anyhow so the dormer went fast! Ryan had pre-built the front wall so it was a matter of doing all the cutting, then putting the wall up, and doing all the flashing Saturday. Sunday they put up the side walls with plywood, then did the support post in the original roof, and all the roof beams. Ryan took tomorrow off and hopes to get the plywood on the roof before it rains on tuesday. Then Wednesday is a holiday so he hopes to do the shingles since his dad also has the day off. Next weekend will be the buttoning up I’m sure. I can’t believe how different the front of the house looks!

I love it! And there’s so much added room in each of the bedrooms!

Tomorrow I will work from the new house so I’m there in case of emergency since Ryan will be working on the roof by himself! Luckily we have internet at the new house now 🙂

Dormer work

We didn’t start dormer 2 this weekend – due to the supposed rain on sunday – that never came and it was beautiful on sunday – all well! Ryan got a few things buttoned up on the first dormer and built the first wall for dormer 2 so it’s ready to go next weekend.

We also got more brush burned and a tree taken down (dead one) for firewood this winter. We have a few more dead trees we’ll take down to burn and another pile of brush to work our way through still. We had a visit from a heron while we burned wood:

They drain the lake down in the winter so by our dock is just mud with a little water in the center. It’s a great opportunity to clean up our area and get some downed trees and branches out – just need to bring my mud boots next weekend!