3 weeks into framing

Ah, the smell of cut lumber.  We have plenty of it to enjoy!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves... here is the progress with pictures in chronological order:

May 14, 2012:  These were taken the same day I posted the last blog.  I have hardly been able keep up with the changes!

Front of the house, showing progress on the second floor,
as well as the sheathing going up on the walls.

View of upstairs

Jim and Robert checking out the view from one of the garage attics,
looking over the back of the house

Looking downstairs into the breakfast area and family room

View from "the spot."

May 17, 2012

Family room chimney

Second floor upstairs in back

view of roof frame over breakfast area

View from front of house, northwest corner

I love summer.  Sometimes we just go through the house and sometimes we walk
the whole property.  Yesterday we saw a great blue heron in the creek.

back of house

garage side 

Here are our shingles:  Stormmaster Slate (They aren't really slate...) and the metal that they will
use on the parts of the roof that have too much curve for the shingles.  It's really a rather crazy roof.
The framers aren't terribly happy about it.  It wasn't our idea... the designer did it!

The driveway will probably go between these two trees.

May 21, 2012:

View from "the spot"

Robert in front of his bedroom window

May 24, 2012:

View from the back

...Here is a picture of the "sample brick."
 It seems that they went to the
wrong house.  It took them three
 tries to get the right stone
sample, but we were hoping
that getting the right brick
wouldn't be that hard.  

Recently, we drove around town looking
at brick that we might like to use
on the back of the house.
Here is a picture of the brick
we want to use.  We gave this
picture and the address to
the "brick people..."

Susie likes to go to the property as much as the rest of us.
She runs all over the house as if she owns the place.  

May 27, 2012

They have been working on the roof!

Here's what the storage room looks like now.

Back view showing all the wall sheathing up as well as a lot of the roof.

View from "the spot"

I had forgotten how much fun it is to watch your ideas go from paper to reality.  It is amazing to see how the rooms translate from the drawings to actual spaces.  The workers may not be able to speak much English but they can sure put this puzzle of a house together!  They are really hard workers.  In fact, they are such hard workers that, much to our neighbor's dismay, they showed up for work on Saturday morning at 6 am.  We got a call from said neighbors at about 6:20 am...  According to city regulations, they are allowed to work from 7 am to 9 pm.  Randy, the foreman, said, "my guys will be melted by 9 pm but if they want us to start later, we'll start later."  Here's hoping they'll be there at 7 am on Tuesday!  

Happy Memorial Day, all.