Designing the new Fort Awesome

Reeling in the Years: The History of Fort Awesome

We can trace the origins of the current house back to 1958. Fort Awesome's origins were a simple lakeside cottage with a flat, slanted roof.

This painting (provided by the previous owners) shows what the house looked like in the late '60's to early '70's.

In 1972(?), the previous owners (Jim and Nancy Cassidy) bought the place and started a massive remodel to turn this lakeside retreat into something where they could raise a family.

Jim and Nancy would live at this house for almost 37 years. They did another major remodel in the '80's, built another house directly across the street, and moved there when they sold this house to us in 2003.

They jacked up the house and dug a foundation.

..and eventually built a new house around it:

New garage and upper level (circa '72)

Same view from last summer (Homer says "Hi."). The front door arch was added during the '80's remodel. The garage service door was replaced after a fire in the late '70's.

The same view as of yesterday.

Out the door photo #3

Out the door photo #2

Out the door photo #1

7 days of work and we have a new addition!

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(Sent from my mobile phone)

Out the door photo

Kris and I left the house at 8 today, and they already had walls up on the new addition. Not bad for 35 minutes of work!

New Garage!

Our construction crew (Randy, Greg, John, Waldo and Job Boss John) continued their incredible pace and finished up the plywood sections on the new upper roof. They installed the floor trusses and decking for the new addition, and in the process, recreated the new and improved garage.

At the same time, another crew took out one of the furnaces and installed a new marvel of modern technology. Both furnaces are 20+ years old, so it's nice to have a new one heating the house.

Assistant job superintendent Josie Olson assesses progress and instructs John in the proper use of a circular saw. (we still are in awe of her recovery and the fact that she moves on three legs as successfully as she did with four).

Behold the new dispenser of hot air.

Homer's Rooftop Hijinx

When checking in with the construction crew this morning, I asked if the dogs were giving them any trouble during the day. They looked to one another sheepishly, seemingly unwilling to answer the question. Finally Randy stepped up and said,

"Well, um, yeah. About that Dan, er... Yesterday, when we had the lake-facing wall on the upper level ripped open, Homer kind of broke the child gate at the base of the stairs, pushed open the second floor door, ran into the guest bedroom, and when he saw us out on the roof, decided to join us."

So, Homer, increasingly neurotic in his old age, decided to investigate where all the loud noise was coming from and ran around on the lower roof (15+ feet up) until the guys could capture him and drag him back into the house.

So, Homer got a nice doggie-downer pill to 'take the edge off' today, and I worked from home to ensure that he would not repeat his command highwire performance.

The mid-level roof is where Homer played Santa yesterday.

Moving Quickly!

It's amazing to see how quickly things are moving on this project!

Here's how the place looked last Friday:

Here's how it looked at the end of the day yesterday:

Here's the start of roof demolition yesterday:

Here's what we came home to tonight: