Here is the skeleton of the second floor...rain is forecast for the next 10 days, 
The kids are checking it out from the deck. 
Hard to interpret, but this is a view of the new upstairs room from the loft. This will become a solid wall. You are looking in thru the closet.
Here is Wes in the new Great Room! The fireplace will go in the center ofthe wall and French doors on either side. It's really taking shape now!
Here is our existing garage. The floor joists are going in...we are raising the floor to meet the main floor on level. This will become the 'Kid's Casual Family Room'.
Here you can see the beam in the old garage ceiling. If left, it would seriously compromise the visual comfort of the finished room.....so it's getting removed. The door inside leads right into the kitchen and will remain in it's original place.
The exterior brick is removed and new garage cement poured.
Here there is CDX (thick plywood) laid on top of the joists for sub-floor. Also, observe the super structure (beam) now in the ceiling replacing the beam that once hung down 10+".
New Garage is being framed in....
Closing in the Old Garage / New Casual Family Room.
Look - an empty garage! I think I need to go out and buy 3000 Antique Sap Buckets like I did in 1999.......They should fit nicely in here:)!
Wes is in utter dis-belief! He was in Spain when this got started. He's standing next to 12,000 bricks from Dan River Textile Mill in Virginia. How ironic we'd end up with these bricks. My late dad was a textile engineer, as was his eldest brother. They frequented Dan River when I was a kid.
This WAS the upstairs full bath. Tiny doorways, cramped toilet/tub area, useless closet...time to resurrect! Tub gone and will be replaced with shower. DOuble vanity area...Aaahhhh!
New dormer for the existing Bonus Room.
We have NO windows upstairs on the front of the house. This is a dormer which will be a sitting area in the loft.
View toward back & kitchen
View from Kitchen looking toward the hallway and Parlor. 
Wow! The second floor addition is taking shape! (View from loft)
Anyone noticing the absence of the cherry trees, boxwoods and Nandinas? (I'm ready to cut down half the front yard, it looks so tidy and clean!)
We're almost ready for concrete.....
Here's what we're cutting off....No tears were shed in this decision!
Now this area has been dug out to pour new padding for the new exterior foundation and the fireplace.
This room has been one of the biggest disappointments in our home. The fireplace is double-sided (see thru to the den) and takes up 6 feet between the two rooms and almost 9 feet across. No sofa, table and chair set or anything else has fit in there. It has served as a storage of furniture I cannot let go of and a catcher of hornets and dirt. Good Bye forever! Yippee!
All of the above vegetation will soon go so we can build our new garage in front of the existing one. Unfortunately, the old cherry trees will have to go. It's bittersweet...they are beautiful two weekd of the year and a huge mess the following 4-5 weeks. Then there is the August/September leaf shedding mess..... Looks like we'll have some stellar firewood next fall:)!
Here are the kids standing in the upstairs bathroom, looking down into what was the den.
