Old News

This page was last updated in 1999 or so, but if you're interested in reading about our house building project read on.

We built a house on 100 acres of land we bought in 1995 in Greenfield, MA. The folks who sold us the land, the Greenfield Community College Foundation, gave us these neat ariel views of the area. We used timber off the land to build the house and are made our own lumber using our Woodmizer sawmill. Here is a page with a sequence of shots showing the progress at the house site from September 1995 to September 97. Finally, here is a list of the contractor and suppliers we are using.

It's almost finished, but it will probably be almost finished for a long time. :-)

To view the panoramic pictures (.IVR files) on these pages you need to download theRealspace Viewer plugin.

See also non-house construction related pictures of the Westbrooks.

• 9/24/99 Click on the picture below for a tour of the house. This will probably work best if you are using Netscape or IE. If it does not work it is because you need Java, Javascript and later versions of the browsers.

• 9/20/99 Much rain from the hurricane last week and one downed tree near the house.
• 9/11/99 We are in.
• 7/29/99
• 6/19/99 Floor installation (one, two, three), Jacuzzi installation, Kid's bath, Balcony floors.
• 5/31/99 The countertops look great,but unfortunately the granite fabricator made the hole for the cooktop downdraft vent too big and cut the hole for the main sink incorrectly so they are doing the whole thing again. To make matters worse the installers had a major fire at their headquarters the day after we called them to set up the new installation, so needless to say things have been a little difficult. Not to worry though, things are moving along at our end - we are getting ready to finish installing the wood floors; the master bath and shower tile work is nearing completion; we are working on landscaping over the moonscape that used to be a lovely wooded area, but was ripped up to install the leach field. We also finished some odds-and-ends of drywall work that need to be done including work around the skylights in the sunroom. Finally, we have been building locker-style cabinets for the mudroom.
• 5/6/99 The countertop installation crew finished today - island, primary sink area. Wacky was treed by a dog and decided to stay up there for 24 hours.
• 4/30/99 The cats have taken over. Exhibit 1. Exhibit 2. Exhibit 3 (AKA "Cat on a Hot Galvanized Steel Roof"). Exhibit 4. Brian and Josh took all these pictures including this one of the Great Room.
• 4/18/99 Brian and Josh test the strength of the new wall cabinets which we installed last week. Teri applies polyurethane to one piece among the thousand pieces of trim - some of which is being installed around the surround of the whirlpool in the master bathroom. Work continues on the shower room in the master bath. Finally, more plumbing pictures showing the new DHW additions (wide and tight).
• 4/8/99 Tiling.
• 4/5/99 Painting, plumbing.
• 3/12/99 Work has begun on water heater and the remaining heating zones. We also recently picked out all the tile for the kid's bath, master bath and shower.
• 3/7/99 Work continues on the kitchen cabinets. We installed some of the hardware in the kid's closets. Meanwhile, the kitties enjoy climbing in the rafters and snoozing on Jim's bed.
• 1/31/99 We are currently involved in the construction and staining of the kitchen cabinetry. Some of us took advantage of the latest dusting of snow by doing some x-country skiing (Josh, Josh, et. al.) while the kitties were content to curl up together in front of the fireplace.
• 1/18/99 We have a working toilet! Whippee! (picture not available) The pine floor boards have been laid on the floor and are reaching their final dryness before we nail them down. We got about 15 inches of snow, sleet and ice in the last two storms. One interesting note about that last picture is that the nearer equipment shelter covered by the blue tarp was crushed shortly after the picture was taken when the snow and ice released and fell from the porch roof. The joiner underneath was not damaged.
• 12/8/98 We have been working on getting the septic system installed. It took us from June until November to wind our way through the town regulations and to get the plans from the engineer, but we ultimately got our permit a few weeks ago. Here are the pics:

