In which I am out of town and getting updates via text and email.

Will there be a gable roof framed out by the time I get back?

Full steam ahead.  It looks like they have finished framing out all the windows and the porch door at the front of the building.  I wonder how that looks all opened up? 

Greg and I spent hours talking, and he spent more hours planning and designing, so that we could figure out where the stairs would go from the second to the third floor.  

You'd think we'd have this figured out by now, and we did, then the plan changed. The elevator was scrapped and I became enamored of having a bedroom on the top floor of the addition rather than a staircase.  So where to put it?

We thought we could sacrifice a bedroom for a stair, but it was going to be a huge waste of space.  We think we have it down now, thanks to Greg.  The bonus news is that we may yet get four bedrooms outta the ole girl.  Bu,t will we be able to get the beds up the stairs is our current worry. 

In which we have a new corner of the building

Lovely view from the second floor of the replaced corner and floor.  Now there is no danger of falling through the floorboards!   Look at all the light on the second floor!  What a great apartment this will be.

I am out of the state for the next week or so, so no hatin' on me for not posting!

In which there is more progress.

I took this photo during a morning of "Wintery Mix".  The old girl is shaping up from the back.  If you squint on the left side, you can see progress being made on the addition with the building of the stairs up to the second floor. 

Zoom Zoom Zoom.....

In which there are no words.

Except:

Seriously???

In which we start seeing this as a good thing.

TEST complete.  Thank you all. The comment section appears to work..you all just don't use it.....sigh.

We stopped by the building Saturday to do some measuring for our next project and so I snapped some good shots of the work so far.  Greg hadn't been upstairs to see the fourth window and the rear of the building semi-framed out, so I was puttering downstairs and all of a sudden I hear him say..."ok, now I can see it, now I can see that this was a good thing for us."  Funny, I was thinking the same thing a floor below!

I should have stayed and had this on video.  This shot was taken right before 2/3rds of the wall on the second floor gets taken out. 

Boys couldn't do the whole wall at once because they have put in a corner post on the left hand corner in the photo below.  They also cut and framed the fourth window on the second floor on the long side. I assume the section of wall below on the first floor will have to be replaced because of the tiny door that was cut in (where the blue board is).  I had an entry all ready to go on the numbers of creepy little doorways we found in the building...but I never got around to sharing that story.  Anyway, there will be another window going in on the first floor to the left of the blue board panel.

Before shot:

There are 11 of these windows going in on the first floor, three more to cut in and frame out.  

It's getting pretty light in here on such a cloudy day.  

Viking delivered our steel columns yesterday.These will go down the center of the lower level space, where the new LVL beams are located.  They are smaller than I thought.  We need to order one more...forgot about the opening out to the addition.  

In which we have a test.

I have had some complaints that some folks cannot comment on my posts.  Is this true?  Please let me know via email at seththayer (at) gwi (dot) net to let me know if you cannot comment here.  If you can comment here, please let me know if it was troublesome or easy to do so.

thanks

and

Happy Valentine's Day

In which we get new window openings

The new window openings are being framed out.  As I walked through the building yesterday, I noted silently to myself that we should have just torn the building down.  I was remiss in not having my camera then, because the boys had just taken out the whole back wall of the first floor and then informed me that they will be doing the same with the second floor...most likely because of this, which one friend jokingly noted looks like the Van Halen logo:

Anyway, now that I have gotten over my pity party for one,  I am getting more excited about the space than ever before.  Could this be because we already have an amazing first floor tenant who completely jives with our aesthetic for the building??  It could! 

See what I mean about replacing the first floor walls?  These new windows look East, directly down the road to the town dock and anchorage.  

This is the view from the new window cut outs on the second floor where the living room for the apartment will be.  

More living room view

What a difference having a full crew makes.  This is a day's progress.  

In which one of our most ardent fans has a milestone birthday.

Happy 80th Birthday Phil Brown!

In which the only thing that stands between us and outside is a few old boards

Inside on a sunny day. I kind of like it!  I am kind of scared of it too...the whole building looks like this from the inside.

In which the ole girl gets undressed

I've been up to my eyes in auctions these past few days, so it has been a delight to stop by Slum and Blight in the afternoons to chart progress.  

An exciting development that I was hoping would come to light is the survival of the original flat clapboard facade boards underneath a later layer of clapboard.  If you take a look at the original photo at the top of this page, you will see that the front is flat while the sides have clapboard.  

We will check these out, and hope to keep this facade rather than re-clapboard over it.  The door frame is great!

As I said earlier, the 3rd floor windows appear to be the original and might have the original moldings that will help give us an idea of what to put back around the new windows

I think this original facade adds a touch more character to the building.

Though, you can't get much better than this when one talks character in a building...Give me strength!  I think I need to launch a kickstarter campaign!

Ok, this is the much more tame side....things are looking up!

In which I feel like the hamburgler again

"Rubble, rubble...rubble, rubble" is what kept going in my mind as I spent about four hours yesterday cleaning out the last (didn't I say that a few times before?) of the granite rubble from out under the building.  We do indeed have at least 100 inches everywhere underneath.  Today, I am sore and sick...both Greg and I have sinus colds that started yesterday.  I have a few Maine auctions to attend over the next few days and if successful, I have a trip back to Boston in the near future to deliver the goods so my shippers will have an easier time of it.  So, I will be working on the building when I can over the next week.

The construction boys have been working elsewhere the last week, but apparently are back at the building again today.  They grumbled about the jack hammering, so they should be happy that that project is done.  I believe they are framing in the floor for the addition on the first floor, which will enclose the lower level addition and provide an enclosed, heatable space.

More photos soon...nothing has changed, save our rubble pile!