This week marked a major milestone for our remodel: as you can see in this week’s photos, framing is nearly complete, contingent on an inspection that took place last Thursday. We haven’t yet heard affirmatively that we got an all-clear from the city to move forward, but we haven’t heard otherwise, either, so I’m choosing to assume the best.

One notable consequence of reaching this milestone is that we’re now on the hook to actually start paying for the work: our contract is structured such that payments are due as we progress through different phases of the project. As a result, we haven’t yet made a payment, though the contractor technically could have invoiced us after the demolition and foundation work was complete: framing is actually the second phase. A fun fact that reflects how the real estate market has changed over the years: the total cost of the first two phases exceeds the size of the down payment we made when we purchased the house in 2002 by a significant margin.

To some members of the family, the most significant change this week was the beginning of construction of the stairway to the second floor. Although there aren’t any actual steps yet, there is a landing, and it looks like they’re getting ready to do more work on this front next week. Joe will be very happy to not have to climb up the extension ladder to get to his room.

My understanding is that framing will wrap up with the installation of shingles, windows, and exterior doors. As I mentioned last week, the windows are already on order. We’ve also selected a front door, though I’m not sure whether it’s been ordered, and we’re hoping to nail down the specific shingle color we want in the next couple days—there are more choices on that front than I thought possible.

The next phase of the project is rough trades. This wasn’t a term I was familiar with—in fact, I had an amusing misconception about its meaning—but I’ve since learned that it involves the installation of plumbing, HVAC components, wiring, and the like. This likely means that we’ll have a ton of decisions to make in the very near future. We’ve already picked out a kitchen faucet, shower systems, and faucets for the bathrooms, and I’m looking forward to hashing out what we’re going to do in terms of network and speaker wiring; this is an area in which I can easily imagine blowing past the relatively meager allowance called out in the contract.

Gallery: Week 18: Framing Complete

We’re continuing our march toward the end of the first phase of construction in week 17 of the remodel: framing is nearly complete, and the plumber has been back on site to begin running water lines up to the second floor. Enzo has told us that he expects do be done with framing in about a week, so going forward, it may look as though progress has slowed dramatically based on what you can see from the outside, even as the pace of work inside the house increases.

The biggest changes this week were all about walls and roofing. The exterior walls of Joe’s room were mounted, so it feels a lot more like a room, rather than an open-air patio. The hallway and play room were walled in, as well, changing the feel of the space in a fundamental way. Even though the interior walls to Julia’s suite and the boys’ bathroom are still open, it’s very easy to imagine what it will look like once the stairs are installed and the room is finished.

More progress was made on the roof of the great room, as well. Although work remains to be done, both skylights have been framed, and the area is mostly covered. Julie and the kids are really looking forward to spending a lot of time in that room when the project is finally complete.

The completion of framing means that we’ll have a great many decisions to make as the focus shifts to installing and configuring components that Julie and I have selected. We touched on the windows last week, and that order has already been placed. Thanks to a minor communications snafu, we’re not getting precisely the configuration we had hoped for, but making a change at this point would cost us time and money. We’ve also ordered plumbing fixtures for the laundry room, kitchen, and upstairs bathrooms, which was both exciting and scary. Next on the list are the front door, roof, and gutters. We have no experience evaluating or purchasing any of those things, so this part of the process will be a bit of an adventure.

One item that we have been able to pick out—ahead of schedule, even—is a chandelier to hang over the stairs, which you can see here. This light will be visible from the street through the front windows, so we wanted something fun, bordering on striking, and I think this fits the bill.

Gallery: Week 17: Mostly Roofed

The construction crew got back to work in week 16 of the remodel after a week off, and they made significant progress: the upstairs roof seems more or less complete, and William’s bedroom now has exterior walls.

In an exciting new development, they began constructing the roof for the great room, including openings for the skylights, so we’re now able to get a better handle on the shape and scale of that space. We think having a high ceiling is going to be a big plus, especially since we imagine that we’ll spend much of our collective time in that room.

We’re in the process of finalizing our order for windows, including the skylights. At the moment, we’re a little bit over budget. The windows we selected—years ago at this point—aren’t especially high-end, so the cost was a bit of a surprise, but I’m hoping we can make that up in other areas.

Enzo told us to expect framing to be complete in the next couple weeks, at which point they’ll be ready to start working on the plumbing upstairs; bearing that in mind, he asked us to nail down what kinds of fixtures we’ll be installing. I expect we’ll face a great many decisions of that sort over the next several months.

Gallery: Week 16: Walls

There’s not too much to report this week: the construction crew had the week off, so no further progress was made relative to where things stood last weekend. Even though we don’t have any pictures of new work to share, we had received some requests for photos that show what the project looks like from the street, so this seemed like as good a week as any to take some. We took a few snapshots when we visited the site—yes, we made a special trip to go see the house even though we knew nothing had changed—and are posting them as this week’s update. We’re hoping for more substantial progress in a week’s time.

Gallery: Week 15: Street Views

The developments in week 14 of our remodel were less dramatic than in week 13. Not only was it a short week due to Christmas, but it’s tough to compete with being able to walk around upstairs for the first time.

Nevertheless, there were some real changes this week. Most notably, the team began installing a roof and actual walls on the north side of the second floor, including Julia’s bedroom, her bathroom, and the playroom. Even though there’s still a long way to go, the addition of these components provides in a much stronger sense of what it will be like to inhabit the space.

One additional thing we noticed is that they’d put in soffit vents along with the roof. This was a bit of surprise, because we’re planning to have an unventilated attic in which spray foam insulation will be applied directly to the underside of the roofing panels. The benefit of this approach is greater energy efficiency, albeit at a somewhat higher cost, since the installation of the spray foam is more technically complex than putting in ordinary fiberglass insulation. It’s somewhat uncommon in our area, so our first instinct was that the contractor had simply forgotten about it. When we asked, however, he assured us that he was merely preserving the option of taking a more standard approach when the time comes, and that the vents can be covered if we stick to the plans.

As part of this week’s work, the crew also removed our old porch light, which had remained untouched through the first three months of the project. I’m not altogether sure whether its removal was an integral part of the work they did on the roof or just something that happened incidentally, but although it was bound to happen sooner or later, it was still a tiny bit sad.

Gallery: Week 14: Walls Closing In