We are entering a stage of building  that feels sometimes like the home stretch, but really is just the middle point.  We recent finished pouring our upstairs apartment floating radiant floor slab in the apartment section of the house.  Since the first pour was not self leveling, we then decided to add a layer of thin self layering gypcrete on the surface to provide a smooth layer for laying our flooring, which we decided would be cork and carpet.  We went back and forth on our flooring decision for the apartment, realizing that the best option was to have concrete floors for optimum heating but in the end decided on cork, realizing however that it may hamper the system some. As seen in the pictures, we recently installed our doors, which we love! They are a stylish flush maple with both vertical and horizontal grains. With some stuttgart modern handles, the doors should really bring the look of the house alive for us.

Finally, another post!

Huge apologies to those following the blog...needless to say it has been too long. We have finished the exterior on the apartment/addition part of the project and are now close to completing the rough plumbing and electric. Our plan thus far is to complete the upstairs apartment, move into it temporarily until we can finish remodeling the existing part of the house. Things seem to at times be going at a snail's pace, but I think it feels that way because we are living amidst the project.   The weather has been fairly favorable for a Portland winter to which we are thankful.  Unfortunately, we have had some issues with the wood siding.  During our Christmas hiatus, we had left town for a few weeks and came back to find that some rain had gotten behind the wood, which in turned warped it slightly.  It was nothing that we couldn't fix, but it merely added more work to our already long list of things to accomplish.  So for now we continue working each day, seeing little changes everyday. We love the house more everyday, as we see its metamorphosis into the place we will call home for a long time to come. Thank you to those who are giving us the encouragement we need to keep on keepin' on.....

Weather delay

 Like anything else with building your house, you learn quickly to roll with the punches. Especially when mother nature is the one throwing them. Within the few weeks, we had the goal of getting most of the hardwood siding on the addition, only to be pummeled with snow and ice.   So we just took a step back, and rested during the Christmas holiday.  Here is a picture of the house with partial siding. We just also received our metal siding that will applied once the wood is completed. 

Is it possible to describe wood as "delicious"? I think so...

For this project, we really want to focus on details in the house. We wanted to utilize Jeremy's wood working skills in areas of the house that normally would be overlooked.  Here is some photos of the soffit/facia that he is currently working on.  We are using a phillipine mahogany hardwood called meranti for part of our siding, and used the same wood to finish the soffit and facia.  The wood is beautiful and has a wonderfully warm feel to it which will balance with the silver ultramet corrugated steel siding we will also be using on the house.  

Out with the old, in with the new

Initially when we bought the house last year, we knew that we were buying the ugliest house in the neighborhood. Which is fine, if you plan to basically take it down to the walls. Point being, it was such a relief to see that the new roof on the existing house was going to work aesthetically with the addition. Even though none of the new siding is on, we think it is going to look great eventually. 

Up to the sky

Here's a shot of the addition with the roof completed. We are using a gray toned standing-seam metal roof for both the addition and the original structure. The second story level on the addition is a "additional dwelling unit" aka an apartment that we will rent out once the project is complete. The unit will have a separate entrance from the back of the house, as well as an entrance through the garage. We designed the addition so that one can access the apartment from the main house if it did not want to be used as a rental, but more living space for the main living quarters. 

Framing

We were fortunate to have Jeremy's dad come up to help us with the framing. His help was so valuable and he and Jeremy were able to knock out the framing of the addition within a few weeks.   There was some difficulty in tying the addition into the old roof, but with some thinking through, they devised a plan.