Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The apartment takes shape


I just realized I haven't posted to the blog for three weeks. Here's what I've been up to...





The entire floor has been completed. The top picture is a view of the stairwell from the main room. The far left corner is where the bathroom will be built.

The second picture was taken after most of the framing was completed. This view from the kitchen area shows the bathroom on the left, the hallway closet in front of the stairwell and the bedroom to the far right. Some of the studs in the bedroom doorway are not in place yet so I can move in the closet wall. It is on the floor in the main room. It will have two sets of sliding doors and run the full length of the east wall of the bedroom.

We have found a dozen windows at a local resale store and hope to purchase all or most of them very soon. Once we decide on the windows, I can frame the walls to accommodate them and cut the openings in the exterior sheathing.

After that, we can add the Tyvek on the outside and install the windows. Then comes the really heavy work - installing the outside paneling. Each of the sheets is very heavy. The first (bottom) row of the panels shouldn't be too hard to install, but the upper row will be eight feet off the ground and require help just to lift them into place and hold them while they are nailed.

I'll keep you posted.