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Suddenly the place is looking huge! We'd originally planned to have a single story garage and an enclosed breezeway. Josh persuaded us to go two stories on these parts of the house to add lots of economical storage space. With no basement, is was a good idea. We hadn't expected it to make our compact little home into a sprawling edifice!

 

Windows have been installed in the main house, and framing of the garage and connector (no longer a mere breezeway) is nearly done. In this photo, for the first time you can see the beginnings of stonework — using stone that was dug up in the excavation to build a low retaining wall around the front of the house. (As the winter of 2010-11 approaches, this stone work is still dragging on and will probably not be finished until next summer.)


 

Starting the roof. Steel standing seam is best for this climate, and it's green, of course.


 

Now the roof is nearly done, all the door and window openings have now been cut in the garage and connector, and another of Josh's ideas has appeared — a small second-floor balcony between the main house and the garage. No railing yet.


 

Siding is well under way. We use horizontal cedar clapboards on the main house, vertical ship-lap stained in two different tones on the other parts of the house.


 

Now the siding is done. There are something like thirteen windows in the garage and connector, much more than in the main house. We managed this economically because some rich fool moving to Hanover tore up a perfectly good house so he could build something bigger. We got the nice double-glazed Andersons, from COVER, for about 25% or their cost new.


  

Time out for the grandchildren. They were often around the job. Here Nicole and Jasmine help Barb clear what will become the back yard.


 

One of the nicest things Josh did on this job was teach Conner how to operate the excavator. Josh said not to worry, it would be easy for Conner — just like a video game. Conner dug up buckets of dirt, swung the big arm of the excavator, dumped the bucket, even moved the whole machine a few feet, having a ball the entire time!

 

Josh dug up a long stone that would become a sort of obelisk at the foot of our driveway. Right, the stone is hanging from the excavator bucket, a giant swing for the girls.

 

Below left, the stone is planted and Josh is making it more vertical.

Below right, the excavator becomes an amusement park; Josh swung the bucket around and around, giving the girls a thrilling (and reasonably safe) ride.


 


 

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