House Projects

You may know that we are having some work done on our house this year. There are essentially four parts: repair the chimney, re-shingle the house, replace the siding on the house, and replace the back porch with a four seasons sunroom. In case you are into construction drawings, this will describe how the four seasons sunroom will replace our old back porch. The roof line will be changed, there will be lots of glass, and the floor will be raised to improve access to the library (floors at same level) and kitchen (one step, rather than two).

Work began in earnest recently. Here are Mark and his crew working at tearing off the old porch.

With the porch gone, the location is ready for construction of the new floor.

The sidewalk just oustide the back porch was removed, since the new room will extend out that much further. A 4' trench was dug for a new footing.

And concrete was poured into the trench. The yard is taking a beating, with heavy trucks traveling across the lawn and piles of dirt and old materials accumulating.

Here is a view from the upstairs hall window.

Meanwhile, the upper roof was stripped of two layers of old shingles by a different crew.

Fortunately, the sheeting was in good condition, so no repairs were necessary.

The truck that delivered the shingles and related materials used a crane to lift the bundles up to the work area. The truck could barely turn into the driveway. It was a heavy rig, and there was a little minor damage to the asphalt near the garage--nothing to be very concerned about.

Here is the roof with new tar paper and shingles in progress. The shingle color is called driftwood. They finished this entire roof--stripping and re-shingling--in a single day. The garage roof will be done later, after the new sunporch roof is constructed and can be integrated.

A couple of days later, after the footing and knee-wall were in place, it was time to pour the new sunroom floor.

First, the space was leveled with a layer of rock.

Next, a foam insulation layer was added. Plastic sheeting was put atop this.

Then the area was filled with concrete.

And was smoothed to a very nice finish. It is interesting to begin to get a feel for the size of the new space.

Another crew began work on the chimney. It was badly weather damaged and had to be torn down about half way and then rebuilt. A nest of bees or wasps greeted them at one point!

Here is the new chimney, nearly finished. With this done, the new sunporch roof can be constructed around it.

We are at the lake now, so this work continues without me being able to take pictures. Mark said he would take some for me. I expect that by the time we get home, everything will be all buttoned back up. More news later.