Making messes

With progress comes a mess... It's time to replace the joists above the garage, which means tearing out the existing ceiling.

With the new joists in place, it was time for fresh plywood -- thanks again to Dane for coming by to help hoist the plywood up to the second floor.

Hello, playroom!

Bye-bye old stairs

Well, with the new stairs in place, it's time for the old ones to go! 

Can't believe I don't have a wonderful "after" pic, but just imagine those stairs gone -- there you have it. :-)

The floor upstairs

Well, we started with this -- lots of old flooring...

And here we are now -- fresh, pretty plywood! (with brand-new joists underneath)

The girls love to "hang out" in their "bedroom" :-)

And this is looking back toward the playroom:

Sittin' at the top of the stairs...

With the stringers in place, it was time to add the risers and treads to the stairs.

This is going to be the sturdiest staircase that ever lived -- screws, nails, glue, more screws. :-)  It's not going to squeak, that's for sure -- which we may regret, once the girls are upstairs.  Anyway, it was time to try it out...

Our fearless Gwyn went up first!

And I joined her at the top!  Way to go, Daddy!!

A new sink!

Well, we needed a utility sink in the laundry room, and James found us a great deal at the scary Restaurant Supply place on 23rd.  Since he had already done all of the plumbing  (yay!), all he had to do was hook it up and build a bit of a wall to attach it to. 

Done! (well, now it has a faucet) :-)

Movin' on Up

figurin' :-)

Well, with the landing in place, it's time for the stair risers!  By the way, we're moving the staircase to the front of the house -- up from the entry, instead of at the back of the house.  Just in case you were wondering... 

It's fascinating to watch him work, measuring, sketching, measuring again.  And fascinating to watch it come together.

Pretty cool, eh?

The Help

 Nephews Daniel and Stephen spent the afternoon with us, helping James put together the landing for the new stairs. 

They were good helpers and quite proud!