Attic Framing

While the Polar Vortex descended upon the Midwest, the temperature here reached only 11.  Justin and Keefe worked mostly in the attic.  They also finished the new support post in the basement.

With the attic hatch open, windows cracked open to run power cords, and the interior basement door open, the furnace couldn't keep up.  The temperature hovered around 58 F.  Evelyn had a cold, so we hunkered down in the front room with the door closed and stayed warm.

Posts - Day One

On Sunday we hung up the one curtain rod that is the correct size (oops) and moved our bed and Evelyn's bed into our new master bedroom.  We woke up Monday morning looking up at the wintry trees.  We have had four bedrooms in this house. 

Justin's son hurt his shoulder in a skiing accident, so he spent yesterday morning at the hospital.  A quiet Monday for us.

Today more of our house got ripped apart in order to support the new framing and to improve the existing framing.  They put in a new, large header across the living room doorway with new posts that will be hidden behind the new casing and more posts in the future dining room.

Evelyn has been very curious about the attic.  She really wanted to climb up there, so finally Alyssa gave in and said okay.  Evelyn stepped on the bottom rung and stopped.  She noticed a cobweb.  She asked lots of questions about spiders - spiders on the ladder, spiders in the attic, etc.  It became a struggle of "Fear of Spiders" vs "Desire to see the Attic".  After much hesitation, the desire to see the attic won, and she bravely climbed the ladder to peak in the attic.

Victorian Pin Up Girls

Justin and Keif started working in the attic.  The new ridge beam, other beams and columns need to be tied into the rest of the framing.  Justin found these Victorian pin up girls and pictures up in the attic.

They also ran into a problem with the framing between the original part of the house (the living room) and the newer sections.  The balloon framing and "flat studs" (rotated at 90 degrees) are causing problems for supporting the new beams.  It will be easier to explain as they put the new posts in.  It also means a bit more work for us.