• 11/15/98 Here is a big old picture of the upper part of the great room showing some of the finished ceiling and the partially finished upper mantel and wood trim around the chimney. Jim and Verne showing off our fine woodworking tools which was just used to trim the end off one of the big beams that span the great room. Josh relaxes in front of the fireplace.
• 10/19/98 The ceiling in the great room is almost finished except for some trim work and we have removed part of the temporary floor under it. Teri and Marjorie laid the tile by the front door. Josh models the latest cat accessory.
• 10/12/98 Kitchen island starting to take shape.
• 10/4/98 Jim nailing the last of the boards on the ceiling. And some more panoramic pictures:

• 10/1/98 JPEG
• 9/27/98 Moving boards to the attic which will be put on the great room ceiling.
• 9/18/98 David puts the finishing touches on the tile floor in the kitchen. More grout work. Jim edges some wood for the floors. Brian helps load the kiln. Brian et. al. inspect his repainted room. Started working on the great room ceiling. Bev applies polyurethane to some shelves. Teri and Marjorie design the at the front door. The outdoor work area behind the house.
• 8/31/98 The tile floor is about 2/3rds installed including grouting and cleaning off the grout. We acquired some new equipment in preparation for the floor, ceiling and trim work - a jointer, and a 20" planer.
• 8/16/98 Most of the painting is finished including the MBDRM and bath. We have begun putting down the slate tile in the mudroom area. We also have three new kittens living at the house. They like to play.
• 7/26/98 Panorama of the first floor great room after painting (plan 'ole jpeg of the same). Brian's room. Josh's room. Landscaping work. Removing the chicken coop. The NEW Dozer boy.
• 7/19/98 Most of the first floor and great room painting is done. We have views of the kitchen looking east and south (panoramic), kitchen looking west and north (panoramic) great room looking east (panoramic), great room looking up, entryway into kitchen, and the mudroom. Painting on the second floor is about 30% done. Bob and I paint the kids bathroom walls and ceilings. We also worked on installing a frame around our water well head to keep the groundwater out. Jim recently built a solar kiln to finish drying the wood for the floor, ceilings and trim.
• 7/12/98 Brian and Josh help paint Brian's room.
• 7/4/98 Painting day. We painted and painted and painted and painted. More to come. As an alternative: I haven't taken many pictures outside lately so here is one from the northeast side (panoramic version of same) - we recently cleaned up the front area. Finally, in case you are worried about what the kids do while we are working - not to worry - they are spending their time recreating in their friend Jay's pool.
• 6/28/98 Dad and Jackie have been here for a week and we have been prepping for painting. This includes sanding drywall, cleaning and dusting and covering windows and more windows and the fireplace (and Dad's mouth I guess).
• 6/14/98 OK, so the following pictures are probably the four most boring pictures posted on the web today: future ethernet, phone, cable wiring closet; drywall work in the great room, the boiler boiling and a closeup.
• 6/7/98 Teri and I installed the tubing for the radiant flooring heating in the kids bathroom today. We also finished hooking up the first floor tubing to the manifold in the basement. Saturday we applied floor leveling concrete to the mudroom floor in preparation for tiling it (the floor is still a bit wet in the picture).
• 5/20/98 Some exciting pictures of boiler plumbing: left side, right side.
• 5/10/98 Drywall mudding continues - we should be ready to paint the first floor in the next few weeks. This panorama (jpeg) of the first floor should give a good idea of what things look like now. The tile for the kitchen and mudroom floor was delivered last week. We also added a flue to the chimney for the boiler (the furnace for you laypersons). Josh helped us prepare to apply some leveling cement to the kitchen floor. Work has also been progressing on getting the boiler hooked up to the radiant floors so we can use it to dry the wood for the flooring.
• 4/19/98 This past week we installed the radiant tubing (with Dad's help) in the first floor [jpeg] and master bath. Then we moved what seemed like a couple of tons of concrete to cover the tubing.
• 4/6/98 A panorama of the kitchen (optional jpeg) showing the results after the drywall work. We did some burning outside today.
• 4/5/98 With the exception of a few high places the drywall work is practically done. Dad flew in Friday and has been helping out. We've also been cleaning up (here the kitchen) in preparation for the start of the radiant floor installation. The spots on some of the pictures are all the gypsum dust from the drywall - you can see why we need the dust masks.
• 3/22/98 We've been installing drywall for the last few weekends. Thanks to the many people who have dropped by to help including Kevin, Matt, Marc, Zack, Dan, Tom and Debbie.
• 3/1/98 We have practically finished the insulation as you can see in this 2nd floor panorama in realspace or jpeg. The sheetrock was delivered Friday and we started installing today - Brian and Josh helped "mud" Brian's closet.
