Addition and Garage Project - Start of Construction



After a LONG wait, the construction on our house has officially started. Inside the house they began removing the wall between the front room and the dining room. Before it was just a standard doorway between the rooms.

The contractor built a temporary enclosure around the wall to keep the dust contained and removed the plaster. They put in a new beam and new drywall. The opening ended up being 4” narrower on each side as there was an existing duct in the wall closest to the stairs. In order to put in the necessary supports for the beam, they has to build out further.

A maple floor vent went in where the wall vent used to be and they patched in the hardwood floors. These will get sanded, along with the rest of the hardwood on the main floor, at the end of the project.

Finally they added trim and mudded the walls. The painting will also be done at the end of the project

Finally they added trim and mudded the walls. The painting will also be done at the end of the project

Outside, they removed the cedar hedges between our property and the neighbors.

The deck was also cut back to allow for access to the backyard once the garage is built

There won’t be much progress this week, as they do not want to do the prep for the garage too far in advance of the concrete delivery and the concrete will not arrive until the week of the 12^th

So far so good, they are very good at keeping the house clean and we got to move back in last weekend after 2 weeks out of the house. There will be no more work in the main living areas of the house until the end of the project (at least that is the plan)

And now we know: the little guy did not transition well to living at my parents. He was very confused about not being home and slept terribly, so we all slept terribly



Toy Storage Boxes

Back in June I started building wooden toy bins to go in the Ikea storage unit. The fabric bins we had went all the way to the top of the shelves, so you couldn’t see the toys inside and there were no handles, so the little guy couldn’t get them out. I build basic boxes out of pine, that were 2/3’s of the height of the shelves, so you can see that the bin holds trucks or animals, etc.

It then took me 2 months to do the finishing, 2 coats of stain and 3 clear coats. With the handles he can easily pull them out and he is already getting more use out of the toys now that he can see them