Ok, I've been a very lax blogger. Sorry about that. Here's some photos showing the deck in progress. The top decking is all but finished (the board next to the hot tub is giving me some issues...) And then I just have some more trim to do. I'll add that to my punch list and finish it while I'm waiting for cabinets/counters/windows/doors to arrive.

Almost finished!

Finally a way to get to the basement safely!

I love that landing at the bottom. I may have to do some more work to get the board spacing even

I also took some time to re-paint my scooter

Plans finished!

You wanted it, you've got it. Here is myh latest (final?) draft of kitchen design. I think that everything fits and goes together and there is a place for everything and i didn't forget about plumbing. Check it out!

So I sprained the instep of my right foot playing frisbee the other day! It looked like a purple softball for a while. Now the swelling has gone down but it still looks like this:



This isn't helping me on the building front. It is helping me to take a moment to slow down, however. So I'm finishing the design and sitting in front of my computer researching windows and doors with my foot on ice up in the air.

Julie's sister is in town so we finally cleaned up the house including the relocated kitchen in our dining room. So here's a picture.



What's amazing is that this very busy kitchen is already an improvement over the old kitchen. We both like it better!

So here is my boss:



Here I am trimming joists:



And here's the result:



I got the top decking all installed and started trimming.



On other fronts, we picked our sinks and fixtures and have started researching flooring options. Oh and we're redesigning some layout options. It is a difficult space. Julie and I really enjoy cooking together and so we need to be able to both fit in the tiny kitchen and not feel as though we're always on top of each other. I'm trying to preserve the window views and even increase the feeling of openness. So there are a lot of variables to play with.

So we had someone come in to give us an estimate for sanding and refinishing our fir floors. We had high hopes of beautiful new floors glistening up at us. Unfortunately, the floors are done. They have been sanded through and can no longer be refinished. It's time to replace them. So now we're looking at bamboo flooring. It's not what we originally wanted but bamboo is lovely and sustainable and feels great under one's feet so we're excited.

Today is the day: moving everything out of the kitchen to start the demo!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.

I'm making good progress. Fixed the cripple wall, re-sheathed the house, attached the ledger and dug foundations (thanks Kong). Then I put up joists (thanks Kyra)!



Julie and I have also been making decisions left and right. We're going with a sliding vinyl patio door now and have the following appliances picked out:


New Fridge.

20,000BTU Wok Burner in our new gas cooktop

Dishdrawers!

Convection Oven

New Faucet

Pot Filler Faucet over the stove!

So the exciting part about working on a 91 year old house is that every time you try to do something, you find something else broken. I spent the last two days repairing the sill plate and cripple wall under the breakfast nook. There is some very weird framing out there and I've done my best to conform what I can to modern codes.

I rented some house jacks from Central Tool Rental (great place, BTW) and lifted up the nook. And I got to frame my first wall. Not too shabby considering the sole plate is 10.5 degrees off of horizontal. Found another rotten wall too. This one was also not supported on anything (basically hanging from a joist. Nice.

Anyway, I'm building up a storm. And I'm almost ready to attach the ledgers. Yay!

In the meantime, we've narrowed down our choices for appliances and sinks. Now to get through the thousands of cabinets.