• 2/22/98 During the last few weeks we have put the finishing touches on the electric and plumbing systems in preparation for inspections, insulation and drywall. Tom and Debbie helped us do some of the final wiring - for smoke detectors - last weekend. We also installed a stove in the basement to heat the place up and help dry some of the wood we will be using on the floors and ceilings. This weekend we insulated all the walls with Dan and Tom's help.
• 1/29/98 I took some more panoramic sequences: one of the southwest side before it snowed, west side outside and one inside on the second floor in the kids bathroom (if you cannot see these there are instructions for downloading the realspace viewer or you can just look at the huge jpegs - inside and outside sw and outside west). Here are some of the other panoramic shots I have previously included on other pages:
  • The attic after some insulation was done (jpeg)
  • The basement after we moved some wood in (jpeg)
  • Outside on the east side (jpeg)
  • Outside near a train (jpeg)
  • Outside on the west side (jpeg)
  • Inside on the first floor (jpeg)
• 1/19/98 Bart stopped by a few weeks ago, but the best picture I have of him is this one of his back playing ping-pong with Teri against Dan and Brian. We also do some work on the house occasionally - like laying out the dimensions of the kitchen island on the subfloor or Brian helping to solder some pipes.
• 1/4/98 We finished installing the dumbwaiter and Brian took a ride in it. We also installed the second door in the mudroom. There is a new page of panoramic photos of the house.
• 12/14/97 The phone installer guy from BellAtlantic (formerly NYNEX) came today and installed our network interface. Remember the hole into the cellar that Teri fell through last November? It now has some stairs in it.
• 12/14/97 We finally broke out of the weather pattern that gave us 5 straight weekends of heavy rain so Jim has resumed work on the porch; here we see him cutting temporary support beams on the woodmizer. Bob was visiting last week. He helped us with wiring and burger and wine cooler consumption. In addition, he provided the cell phone so we could call dad with some last minute questions about wiring the well pump for a test; everything worked fine and we proceeded to lower it into the well. In a related note we are having a phone installed (generously supported by dad) at the house on Tuesday - the number will be 413-775-0051. Finally, Jim's chickens have started producing eggs and have been rewarded by being allowed to roam the compound.
• 11/24/97 One of the tasks we worked on this past weekend was installing recessed lighting fixtures in the kitchen. I used a trial version of the PhotoVista software from LivePicture to make some 360 degree panoramas of the inside (293K) and outside (546K) of the house.
• 11/17/97 The three inches of early snow made it tough to work on the siding and the porch roof so we spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on some of the interior framing so we can get our final framing inspection done this week. One task was finishing the walls in the mudroom (the previous picture was taken while standing in the east door into the mudroom). We should be putting the pump in the well and running the pipes in the trench to the house soon. Finally, we also need to include the obligatory picture of the kids enjoying themselves - in this case Brian and his friend David playing in front of the fireplace.
• 11/02/97 We have been concentrating on finishing the siding on the west and north sides of the house so we can finish the porch roof underneath it before the weather gets bad. The last two weekends have been rainy so Teri and David worked on the ceiling in the master bedroom as well. We also framed in the whirlpool bath.
• 10/15/97 We started putting siding on the back of the house over the porch roof last weekend. We've also been working on the plumbing for a while. The foliage is almost at peak color right now and we have had 3 weeks of lovely indian summer weather. Other pictures taken recently:
  • Shot from the deep woods
  • Supplies stack up in the great room
  • The work crew takes a break in front of the fire after a hard day
  • Exterior view of the southeast corner
  • Interior shot of backdoor/balcony/chimney
  • Conehead
• 10/6/97 It has been a little more than a year since we poured the footings for the foundation. We built our first fire in the fireplace last week to stave off the coldness of October. We installed the double sliding doors at the back of the house and continued working on porch roof in preparation for installing siding.
• 9/28/97 More news on the well: the water has risen in the well to a point 37 feet from the top - we have about 560 feet of water in the well which translates into about 800 gallons of reserve. That should be enough for a few showers. Pictures: Jim works on the skylight over the dining bay; Josh and his friend Chistopher work on boats to sail in the creek (and in the puddle on the basement floor!).
• 9/21/97 We started drilling our well last week. On Thursday they drilled through 30 feet of sand, 60 feet of clay and stopped at 120 feet in bedrock - no water yet. On Friday they dug down to 480 feet and still no water. They're coming back Monday to hydrofrac* to look for a vein of water.

