Diamond in the roof

We finally began work on rebuilding the front of our house. With all the demolition we had to get through first, it kind of felt like we would never get here. But here we are.

I think I've mentioned this before, but we are fairly certain that our house was built in the 1930s and originally served the purpose of providing four individual apartments for men who worked the quarrys that used to be down the hillside. Throughout the demolition phase of the project our suspicions were confirmed after finding exterior doorways to the two rooms that didn't already have them.

The diamond frame above is also likely original to our home and was covered for who-knows-how-long behind the roof above our front porch. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep it because of building code (I guess that modern safety sensibilities require a window large enough to jump out of if there is a fire?). So, goodbye diamond window frame, hello triple windows.

This is the front of the house above the porch, getting ready to be framed in:

 

Wheaton friends Alex and Caroline were down for the weekend, and offered their help with the project. Again...who are these people who like to spend their weekends off laboring with us?

And this one goes to the Reds!

Before finishing the upstairs we were able to replace another window. Just one more to go after this one:

Will, Kevin and Alex worked hard:

Peppered with typical boy antics:

Work site safety 101: Do not have finger on trigger while pointing nail gun at friend.

Tim stopped by and offered some nuggets of wisdom:

But at the end of the day, we had ourselves a framed exterior wall upstairs:

Up close.

Far away.

Unlike last Saturday, spirits were high by the end of the day. The weather was great, friends were around, and Liverpool beat Arsenal. What more could you ask for?