New Siding

It was a cold and snowy morning this morning when Chris, Dennis and Brian arrived. Dennis said that he had about six inches of snow where he lives. We had just over an inch. (You can see some on the roof of the porch.) They brought in the scaffolding boards so they would melt before they started working on the siding around Charlotte's window. They also trimmed out the triple window.

Here is a picture of the underneath side of the porch roof. To add the feeling of space, we are keeping the rafter exposed. The rafters and the boards have already been painted Maritime White to match the trim on the rest of the house.

Triple Window

Today was an exciting day. This morning they removed the upstairs door, made a huge hole, framed out the window rough opening and installed the window. It looks great from the outside, and the view from the upstairs is amazing, especially with the fall color.
The porch ceiling is also up, painted, and weatherized.

Porch Rafters

The rafters for the porch roof are all in place, ready for the ceilling. It is all very exciting.

Trucks

We have had quite a few trucks stop by as part of our construction project. This truck delivered insulation and wood for the porch ceiling.

Framing the Porch

The footings are in and Chris, Dennis, and Brian are framing the new porch. It was strange to stand on it for the first time. It seems huge. Can't wait to sit out there on a summer's afternoon.


You can also see the new window upstairs, closest to the porch.

Fun Discovery from 1902

Yesterday when Brian, Chris and Dennis were working up in the attic on the new ceiling joists, Brian found some old tobacco tins and a tobacco box amongst the insulation. The tax stamp on the tobacco box is April 12, 1902. The Old English tin (curved so you can put it in your pocket) has a patent date of May 1899. Brian also found a church offertory envelope dated January 1904 as well as some type of pipe. In all the years we've been working on the house, tearing off old walls and such, we have never found anything like this.

Porch Footings

Yesterday and today, the builders were working on the porch footings. We weren't sure how far down they could dig before they hit ledge, but they were actually able to dig the four feet or so needed for the porch footings. Alistair was definitely excited by the mini excavator Brian used to dig the holes for the foundation. He ate his breakfast while watching him place the pre-cast footing into the hole.

Brian also dug the holes for the side porch footings. He found some enormous rocks. They also had to move the dumpster (using the excavator) to get to some of the other side porch footings.


It has been fairly wet the past few weeks, so our yard is now a big muddy mess. Well, we've been talking about having the lumps smoothed out and the lawn reseeded because it is so weedy. I guess we'll be doing that now.

Painting Alistair's Room

After a busy day picking pumpkins, Colin painted the second coat of Shaker Beige on Alistair's new bedroom walls. He also started to install the cedar panels in the small closet in his room which will be used for long term storage.

Dormer Window Framed

The window in the new dormer is all framed, and they are nearly done framing the new ceiling.

Salmon Pink

We noticed today a small patch of salmon pink paint on the siding on the back of the house. It was behind the old porch. The house we rented when we first moved up here was salmon pink, so it's not that unusual of a color. We wondered when it was painted that color. You can also see a tiny sliver of the horribly boring beige color the house was painted when we bought it.

Moving on to the Roof

The wall of Charlotte's new room is all framed and you can see where the window will be. Now they are working on the roof. Dennis is carrying roofing supplies up the staging.

Here is a picture of the temporary porch supports. The post that was here was as a angle and not supporting anything.

Framing the Wall

Chris (left), Brian (with beard), and Dennis were hard at work today framing out the wall of Charlotte's room. They are making fast progress. The weather forecast is for sun the next few days, which is great for working on the house as well as the upcoming Columbus Day weekend.

Yesterday the weather was pretty crummy, so they worked on fixing the side porch. The rafters were in bad shape. Some looked like someone had used wood from a burn pile, and all the rafters were pulling away from the siding. They put up fascia and sistered new rafters to the old and attached the new rafters to the fascia. (The old rafters were cut back.) It might not look pretty, but it will all be covered up by bead board. They also leveled out the decking and took out the old, rusty support posts.