What percentage of this is still a ceiling?

There are now holes for the skylight, low-intensity lighting, high-intensity lighting, surround sound speakers, central air, and fire sprinklers in the living room ceiling. Click the image for an exciting, annotated version.

Post-Thanksgiving door installation

Oscar, the window installer, hung this stairwell door on Friday. He's also prepping the floor for the various sliding door tracks. I love this door!

Drywall delivered

There are now stacks of drywall awaiting their fate. Click on the image for a panoramic movie.

Speaker recommendations

The wiring guys are going full bore, and I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations on in-wall/in-ceiling speakers? They aren't meant to be audiophile quality or anything.

Wiring and stuff

So there is a real hum of activity at the house right now. We've got the low-voltage electric guys wiring rooms up for sound, video, CAT5, etc. The painters come in tomorrow to prime the old part of the house. Stucco man did a walk through yesterday to see what he's up against when the new part of the house gets clad. More windows came in and will be installed soon.

We're waiting on a set of inspections (not sure which ones actually) and then things are going to get going even faster.

One note on the low-voltage wiring: in an effort to cut costs, there will no longer be surround sound wiring in the master bedroom. A moment of silence for that, please.

Refinished

Three weeks ago we moved out of our house. I rented some storage pods and packed up everything that previously sat on the wood floors. Which is to say every room other than the kitchen and bathroom.

We moved into the house of our friends Kathy and Jon, who were going out of town and asked, "Would you like to stay for free in our great, giant house?". We answered "yes".

In that time they have done tons of work, including, but not limited to, removing the hallway wall, punching open the wall between the old and new parts of the house, widening closet entries, framing the skylight, running high- and low-voltage wiring, adding many can lights, and repairing the floors.

This all got done within the three weeks we were out, with the exception of the floors. They weren't going to be done on Saturday. The day we had to leave the housesitting gig and move back in. So, being the incredible family tactician that she is, Erin says "We're going to Disneyland". We went, had tons of fun, stayed overnight, played some more, and returned on Sunday afternoon. The floors were done!

We moved a minimal amount of furniture back in, but the drywall guy is going to be working for three days to "hot-mud" it, so we don't want to move in fully. In fact, we'll keep it spartan until priming and painting are done if possible.

Trench 1, Driveway 0

This is where the electrical will be laid from the new circuit box to the old.

In other news, we aren't going to have the time to refininsh the floors in the old part of the house right now. We were able to get out of the house for a little while, but not long enough. The floors will be repaired, and giant holes covered, but the sanding and finishing will have to wait until we can get out of the house for a vacation during the summer. Bummer.

We're also having loads of can lights put in in the old part. I can't wait to have a brightly lit kitchen.

Meet Carl

He's off topic from the house addition, but I wanted to share him with you. He's a character I rigged for the upcoming Disney animation Meet the Robinsons.

Hallway? What hallway?

Destruction marches on. Here are the before, during, and after photos of the wall that formerly defined the hallway.

Enbiggening the closet door

Here are the before and after photos of the closet doorway in my son's room being widened. (We had the same thing done in our current bedroom, too.)
This will make the closets way more accessible; until now, hanging clothes in them has been like working on a car's engine via the glove compartment.

Solarcap tiles

These nifty tiles are solar powered and covetous. At around $170 ea. I won't be doing the whole courtyard in them, but maybe a nice accent. Could also help small aircraft land at our house.

Lamp / Lamp

This abomination makes me smile. More info here.

Shady advice

I'm looking for advice on roller shades. The reality of how large some of our west-facing windows are gonna be is starting to set in. Does anyone have a line on good, moderately-priced, sun-blocking roller shades? Clean lines and chain operation are what I'm after. I found these guys, but they just look expensive, don't they?