June 20th, Big beam goes up

Today was a short day for the workers, but a hard one. They had to erect this huge beam to hold up the ceiling and roof. We went to town and missed the action, but I'm kind of glad we did. I don't think my nerves could have stood watching them. For this first picture I am standing in the kitchen looking south toward the living room window.



The beam is 25 feet long, 12 inches wide and there are two of the boards put together to make it 4 inches thick. The upright boards you see in the pictures are the temporary wall that will come down once they get a center support post in place under the beam.

June 19th, Garage framing underway

Garage framework from north.


Garage from northwest corner.


Garage from west. The little house is our well house that could not be moved.

June 18th, Gutting the kitchen

The old kitchen is empty now, all cabinets removed.


The stove was on that back wall.


Plywood is over the opening that was once the sliding glass door to the back porch.

June 17th, Down comes the inside wall

This was a huge day in terms of work effort. Our work was getting the kitchen packed up and moved out of the way of the other crew. They started outside, tearing off the old siding. The dark spot on the wall about in the middle of the picture is the insulation board on the old bathroom. That wall will stay. The rest will come down soon.


Before we were even done with our inside packing the crew of three moved inside and tore down the wall between the living room and kitchen. They took down the paneling and the sheet rock, but left the studs holding up the roof.

Then they had to construct a temporary wall to hold up the roof when they take out the original studs and put in a beam to hold up the ceiling and roof. Sure was a lot of work for a temporary beam, not to mention a lot of noise for us and the animals. The old wall is the one closest to the camera.


While all this inside work was going on, there was a crew outside pouring the floor for the garage. It took them all day to get all the rock delivered and spread and then the concrete delivered and smoothed. I wish I could have watched them smooth it out but I was way too busy inside the house. I think they did a great job of it.

June 16th, Rocks galore

This is the big dumpster we had brought in which I couldn't imagine we would fill up but we just about have already. Look how close it is to the house. I was too nervous to watch the guy backing it in place.

Rock was brought from a plant in a nearby town to fill the entrance to the garage.


Denis got in on the action by moving some of the rock around with his tractor.

Then the backhoe driver showed up at 6:30 at night and got the rock smoothed into place. He was anxious to get it done so he could do the concrete work for the floor of the garage the next day.


He also used the backhoe to fill in the floor of the garage with big rocks and concrete from the old back porch.


Here is the backhoe at rest for the night. I think it looks like a big bug. Look how nice he got the driveway to the garage.



Denis got on the roof to take this picture of the master bath and mudroom. Gives a different perspective doesn't it.

June 12th, Walls, walls and more walls

Wally is waving from the new sliding glass door opening. I'm shooting from the west.

Wally is looking out of the new kitchen window. You can see the old kitchen window behind him.


Denis is sitting on the edge of the garage. This will be the entrance to the garage. You can see there will have to be some dirt work done to raise the ground level up to meet the floor.

And here is that same entrance, shot from the side

Wally and Norma are sitting in the spot where the new bathtub will be located. We are imagining it's a two person tub and we are in our swim suits.

Wally wanted to take a picture of us standing in the new part of our house, so we obliged him.

June 11th, First wall to go up

This is the first new wall to go up. The window is on the west side of the kitchen, and the door opening is on the north side, leading to a patio.



Here is the next wall, constructed and ready to go up the next day. I don't envy these workers, toiling away in this heat and humidity.

June 10th, Floor joists and sub-floor

This picture is the sub-floor for the expansion of the kitchen and hallway.

Floor joists under the sub-floor. They are very substantial, better than what is under the rest of the house.


More joists, specifically showing the ones under the area of the master bath that will hold the new soaking tub. There will be a big picture window above the tub, looking out into the pasture. I'll be able to see the horses while I lounge, assuming it is during the day time.

June 7th, Bye bye back door

In preparation for adding on the new floor joists, the sliding glass door in the kitchen had to be reomoved. For safety, and our need of a/c, the builder put up some boards and then some heavy plastic over the opening. This is the view of it from outside the house.


And here is what it looks like from the inside. We're calling it our Arkansas version of a picture window, plastic on the outside and plastic on the inside.