Carpentry 101

2 days. That's all it took for these 3 guys to put this much of the garage up. 4 more hours tomorrow and it will be ready to have roofing and siding put on. I have been impressed through this whole process with the carpenter's work. They are efficient, refuse to cut corners, and Richard is constantly thinking of ways to reduce unnecessary costs in the construction (and re-construction) of the house. The garage is no exception. In this case he made several suggestions to figure out ways to eliminate the steel beams that the plans called for.

There he is, the man, the myth, the polish whirling dervish...Richard finishing up a day on the job getting the garage close to finished. I will say this....the garage is HUGE. I honestly didn't anticipate it being this big. Now that I am seeing it fully constructed I am happy we are doing it at this size and secretly hoping the siding and black roof will make it look just a bit smaller (funny how that works). It will also look a lot smaller once we get the windows into the house as well.



Here is the interior of the garage. This is not a camera trick...it really looks this big in person to. We made the ceilings at 9'6" to allow us plenty of space for a large garage door and plenty of overhead storage if necessary. In the ceiling you can see the double LVL supports that are carrying the floor load for the attic space and some of the weight of the roof eventually. We are going to be able to put this garage to good use, and it truly will be the storage for the house as we have taken most of that out of the house. We are going to be putting in a 30" x 60" "trapdoor" attic ladder that we can use to move things in and out of the attic. On top of that I am going to install an industrial pulley in the attic space to allow me to hoist larger items into the space without the awkwardness of trying to push it up a ladder. Should be interesting that first time I go to pull anything up there on the pully....


Power! A few spots in the house have full power right now. The electrician had to connect each spot individually to make sure all the different wiring worked. We are waiting on Comed to come out to inspect the electrical service (hopefully today). Once they do that, they will be sending a truck out to hang a new line that provides 200amp service as opposed to the current line which only provides 120amp service - which will not power the whole house. The shelving you see on the floor being built are the bookshelves that are going in the basement and the first floor. My friend's Gene and Mike are good carpenters and will be doing all of the finish carpentry in the house....this includes the front and back doors as well as some more shelving and storage in our bedroom. I am positive its going to look great when its done.


I am still waiting on someone to come up with this product (other then people that already know). I have had a few guesses and have not heard the right one yet. I think we will be getting to this late next week, so things will finally be settled at that point and the cat will be out of the bag. I am going to let the subject rest for now - mainly since I don't have anymore ways to take photo's of this abstractly.

Big day tomorrow. Kitchen counter tops go in, the garage is finished and all of the doors and window trim will be delivered tomorrow morning....also the fancy tile for the bathroom was delivered so we can begin on that. Assuming I get some time when its light out I will try to detail whats going on in the shower in the basement and the wall in the first floor bathroom. So much to do, so little time.