Standing room only

Yesterday (Tuesday) I called and talked to our PM about the damage or lack thereof, and he indicated that there wasn't much to speak of.  The schedule called for tar paper today and possibly beginning the shingles, so when we got there at 11:30 I wasn't surprised to see the paper, but I wasn't expecting the plumbers to be there!  They were working upstairs so I took a closer look at the bottom two floors (still without going in, though).  I'm a little upset that there's STILL standing water in the house.  Seriously, it stopped raining early Tuesday...it's been at least 24 hours, and it takes like 5 minutes to push excess water out with a broom or something.  Why is it still there?  Minor, I know, but the one thing I'm really worried about is having mold behind our walls/under our carpets.  And now I have to worry about my floors being warped.  Ah well, we were already planning on having an independent inspector come to our pre-drywall meeting.  Which will probably be the second half of next week!

Spot 1

Spot 3, my new favorite place to take a picture
(and look at that sky!)

Side view of our soon-to-be porch

I'm guessing from the overall shape and depression that this is our master tub.

Standing water in our Dining Room

Straight-on the back, where the basement door
is not only in the wrong place, it's the wrong door!

Debris in the basement

Standing water in the basement

Framing Day 8 (Saturday)

Sorry for the blog silence...it was a crazy weekend but I'm finally recovered from the 4 year-old's birthday party. We went by the new house on our way to the party, and we have plywood on our roof.

Spot 1

Spot 2

Spot 3

Spot 4

Garage (floor has been poured!)

The gables, with ominous skies

We went back post-party (so around 4pm), and there wasn't much different to see (I didn't even get out of the car, but then I had a sleeping toddler, too).  In comparing pictures, I think they did seal around the windows some, but that's all I could tell on the outside.  Plenty of noise, though, so I guess they mostly worked inside all day.

Post-party

Not sure what the plan is for Sandy coming in...guess I should go call the PM and find out!

Framing Day 7 (Friday)

Well, the good news is that our trusses are up!!

Spot 1

Spot 2

Spot 3

Spot 4

Close-up of the gable structure

Gable profile

The bad news is that I didn't get to see any of it in action.  :(  Between when the PM called to say the crane was there and they were about to start, and when I was able to get there, they got them all up and the crane spirited away without a trace.  This was a matter of two hours!  They work fast.  

That was bright and early this morning, so I'm hopeful that they were able to get the roof finished today.  We'll see tomorrow!

Framing Day 6 (Thursday)

We went by early this afternoon to check on the house, and we had trusses!

Spot 1, with trusses!  And no trucks!

Mini trusses!  For the porch and garage?  Or morning room?  I'm thinking
that this isn't the orientation in which they will be installed...

Biiiiiiiiiig trusses

The workers must have been at lunch, because there was only one person in the house.  A couple important looking people were talking at a truck parked in front of the house, so we took that as our "official" presence and went in closer than I'd been able to go this week.  They didn't object so I guess we were fine.  Probably helped that we didn't attempt to go inside.

I see windows!  And our garage floor is ready to be poured.

Here you can see two places where LVL (the bright orange boards) is in use.

They're no longer winning any "cleanest jobsite" awards.  :)

We have basement stairs!  And you can see the two steel beams.

The workers started coming back, so after watching them start to unload the trusses we got out of the way and went about our day.  Around 3:30 the assistant PM called and said they had scheduled the crane to be delivered at 5, and they intended to get started on the trusses when it got there.  My PMs rock!  So we made another trip up there and saw that they were in the process of installing windows.  They'd probably gotten about 5 of them installed that I could see...might have been more around back but I had both boys, was by myself (adult-wise!) this time, and there are nails and screws everywhere.  We weren't getting out!

One of the installed windows, plus framework for the porch roof

Unfortunately the crane was NOT delivered, and though we kicked around in the model for awhile it still wasn't there at 6 so we went home.  :(  Hopefully tomorrow they'll get started bright and early, and beat Sandy to the punch!

Framing Day 5 (Wednesday)

As promised, we went by a little earlier today so I was able to take more pictures.  The PM was at a house down the road and came over to chat with me when he saw me out with his pictures.  Our roof trusses are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, and depending on what time they arrive the installation could start in the afternoon or Friday morning.  I'm really hoping for tomorrow afternoon...we have a wet spell coming this weekend!

It doesn't look at first glance like much was done, but they've put up most if not all of the interior wall frames on the second floor.  We were there at 11:30 am so they hopefully got the ceiling stuff at least started by the end of the day.

Spot 1

Spot 2

Spot 3

South side

Around back

Spot 4

I can see through my house!  :D

Awww, it's not wearing a skirt anymore!  :(

We have STAIRS!!!

Mystery solved!  This is "Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL)" a layered type of wood that's extra strong.  Used over windows and doors to spread the load down the sides instead of all on the top, apparently.

LVL 

Tomorrow is going to be a super busy day, with doctor appointments for my boys and preparations for my 4 year old's birthday party this weekend (where does time go??).  So I'm not sure if we'll make it out there or not.  I will have to see what my assistant has to say on the subject.  :)

Framing day 4 (Tuesday)

I squeezed in a very brief visit last night between dropping my boys off at Grandma's and heading to volleyball, so not a ton of pictures. They were still hard at work, so I guess they work until they can't see anymore? Good thing they'll be done before Daylight Saving Time ends!

Spot 1

Spot 2

Spot 3

Around back

North side

Spot 4

I'm just a little entertained that my garage is wearing a skirt.

I'll be going by this afternoon for a more leisurely visit with the younger child, so hopefully I'll be able to take more pictures.  And possibly even some zoomed-in shots!

Framing Day 3 (Monday)

Went by on Monday around 5:30, and here's what we have!

Spot 1, with a pesky van in front!

Spot 2

Spot 3

Maybe I'll start a spot 4!

North side

Around back

Carrying in...

...one of those orange boards!

Can't wait to see what's there tonight! :D