Since the last renovation update, a lot has been accomplished. You can see here, the floor joists were covered.
Walls were being constructed and put in place...
The walls also served as a mud-less way to get into and out of the house!
It is getting more clear where the windows will go and what shape they will be.
Our new front windows...
In short order, the outside of the addition was covered...
And window holes showed up...
Looks like a big scary box here. Don't despair!
With a bit more work and some Tyvek wrap, it was looking more like it belonged there.
New view from the street. A BIG desire is for the addition to look like it has always been there - not some add on. Think it is shaping up to do exactly that!
The two new skylights were installed. One will open to let hot air out.
Inside looking out. Our view is Mike and Cindy's newly renovated (by Guy) house. It looks phenomenal!
The windows went in very quickly...
Cool!
I think this is the decking color Dave chose. I was out of town for all of this - in San Francisco for work with no camera. Boo.
Looking better...
Pretty quickly after the windows went in, the siding and trim was added.
Lots of great light in the new room.
Another from the street view... Up next, punch through. That is supposed to happen in a few days. That means there has been a lot of packing inside as pretty much the entire house - except the three bedrooms (office, bird room, our room) will be completely unusable. The kitchen will be gutted. The dining room wrecked as a wall comes down and skylights go up, and the den and living room are packed full of boxes and furniture and covered in plastic.
FINALLY! The last Joshua Tree blog. Steve Wolfe, David and Jose met us at Morongo for a day of birding. Great to see them all again!
Aside from excellent birding, lots of silliness was to be had. :)
It was surprising to see several birds we had not seen in Covington/Morongo two days before in the park. Migration is fun that way.
Jose is checking out the baby Red Tailed Hawks
Dave is spying some bird
And here Steve is looking for David! We managed to lose him for a good time during the day. It was hot and we were worried he was dehydrated and lost somewhere in the park. Happily, he showed up about 45 minutes after Steve went hunting for him.
As we were waiting to find David, Rick Accamazzo showed up! Great to see him. He joined us all for lunch at the Morongo Diner. Great fun! Rick headed off to the in-laws, and Dave & I had to race to the Orange County Airport for our flight home. Great time!
Lots of hammering and cutting outside. The framers arrived today. In short order, the floor joists were cut, brackets attached and joists installed.
Seemed only like moments later that the decking was starting to go down...and lunch hour came.
I took advantage of their lunch break to go outside and get a few photos.
Somehow it looks like a bigger mess in real life.
I'll add some photos as it progresses. Hopefully a lot more gets done today.
I close this entry with a photo of dear sweet loving Henri. Dave went in to visit. It's breeding season - testosterone poisoning still in full effect. This is what he got. :)
Mixing up construction and J-Tree blogs still. Enjoy the ride. :)
Today I'm posting some more nice bird photos Dave got while we were there.
Look at this cutie! This is a baby Red Tailed Hawk. There were two in the next and such fun to watch.
A bird that is always a treat to see is the Vermillion Flycatcher. This is a female. Note her vermillion color wash on her vent. While not as showy as the male, she's still a really pretty bird.
And the male! Check him out. A little feisty bird that really isn't too shy. We really enjoyed watching his flit around grabbing flies out of the air.
Another view of Mr. Vermillion. Beautiful!
And another. You can see why birders fly to particular destinations just to see this bird.
Here's a fun shot of the Vermillion. It was blasting wind so strongly that his feathers were being blown on his chest. He doesn't have a black marking on his breast - what you see are the base of some of his breast feathers. The feathers are black at the base and vermillion on the tips.
This morning, I had a huge pile of papers that I just did not want to
grade. I'd already made a run to the gym in an effort to avoid this
work. It was still here when I got home. After being home a while, I
thought I'd take a photo of the moonscape/front yard.
As I was doing so, I heard the rumble of the lumber truck. The wood has arrived. As is clear from these photos, I just took photos from the bedroom while the lumber guy did his thing.
He backed the truck up.
I had the perfect seat!
Got it in the perfect position and...
Pente enjoyed the show with me...
Unstrapped the load...
And the truck did its thing!
It all slid off the back of the truck into the moonscape.
We now have a pile of lumber. Sure doesn't look like enough. I guess more lumber will come later. The papers were still here waiting to be graded. :(
