Category: Uncategorized

And some more framing.

master bedroom, from barn doors.
master bath, from barn doors.
master bedroom, from bridge.
master bath, from bridge.
from bridge: office left, living right.
midlevel bedroom interior window.
midlevel landing, into living room.
midlevel landing, office on left.
view from where the front door will be.
same photo, with descriptions.

These photos are from just yesterday, 3/26.

A note about the living room: it appears in several photos, and looks like a big mess.
The future living / great room is where the old work rooms and hay loft were. Some of it remains (the hay loft, in particular), as it has been used as make-shift scaffolding.  It will all get torn out eventually.

So exciting.

More framing.

our bedroom (almost) has a floor!
….and so does our bathroom!
the midlevel bed and bath with walls.
midlevel bed and bath from hall.
midlevel bedroom from barn doors.
master bedroom from barn doors.
on the bridge.

On 3/3, we paid a visit to check out the progress.
The midlevel bedroom and bathroom had walls, and the floors joists were down on the master level.
Pretty awesome.

Framing

dad and tommy on the bridge.
bottom to top: kitchen, midlevel, bridge
stairs from midlevel up to bridge.
billy, tommy, mom and dad: midlevel.
that’s where our bedroom will go.
the location of our future bathroom.

So here’s the first batch of updated framing photos, as promised.
On 2/6, Tommy, Mom and Dad met us at the barn to see the progress.

on failed resolutions.

So, my new year’s resolution was to be a better communicator. To take photos and share them right away. To respond to emails upon their receipt. And to treat this blog kindly, as it’s our primary way of chronicling this (monstrous / awesome / terrifying) moment in our lives, and updating (those who care about) our progress.

Resolution failed. (At least for the moment).
Admittedly, we have have been quite terrible.

But life had other plans.
And updating a blog seemed trivial. Unimportant. An insignificant speck on everyone’s radar.
We knew we’d return to it; it would just take a bit of time.
My hope is to now resume that floundering resolution.

Just because we haven’t been typing, that doesn’t mean that progress hasn’t been made.
Finally (finally!), on March 4, we had settlement for our construction loan.
Tom and his crew have been there a couple of days a week making progress, and the whole house is almost entirely framed out, not slowed at all by the fact that Tom just had surgery on his knee. (That man is incredible).
And this morning, the bank was there doing an inspection.
Dare I say it, things seem to be moving.

We have many photos to share, and will do so soon……
(Here’s to resumed resolutions!)

and ps. Happy Birthday, Billy.
xo

Framing spaces.

fake-napping in the mid-level guestroom.
kitchen below, guest room above.
kitchen on left, stairs on right.
going up?
kitchen, facing the stairs.
kitchen, facing the back of the house.
hiding on the midlevel.
midlevel landing.
across to the hayloft.
attic, above the lower level bedrooms.

So we wanted to get these photos up before Tom comes to town and makes more ridiculous progress.  It’s amazing what he can get done on his own, nevermind with helpers who actually know what they’re doing (read: not me and Billy). Anyway, last week, Tom and his crew (Dave and Adam) came and did a whole mess of work; in just a day, they completed the ceiling joists in the downstairs guest rooms, framed out the kitchen, built some temporary stairs, and started on the mid-level guest room.
Pretty amazing.

But please ignore the lousy photo quality: it was dusk when we got there (which means poor lighting), and didn’t we didn’t have our camera (which means cell phone photos only).

We’re relieved to be making some forward progress with construction, as we’re not making forward progress with the loan.  (We’re still waiting on various and sundry organizations to get their collective acts together…… and we’re loosing time, money and patience).

Ah well.  In due time, I suppose.

Small steps forward.

gearing up is a team effort.
removed some of the hay mow….
….to make room for our future kitchen.
office wall.
that’s where the stairs will go.
bedroom ceiling = attic floor.
ceiling joists above the guest bedroom.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We’re all sick of waiting.

So, in an effort to be productive (and not entirely stagnant as we wait on various organizations to do their job so we can close on our loan), Tom, Marie and Emma came up this past Saturday.

And the five of us put in a work day.

Small steps forward.

(un)settlement day.

We were supposed to have settlement on our construction loan today.
(I really wish that sentence read “we had settlement on our construction loan today.”)
But, alas, it was postponed.

So, the property we own is what’s left of a former 40 acre dairy farm.  The barn and the farmhouse were subdivided into their own parcels in 1976 and 1977 with the rest of the neighborhood.  The only map of our property we were ever shown and have ever seen was the one from ‘77.  Apparently, information on our property was either poorly (or not at all) recorded before or since then, and now we have to wait until we can put the pieces together.

We just found out about this last Friday, and needless to say, it didn’t get straightened out in time for us to close today.

Unfortunately, it looks like we’re cleaning up a mess 35 years in the making. 

……we just hope it doesn’t take too long.

A bit more waiting.

On Christmas Eve, we got an email from our bank guy, Tad at First Savings Bank of Perkasie (https://www.firstsavingsonline.com/), that the commitment letter for our loan was in the mail, and once we had it in our hands, we could schedule our settlement date.  Awesome!  Then, there was Christmas day, then a snow storm, then the New Year’s holiday.  So the USPS isn’t exactly rushing it to our door. We’re a bit anxious, but realize we will close on this loan sooner rather than later.

So to move forward (as we wait), we ordered a dumpster and it was delivered last week.  Today, we cleared out that unsightly pile of rotten / water damaged / unusable boards (that appear in a photo or two).  So the space is ready to continue framing, once Tom is able and our loan is done. 

Alright, 2011. 
Let’s do this.

First framing.

first floor bedroom 1.
guest bathroom.
first floor bedroom 2.
a lousy picture of all 3 framed rooms.

Needless to say, we’re a little anxious to get started on work.  We couldn’t even begin the application for the construction loan until the farmhouse was sold and out of our names.  So there’s a bit of lag time…… and we’re getting restless.  In the meantime, Billy placed our first lumber order with Tague Lumber (http://www.taguelumber.com/).  They were great: had everything in stock, delivered quickly, and came with a forklift so that they could distribute our order to the locations we need it.  Awesome.

Tom (TGWoodruff, LLC) has also been eager to move forward.  So, on Sunday morning, Billy and I got call call that he, and my father, were on their way to us.  We were going to do some preliminary framing!  So exciting.  Since this process has entailed a lot of waiting, it’s nice to see some progress.

We framed out the two first floor bedrooms and a bathroom; they are in the space over the garage.  One we call my parents’ room, so that they have a place to stay when they’re visiting us in PA.  The other is an additional guest room.  Those two rooms share the full bathroom in the hall.
The remaining space over the garage has been dubbed the “pool room,” since Billy acquired a free pool table (thanks, Andy!).

Here are some photos of the finished products from that day!
(Please ignore the trash piles, (as we didn’t have a dumpster yet), and the lousy photo quality.)
How cool is this?!
We’re on our way!