All walls up on the top floor!

Bogden has now completed the partition walls on the bedroom floor. Here they are:

Our new bedroom wall.
The space in front will be floor to ceiling cabinetry.

Looking into the master bathroom.

Looking from the library to the kids' bathroom

Doorway to the boys' room

Bathroom wall from the boys' room. We elected to run the
partition wall only up to the height of the bathroom ceiling
to allow the ceiling trim to remain intact. There will be a loft a
little higher than the scaffolding, so the ledge could be a bookshelf.

Master bedroom wall, looking across hallway into master bathroom

They wear coveralls to work, but then strip down when they leave the site

Master bedroom into master bathroom

Bonus photo: it snowed! View from balcony

View of a bit of snow from the library

Wall behind sink in master bath

Love,

Alexandra

Beam me up, Scotty!

I think I've mentioned that there was a concrete beam in the middle of one of the floors that needed to be recovered in a wood veneer, since we have exposed beams in that area. After weeks of anticipation, today was the day that Umberto and Friends installed the "trave" (pronounced "TRAH-veh").

The first thing we knew about that was on our afternoon jaunt up to the house to check on things. There it was, on the back of Umberto's truck! The house was entirely empty, though, so after a quick look, we went for coffee. And happened to see Umberto on the way back home.

We complimented him on the beam, and asked when it was to be installed; turned out that he was walking up there to get started! Michael ditched us to go earn the money Umberto and I were busy spending, and I tagged along to see the fun.

Note the hand chiseling/chainsaw work

The beam is in the upper-right-hand corner of the photo

The pile of rubble taken out covered the length of the dining room

 And fun it definitely was: first, we had to open up the baby gates on the scaffolding and put up the winch.

Two burly fellows brought the beam from Umberto's truck into the courtyard (the one with the red beard, incidentally, is Umberto's cousin and the son of the man who delivered our firewood this year). After a good deal of scurrying around, it was time to pull one end up onto the scaffolding.

 The whole crew came upstairs to carry it into the space:

Then it was time to put it into place. Oops, it was too long! Out came the chainsaw.

 More fiddling. Another go with the chainsaw, this one simultaneous with additional hammer-drill brick removal.

 And, it fits! It's up! There were a few adventures with the jacks, but now it's up to Bogden to put in stones and mortar for its final installation. Tomorrow, we will have walls defining the two bathrooms on the main floor.

Love,

Alexandra

P.S. The helpers were actually the people who created the false beam. They reported that my particular tree was from France (an oak) although they also can get them locally. One of them circled his arms to show the original trunk diameter: call it 2 1/2 feet.

Fixed in Concrete

Bogdon at work

Umberto spreading!

View from the scaffolding

Today was a big day: they started "pouring" the concrete subfloor! Apart from the excitement of seeing major progress, the way they do it here is just a treat to watch: Even for large surfaces (we have about 1000 square feet above!), they use a small, traditional mixer at the ground level, then use a nifty wheelbarrow (with a movable handle) to hoist the concrete up to the required height. This is where having the opened window comes in handy. Since the floor is fragile, they have to go on little paths created by 2x10s of lumber which spread out the weight. They then dump it (the amount they can bring up in one load covers maybe 3 square feet) and spread it out. During all this, the mixing expert below is shoveling gravel and cement into the mixer for the next load.

They decorated for Christmas!

Wheelbarrow in mid-air; check out the handle position!

Wheelbarrows on the boards, please

It took all day for the two of them to put subfloor in the boys' room and work on the girls' room. I, of course, couldn't resist putting our initials in!

Love,

Alexandra

P.S. Bonus photos of my walk home from the doctor's office

Going Up the Wall

The other day, Umberto warned me that he was planning to tear out the bottom half of the window in the upstairs library, to allow for better access during construction. He assured me that he would take "before" and "after" photos to make sure that everything went back exactly as it was. Of course I approved the plan, since it is pretty much the only way to get concrete into the house for the new flooring.

Today, we were much excited to see said scaffolding in place, and to see the continuing work! Umberto and Bogdon are continuing apace, with all the rebar in place for attachment to the steel mesh.

The generator was descending as we arrived

It's now a doorway instead of a window

Not a very wide working platform!

Rebar in the bathroom

Master bedroom

Girls' room

Boys' room

Clearly a great way of moving heavy stuff

Next steps: mesh installation and concrete!

Love,

Alexandra