The Back is Back!

Well... out with the old and in with the 'new-just-like-the-old-but-so-much-better', as they say down at the building department!

We took the wood framed part off the back of the building so that it looked like this:
and now we have to make it bionic- you remember? "we can make it better, faster, stronger..."- the first step is, of course, the mud work.

Duwayne has all of the big toys and brought his Bobcat over to make a hole for the footings... took him about 2 hours to do the whole thing!
then there was some shovel work and some 'dressing' before the hole was ready for mud...
In the course of the excavation, we found the handle of an old chamberpot, a bunch of a shiny green stone (jasper?), some square nails, and an old brick path leading to the back alley...

When the cement had a few days to toughen up the block guy came over and in quite short order had all of the cinder blocks assembled for the foundation.
Seems only a moment later and the 'deck' was on the joists and the framing was under way!

Now, the 'new construction' framing is fun! You have this big empty flat place that you can work on ...
and you can put the entire wall together on that flat surface, lift it into place and tack it down. You do this well, and the bones of the house leap up and reveal themselves to you quickly!
This is the first floor, almost framed up! (with Xan supervising- of course!). Things proceed apace until...
The second floor is in place and the sheathing is started on the ground floor...
and we barrel along until the rafters and the roof deck are in place!
We made sure that the roof extends well over the rear so that even in inclement weather we'll have some protection out on the kitchen deck...
and now the back is back where we started- only all new and shiny! ready for bits and parts!
and there is Xan, up until the last, making sure that everything is exactly as it should be...