  Update 9/22: Hydrofracking was not successful so we kept drilling and finally hit water at about 600ft. We are getting about 3-4 gallons a minute which we are told is is good for a deep well.

  *Hydrofracking (sp) involves forcing water into the well at around 5000psi to attempt to open up the structure of the rock and produce a better yielding well.

• 9/15/97 All of the windows are installed! We did the last one with the help of Tom and Debbie. Brian and Teri celebrated by playing a little ping-pong.
• 9/9/97 We just installed one of the last two windows - the big ones we are field mulling that go in the clerestory. We built a platform on the porch roof, built the window and tipped in into place. Here are some shots of the process and results - Aligning the parts; screwing it together; the end product from inside and out. As an added treat here is a shot of Brian helping to clean up and Uncle Jim being weird.
• 9/9/97 Window installation continues: Here we see Jim getting ready to install one of the half-round windows in the clerestory - and after installation.
• 9/1/97 Mom and Vern were in town earlier in the month. Here we see Mom using the chop saw. More recently Lauren and Pete and the boys stopped by to check things out. Brian and Josh have been spending some their time at the house playing with some of the neighborhood boys. We spent the last weekend installing windows - Dan, Teri and Jim applying some Tyvek; Westy nailing one in on the second floor; Interior Master Bath (southwest view); Kitchen/Dining (west view); Sunroom (southwest); Exterior Southwest.
• 8/7/97 Our nephew Ben was in town for a couple of days and helped us install some windows in the kitchen.
• 7/24/97 Work on rear porch roof continues - Teri takes a break from working on the facia. Kim (and Shiloh) stopped by and borrowed some tools to work on a mailbox she built. Joshua helped his Dad run some more wires (including a mess of Category 5 for computers and phone, and coax for video). Jim and Bart investigated a tree near the house to determine what type of oak it was. Teri and Bart hang out waiting for the rest of us to finish working.
• 7/15/97 Nothing much visually interesting has been happening lately (at least nothing that I have adequately captured in a picture). See if you agree after you look at these boring pictures of some of the wiring we have done and the view from the skylight on the third floor and the south side of the house after we cut out all the window openings (note the footings for the porch have been poured). However, to liven things up a bit, here are some previously unpublished photos from the past of the cave raker, the person who does not like to be photographed and finally this one showing what the east side of the house looks like after we installed a few windows.
• 6/29/97 Marty and Tina dropped in for a few days this weekend. Marty helped us shovel out, rake and level the basement in preparation for pouring the floor Friday. We also needed to do some work to prepare for the pouring the footings for the porch and porch roof. We had a whole bunch of folks stop in after watching Brian's team sweep through the playoffs - Zack, Zoe, Alice, Keith, Bart and Dan. Joshua also helped move Jim's chickens to a more permanent home.
• 6/17/97 Teri's folks were visiting last weekend and we enjoyed a lovely dinner together. Wayne checks out the masonry work on the fireplace while the mason works on the section near the peak of the roof. Speaking of the roof - it is almost finished (except for the part over the porch). Jim cuts one of the last pieces that will go up on the gable. Brian and Josh bought inline skates with their birthday money and tried them out in the kitchen.
