This photo is of the front of the house before the trees were taken down for the addition.

The trees around our house were planted too close to the house for the type of tree and the size of the lot. There was alwayse a danger of one of the trees hitting the house if it came down in a storm.

We had Joe's tree service take down the trees around the house in November 2005 in prepration for building the workshop.

This is the front of the house after the trees have been removed. There were 9 trees that were taken down in one day. The trees were a white pine, sugar maple, blue spruce, lombardy popular, 2 cottonwoods, a tulip popular, a pin oak, and a sweet gum tree.

A section of our screened in deck has to be removed so that the workshop can be built. The screened in deck used to be my workshop. This picture is after Linda and I removed the screening on the section of deck to be removed.

This is another view of the deck with the section of screening removed.

We have contracted with T & M Construction to build the addition. They removed the section of deck so that the foundation can be excavated.

This is another view of the rear of the house with the necessary section of deck removed.

This photo is after the first day of excavating the foundation.

This photo is after the second day of excavating the foundation.

Next the trenches are excavated for the footings.

Another view of the footing preparations. You can see here where a temporary support had to be installed for the deck and one of the corner posts cut.

The trenches for the footings have to be inspected and the footings poured on undesterbed soil.

This is another view of the step footings. Heavy rain would disturb the soil and require that the trenches be re-excavated to a deeper depth.

The footings were inspected on August 30, 2006 and poured the same day, which just happens to be my wife's birthday.

This is one view of the footings after they are poured.

Another view of the poured footings.

Preparations for Ernesto

Tropical storm Ernesto was predicted to deluge us with rain the morning of September 1. Our contractor Dale Good came out the day before and prepped the excavation to prevent damage from the storm.

Preparations for Ernesto

Dale setup a bucket with holes in it to strain debris and put a sump pump in it to keep the water from filling the hole and undermining the foundation of the house. Dale also setup a tarp to keep water off the ground below the house's foundation.

Preparations for Ernesto

Dale also setup additional silt fences to keep the heavy rain from moving mud into the street and storm drains.

Preparations for Ernesto

This is a view of the silt fence from the street.

Once the ground was saturated the trench started to fill with water.

Dale checked in with us during the night to make sure that the sump pump did it's job.

The tarp also worked well keeping the water off of the house foundation. It is going to be a couple of days however before the hole dries out.

After the hole dried out the block was delivered and the mud was cleared off of the footers.

This is a second view of some of the block.

Third view of the block.

Mike Utz of Mike's Masonry laid out strings for the foundation and set the first courses of block.

This is a photo of the first wall. This wall is key as all of the other walls are based off of this wall.

Once the first wall is up the other walls are started.

After the remaining 3 block walls are started the last 2 corners are started. These corners provide a reference for the string line that keeps the walls straight.

Dale and Mike discuss the locations of doors and windows in the block walls.

Dale updates the drawings with door and window locations.

Once the door and window locations are determined the remaining block and cap is laid and foundation ties are set between the caps.

This is one view of the finished block walls.

This is a second view of the parged block walls. Drain tile and water proofing are next.

Washed gravel was delivered to go above the drain tile and below the concrete.

The sections of block wall that will be below grade are sprayed with rubber. Drain tile is laid and covered with cloth and gravel to keep dirt out.

The cavity between the existing house and new foundation had to have dirt backfilled to keep the existing house footers stable.

Gravel is spread to a depth of 4" uniformly across the floor.

Next the floor has to be prepared for the concrete, including a mono footing outlined in orange.

Vapor plastic vapor barer is laid out on the floor. #10 wire is put over the plastic to add tensile strength to the concrete.

Rebar is bent and laid out over the #10 wire and anchored with holes in the walls. This is to add more tensile strength to the floor.

The space between the walls had to have wooden forms to keep cement out of the area where the door and shower will be from the existing house into the workshop.

This is a street view of the foundation preped for concreate.

The cement truck came the next morning.

An extension shoot is chained to the cement truck's shoot so the cement can reach the far corners of the floor.

The crew shovels cement for the cap between the walls.

The cement is distributed evenly across the floor.

After the cement is distributed over the floor with the shoot a long beam is used to screet the water to the surface, this helps to level out the cement.

Next the float is used to smouth the cement and spread the water around so that the cement cures evenly. The cement has to cure for an hour.

After another hour the float is used again.

Finally the cement is trowed out so that it is smooth and level.

After the concrete setup for a couple of days I took a tape measure and chalk and laid out where the large tools will go. In doing this I found we have to move the woodstove.

Steel for the hoist and so that the floor joists can be smaller was delivered.

This is another view of the Steel.

The lumber, sheathing and sub-flooring was delivered the day after the steel.

