New Construction
| In the spring of 2005, Nancy and Doug began wondering if they could glass in their favorite room in the house, the screen porch. In warm weather, they enjoyed eating two to three meals a day in this room, where they have a great view of the birds feeding at the feeders and the dogs playing in the yard. But it was only practical to use this room part of the year in northern Illinois. So they wondered if windows could be made to fit the screen openings and extend the time they could use the room each year. | |
| One thing led to another, and by July of 2005 they placed an order for
an addition to the house. The screen porch will stay as-is. The
new addition, a four season room, would go on the back of the house,
replacing (but slightly larger than) the patio and deck. |
| What Nancy and Doug never dreamed of was just exactly how long it would take to have a two story four season room built on the back of their country home. First they needed to approve the plans. Of course the first set of plans had some mistakes on it (where would that door actually GO?) and some things missing (didn't we talk about hot water tubing under both floors?) and it takes time to draw those big blueprints. |
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There were may other details to handle. Permits had to be applied
for and approved, and oh yes, actually picked up from the Bull Valley Town
Hall. The precise air conditioning units had to be selected, a
decision had to be made whether to install a boiler or a hot water heater
for the radiant heating system, tile had to be shopped for, and two really
huge boulders had to be moved off the area where the new foundation would be
poured. (That last item is a whole story itself!) An additional
electrical panel had to be installed in the basement, audio/visual wiring
needed to be figured out and pulled into the new rooms, and natural gas
needed to be run to the second floor so a decorative stove could be added at
some future point. |
| Once the permits were in hand (December of 2005), the general contractor could start looking at when the job could be scheduled to start. Carpenters came to remove the existing deck in March of 2006. |  |
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 Lumber and supplies started arriving by the truckload in June. |
 Then it really started taking shape. (We realized this wound need a retaining wall. Click here to see that project!) |
Want to see more? Click here to see more pictures of the sunroom under construction.
Links:
Click
here to see the retaining wall project
Click
here to email Doug
Click here to email Nancy
Click here to jump to main Nancy Steinmeyer, Artist web site
Click here to jump to Nancy's Global Warming Warriors web site