• 6/9/97 Zack and Zoe stopped by to say hi yesterday. Dad and Jackie will be heading back to California soon so we took them out to dinner, but we have no pictures of that.
• 6/7/97 Work continues on many areas - recent tasks include adding metal roofing sections (that's Jim, Dan and David on the roof) and installing the fireplace mantel.
• 6/5/97 Our mason, Dick Staelens, has started working on the fireplace, pictured here in the early stages, and a few days later.
• 6/1/97 Our electrical crew has started installing boxes and running wires. We have also finished framing the roof and started installing the metal roofing.
• 5/30/97 The folks from NYNEX stopped by yesterday to lay the telephone cable. Some of the neighborhood boys dropped in for a game of kitchen hockey.
• 5/27/97 We have electricity!
• 5/25/97 Claire and David stopped by yesterday. Brian and Josh practiced their graffiti skills on the great room subfloor. Jim and Dad worked on the tractor.
• 5/23/97 The electric company was out today to install the cables and transformer. We had a slight problem and had to dig up and reinstall some of the conduits which became packed with mud during a downpour last Tuesday night (the electric folks were supposed to install last Monday, but blew us off). They will be returning on Tuesday to finish the job and energize the circuit.
• 5/22/97 The framing of the main roof is almost finished. The last work involves framing the clerestory walls and installing the gable rafters.
• We have more folks visiting - Dad and Jackie dropped in from California and are planning on staying for about three weeks to help us put in the electric and install the roof and windows.
• 5/14/97 We did some rough landscaping recently right around the foundation since we will be putting in posts to support the porch roof and did not want to have to move the fill around them later. We have determined that Teri's favorite job at the house site is using the backhoe to remove stumps. Bob and Kathy and Keaghan and Dan stopped by to check things out and tour the grounds.
• Our electrician, Bob DeLisle, came out Wednesday to install the meter box and circuit breaker panel. The electric company should be coming out Monday to lay cable and energize us.
• Finally, work on the roof continues at a breakneck pace. We framed the front gable today and will have the rear one done Saturday.
• 4/27/97 We have a whole slew of pictures involving hosting the beams (see the last installment below), building the temporary platform on the beams and adding the central ridge boards:
  • Jim installs pulleys (note the 600 pound chain used as a counter weight)
  • More fun with pulleys (counter weight has been hosted up ready to be released to pull up beam).
  • Large beam partway up
  • All the beams in place
  • Work begins on the platform
  • Completed platform viewed from first floor (platform is covered with tarp)
  • ...and from the side
  • Bob and Jim installing the center ridge board
  • Long shot showing ridge

  We also have pictures of Bob digging out stumps (with a train going by in the background), Josh helping out (36 feet above the ground), and Brian and Josh playing trench games.

• 4/15/97 We spent the previous weekend adding more plywood sheathing to the exterior. More recently, we felled some more trees to make beams to span the great room:

  Felling the Trees

  • Cut
  • Fall
  • Another Cut
  • Another Fall

  Cutting to Length

  • Jim
  • David

  Sawing into Beams

  • One side cut, starting another
  • Further along
  • the Pioneer Method

  This is how we made 95% of the lumber for the house, although it was a little bit more involved than cutting most of the standard lumber because the beams were a little longer than the woodmizer is designed to handle without a bed extension.

