Our new roof!

The end of Labor Day weekend left us without a roof, as you could tell from our previous post.  Since we are replacing the ENTIRE roof, we were able to lift the roof a couple of feet and push the back wall of the house up so that we'll have 8 foot tall walls across the back of the second floor.  This allowed for additional square footage.  We also doubled the size of each of the three dormers along the front of the house.  It took our framing team a week and a half to frame our new roof.  The weather cooperated for the most part and we only had a couple nights of rain.  If you can imagine, the rain poured through the second floor, the first floor and down to the basement.  We had a bit of damage control inside the house, but the framers were not concerned.

Before and After - It is amazing how fast a roof can be replaced!!  Who knew?!

View from the back of the house.  You can see how we pushed up the wall along the back of the house to add square footage instead of maintaining the sloped roof along the back.  They still have to cut out our second floor windows because we ended up switching around the floor plan with the change in the roof.

Another view from the back of the house/garage (which is on the left hand side) 

A view from inside the back addition at the vaulted ceiling above the kitchen!

Another view from the back addition.  You can see the how the ceiling will be vaulted to give the room a nice open and airy feel.

One end of the second floor to the other end.  Obviously no interior walls have been framed. 

Another view of the second floor

Ryan looking out our hallway dormer

Our master bedroom...takes a little imagination to see it at this point

New roof and new floor, all in only 6 days!

We'll close with 2 points of big news:
1.  Lindsay recently got her dream job as a Nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh!  After working extremely hard on her nursing education for the last 3 years (including prerequisites), Lindsay couldn't be happier to get a job working at a such a premier facility with a patient population that she is very passionate about.  She is extremely excited and will be starting in mid-October.

2.  Sadly, this week marks Ryan's last week of working on the house full time before he goes back to work at his regular job at Deloitte full time.  Working on the house all summer has been many things - fun, exhausting, frustrating, painful (I've never had so many bumps and bruises on a continuous basis) a big learning experience, and very rewarding.  Traveling all week and working on the house only on the weekends is going to be tough, but we'll make it happen.  Hoping to move in by Thanksgiving, but this whole 'real job' thing isn't helping things...

Bye bye roof!

It was a big Labor Day weekend at 50 Crystal Drive.  Last week as the framers were framing the garage addition they noticed a large part of our existing roof was sunken in.  After much deliberation, we decided it would be in our best interest to replace the entire existing roof.  It was perfect timing to decide to remove our roof over Labor Day weekend because Ryan's brother, PJ and our brother-in-law, Mike were coming in town.  We knew removing the roof wasn't going to be easy, but having them in town made the job much easier!

Michael rented an all terrain fork lift to assist with the roof removal.  His buddy Rick volunteered his time on Saturday and Sunday to operate the machine.  With Michael on top of the roof cutting up shingles, Ryan, PJ, and Mike in the house sawing the studs and jousts, and Rick operating the fork lift, the roof came off by day 3!!  These guys are amazing!!

The framers came on Saturday to finish up the garage addition.  Now that the roof is gone, the framers can come in this week and frame our new roof.  Hopefully the weather stays nice this week, mainly because we no longer have a roof!

The garage and additions all framed in

We started early Saturday morning on taking the old roof off with an all terrain fork lift

Michael got out his climbing gear to help with the roof removal

Mike and Ryan supervise as Rick pulls off a section of the roof

It wasn't long before we filled up the first dumpster with our roof

Michael in his climbing gear and brother in law Mike ready to work

PJ attaching the chain to the fork lift, while Michael lowers down the circular saw

PJ using the sledge hammer to loosen up the studs

Ryan pondering the meaning of life while wielding a chain binder

There goes the roof...maybe we should just turn this into a roof top deck

Father and sons

We went through 11 circular saw blades tearing off the roof.  The asphalt shingles dulled each blade in no time.

