January Progress

January was a long month. I had problems with contractors and contracts and I was pretty discouraged for a while. But I think Jeffrey and I have things pretty much figured out, and we have a schedule for getting the rest of the work done. Here it is February, and the house is still not closed in, which is frustrating. Although many things have held the project up, the weather has been the worst single factor for the past six weeks. It has just been too cold to do a lot of the work to close the house up. In spite of the cold, though, the skylights were put in the last week in December, and most of the windows are in. The front has no windows installed yet, but that is because the front of the house hasn't been backfilled and there are forms in place for concrete for the front window wells and retaining wall. It's been too cold to pour concrete. The forms are interfering with the ability to use ladders to assist in installing the windows on the main floor, since it's a second story in front. I'm also very hesitant to put a bay window in where concrete is going to be poured and large metal forms will have to be removed after the pour. Having a large expanse of glass only a foot or so away from a pour boom and the metal forms just doesn't seem like a good idea. We'll get the windows in when there is no danger of them getting smashed by equipment.

The next three pictures show the skylights being put into the roof. The three 3' by 4' skylights are in the roof above the stairs to the basement. These will let natural light into the center of the house, and interior windows in the stairwell walls will let that light into the kitchen, living room, and bedroom. The center skylight is operable, so I will be able to open it and a fan in the stairwell will draw warm air up the stairwell and will vent it out the roof, acting like a whole house fan.
Here's Jeff cutting out the roof to put in one of the skylights. The roof framers, Jim Klem Construction, did a very professional job in putting on the roof, and made it easy for Jeff to cut the opening for the skylights. Not a good shot, but below is Jeffrey and Devin (shown) placing the skylight into the framed opening.

Jeffrey and Devin from a distance.

One of the skylights in place.

A view towards downtown Minneapolis. Almost exactly in the center of the picture, you can barely see one building in the skyline. The rest of the skyline is behind the two pine trees on the left side.

Heidi and Devin's chicken coop, next to their garage.

A view from the roof to the west. The big pile of dirt is there to backfill the north side of the house, which is still all dug out waiting for forms for concrete window wells.

The temporary propane furnace hanging from the ceiling (so the floor can be finished) in the basement. It thawed out the basement floor and the plumbing has been roughed in. Jeffrey is going to get the basement floor insulation in this week, and then White Bear Mechanical will come and set the tubes for the radiant in floor heating. Hopefully, the concrete floor for the basement will get poured by the end of next week (by Friday the 13th)

Here are the windows on the north side. The kitchen is to the right (rear), the dining room window in the middle, and the guest bedroom/office window in front.

The rear (west side) of the house. The two windows on the right are the master bedroom windows. The double-hung window on the left is in the kitchen.