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Craig starts the drywall sheets on the living room ceiling. The dining room to the left is largely done.

The dining room is one of the oldest parts of the house and is over a earth floor crawlspace. Decades ago the space was insulated, but that fiberglass has deteriorated. This is a shot with the subfloor open before the new insulation was installed.

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Views around the kitchen; eat-in area and doors to veranda (upper left); sink and counter area under the
triple windows (upper right); counters, stove and refrigerator along the wall with the two windows (above).

The living room ceiling drywall is back up. The pine paneling, where it had to come down temporarily, will go back up soon. The oak floors are still covered with protective plywood, and a few large pieces of furniture which for months have been under plastic wrap in the living room are about to be moved into the library to get them out of the way for joint compound, sanding and painting.

The bay window and front porch door in the living room.

One more feature of the reconstruction in the living room is installed. The original room's ceiling was shaped like an inverted tray. The angles followed the old roof line, now removed and replaced by the second floor. But, the look of the room was too distinctive to abandon, so a false frame was constructed at each end of the room and drywalled over. The tray ceiling, in the exact same proportions and angles is back. The box beams in the ceiling will also be replaced .

Since April 2005, a lot of the furniture and household goods were stored in a room within a room constructed in the old master bedroom. Even though the ceiling of the bedroom was removed and a new level added above, the waterproof vault protected pianos, TVs, artwork, and cabinets. Now it's been emptied and the contents moved to the library room so that the ceiling and upper part of the extended walls can be drywalled. At least that was the plan.

Hassan is demolishing the last of the vault's frame. The wall shows the original pale green paint color from when this room was constructed, the house's last addition in 1976, and wallpaper I put up in 1982. Phyllis started to remove the wallpaper, but it was very difficult and that's as far as things got before construction began. Another change is that the ceiling level has been raised. The 1976 addition was under a shed roof which topped out at 7 1/2 feet. The uniform level of the new second floor joists brings the new ceiling height up to a standard 8 foot level.

A few days later and the room has all new drywall. That wallpaper just wouldn't come off. Between the labor involved in removing it and adding the extra height to the walls, plus doing the ceiling, it was just easier to tear it all down and put up new board. Here it is almost done.

The last surprise find was a note for or from the 1976 builders found behind the wall where the bed goes. It gives the dimension of the bed width. As a good architectural historian, I photodocumeted the note, had the guys leave it in place and put new drywall up over it.

The stairs are in and the stairwell drywall is up and taped.

The electric water heater is moved out on its way to white goods pickup by the DPW at the curb. It served us well from 1984 to 2005 and was still in working condition when disconnected, but the tankless water heater on the new furnace is more energy efficient.

A very big day. As March comes to an end, the Snyder Custom Builders construction trailer is hitched
to their truck and driven away. It had been parked on the front lawn for almost a full year. Major heavy construction
is done, but there's still a long way to go.

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