Quick remodel update

More sheetrock has gone up

Mark turns 3 and shares his birthday party with Grandpa

We had a joint birthday party for Mark and Kurt on July 27th.  Here are the birthday boys in their matching shirts

Sometimes you have to get real close for Grandpa to hear what you are saying....

Lilly also enjoyed some of Grandpas time....

Two grandpas with their granddaughters....

Here is Lilly on about her 5th day of walking- still holding her hand out for balance..

what a sweetie...

Here is the cake Amy made for the boys...

time to blow out the candles...

One more present....

Mark still playing --well after the party was over...

Matter Family Reunion July 2010

 Here is the senior generation of Kurt's family--without George and Margaret

 Kurt, Maureen, Kathy, Mary Jo and Jim above
And below are all the same- this time with spouses...(and missing Margaret, Bob and George)

 Later George came and Mary Jo had left so here are Kurt, Kathy, Maureen, Jim and George

 Here is the next generation...Jenny Amy, Tom, Molly, Lisa, Holly, Beth, Casey, Grady, Padric and Becky.  We missed seeing 5 more cousins, (Joey, Karey, Tim, Gordy and Kate)

 And here is our attempt to catch the next generation...

 Did finally get this shot of Kateri holding Lilly and Matt, Tony, Mark, Evan standing and Key and Ryan sitting.  We missed seeing Brenden and Grace.

Where do I begin?

I have been TOO busy for the last month to do any postings.  During that time we have hosted a 3 day family reunion for 40 people, entertained our daughters and their families (including our 2 exceptional grandchildren) for 3+ weeks, taken a 9 day trip along the WA, OR and CA coasts including the Redwoods and somewhere inbetween grown a huge garden and continued our home remodel. 
Will start with the latest on the remodel....
Yesterday we started the sheetrocking of the livingroom- first task- hang the rock on half of the ceiling(the other half will be done in wood).'
Here is Kurt trying to figure out how to put together to machine we rented to hold up the sheetrock panels..

Here is the first sheet going up. The lifter is a god-send!

 The third of six goes up

 All six sheets are up and we got the lifter back to the rental shop quick enough to only be charged for half a day. 

The new deck is done and the house is ready for company

Livingroom DE-construction is DONE!

The 'little' project that started way back on 3/11 has finally turned a corner.  All the structural problems with our livingroom are fixed!
The roof is supported and has new roofing so it no longer leaks...
here is Kurt with the new beam that is holding up the roof back in March...

Here is a picture of the new blue metal roof.....

The living room floor is all one level and is fully insulated.  Here is the floor in early May...

Here are Betty and Joanie getting VERY dirty crawling under the livingroom to  put up the insulation under the floor.- in late June.

the crawl space is sealed from little critters and has no hanging electrical wires- Here is a picture of the cement and wood skirting under the house...taken in early July...

 both exterior walls are coverted from 2x4 to 2x6 studs - here is Kurt re-constucting the front wall and resizing the window openings for our new windows....picture taken this Sunday...

and the doors and windows have proper sized and supported headers!
Here are the last shots of the undersized headers

Here is the new framing

And here is how the house looks now!  New windows inplace!

Oh, and did you notice the new deck- we wil finish the last part today or tomorrow. 

New deck and windows take shape

Time for a new deck!

With everyone home we undertook the next stage of our remodeling- rebuilding the deck.  Here are Lisa, Kurt and Tim starting to pull up the old deck.  Somewhere we have a picture of Kurt and Lisa laying this orignial deck- Lisa is about three years olds....she was just about as helpful as Mark- who was lurking underneath the deck...

Mark popped up in every opening we made...

Progress

By the end of the day the deck was mostly gone and the wall was dismantled too.....

Next the door was moved to the right

Then the old window was removed- a replacement window is on order...

After wrapping one wall in Tyvek we moved on to sealing in the crawl space

Betty was the hero of the next step- she spent one whole day underneath the house putting up rigid insulation- and she never complained even though it was dirty, uncomfortable work.  Thank you Betty!.

Kurt had to go under once in a while to give guidance and suggestions. (Ellie, Catharines dog, also had a few things to say about the work)

After everyone left Kurt did the final sealing off steps- wood and metal barriers

And finally- a concrete base and spray foam insulation for all the remaining cracks.  We are going to have a toasty house this winter!