One Giant Skylight

Such is the fate of homeowners who are also their own general contractor:  our walls are going up but it'll still be a while until we have a roof.  Until then we have one giant skylight! Before we could put up our very first wall (that's me with the first wall!) we had to dismantle part of the existing exterior wall so we could tie in the new wall to the old house.  We saved the ship lath for Jeff to re-use as the siding of his dream garage.  Ask him about it sometime - he has great plans!

   Next came the framing and heaving into a vertical position of that first wall. (Walls are heavy.  And require a lot of nails.)  More walls then sprouted with some speed, this time built mostly in place and sheated afterwards because the bigger walls would be REALLY heavy.  Framing is one of my favorite parts of building - much quicker and more forgiving than finish work.  Something a bit out of level?  Just give it a whack with the sledge hammer.  Can't do that with finish work :)

Our friend Richard has been a huge help in our building project; of all of us he has the most construction experience.  He and I (mostly him) just keep on putting up more walls.  We have since finished the front, which will be living room on the left and maser bedroom on the right, and have moved on to the back addition.  That part will extend the kitchen an additional four feet and make room for a third bedroom in the back.  When we get this beauty finished we hope to fill up those bedrooms with kiddos!

Help from all sides (of the country)

     From Seattle to New England folks are coming out to work on the house.  It's been so much fun to have friends and family help us out.  If you're in the neighborhood come on over.  We even give naming rights for free!  No mutli-million dollar deals to get a wall or a window named after you - just a little hammer swingin'.   And if you can't quite make it all the way here to Congress Street, well, we'll take the work and the naming rights to you!  So far we have Pepere's Bathroom Wall, Nana's Nail-Free 2x4s, Andrew and Sharon's Crib Walls, and most recently, Matt and Angela's Egress Windows.

Andrew and Sharon came down in January for a long weekend of building and skiing.  You'll have to ask them which was more fun - I think it was a pretty close call :)  We all jumped in "Fluffy," our work truck, and headed off to the lumber yard for supplies.  Back at the house we started in on the crib walls which will complete the front foundation.  They were willing workers, eager to work on whatever needed doing.  (thanks, guys!)

The egress window naming rights went to Matt and Angela who helped durning their recent (short) visit to Portland.  They didn't have time to get all the way here, so we went up to visit and took them to our new favorite store:  the Rebuilding Store in North Portland.  The place is a gloriously messy maze of anything that can be salvaged from houses being torn down or renovated.  We found an impressive front door and two matching wonderful windows to complete the window needs in our master bedroom.  (thanks to Carol the photographer)  We're moving right along thanks to all our helpers!

A Dig Jig

I was mundanely pulling nails from 2x4s when I heard a deep rumble from the alley.  I peeked through the boarded up window in the back and did a little jig when I saw a Bobcat excavator rumbling into the yard.  They were here to dig!  

We have been waiting over a month now for the foundation pouring stars to align (well, actually, for the bids to come in and the weather to warm up) and now everything seems to be in place.  The digging happens today and tomorrow.  Then the foundation forms are put in place, the city inspector comes to (hopefully) give his ok, and then comes the concrete!

We're hoping Monday will be the day for our new foundation, but even it takes an extra day or so we'll still have it very soon.  Just in time, too, as we slow down with jobs to do in the existing house.  Once we have the foundation we will certainly have plenty to do!