A lot of the steps to this renovation are tedious, mentally and/or physically taxing, and sometimes fairly invisible. Not everything is as noticeable as, say, a new roof, or a whole new story on top of a house that used to be shorter. But all of the steps are important.

A few weeks ago (shame on me for not blogging it earlier!), Ken and some neighbors heaved the new basement steps into place, and now we have actual stairs down into the dungeon. That one task has made a world of difference to the job at hand since now Ken can store things down there more easily, out of the way of whatever spot is currently having work done. No more climbing down a ladder and having to toss things up to someone or have that someone toss things down to him. (Look out below!)

Then last night Ken and his dad cut a hole in our kitchen floor:

They  moved the ductwork out of the way and dug a hole to put a sonotube into the crawlspace floor. Then they poured concrete into the tube, which will ultimately have a post attached to it to support the floor above. I really wish I'd gotten the shot of Ken standing in the hole so just his head and shoulders were sprouting out of the kitchen floor. Drat. I missed the chance.

There has also been some wire pulling going on lately, which results in fun things like electricity in the new areas of the house. Take a gander at this outlet that is in the new kitchen, thereby negating the need to run extension cords from other parts of the house:

And just today Ken and his dad took down a  bunch of old ceiling rafters (they're the dark ones on the right-hand side, abutted to the lighter ones on the left-hand side):

That opened up the ceiling in the existing kitchen, dining room, and living room to make it easier to run wiring for the new master suite and to insulate around the edges of the house. Those tasks are yet to come.

What happened to those old rafters? Why, they were neatly stacked by Ken Sr into this pile, which will be consumed in our fireplace. Looks like a life-sized game of Jenga. Yes, it is weird to watch pieces of your home burn in your own fireplace, but why let dry wood go to waste?

Next weekend they are hoping to do some framing that'll be necessary prior to installing the stairs to the new master suite so they don't have to crawl through the attic access panel anymore when they want to work up there. Also on the docket is finishing the insulation and wiring so both can be inspected. Assuming that happens next weekend and the inspection happens during the following week, we get to start putting up drywall. I'm excited about that stage because it's when the rooms will really start coming together. And the house will stop being so drafty.