Christmas

Don't have to much to write - so here are some pictures of how the house looked on Christmas. Not liveable. Not Christmasy. Not what we had hoped it would look like - but on a positive note, progress continues to be made!!

View of the Kitchen. Drywall has has been taped and mudded. Corner beads in place.

Living area and stairway to basement

Bathroom - shower has been cement boarded and drywall completed. Need to tile the floor and shower.

Corridor towards living area. Firewall on left needs one more layer of drywall!

Chris made a garage door - so the house is now completely enclosed. Url's butt in view!

Drywall

Once the blown insulation was completed by the pro's - Chris and I got to the interior walls with some fiberglass. At the same time the guys got to work with the drywall. By the end of the weekend - good progress had been made. Hopefully by Christmas the whole upstairs will be drywalled, and ready for primer and paint !!!! Thats going to be an exciting day!

Rather them than me. So thankful for these talented guys!

Screwing the drywall in place

Chris and Url watching!!

The last of the free windows - perfect size and shape for the master bedroom - and lovely view of the back garden.

At the front of the house - wheres url ???
Impossible to hide with those ears!

A fiberglass frock. Itchy!
Cutting and stapling the interior insulation!

Drywall in the corridor

Kichen starting to get covered!

Spare bedroom

Bathroom ceiling going up

Corridor ceiling in!

Lots of snow outside the back door!!

Progress.

November 14th - this is how the house is coming along thus far.

• All the cement for walls and footers have been poured. Only slab (floor) left to pour. 
• All walls in the house have been framed, including closets in both bedrooms.
• Every wall in the house has had drywall and old insulation removed. 
• Fire wall framed, outside wall finished. Awaiting insulation and drywall inside. 
• New floors laid throughout except for small section at the front door.
• Staircase to basement underway. 
• Plumbing - 'rough in' underway. 
• Ceilings dropped, leveled and framed thoughout (thanks to Walt, Christian and Chris today)
• Electrician starting this week (we hope)
• Kitchen cabinets, appliances and granite counter-tops ordered. 
• Tiles for the bathroom bought - a super nice, grey limestone. 
• One of eight windows replaced. 

Lovely blue front door and new window in place. The door is a slightly odd shape and therefore does not fit the door frame well - so unfortunately we will probably have to get a different one.

Staircase into basement being built

View from basement

The very back wall of the new basement finished.

The lowest framing seen is the new level ceiling.

New double shower tray bought and in place! We will tile the walls

Fire wall from outside finished. Just needs the stucco now!

Walt helping with the ceiling today - couldn't have finished it so quickly without him - thanks!!

Walt and Christian measuring.

They were there till dark - but got the whole ceiling framed in a day!!

I pulled down the remaining drywall and insulation from the far corner of the house - I took a picture afterwards. It looks like its snowing inside the house - or I don't have a great camera - but actually this is the dust in the air - captured by my flash. Gross.

While the cats away....

I went to England. Chris took a week off work and worked on the house.
Progress was good. Most of the floor was laid. The roof was supported. Walls were framed. The fire wall went up. More cement was poured. The construction site I left looks more like an actual house now. I should go away more often!

Center framing still there to support the roof. Flooring in center of the house almost done!

The plank into the house

Some of the dry wall was removed!

New beam across to support the roof

Framing of the new rooms almost finished!! Plank still in place though! View of where the kitchen/living will be - and then second bedroom plus corridor.

Fire wall fully underway. New back door framed!

Step up to Master bedroom - New floor laid, and new wall framed!

This is the original (outside) wall of the bathroom - please note the slightly unlevel framing! Unique to say the least!

Walls falling down!

We arrived at the house Sunday morning and to our slight suprise and then increased worry - we found the back right hand wall - where the new fire wall will be - had fallen down into the foundation. Not too much of a problem - because it was coming down anyway - and probably saved the guys a little hard work. But - falling into the foundation, and taking out some of the supports on the way down - was a slight worry. We feared the soil holding the house next door up would start crumbling away - risking their house, or the back room flooring of our house would collapse. We called Eduardo - he came and checked - and seemed to think it was fine. Fine! So we got on with our day and tried not to think about it!

Said wall - before it fell down

Looking down - supports holding soil back - and foundation

Looks like its hanging in space - but there are supports holding the wall up!

What we found on sunday morning. Wall down, in Foundation.

Corncerned about our neighbours 'foundation' - hoping soil doesn't keep crumbling away now the supports were squashed.

View from below - of the wall which fell through into the foundation!

Getting there....

The unfinished basement is coming along nicely. The construction team are about 3/4 of the way back with the cement walls. The joists are looking great - strong and stable! The fire wall along the right side of the house is started (required by the Town of Minturn, because we are too close to the house next to us!). So we are on track and hopeful we will be able to move into a somewhat liveable space November 1st!

The walls were a little rotten - so they cut out a section, reframed it and boarded it up. Once it is stuccoed it will look fine!

 

The start of the fire wall - the whole right side of the house needs to be replaced.

Strong, solid, new joists. Looks awesome!

3/4 of the way back with new cement. Mud removed and joists completed. Now all that is left is to get rid of the mud wall which the back end of the house is sat on, and make a foundation!