The House Project: The Framing

In my last post I showed the pouring of the foundations for both the master suite addition in the back of the house and the garage addition in the front. I thought the process was great fun to watch because for years we had had this idea of the two additions but all we could really do was put objects on the ground to kind of see where it would be. Once the slab was poured it really started to take shape. I could see how big and exactly where it was going to be.

The framing added to that. There were times where it just looked like a mess of lumber, but when they put the decking on you could actually see walls! This phase was where the rooms and the layout actually started to take shape!

First the lumber was delivered. When it’s all laid out on a huge trailer I couldn’t imagine all that going on my house! In an earlier post I talked about the demolition. We had several huge hauls off to the dump from all the demo (the part we did and the part we hired out). However, when it came time to do the framing, there was even more trash because the existing decking was removed, and the roof was taken off. The framers not only put in the addition, but they had to tie it into the existing roofline and redo the decking for the roof since we planned on replacing the roof with a metal one.

Here is the lumber!

It took up quite a bit of space in my yard!

Below are the early stages of framing. They started with exerior walls and the wall dividing the bedroom from the master bath. You can also see where the windows and doors will be.

In this picture you can see the 45 degree angle where the double french doors from the dining room to the back yard will go in. There is also a double set of french doors leading outside from the master bedroom.

Here you can see the cross beams they put in for temporary support. They stayed in until they had the roof framed out as well.

Now you can see one of the big header beams they put in over the patio doors!

Looking at the side of the house you can see where the old and new construction is tied in.

You can see the garage addition in front of one of the old doors. They tore out the other door to pour the slab. The header beam is above the entrance to the two main bays. The third bay is furthest away in the picture. It's hard to really see at this angle.

I was standing inside the garage for this picture. The third bay is to the right. You can see the big support beam they used in between the main two bays and the smaller third bay. I might add that the huge dumpster was filled up at least two or three times during the framing, and we hauled more trash to the dump in our truck! They made the mistake here of leaving the door open while they did the framing, and the truck that came to pick it up had to drag it out a ways so they could shut the door! The framers caught the problem just a little too late! Oops!

I posted the picture below to point out the hall bathroom that we remodeled. Here you can see the pink tile that was the middle of the bathroom. The newly framed wall to the left is sitting where the bathtub used to be. The wall to the right where the vanity was has been removed but you can see the plumbing where the wall used to be. Straight back you can kind of see the old exterior wall that held the bathroom window. The pile of dirt was removed from around the old tub drain, which you can't really see off to the left because we had filled it in. Basically, we took the tub out and moved the wall in to make more space in the dining room. That back wall has since been removed, and a new shower is at the end, extending into the addition. So the new bathroom is longer and more narrow.

Here the garage addition is finally taking shape with the rafters up!

I was standing inside the dining room here, looking directly toward the master bedroom entrance with the back patio entrance to the left at an angle.

At this point the framing is nearly finished. Before the put the decking on the roof Bruce went up and sprayed foam insulation onto the radiant barrier they put on the lower side of the rafters. You can see him on the roof! This house will be very well insulated!

This is a view from the back yard, a little further away so you can see more of the house.

This is looking into the addition toward the master bathroom.

Bruce was still working on the insulation here. He hired a guy to help him do it and that made a huge difference getting it done on time. They would start around midnight with the chemicals submerged in ice buckets. They had to be kept at a certain temperature, and even at night it wasn't quite cool enough, thus the ice. By the time the sun was up and it started getting hot each day he had to call it quits!

However, the insulation was finished in a few days (we still have to do most of the walls) and the crew was able to finish the decking!

Then they put the membrane on top of the decking:

As you can see we had a ton of trash and dirt left over! The dirt was from the foundation, but it took us a while to get rid of it!

So there you have it! The framing was finished at the end of July and we put the roof on over Labor Day weekend. More on that next time!

The House Project: The Foundation

Well, it’s been a little while since I posted about the house. I left off with the pouring of the piers for the foundation. I’ll talk here about the rest of the foundation work, and hopefully in the next post I can cover the framing. The roof and the rock on the outside were next, and all we’ve really done since then are smaller (although still crucial) projects.

After the piers were poured we had a few days of dirt work and putting in forms and general prep for the pouring of the actual slab. They poured the actual foundation on July 5 so they were working through the 4^th of July holiday. Here is the story in pictures:

First a team came out and put in the drains and drain vents:

Here you can see the trench work they did for the beams:

Next they put down plastic so we would have a moisture barrier between the cement and the dirt. They also put the rebar in to give our foundation structure. The original slab had only a little bit of wire mesh and was much thinner so having the new slab surrounding so much of the old will overall improve the stability of our foundation.

The next day the cement trucks came! It took four or five trucks full of cement to pour our slabs. They were lined up on our street waiting their turn!

It was really fun to watch!

Here you can see where they were smoothing out the first section that was poured:

Man at work!

Starting to take shape here:

We can’t forget the addition in the front!

Here is the back where they dropped the slab for drains (master bathroom shower and hopeful future sauna).

Here is the front getting some finishing touches:

When they finished and it started curing they brought out a machine to polish the surface.

We had to keep water on the surface for the next day or two to prevent it from drying too much on the surface while it was still curing underneath. They came out the next day and put on some finishing touches. You can see here it is starting to look dry. We still kept water on it though, but it was so hot out that it would dry really quickly!