• 3/31/97 Hey, were did all this darn snow come from? At press time we have 8 inches of new stuff on the ground with a possible 2 feet more on the way. Jim shovels out the kids loft room. Earlier this week, Brian and Josh ham it up in the same room.

  Update 4/1 We ended up with about 14 inches in town and about 18 inches out at the house (+ 300 feet in elevation). Some of the towns a couple of miles away in the hills around here got 2 1/2 feet! The snow was heavy and wet, but caused no damage to the house. However, the big oak that split and half fell in an earlier storm lost the other half on this storm. For you winter scene lovers I took a couple of shots of the aftermath of the storm including one of our snow and tree covered future driveway and a panorama of the open field down by the power lines.

• 3/22/97) This is a shot from last Sunday showing the completed walls of the kids suite. We started putting the roof on the kids side midweek and here is the ridge board and initial rafters going up. Joshua accompanied his Mom and Dad to the home show in West Springfield where Teri spotted cabinets that are similar to those we would like to have in the kitchen.
• 3/17/97) Work continues on the second floor bedrooms for the kids (view from the outside) - Jim works on the walls. We had a lovely snow/ice storm Friday night that left the trees coated (seen here through the wall of attic room on the master bedroom side). Jim uses the woodmizer to cut some 2x8's down to 2x4s for the framing of the walls. Brian brought his friend Marshal over to play hockey in the kitchen. Teri bought a hat.
• 3/10/97 We finally got the rest of the floor joists we needed so we have started to work on the second floor kitchen side - the floor of the kid's bedrooms (another view from the attic over the master bedroom). Just in case you were wondering where the whirlpool tub will be located here is a picture of the master bath looking out towards the southwest. For you carpenter types here is a boring picture showing how we clamp together the micro-laminated beams that span some of the rooms (the white stuff on top is snow). They are subsequently nailed together. Jim cleans up some of the 5" of snow we got last night. All that wood for the subfloor has to be moved up to the second floor somehow. And finally, you cannot work all the time so here we are getting ready for a hockey game in the kitchen.
• 2/27/97 It is a slow time for pictures, but things should pick up soon as we start to work on the Kid's bedrooms and the rest of the roof. Anyway, while Jim was out of town Teri and I took the opportunity of a free weekend to do some needed shopping/planning for the new house. We picked out a whirlpool tub for the master bath. We need to do this now since we need have it in place before the windows are installed as it will not fit through the bathroom door. We also looked at some things we liked for the kitchen including countertops, cabinets, and cubbyholes. Another benefit of having a free Saturday was that I also was able to watch Brian and Josh play basketball.
• 2/18/97 Jim and I were both out of town last week, so things have not changed much. The last thing we did was build the frame for the front clerestory wall.
• 2/6/97 We sheathed most of the first floor on one side and sealed the window openings to keep the rain and snow out. Here we see Teri screwing down the floor in the master bedroom and Jim working on carrying beams for the front balcony.
• 1/27/97 Not much has changed visibly since last week. The framing of the master bed side attic is basically finished at this point. Brian paused to take in the view from high up in the rafters. Brian and Josh also enjoyed themselves on Saturday playing a little hockey on the small pond behind the house.
• 1/20/97 We've started putting on the roof rafters on the master bedroom side. You might underestimate how much framing work is left to do until you look at it from a side view and see that we still need to do the second floor on the kids bedroom side and the clerestory framing.
• 1/12/97 Work is proceeding on the second floor master bedroom/bath - here we see Dan working on the ceiling. We also had some visitors from afar - Keith and Bart were both in town and stopped by to check things out.
• 1/1/97 We spent the first day of the new year building the stairs to the second floor. They were not originally on the critical path to getting the roof on, but we made a major change to the design and we had to actually build them to see how some of the parts would fit in. Here is Dan sweeping the snow out of the master bath on the second floor. We also have a shot of Dan and Jim taking a warm-up break (it was -5 this morning and never got above 12 all day). That last picture was taken from the master bath window where the tub will be.
• 12/27/96 The exterior walls on the master bedroom side of the second floor are up. Here is a larger view of the same from the southeast. We finally managed to convince the electric company to run our underground hookup where we wanted it (for the $5000 it cost us they should gold plate the wires too). They wanted us to redig 600ft. of our trench 'cuz it was to far into the woods (a whole 20ft. from the driveway!) and [sarcasm on] they might have to do a little work to install the cable. After weeks of useless discussion and endless rounds of phone tag we pointed out that they were being stupid and they agreed and gave us 600ft. of conduit which we will run a rope through and pull the cable in lieu of driving their truck through the woods.
• 12/15/96 We started installing the second floor subfloor on the master bedroom side today. There have not been a lot of changes visible from the outside of the house recently, but we will be starting the second floor walls soon and once they are complete the roof will go up. Previously, I spent Thanksgiving week digging the 1000 foot trench for the electric, phone and cable lines using our trusty Kabota backhoe and Ford tractor. We also had a two separate 8 inch snowstorms in one weekend. The kids enjoyed the snow, but I had to fly out of it to L.A. (actually the photo is San Diego, sort of). The heavy, wet snow took the tops off a lot of trees around the house and dropped part of a big oak on one of our wood piles. Luckily, there was no major damage.
• 12/1/96 We have started installing floor joists for the second floor on the master bedroom side of the house (wide angle version). We have built all of the first floor interior walls including those in the kitchen/mud room and the sun room/sewing room/computer room (although the wall between the sun room and sewing room is not yet built in the picture).
• 11/25/96 We started installing the carrying beams for the second floor on Sunday. A bunch of people were visiting and/or helped out including Bob, Anabelsis (nailing a header), Lauren, Pete (with Teri in the dining area of the kitchen) and, of course, Dan. Other photos include:
  
