New Construction Begins

Winter finally arrived in Lewisburg this week, so I spent the week making coffee and donut drop-offs mid morning at the house to keep Ryan going on work outside. Ready to dive back into the Zeller house after almost a month total away, Ryan spent Tuesday through Friday of the past week framing the new side porch addition. The old side porch, added on in the 30's was just one story, but the new addition is two stories and will be a mud/coat room area with a full door to the basement inside and above will be a divided into a full bath and laundry room. As the framing begins in earnest we're getting to the point where we need to make final decisions about placement of doors and windows. In keeping with our overall plan to have lots of light in the house, but eliminate the need for lots of window coverings, Ryan framed horizontal windows that are between four and six feet wide and 17 inches high in both the mud room and second floor bath. Once again we chose OSB (Oriented Strand Board) for the floors, and the sheeting of the walls and the roof. The resin used to hold the composite boards together is formaldehyde-free and OSB is a more efficient use of resources, because more of the tree is used than in traditional plywood. By Friday night when I stopped by after work both floors were framed and sheeted and the house was really starting to look different from the back.

Our 2007 calendar is already booked up with friends and family who are planning work-weekend visits. This weekend our friend Pete made his second appearance in Lewisburg to work on the house. The first time Pete came down from Boston, he and Mark spent two days in the basement re-pointing the foundation. Ryan guaranteed him a little more excitement this time, so on Saturday while I was at work, Ryan and Pete spent the day roofing the addition and lining up the old roof with the new. The pitch of the roofs on both additions is going to be slight in order to line up the roof lines of the old and the new more closely and streamline the exterior of the house.

On Sunday I joined the effort. The boys layered up, but I decided with morning temperatures in the teens and highs expected to just break 20, not to mention the clouds and wind, that I would play it safe and wear the all-weather survival suit that I wear when I coach on the water. I warmed up nicely in the survival suit throughout the day, although the day did not. Ryan and Pete finalized framing up the windows and affixed the vapor barrier house wrap to the exterior of both floors. There was quite a bit of clean-up to do after that and then we set to work clearing the back slab of lumber and cutting the boards we would need to start framing the back addition. Just as dark fell and I stopped being able to feel my feet, we pushed up the first wall and headed home where Pete hoped to see his hometown Patriots make it past the the Colts. Unfortunately, the Patriots did not make it through to the Superbowl, but the framing is really coming along and Pete and I now have a better understanding of framing than we did on Friday.

Ryan finally took a day off to catch up on research and paperwork after working through the weekend, but he'll be back to work on Tuesday continuing to frame the back room. Our next visitor is Bill, one of Ryan's colleague's from Philadelphia. Bill has tracked down the wall-anchors that are used to essentially crank the exterior brick walls closer together and hold them straight. Once Ryan and Bill can secure the exterior side walls, Ryan can go ahead and completely knock out the back brick wall and chimney to link the back addition on both the first and second floors.

Besides the exciting construction of the past week, Pete made an exciting discovery in one of the rafters just under the roof line. he found a completely mummified squirrel. I'll spare you the pictures here, but check the photo gallery, there are a few close-ups!