Progress report --- Week 9

Progress made this week:

--Bricks put on about 75% of the garage
--Walls on addition portion finished, with openings cut out for windows
--Roof on addition portion put on
--New double window hung in kitchen
--One of the old kitchen windows removed and opening drywalled over
--Cut-out of addition roof made to accommodate upstairs dormer
--I spent a morning at a cabinet store making choices about the bathroom vanity cabinets and countertop.
--A structural engineer came out and investigated the big crack we found earlier running down the front of the house. He and Wagner were both flummoxed to discover that the foundation of the front of the house lacked a footer. What this means is that they will have to dig out a trench and install anywhere between 2 and 5 support piers (depending on just how long of a stretch there is without a footer) to prevent further sagging of the house. This will cost an additional $1000 a pier. Yikes. Apparently this was all caused by the bad droughts we've been having the past couple of years, where the soil has dried up and caused the sagging, which caused the cracks.


Obstacles encountered this week:

--Rain one day, slowing down work.
--While I liked the vanity cabinets I decided on, I'm not thrilled with the tank topper that goes with that style. (A tank topper is a cabinet that hangs on the wall above the toilet.) I really like the one we have now, which came with the house, and I'd love to be able to find one that matches whatever cabinets we choose to put in. I think I may have to go out and look at some other cabinet stores.

In sum, I think this week has seen the most visible and remarkable progress. Yeah, I know the early stages where all the underground pipe and duct work is going on is incredibly important and impressive in its own way, but it's hard to get overly excited about a hole in the ground with some pipes sticking out. There's just something really gratifying and amazing when you have walls going up and roofs put on. Jon and I have a much better idea now what it's going to look like, and I think it's going to be beautiful.