How Firm a Foundation

Too much traveling, too many national conferences (and the afore-mentioned junket to Hawaii), and too much bad weather here in Winston-Salem. So my updates are overdue and I'll just have to load up this post with a series of pictures to show what has been wrought in the last two or three weeks. Let's start with some shots of the footings, followed by the foundation, and then capped off with where the guys were installing the flooring joists and first deck of sheeting:





I left for four days of work in Virginia, and when I returned, the first floor of the "kitchen complex" had really taken shape, with the framing of the walls. In anticipation of tonight's rain (and several nights of rain this week, we think), Pete and the fellas got it covered with the biggest tarp I've ever had nailed to something that I own.  For contrast, I'm setting this up as Before and After shots, with a few pics from October 2003, when I bought this wonderful old heap of loving wood.  First, two shots from 2003, from the north side of the house:

And a shot taken today, from the same side of the house, showing the 1st floor kitchen complex addition.  What's at this end is the bay with the breakfast nook:
Okay, next...back to 2003, with a shot from the south/southwest corner where my parking area is:
And today, when there was just a little sun early this morning, again taken from the parking area on the south side of the house:

And to complete today's overdue update, a few shots of the inside framing. But let me first say that coming home last night and walking into this space for the first time was one of the most exciting, exhilarating, thrilling things I've done in a while. It is taking shape! I can see the sweep of the kitchen space extending out to the breakfast nook, and how the master bathroom will be, and the anteroom outside the kitchen where a powder room will be.  This is a pretty incredible leap forward for me on this whole project, and I'm just a bit giddy about it.