  • Jim working on the top plate.
  • Teri and Jim cutting some plywood spacers for a header.
  • The "Mule"'s eye view.
  • Christopher (sitting on the kitchen floor) and Jonathan
• 11/18/96 The first floor exterior walls are framed (including the west wall) and we should be finishing the interior walls in the next couple days. We had a few helpers this weekend including Kim, Kevin, and the omnipresent Dan (seen here with Teri and Farmer Westy). In case you're wondering Brian and Josh do while we're busy building here they are trying to dry off their shoes after falling in the creek.
• 11/13/96 The first floor exterior walls are 90% framed including the mudroom and the sunroom.

  On Monday night, with help from Tom and Dan, we elevated the last large wall on the first floor, the sunroom back wall. It was very tricky due to the 4 large headers above the windows on the one side. We actually almost had it slide off the foundation when it was halfway up and had to lower it down and start again - we were more careful and kept more weight balanced on the bottom the second time.

  As a bonus here is a wide-angle shot of the first floor interior.

• 11/3/96 We put the finishing touches on the subfloor last Tuesday. We started construction on the really large, heavy, 54 foot front wall Saturday and finished hoisting it into place late Saturday night. Thanks to Kim, Dan, and Anabelsis for their help with special thanks to Dan who stayed with us 'til the not-so-bitter end.
• 10/27/96 We worked on the subfloor this weekend. It should be done in the next couple of days. At various times this weekend Jody, Dan, Rob, Anabelsis, Tom and Debbie came an helped out.
• 10/20/96 The rain this weekend slowed us down a little, but we did manage to get all of the floor joists installed.
• 10/14/96 We have backfilled some of the foundation and the first floor joists are being installed.
• 10/8/96 The foundation is done. We are applying the tar today and will be installing carrying beams and floor joists soon.
• 10/6/96 The foundation was poured Friday.
• 10/2/96 The footings for the foundation were poured yesterday and the foundation is being poured tomorrow. We finally closed on our construction loan last week.

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