Astoria Renovation

After months at a glacial pace, the framers have given us a great leap forward and reignited our enthusiasm for the project.  In just 48 hours, we went from the empty space that we have been looking at since demo finished last May to finally seeing rooms.

These guys worked like the wind — very satisfying!  Spaces that have been lines on paper for almost 20 months, since we first saw the house, are now volumes that we can step into; a moment of truth for our planning.

There was practical construction that had to be done as well. Before the walls could go up, they had to sister the floor joists, and fully replace ones that had major termite damage.

The head of the framing team said that they didn’t even need to saw out the joists in the middle of the main floor. They were so eaten through that he could knock the beams out with a hammer.  Frightening: If we had tried to do the renovation in stages, a new bathroom on the rotten joists could have crashed into the basement.

On the second floor, the shape of the hall, bedroom, closets and baths has been laid out.  Mostly it looks as we expected, though the bathrooms in particular are narrower (it’s surprising how much space we lose to the thickness of the interior walls, though we will be gaining insulation).  Mr. A’s longed-for shower, which looked so generous on the plans, seems tighter now that the space has been framed out.

Rather amazing to look at this bare space, often with snow on the floor from the open window, and think that this is where I will sleep for probably the next two decades.

The next step is the steel frame for the back extension, then building the walls and roof for this. Once the envelope is closed, it will finally feel like a house — albeit unfinished — rather than the building site we have had for eight months.

Lastly, some inspirational words that I found in a book of quotes from architects, in the photo below.  ”Courageous” is a flattering adjective. Depending on the day, I can generally think of others.