Second floor framed

Here are some more shots of the house, this time of the second floor, which was framed this past week.

Atop the garage will be a bedroom (which we plan to use as a playroom for Jocelyn and Ian) with big picture windows. The view is pretty cool from up there - you can see a lot of the playground and fields past the houses across the street.

Here is the front door and office to its left. There will be a small covered porch area, which is one of the features Julie and I were looking for in a new house. Above the office, the area with the three small windows is the landing at the top of the staircase. Turn right and one enters the playroom. Roughly straight ahead are the kids' bedrooms, and to the left are the guest and master bedrooms.

One of the features of the house I am most anxious to see is the stained glass window that Julie selected which will flood the staircase and front door entry area with light. (My wife has excellent taste.) The cutout for the window is between the first and second floors here. A little further down the wall, on the first floor, is a cutout (covered with plywood for now to keep the snow out) for the bay window in the dining room. This side of the house gets most of the sunlight through about mid-day, so we tried to have as many big windows as possible on that side.

Here's the other side of the house. There is an extra storage area at the back of the garage for strollers, bikes, etc., and an extra wide door near the ladder shown here allows access to that area. The kids' bedrooms are right above that. Each has its own bay window.

Since we got our permits and ground was broken, the project has moved along at a pretty good clip. Friends have told us that framing is usually pretty quick but plumbing and electricity can take forever, so we'll see if the nice pace we have going continues. The plan is for the roof to go on this week, weather permitting, followed by window installation, and then once the house is weather-proof, plumbing and electric follow shortly thereafter.

This entire process has been an education and a lot of fun to watch unfold. Jocelyn and Ian have been very patient with us lugging them over to the new house countless times to take pictures and just look around!