Work on the Garage Continues

Work is continuing on the garage. The plywood is all on the outside of the garage and is covered with Tyvek. You can see Tony adding siding, that my wife and I pre-painted, on the side of the house. It was a bit brisk that day, about 9 degrees when I took this photo.


The other side of the garage, with a good view of what will be our screened porch. Hopefully, the siding on the house will be done before we get more snow. Luckily, the forcasted big storm we were supposed to get Sunday night and Monday has moved South and just missed us.


These are the stairs to the storage area above the garage.


This is the storage area. This is basically our attic since there is no easy access above the second floor ceiling...and no floor. I think this will give us plenty of storage; it is about 24' x 33'. Plus, my wife doesn't allow me to have any "crap".

Greatroom Floor Refinished

Things were at a standstill last week but things are starting to happen this week. We would have liked to have the floors refinished before we moved in but that could not happen so we are doing it now.

This is the floor before sanding, we had to pile all the furniture on one side of the Greatroom and put up a plastic curtain across the room to try to keep the dust off the furniture.


The floor all sanded.


The floor after the last coat of finish. It is still wet so it has more of a shine than when it dries.

Stairs are Finished

The front stairs are completed except for the railing which we have to think about what we want. The area around the stairs has been seeded and straw has been added.


A side view of the stairs.


Top view, the stone around the platform and the steps are granite and the risers and sides are field stone.


Here is a photo of the work in progress.

Front Porch Construction

Construction is continuing on the front porch. The stone is being put in on the risers.


The side will have stone also.

Porch and Garage

A lot of work is being done this week, not only the garage but the work has been started on the front porch and stairs. Here the hole is being dug for the footings.


The hole is dug and is ready for the footings to be poured. Somehow I didn't get a photo of the poured footing but it can be seen in other photos.


Blocks are being added as a base for the platform and stairs.


After building the block frame, it is filled with crushed stone.


Work continues on the garage. The beams are all on the roof.


The side wall is almost done also. Tomorrow, sheeting should be on and will be ready to shingle.

Garage Day Five

The roof rafters have started to be added.


A view from the second floor. The view is deceiving, the peak is about eight feet high.

Garage Day Four

More progress on the garage today.


Most of the studs are in and work on the stairs has started.


The second floor deck is on also. Tomorrow, the roof rafters will be going up.

Garage Day Three

The garage is starting to come together, the framing is progressing, the major beams are in, and the second floor decking is about to start.



A closer look. Tomorrow the carpenters will be back; hopefully the second floor decking will be complete.

Gourds and Pumpkins

These photos are not of construction but decoration. People who read my other blog,New England Photos, knows that we put gourds up every year and this is no exception. My wife bought these pumpkins to put above the front door, but she is not quite used to the large scale; next year we will get large pumpkins. Overall, they don't look too bad.


The side door sports some colorful gourds.

Garage Day Two

A lot of work was done today, most of the walls were put up and two of the beams were added. Tomorrow will be a wash out so work will continue Thursday.

Work on Garage has Started

Work has started on the garage today. The carpenter started to piece together the back wall. Tomorrow we will have a crew in to get the walls up and start adding the beams to hold up the second floor.

I can't wait to see the garage start taking shape...ya know, snow will be here soon.

Exterior Painted

The exterior is finally painted. My PC does not show the true color but it is a sage color.

The Outside is Primed

The house is all primed now. The white you see above is caulk.


You may notice that there is multiple colors. The primer is tinted but not exactly the same; there will be two final coats that will even out the color.


Frank is spraying on the paint and will back-brush it in.

Start of Outside Painting

We started to have the outside of the house painted. Here you can see the side of the building after it has been scraped.


Frank here is spraying on some primer. The primer has been tinted to be almost the final color.

Greatroom Painted

We had painters come in and paint the greatroom. We decided that it was just too high for us to paint.


This is what the room looks like painted. My wife says the photo does not do it justice; on the computer the color does not look correct.

Front Porch Demo

My wife really did not like the front porch. It was built for a Grange not a residence. So, we called back the guys that did our slab for the garage. Here they started hammering away the concrete.


All broken up; the stairs are granite but were covered with concrete. The main part of the porch was full of stones and just a slab on top. The sides of the porch was made of granite also.


These are the granite pieces left after the concrete was removed.


This is what it looks like now after it is all cleaned up. Now all we need to do is have these stones put back to make a porch and stairs.

Garage Foundation and Slab Finished

The foundation has been all back filled and processed stone has been added and compacted.


Three holes are left, the big one on the left is on the concrete footing that was poured to hold up a beam that will be in the garage so now there is solid concrete all the way to the footing. The two on the right(one just on the edge of the photo) is to hold lally columns that will protect the oil tank from being driven into.


All set for the slab to be poured. They put plastic down just in case we wanted to finish the garage to live in and the wire is to keep the concrete from cracking. Also, plastic coated copper tubing is set in the concrete for the oil tank. Plastic coating is necessary because the concrete will eat away a unprotected copper.


The "protector columns" are being set.


The slab is half poured and being spread and smoothed out.


The foundation and slab is finished.


In addition, we had extra stone put on the driveway and top soil added around so we can plant grass. Quite a difference from when it started.

I will say the crew did an awesome job with the foundation. If anyone in the area needs concrete work I would highly recommend these guys.

Foundation Walls

The foundation wall have been poured and are complete. This corner where you see the square area will be a screened room/porch. We cannot go beyond the footprint of the house so we have to make a screened porch in this area of the garage.


Now the foundation is being back filled, where the dirt and rock that was dug out is put back in and around the foundation.


In addition to the garage foundation being done the panels around the windows is almost complete.