Off on the right footer

Lots more progress to report today! First of all, the carpentry crew must have been hard at work, because the loft is back! Only two days for them to rip it all out and rebuild it better than ever. Here are some shots of the new and improved second floor from below:

And from above, after climbing a ladder (no staircase yet!):

It feels so much more sturdy than it did before... and happily, no giant holes or rotten wood anymore. Always a plus.

The only downside to the removal was the potential waste of the good wood still up there -- giant (oak?) beams and yellow pine. However, we've saved all of it that was still usable. The beams will probably get used in the new ceiling over the stairway (to match the rest of the ceiling), and Brandon might use the pine to finish the underside of the porch roof. All to be determined, but we are trying our best to avoid waste whenever possible. As a result, the boathouse is beginning to look like a lumber yard.

Other exciting news from inside the house -- we have new framing for the future windows! The views kinda stink right now, but here is the guest room window (it looks north toward the back yard where the garden will be):

And the future dining room window, which will look out to a forested area to the west:

Hooray!

There was also progress outside -- the foundation guys dug and poured concrete for the footer, where the garage and new entryway are going to be. I don't think it's possible to get an attractive photo of dirt and concrete, but for the record here is how it looks!

It was neat to see the actual dimensions of those future spaces. We were worried that the garage would stick out so far that it would be tricky to turn around, but it's not too big and there is plenty of space.

I took another "east side" photo to add to the "Progress" slideshow in the right sidebar. I can't figure out how to get the captions to show here on the blog, but if you click on the slideshow it will take you to the Picasa album, which has dates for all the photos.

Heading back out to the house now for a cookout with some friends -- luckily cookouts don't require an actual house!