GrandMa Lewis' Garage/Kitchen Project

1997 August 2-5

Ralph Lewis, chief architect, contractor, foreman, carpenter, tool-man, roofer, refuse hauler, and general laborer, besides farming and working for Campbell's Soup, undertook the task of building an attached garage for his mother. The project grew to include complete kitchen remodeling, installing a furnace, and moving the hot water heater. Ralph, with the help of his brother, David, had already completed the garage foundation, floor, and walls when I arrived the first weekend in August to help with the roofing.
Here Ralph is taking down the chimney. The roof he is standing on will be torn off and replaced to integrate with the new garage. The kitchen is directly below Ralph's feet, and with the new roof will accommodate a higher ceiling. 

The pictures below tell a little of the story of blown-in insulation and remodeling; we decided it is better to insulate after remodeling! We tried to suck some of the insulation out of the ceiling area to make the rest of the work a little easier.
The picture to the left is is the best picture of Ralph. He was always ready to do whatever it took to get on to the next step of the project. This picture shows him cutting the new roof line over the kitchen.
David Lewis, the youngest of the three Lewis', is shown here repairing an electrical box he built many years ago. This event occurred shortly after he received a nasty shock from the box, and shortly before Ralph's circular saw tried to be an arc welder and make modifications to the air conditioning unit. A small home rewiring project interrupted construction work for a short while.
As with any project, people always stop by to offer advice, give encouragement, or just observe. This is Aunt Helen, mom's sister. Standing next to mom is Elaine, Aunt Helen's daughter. They stopped by one afternoon to see the progress.
At left, you can see the new kitchen rafters in place. Here is a wide shot to see the progress we had made in just over one day.
Shingling went quickly on Monday. Everything had been delayed for a while when it rained on Sunday as evidenced by the tarp over the top of the roof. Here, it is pulled to the other side of the house as we started the shingles, in case it rained again, but it didn't. Overall, the weather for this four day project was very good.

The main part of the house has a rather steep roof; you can see the 2 by 4's strapped to the roof to provide some degree of safety. We had to stop at this point on Monday afternoon as the roof became too hot to work on without damaging the shingles.
The garage rafters were next in line. We carried the rafters into the garage, slid them, upside down, into their respective position, and then spun them up to David, who got a lot of practice walking on 1.5 inch boards, 24 inches apart.
Ralph had a tool for everything! This handy dandy saw made cutting 2 by 4's as easy as slicing butter with a hot knife. Pneumatic nailers for framing, roof panels, and shingles, made the other nailing tasks go faster than a nail shot from a pneumatic nailer - and that is pretty fast -- just ask David or Ralph.

 
Here you can see the roof on the main house is complete. Even the vent for the hot water heater has been added (we forgot about it when we put the shingles down). The rafters on the garage are all ready for sheeting.
This is the final sheet to be placed on the garage roof. It sure made a cool place to sit and drink ice water and talk about all that had been completed over the past four days.
There once was a big pile of trash here. Every remodeling project generates its share (and more) of debris. A bonfire made short work of all the old rafters and siding. This is what was left the next afternoon.
This is the result of four days of hard work and good fellowship. Ralph, his brother, David, my son, Joshua, and myself, were the principle participants. Grandma Lewis supplied cookies, milk, pop, and more substantial food as well!  There is still a lot to be done, but this spurt provided a good boost to the overall project.