There's No Place Like Home

I've been in California for over a month, helping take care of Mom, and Ed has been at home working on the house and taking care of the animals. He's been making great progress. Ed has been sending me pictures as he goes, but it's just not the same as being there and watching it go up. Needless to say, I miss being home, but am grateful for the opportunity to help Mom.

When Ed and I came home from Hawaii the first part of March, he went to work on the framing. Once he got the perimeter walls framed, he framed up the load bearing interior walls. I was surprised how fast it went up.
Then he and the neighbor, Rick, began hanging the plywood shearing on the outside. Suddenly the house has become tangible. Ed says at this point the house looks like a hacienda, which isn't what it's going to look like when it's done.

After the plywood was up around the perimeter, Ed and Rick started putting up the gluelams. Some of them were small enough that they could lift them and put them in place with the tractor.

Then came the Big-Boy gluelam. This required help from neighbors. So Ed went down the road, and recruited as much help as he could find on a Sunday afternoon and got that monster up. It wasn't easy but they were able to manage it without anybody getting hurt.

At this point Ed needed to frame in the stairwell before putting on the floor joists for the second floor. There will be a small run of stairs to a landing. At the landing will be a little bench, then another run of stairs to the second story. There will be a little window at the landing that may be just perfect for a stained glass panel.

Finally the floor joists started going in for the second story. Ed says the view from the second story is going to be spectacular. I can hardly wait for the plywood to go down over the floor joists. We can put a couple of patio chairs up there, climb the ladder with an adult beverage and imagine it all finished....as soon as I get home.