So that wraps up the foundation! It had a week or two to sit and cure before we had the framing crew out. More on that next time!

Five Years Later

So here I am, five years to the day since I lost my big brother Steve and my good friend Matt. Has my life changed? Yes, much. Have good things happened to me? Yes. Have I grown closer to God through all this? Yes.

Does all that make losing my brother hurt any less? No, no it really doesn’t. God has helped me to bear it, but it really doesn’t hurt any less. I still have intense memories of the moment I learned of his passing and the pain that comes with those memories is choking. It is enough sometimes to make me cry out. I have learned to deal with the pain, but the grief is still intense. I hate that he’s missed so many wonderful things that have happened since then. When my husband proposed and I called my family to let them know I almost started to look for his number in my phone. When I got my wedding pictures back there was something distinctly missing from the pictures and I cried looking at a picture of Bruce and I with my family that just had an obvious empty spot on one side. It looked lopsided and incomplete.  I hate that I can’t share these wonderful moments with him. I know that one day we will have eternity to sing God’s praises together but I still feel the pain of separation now. So many times I think of him when I have good news to share and it makes those moments bittersweet. I miss the little smile he used to give me when we were having a good time doing something and I REALLY miss his hugs and the chuckle he gave when something amused him.

We had this amazing conversation two evenings before I lost him. We discussed things that had happened in our past growing up that we had just never really discussed before. He was hospitalized twice when we were young due to illnesses complicated by his asthma. I remember as a seven year old and again as a nine year old being very scared about losing him (Steve was 9 and 11). I would watch him struggle to breathe and wish I could do something. When you are young and can’t do anything but watch your older sibling in pain, you feel very helpless and almost desperate. It’s been over twenty years since then but I still remember those feelings vividly. Steve was telling me that he didn’t really realize at the time how poorly off he was. He was in pain, but he got through it. He didn’t really have the capacity to worry too much about how things might end, but just faced things and got through it.

Years later when Steve battled cancer he seemed to have the same attitude. I think he felt the cancer was more of a threat to him (and definitely more painful) but I had the impression that all those times I was more worried about his fate then he was. Steve was strong and faced all his treatment like a champ. We also shared some dear memories that night of staying home with our Dad one night when Mike, our younger brother, was in the hospital when he was two. We both gained a lot of each other’s perspective on those and a few other experiences, and even though we were always very close, I feel we grew even closer that evening.

On June 19^th 2008, shortly after Steve was declared to be in remission for cancer and we all breathed a sigh of relief, I lost him anyway. He didn’t have a chance that night, but I know he faced his homegoing head on like the man he was. He was such a rock and confidant to those close to him and always seemed so strong and determined, but he was gone. I was in despair! I had told him only a month before he died that I didn’t know what I’d do without him, and in that instant I learned he was gone I didn’t think I could cope.

The thing about losing someone close to you is that you don’t have a choice but to get through it. People may tell you that you are strong and seem to “able to get through it” but the truth is that you have no control. I had to take one day at a time for weeks. After that it was one week at a time. Everything from that summer is a blur. I did what I had to do to survive and that was about it. I remember a day or two afterwards my aunt made me a sandwich and literally had to make me eat it. I wasn’t really capable of even feeding myself or knowing when I needed to eat. Physical feedback for things like pain and hunger just turn off. Your body literally has to physically deal with the grief to where other things shut down. It’s like the “fight or flight” response, but much worse, and even your ability to remember things shuts down. Sleep only comes when you are so exhausted you have no choice and your body turns off.

The intensity and frequency of those feelings dies down over time but they never seem to go away, and I haven’t forgotten them. I remember feelings, smells, and the last memories of my brother and that event as if they were yesterday, but everything else from that summer is a blank. I also have quite a few gaps from that first year without him. I had watched movies with my husband (boyfriend at the time) that I seem to have forgotten almost completely. Some that I saw again recently, knowing I had seen them before, felt like I was watching them for the first time. G.I. Joe was on TV right before the new one came out and I realized I seriously didn’t remember the plot or anything. It’s a little scary but understandable. I was overcome by grief and simply didn’t have the capacity to log memories that weren’t really that important and even some that kind of were...).

So what do I have now? I still have a family that I love and God has given me the most amazing husband I could ask for. He has been amazingly supportive to me and my family as we have gone through two murder trials and appeals proceedings. My younger brother was married recently, and I look forward to our children growing up close to each other.  I am distinctly aware of what we are missing, as I know Steve wanted nothing more than his own family and I always dreamed of the three of us continuing to be close as adults. But I cling more strongly to my living family, as I know too well how fragile human life is and how quickly our loved ones can be taken from us.

I could continue to ramble on but I will close with this. Psalm 23 has taken on a new meaning for me having traveled the path of loss. One doesn’t really understand the “valley of the shadow of death” until one has been through it. I am assured that my brother is in heaven free from the cares of this world. He is with our Heavenly Father singing praises to Him and I know he finally has peace and is free from the physical and emotional pain he experienced here on earth. I miss him more than words can express but am comforted and my soul restored by the promise that one day I will be reunited with Steve, Matt, and many other loved ones. But most importantly I will also share in communion with my Father and Savior.

Until then, I miss my bro…

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

Forever.

Psalm 30:5

Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.