Framing has started!

Fall is arriving. Hard to believe it was 95 degrees yesterday and today the temperature dropped by nearly 30 degrees! Wow! The leaves are just beginning to show a hint of color.
Yippee, framing has begun! This is really fun to see. We can walk through the rooms (not really many rooms in the basement, but still fun to see some definition). You can see where the windows will go in the walkout part of the basement. I think they didn't complete the framing on this exterior wall because then it will be hard to access. The guest room is framed and the bathroom as well. It looks a little suspect because we don't see the hot and cold water pipes where the sink vanity will go. Hmmm, hope that is not a problem.
This is the sink in our invisible bar. That is going to be awkward since we cut the bar area from the plan. Not sure how to finish / cover this until phase 2. Nick has grand plans to build a bar now that he has a workshop (see below).
Nick's workshop is framed and he is psyched! He even came home and got out a piece of paper to figure out how he wants to set up "his" space. I have to say it is pretty cool -- there was even a little bit of random space by the stairs, and now he gets an 4' x 8' long closet where he can store wood. I asked what space I get --- he said, "the rest of the house." Sounds good to me :-). The workshop is the room you can see at the far end of the picture. The door is on the left and then the workshop is from the left wall, along the back wall, and then turns the corner on the right wall and back. I am excited to have all of this stuff out of the garage where he has had no room to use it in our current garage. But, I'm sure we'll find stuff for the garage. Just yesterday we were all in Dick's when Nick started to get interested in the canoes. Ruh roh, that could fill the garage in an instant!

One of the most exciting rooms in the basement thus far (for Nick it is the shop) is the storage room Lloyd suggested we go ahead and pour under the front porch. This room works out to about 9'x 40'. It was going to just be poured walls and we were not going to have access to the space. Lloyd said it was a "no-brainer" to put a door in there from the basement and just go ahead and pour the concrete floor while we're pouring (if we wanted to do this later, the concrete truck is $800 just to get out here and how the heck would we get it into this interior room? We'd be doing a million bags of cement by hand at a later date. Not fun. The concrete for this room and the wine room are not free, but for the space we gained (wine room radius = 11'2", meaning the area = over 400 sq. ft (because there is a little extra outside of the circle) and the storage area is 9' x 40', so around 360 sq. ft. So, for not much extra, we gained almost 800' of storage space. I am excited about the possibilities of this room: should it just be storage, should it be part storage, part toy closet, should it be the kids' secret clubhouse, should it be the tornado shelter? How about a roller derby track --- how fast can you get going in a 40' run? Oooh, I know, a bowling alley! Perfect! Just what we need too! Good thing my mom doesn't read this, because she knows I am only half kidding about all of these ideas! How to incorporate the voice recognition trap door that the kids have in their plans?

Up for this week.....at least in the plans:

Monday, steel beams and columns to be delivered, crane and welder will be there for those. Of course the weather forecast for tomorrow has torrential rain and lots of lightning. Crane and giant metal beams dangling in the air --- good idea?

Tuesday, floor joist for the first floor to be delivered, and first floor system should be about complete by the end of the week.

Looking at the weather, I'll be surprised if this all goes as planned, but I can't wait to walk on the first floor! Nick wants it on so he can take his chair and just sit there!

Another bonus...once the first floor system is on, we can push some dirt and the concrete wall will be better.

Hope we get a small break in the weather (though we need the rain) to keep this moving!