Progress - Weeks of 29 Oct and 5 Nov

Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a bit of progress around the house in different places. We had a meeting on Tuesday with our supervisor and the electrician, so it's moving along quite well these days, even though the photos might not show it.

They have finished framing and tiling the roof extension, so it's nice to no longer have to listen to the tarps flapping in the wind!

                     

 

A couple photos showing the new roof over the balcony. It's beginning to look pretty good. I think this will be where we spend most of our time...at least during the spring, summer, and fall! :)

                     

 

                     

 

They found that the ceiling in the kitchen/dining area actually sits about 1/2" higher than the ceiling in the back living area. And since they'd already done quite a bit of damage to the kitchen ceiling, they are now going to be fully ripping it out and replacing it, including the joists to lower the level to be inline with the living area...very exciting! They have also been doing the rough plastering on all of the exposed brickwork inside the upstairs living area. This has to be done before they do the final plastering...so, in the photos below, you'll see a couple of shots before and after the rough render has been applied...

                      

 

                      

 

                      

 

The plumbers and electricians have also been around to run wiring and plumbing before the walls are plastered...so lots of work has been happening, even though we're still living in a disaster zone!

                      

 

In addition to all of the hard work that Summit has been up to, we've been keeping pretty busy ourselves! We managed to open up a can of worms the other week. We decided that the wooden window frames in the future "Games Room" downstairs appeared old and maybe a bit water damaged, so we decided to remove and replace...and check out what we found...

How are we supposed to cover that up?!?!? It's pretty crazy to think that this type of erosion can happen to limestone blocks that are "hidden" by a window frame. Obviously there was a bit of wind able to blow through there, I think! So, that's now another thing on the list to figure out how to fix...lovely!

We've also got our own guy coming in a couple of weeks to renovate the upstairs bathroom...of which you would have seen photos a couple of months ago when we gutted it. Well, we had never removed the linoleum floor from the entry hallway to the bathroom, so that was a chore for another weekend. And great fun that was! It took me about 3 hours with the electric jackhammer to get up the 2 layers of lino...absolutely ridiculous! It's hard to believe that a 1m x 2m space could possibly require that much work and cause that much pain...but it did! And it's done now...yay!

So, the Summit guys still insist that they will be finished upstairs before the end of November, so we'll see what the next couple of weeks bring! Check back soon!

Progress - week of 15 October

I'm actually quite impressed with the work they managed to get done this week! Of course, it started with 3-4 guys on Monday (I had a day off, so I was at home for a while) that came in about 8am, and they were gone for the day by 11:15! And their scope of work was to remove the roof tiles...and I think there are almost as many in pieces on the ground as there are stacked up on the roof to be re-used! Ah well :)
They got the balcony floor framed up and laid, the corner brick pieces laid, and the beginnings of the roof framing...Oh yeah, they also had to raise the scaffolding, so I think the real roof work will begin in earnest next week!

Thought I'd put in this same view...it kind of works as a gauge of our progress...and it shows the stacks of roof tiles

Unfortunately the piles at the bottom of the driveway don't seem to be getting any smaller!

This is the games room downstairs showing the framing of the ceiling and balcony flooring...some big I-beams in there for support.

The view looking towards the pool...it will be nice with the bi-fold doors in!

Our tent roof! and some of the metal framing for the balcony roof

Another view of the balcony roof framework

Just imagine the pitched roof that we'll have when this is done...it will be a beautiful place to sit for a BBQ and look out over the pool!

It looks like the living/dining room as turned into the staging room for the roof works!

They have put in new ceiling joists...didn't know they were doing that, but I won't complain!

Progress - week of 8 October

I decided that I'd stop trying to post anytime something changes because I just get depressed all of the days I come home and nothing has happened! So, I figured we would start going for a weekly update. And then you guys can also have a better idea when to look at the blog for new pics!
Although it may seem like a lot of progress for this past week, this is actually only 2 days of work...just imagine what could be done if they actually worked 5 whole days! :)
All of the progress this week is to get them closer to being able to do the roofing work....

well...maybe this isn't work progress! but he sure was working hard on our morning coffees! :)

This is the "study" with one window removed & bricked up and the new smaller window fitted.

The low window will side right above our kitchen sink with cabinets above and the   living room is on the left of the photo.

They have installed the lintel for the big corner window, giving them support for the roof works that need to happen.

This is the highlight window in the living room...it will sit above the couch.

Scaffolding put up for working on the balcony deck and some wood framing, although we're not exactly sure what for because that wall will be full windows when we're done!

Framing the new study and other stuff.

Good afternoon! Andy and I are finally both back home after about 6 weeks of traveling on and off. Thank goodness our traveling doesn't keep the building works from progressing. The main part of the upstairs demolition is now complete. We believe the next phase will be to build the balcony floor and to remove the roof...but not sure how long that will take to happen. Every time we think things are picking up momentum, they seem to slam to a sudden halt! Here are some photos of the house in its current state.

The new front door to our hideaway

Framing up the new study

More of the study 

view from where the future kitchen will be

The old balcony has been removed, ready for the new one.

view from other side of balcony

A windowless house

Demo #2 - Day 4

Well, finally a weekend...the main bit of demolition is complete...it looks like they just need to do some cleaning I would say!

Looking from the front door towards the back of the house...all walls removed.

Brick removed for corner window and wall cut back between balcony & living room.

Window openings enlarged for new windows and the view to the front of the house.

The back living room, with our nice big corner window

Demo #2 - Day 3 progress

More progress today! We'll forego all the verbage just to show some fun pics today! :)

Again...from the back living area looking towards the front...more walls are gone!

From the front door looking towards the back...

The window in the back living room marked out where it will be enlarged to give a good view of the pool.

Part of the wall between the living room and balcony removed.

More brickwork removed to create the big corner window.

Demo #2 continues

Well now...this feels like progress! Slowly, we're beginning to see what our house is going to look like...very slowly! It's good, though.

This is looking through our new temporary "front door" that has been put up in the hallway.

This is looking from the front door, through the wall where the kitchen used to be, towards the back yard.

Taken from the other side of the front living room.

Our little balcony pagola is gone...

This is standing at the sliding doors into what used to be the kitchen...

Standing in the back living room looking towards the front of the house.

Front window...well, all windows for that matter...GONE!