We cut up the pieces of roof, chained them to the fork lift, then watched as operator Rick took them away

 

The removal crew: Ryan, Michael, PJ and Mike

End of day 1

Stairway to heaven?

Michael operating the fork lift, after reading the manual of course!!

On Monday morning, after two and a half full days of work, we're almost done.  Seeing the second floor with no roof was really weird, can't wait to get it enclosed again.

This picture doesn't do justice to just how many pounds of shingles and wood we removed

Picture of us from our new roof top deck!

Ryan took a turn using the climbing gear on Monday while Michael operated the lift

Mike using the sawzall as tar and asphalt fell all over his face....we love you Mike!

Ryan cutting out one of the last sections of roof, also feeling very good to be almost done ripping the roof off

Before and After.  We filled an entire dumpster and had plenty left over that we'll need to put in another dumpster.  We definitely were not planning on taking off the roof when we started this project, but are really happy that we did it now that the roof is torn off.  The new roof will be sturdier and provide us with a good amount of additional room in the second floor.  The renovation continues to throw challenges at us, but we are having fun dealing with them and are so lucky that we have family and friends to help us get the job done!  We also have to say THANK YOU to the wives of our crew, Sherry, Meghan, and Keri for allowing us to steal away your husbands for the holiday weekend!!  It won't happen again ;)

Thanks again Michael, PJ, Mike, and Rick!!  You guys are the best! 

We will miss you Alex!!

Today was Alex's last day working with us.  Having her working with us for the last two months has made this renovation much easier and a lot more fun.  Lindsay loved having another female there to listen to her when Ryan wouldn't and Ryan loved having another hard worker there to make the job go that much faster and easier.  We could use you for about another 2 months Alex, but I guess finishing your master's degree in architecture takes a little bit of precedence over helping us finish the house.  Best of luck with this semester, we know you'll do wonderful!

Alex's hard work over the last two months!  It's crazy how much the three of us have accomplished!

We have walls........and of course more steel beams!!

Today is only Tuesday, which means the framers have been working hard at the house for two days.  We never guessed that after two days we would have walls on both additions!  As you can tell from the pictures, it has been a very exciting couple of days at 50 Crystal Drive!!

As of Monday....

Our floor of the back addition

The 3 of us standing around while the framers work, it's nice to observe the work being done without us sweating our butts off

Our first wall going up on the garage

Looks level to me!

Sawing brick is harder than it looks.  On top of balancing a heavy saw, you need water to serve as a lubricant for the saw and in this case some creative scaffolding to get the job done.  Above Ryan is cutting the brick, Alex is providing water for the saw, and Steve is serving as the counterweight

Hi Steve

Our first wall!  It may not look like much, but you can't imagine how excited this makes us.

As of Tuesday......

We started early Tuesday getting ready for the beams to be set.  We had 3 beams - two for in the garage (front and middle) and one for the back of the house where we added the addition.  The progress on Tuesday was unbelievable!  We got all 3 beams set in place and the framers built and put into place all of the wall in the new addition as well as the rest of the walls for the garage.  This place is finally starting to look like a house again!

Michael cutting one of the garage beams down to size early Tuesday morning.

A little molten steel, no bigs....

Back addition prepped for the 32 foot beam

The crane that will "lift the beams to new heights" ;)

Beam #1 going in, Michael supervising as usual

Both garage beams in place

Our builder Steve up on the front beam unhooking the chains from the crane

Setting the beam on the back of the house into place

The beam almost in place - this one weighed about 2,000 pounds and spanned 32 feet.  We're really excited about this one because it will enable us to have an open floor plan between our living room and kitchen in the back of the house

Michael making sure the beam sits in the right place, along with our favorite framer Al helping out as well

We used chains to pull the beam into the right position

Michael and Alex smiling after we got all the beams in safely without anyone getting hurt

The house as of the end of Tuesday.  Considering the framers starting Monday, it's amazing how much we've gotten done in just 2 days.  Can't wait to see what the house looks like in a few more days!