Construction Update... and Other Happy Events

Lots of developments to report - some more dramatic than others!

On the exterior construction, the foundation for the kitchen addition was completed and is ready for framing.  You can get a sense of kitchen layout here:

The former Brooks' lot next door is completely cleared on the Lake side.  The house, the garage, the many, many trees - all gone!  Suddenly, there's an empty lot next door...well, several empty lots.

You can actually see our house down the line:

We took this picture from Deb Flannigan's house! Do you see our cottage?

Most impressive is how the bank of the Lake was cleared.  We love our new view from the porch:

Heavenly!

Equally as dramatic were some of the changes that had gone on inside the cottage. Gone is the second floor as we knew it!  For example:

Photos courtesy of Mark Winter

The former upstairs closet, which hung over part of the stairs, has been removed.  In its place - a nice, open, staircase.

Alex's room has been prepared for a floor .  Now, all of the floors on the second story will be on the same level:

Don't worry, Al - these aren't your new windows!

Maddy's room is also opened up and prepped for windows:

Don't worry, Maddy - this isn't your new lamp!

And so is our room:

Mark did a great job of photographing under dangerous conditions, such as no walls and the possibility of a tumble to the first floor! 

As excited as we are about the cottage addition, this week was topped off by news of an even more joyful  nature- an addition to our family.  October 19th is already a happy day for the Winter family - Mark's birthday.  But this October 19th, Maddy and her boyfriend, Matt Bryan, got engaged...a very memorable birthday!!!

The future Mr. and Mrs. Bryan!

October is quite the birthday month for the Winters':  Alex, Mark, and me.  Next October, 2011, we'll be celebrating three birthdays - and a wedding!

We'll keep you posted!

One Month Under Construction!

We didn't get to the Lake this weekend, but, lucky for us,  our neighbors, Dick and Linda, and our architecht, Sam, were on hand to send us great pictures of the week's progress.  And, lucky for Jeryl and his crew, the beautiful - and dry - October weather continued.

Here's where we are, exactly one month under construction:

The back of the house has a roof:

The foundation for the kitchen addition is well underway:

I still love how the house looks from this angle:

This big tree will be removed: top half got blown over in storm last summer!

Inside, the upstairs is gutted and will have bigger windows (on order) and tall ceilings (no more fearing decapitation  by ceiling fan for taller members of our family):

And here's a side of the house that we haven't seen in a while - the west side:

Our long-time lovely next door neighbor, Betty Brooks, sold her property this summer.  The lot was very wooded and demanded much care, as can be seen by these pictures:

Our house is in there somewhere!

The upkeep was difficult for Betty as she aged and battled physical challenges.  With a new owner,  transformations are  happening at the same time as ours.  There is some clearing going on next door!

Wow!

And, look at how our view will change from the front porch next summer:

Lake Wawasee!

We'll keep you posted!

Week Three: A Visit to the Lake

Many Chicagoans ran the Marathon yesterday. Mark and I did the Lake Wawasee drive marathon instead.  Here's what we found:

Some hardy survivors from my cutting garden!

But wait....there's more!

Additional work on the roof lines has taken place on the back of the house.

Walking in through the kitchen door was a surprise.

Before:

Yesterday:

Some strange things about the demolished kitchen:

1.  The space seemed a lot smaller after demolition.
2.  We saw this wallpaper, fortunately hidden by former cabinets and walls.

Yikes.

The lake side of the house really took shape last week.  The view from the pier:

And from the side:

A new old house!

We met with Jeryl, our general contractor, and he and Mark had a great talk about the construction "how to" process.  We made some decisions about window sizes, roofing shingles, bead board trim, and chimney brick.  So, within the next couple of weeks,  these materials will be making their appearance on the house, especially if this good weather holds!

It was a busy and exciting day, but Mark and I made it home in time to watch Mad Men as well as our two favorite celebs who were filmed by a Chicago news crew and appeared on the local show 190 North:

Photos courtesy of Alex

Maddy and Alex Winter!

We'll keep you posted.

A busy week!

A lot of work has taken place at the Lake this week, as you can tell from the new vehicles parked in our "driveway":

Or maybe you'd like to take this number for a spin?

First order of business - outside basement stairs....I'm not very good at rotating images, so just rotate your neck.

Quite an improvement from the existing metal winding staircase.  We can now drop the life insurance policies we took out on all guests, in case they dared to visit the basement.

Secondly, construction of new roof lines. Suddenly, we can see in "real life" what we've been trying to imagine from the plans!

Here's the back of the house before:

That's the kitchen door and windows.  The bump out with the flat roof is Ginny's (Mark's mom) room .

Here we are now:

Wow! There will be an additional bedroom upstairs which will Alex's new room.  Happy birthday, Al!

The front of the house is changing, too.  From the Lake side, our cottage looked like this:

We love our front porch which is especially great for hummingbird watching, reading good books, and cocktail hour.  On the second story, the three windows to the left are our room; Maddy's room is the bank of windows to the right.  That second story roof looks a bit saggy!

This should fix that saggy roof:

I know I'm an English teacher and ought to have better vocabulary but - wow, again!

Looking out from the second story, our views of the Lake were limited.  I think that's about to change.

Next week, we might be under roof.  We'll keep you posted!