House Adventures

Sometimes, you do not need to leave home to have a great adventure.

In 1987, when our children were struggling for personal space, we remodeled our house, removing the roof, and adding a full second story. Like many home projects, this one cost twice my estimate and took 3 times as long to complete. Still, my project cost was only $16,000, and the work was mostly done after 9 months.

I was between jobs for 8 months, and was able to work on this full time. There were 3 things that I chose to subcontract: sheetrock taping, external door replacement, and chimney extension. We did most of the rest ourselves.

While I had many of my own tools, I did this project with a borrowed level, a borrowed square, a borrowed sheetrock square, and a borrowed radial arm saw. Every power tool I owned wore out and had to be replaced at some point in the project.

Building permit, April 1987.
The old house, March 1987.
April 25th, 1987, first floor windows replaced, front gable removed, roof torn off.
May 1987, second story walls and roof trusses up on north end.
May 1987, wall extended across the front.
May 1987, South wall completed.
May 1987, the truss installation is complete, and the roof deck is complete.
May 1987, roof is complete at the end of the Memorial Day weekend. Roof was off for 5 weeks. It rained 4 times. Everything hurts. Rested and healed for a week.
July 1st, 1987, windows are installed on second floor. It rained 9 inches July 9th.
September 1987, redwood siding has arrived. Getting ready to install.
September 1987, vertical siding is complete.
Late September 1987, started siding on south side.
Early October 1987, more siding on the front.
October 1987, front siding is complete.
End of October 1987, almost complete.
November 1987. Time to go back to a regular job.
Summer view, leaves on trees again.
Restained again 2008.
3/3/2007 Snow cornice.