TWO NEW DORMERS AND STAIRS!

I wish I had had my camera when I was leaving the house this day...As I was leaving a saw could be seen coming up from inside of the house. When I got back. there was a large hole in the roof.

You can see that the new dormer on the west side of the house is going up.

Different day: dormer on the other side of the house has been cut out. As you look into the opening from the outside straight through to the other side of the house:

West side dormer

Opening for East side dormer:

Stairs come out:

Here you can see where they covered up the opening to the basement stairs.

The stairs are gone. The door is the door to the basement.

Baseboard has been removed. Cold air vent is now covered.

You can see the cut out for the new entry to the upstairs.

New hole in dinning room wall:

The new stairs go in:

At night they cover the opening with a piece of drywall. This is to keep the cats from going upstairs.

The framing for the dormers are now done:

East side dormer: In the picture is Wayne, one of the carpenters. Tony kept hiding.

West side dormer:

Ceiling in front section of the house:

It snowed yesterday, this was taken from the west side dormer.

FREAKING RAT!

Yes there was a rat in my house. I hate rodents. I would rather a house full of spiders than rodents...(well maybe not full of spiders)

Friday December 18th, Sara and Elyja came down to Portland. I was home waiting for mom to come back with my car. Hers was in the shop, so she took mine for the day. About 4 pm I heard what I thought was the cats up on the table. I got up to go and yell at them, when I walked into the dining room - I saw it. It was on a storage shelf. I screamed. The rat was up on the 2nd from top shelf. It froze. I panicked. Called mom to ask her how far she was. I cried. Yup not afraid to admit it. The stupid thing freaked me out! Again, I really, really hate rodents!

I sat in the living room watching the rat. I didn't want to lose sight of him. Because then if it moved I would not know where it was. Better to know where it is.

Mom, Sara (sister-in-law) and Elyja(nephew) came home. Rat still sat on the shelf.

Around 9 pm, Fred (my sister's husband) brought Sam (my other nephew) over. Fred was going to get the rat. He took a little rake, and a cane, and made a swipe at the rat, the rat ran to the hall. Fred had it trapped by the bathroom door. He was just about to step on the rat, when the bathroom door opened. Sara had gone in to take a shower. She heard the noise in the front room, thought it was Elyja getting wild. She didn't know Fred was there.

So... Sara opened the door to find a rat running in, and Fred running in after it. Thank god she at least how a towel around her. Sara left Fred and rat in the bathroom. The rat escaped through the false front between the wall and the vanity. If you well under neath the false front, you will find a hole. The rat found it.

So at this point we figure the rat is gone. We figure the rat came in because of the cold, and all of that days demo made it come out of the basement. (our basement has a dirt floor)

About 4 am, Sara wakes up in pain. The rat bit her arm while she was sleeping. She got out of the room...at some point we had these sticky rat things... so put those down... The rat came running out of the sewing room (this is were Sara was sleeping on a air mattress), ran right over the sticky things... and right by the cat. Who sat and watched. It ran into the kitchen and under the stove. At that point it had no way to get out. There are no holes in our kitchen walls for rodents to get in - or out. We called Orcan, but 1: it was to early, and 2: they were not open on Saturdays. So then we called dad (Mark).

Dad got there a built this huge rat trap. It was built so that the rat only had one way to escape from under the stove. After it was built, he then sprayed brake line cleaner under the stove to gas the rat out. It worked. By 8am the rat was dead.

Orcan came that Monday. And we have now set up maintenance with them. They will set traps, and come and check it. I think a years worth was set up. Again. I really really hate rodents!

The following pictures are the rat trap.

3 weeks later

OK, so I am a little behind. I have been taking the pictures. But it has taken me forever to get them loaded on my computer. After that I have to burn them to a disc so that I can put them on mom's computer. (mine is not hooked up the DSL- I think I still need to get a "airport card" {or something like that} for the mac) anyway...

We had a couple of weeks were there was no rain, just freaking cold here.

Here you can see that the roof is being put back on.

This was coming up the stairs and looking at the back of the house. Again, very freaking cold!

Still the back of the house.

Another view:

Taken a different day: I did not post all pictures that I have taken, as some of them look the same.

From this view you can see were the old skylight was. It is being moved.

Different day:

Things are being closed in:

This is along the back. The opening you see at the left will become a window.

Outside view: That is a duplex that is next door to my house. As you can see it's very close. So close that If they leave their front door open I can hear them having phone conversations from my room. Don't let the sunshine fool you, it was still cold! After this section was closed in, I finally turned on the heat.

Another day:

The inside walls are starting to go up. This is not a very good picture of the inside wall. You only see a little bit, in on the left side.

The closet

This is were the old skylight was closed off.

Will become the window at the top of the stairs.

The outside wall is now covered to protect the house. There are workers under that tarp. The siding is being taken off. The top floor has to be strapped down (I don't know how to phrase it) to the lower part of the house. Has to do with some sort code for earthquakes.

This is my nice new soaking tub! For those that don't know, we took out the tub in the first floor bathroom. All we have is a shower. Sometimes a girl just wants to soak and read a good book!

Not a great picture, but the tub will go here. The toilet will be behind that wall in the middle of the bathroom.

Well that is all for now. They are working on taking apart the roof/walls in the front section now. There will be 2 dormers going up. The stairs will also be taken apart soon. That will hinder some of my photo taking, as I am not going up a ladder! I think 2 step ladders are to high from the ground!

I said I would do it...

Ok, so I said I would post pictures of the cats. They are not really enjoying being locked up. Today they got to stay in the house.

This is pebbles. She is like a big soft stuffed animal. Loves to have you pet her belly. Only attacks when she is in a playful mood. Hates to be picked up.
See, I said the house has been cold. Oreo will dig to get under the covers if he is really cold

This does not happen all that often. My guess is Oreo was about 2 to 3 minutes away from attacking Pebbles. He will be really sweet to his sister, then he turns around and bites her.

Well No more cat pictures... Will be back to the house pictures as soon as I figure out were I stuck those batteries for the camera!

Framing Continues:

This was taken Thanksgiving weekend. I was very thankful for the tarp, as it was raining when this picture was taken.

This picture was taken from the top of the stairs. Strange seeing the roof like this. I am thinking while this is open, I should clean the outside of the sky light. Won't get another chance like this again.

Framing Begins

The framing begins on the bathroom/closet area.

Here you see the framing for the new outside call.

The new beam went up. The contractor wanted to thank my dad for doing such a good job on building the closet. Took them awhile to take apart the top part.

Another angle of the new beam.

Yes that is my crap in the storage closets.