JUNE 16 UPDATE: Let there be even more light

The skylights are nearly finished. Walt finished the north skylight today, and the last south skylight is in place but there's still detail work to do, Dave tells me.

Walt hopes to have that finished in the morning, and if he can do that, he'll start driving for Iowa around noon. He arrived here on the 3rd of May, I believe, so he's been working on our little house for a month and a half. We are really indebted to him -- or, to be more accurate, we are really indebted to Karen, who let us borrow Walt for so long!

The north skylight. This area between the railing and the north wall, which is fairly narrow, is intended to a mostly a passageway to the west bedroom, but also a place where the children can play within earshot of adults below but out from underfoot.


Walt modeled next to the north skylight to show how high the skylight is. It's intended to serve as a window, to a large extent, so it's lower than it would be if it were only intended to serve as a source of light. The level in the photo is four feet long. Sofia and baby boy won't be able to see out that window for a few years, but I don't think they'll be moving upstairs for a while yet anyway -- our plan is to finish the first floor and make that inhabitable while we work on the second.

Notice the knee wall below the skylight -- it creates an odd-shaped space, but we'll be able to use all that for storage.


Here's the view out the north skylight -- we can see the fence that keeps the cows out of the back yard, and the artesian pond beyond it. Dave commented that the window doesn't open quite wide enough for duck hunting out of it. (Thank goodness, I say.)


Here's the south side, a little earlier in the afternoon -- the last skylight was put in place later.


Here's a view of the north side.

I received a final quote on windows today (about what I had expected), as well as a quote on the cost of the hardware for the front door: $265. Ouch. Well, it's still far cheaper than that door would be otherwise -- it's about an $800 door, I'd say. So we're still coming out ahead, I think.

So the windows and door hardware are ordered, but I didn't ask how long it would take to get them here. No matter, Dave says, there's plenty of work to do before they get here. And after.

We've adjusted our plan for the addition to make it a bit smaller, which should make it a size where Dave can do the work on it himself. We had been disagreeing about what to do about the addition, since the addition as I wanted it wasn't going to be finished before winter, and some sort of addition has to be in place so we can have plumbing (and I do like running water). Dave had suggested a smaller addition with a shed roof, while I think a shed roof coming off the gable end of the building just wouldn't look right. In the end, we decided to do a smaller addition but keep the gable roof that I want, which will make the addition look like it fits the rest of the building better. I think that's a good compromise.

I haven't made the change yet on our computer floor plan, though. I'll have to do some finagling to figure out how to fit the washer, dryer, utility sink, chest freezer, and mudroom space into the smaller space. But I think, with some creative thinking, it can be done.