​The addition is shaping up.  These photos are from this past weekend. The crew was starting to set the 40 foot long gluelam beams, shown above.  

To the left is a side-by-side of the design and construction. We are changing the fenestration around the home adding vertical corner windows. Our mason says he's salvaged enough brick around the building to properly fill in existing openings so we are expecting a seamless finish.

Finally, the photo below is of the finished ceiling framing. That's our son standing there, very unimpressed. This will be his last visit to the site until things are more complete.  Shortly after this photo, his foot went through the kitchen subfloor!  He wasn't hurt but the trauma of having his foot go through the floor was almost too much.

​​A big part of the design for this house are the changes to the exterior fenestration. After exploring a few directions, we settled on a vertical window design.  ​​To accomplish this, we needed to seamlessly fill in existing openings while opening new ones.  In these photos you'll see how the mason has removed the brick from the existing. He's meticulously removed the mortar and debris so we may reuse around the building.

You've likely seen this AMAZING playhouse one Michigan father built for his two little girls. It is well beyond anything I could ever image executing for my own son, though Bart and I have certainly tried. As my sister would say, Bart and I are classic "starters"--Bart more than I, but perhaps I just need a bit more confidence in my unknown construction abilities.

I'm fortunate to have had an amazing dad that built my sisters and I a playhouse when we were little, too. Though not as extravagant, I have countless memories spending our days playing house, school, or just hanging out in and around the playhouse. There were several times the three of us attempted to camp out overnight but we never made it the whole night. Too scary!

​Years later, our own kids play together here. How could Bart and I not want to recreate the same experience for Hank?

Much to my disappointment of faded dreams of a beautifully landscaped backyard, we've had a shipping container in our backyard for well over 2 years. We purchased and had it placed back there when Bart shut down his wood working shop and we had to store all the equipment, wood, and the unbelievable amount of clamps. We knew it was temporary and it has been, to an extent. Over the last few years we've sold things off, set up a much smaller garage work shop, and slowly emptied out the container. When remodeling our kitchen this past spring, it proved to be a huge advantage as we were able to purchase and store our cabinets ahead of time, saving us money.

Now that this ugly monstrosity is reaching the end of its intended use, Bart and I have kicked around a few ideas. One, get rid of the darn thing! Two, move it to another corner of the yard in order to increase the square footage of grass. Three, a backyard lounge?