The driver un-ceremoniously dumped the wood products on the driveway, narrowly missing the foundation.

The lumber was covered with plastic to keep the rain off as best as possible.

Then next step was removing the windows and siding from the lowest level.

Next the openings left from removing the windows were framed in.

Then sheathing is nailed over the framing.

This is an outside view of the kitchen window being sheathed.

This is an outside view of the powder room window being framed.

The framing crew brought the materials they would need to frame the knee walls on top of the block walls and started framing the walls.

This photo is of the knee walls and steel beam in place.

This is a view from the street of the knee walls with house wrap and the header in place above the overhead door opening.

This picture is of the floor joists being laid on the knee walls and beam.

This is another view of the knee walls with bracing. The Trusses are in the foreground.

Floor joists are set after the knee walls are framed. The long wall is framed up on the deck and ready to be set in place.

The long wall furthest from the existing house is erected next.

This is a view looking from the long wall back at the existing house.

Next the side walls are framed up and covered with house wrap.

This is a view from the house looking toward the street on the upper level.

This view is of the completed second floor walls.

This is a view from the inside of the trusses and walls.

This view from the outside shows the trusses. Stick framing to tie the trusses in to the existing roof is next.

The roof is stick framed in the area between the new trusses and the existing roof.

View of stick framing the roof from the other side.

Second floor master bed room view of the laundry room and bath room.

Second floor master bed room view of the walk in closets

View (from left to right) of rear of shower and workshop closet.

This is a photo of the furnace closet stair way and back of the first floor shower.

Another view of the furnace closet, stairwell, back of shower, closet and shelf in the workshop.

Workshop view of steal beams and hoist room.

View of outside of addition with tarpaper on roof and bundles of shingles on ridge.

View of enclosure for woodstove flue.

The roofers started laying shingles on Friday morning.

In four hours they had the shingles laid on the addition and the rear of the existing house up to the ridge.

The roofers did the valleys last.

The roofers finished up around noon and will be back to do the front of the house on Monday.

While the roof was being shingled on the front of the house the plumbers were inside moving water supply, waist and gas pipes in the laundry room. The washer will eventually be on the second floor. In the mean time it is in a temporary location, while the door from the lower level of the house to the shop is installed.

This view from the laundry room to the powder room shows the yellow temporary gas line for the dryer, the temporary water supply lines and temporary waist line for the cloths washer.

View toward house in shop. Part of the block wall has to be removed to allow for the steps from the house to the shop and for the shower in the powder room.

View of location for steps and shower taken in workshop after the necessary block and gravel is removed.

One of Dale's T & M Construction helpers breaks through the sheathing in preparation for the door to the shop.

View from shop looking toward existing house. This view from left to right is of the water heater / furnace closet, stairway, shower platform and shop closet.

This photo is of the left side of the HVAC trunk in the workshop. Loves Heating and Air did the HVAC work.

This photo is of the right side of the HVAC trunk in the workshop.

The HVAC contractor put the vent for the bathroom under the tub. This prevents water in the bathroom from getting into the duct. It was also the only available wall location in the shower / tub area.

This photo is of the return air trunk on the second floor.

This photo is of the trunk in the mechanical closset for the furnace.

This photo is of the completed return air trunk in the master bedroom.

This photo is of one of the ducts for a floor register.

This HVAC photo is of the outside heat pump.

This photo is of Loves heating and Air installing the air handler and filter.

This photo is of the installed furnace (air handler) and air filter.

After the HVAC the plumbing contractor starts roughing in the plumbing. This photo is of the laundry room on the second floor.

This is a photo of the shower in the bathroom.

We are adding a shower to the powder room off the workshop. Doing this requires a header to be framed into the floor joists. This is a photo of that header.

The floor in the powder room had to be jack hammered so that the plumbing can be tied in to the existing waist line.

This photo is of the new waist lines in the powder room. The waist lines are for the new shower and the existing toilet.

This photo is of the shower installed in the powder room.

This is a photo of the ceiling in the powder room after the ceiling is fured out.

This view is of the powder room after the green board is hung.

The windows arrived and were installed in short order just before a major rain and wind storm.

Randy Lang cut the steal I beam to length for the hoist, and notched it so that it can be welded to the support beams.

This is a photo of one end of the notched I beam.

Randy ground the paint off the support beams in the area where the hoist beam will be welded to the support beam.

This photo is of the hoist beam stick welded to the support beams.

This is a photo of the trolley and hoist attached to the hoist beam.

Butch did an excellent job backfilling the foundation with a Bobcat. He had an 8 foot wide Bobcat and a 9 foot wide swath of dirt.

This photo is of Butch finishing up the backfill next to the workshop.