Here is a quick update of some of the work we got done both inside and out before all this white stuff came to Utah, making working on the outside of the property much harder. We still have a ways to go, but we are ahead of schedule and proud of the progress we are making.

Probably the the two most exciting things that we have happening are the completion of our “outside living room” (minus the last few finishing touches, mind you) and the cutting of our egress windows for the soon-to-be downstairs bedrooms.

The final piece of our backyard patio is was the paver patio, painstakingly constructed right before the snow came. We built this thing to last, with several tons of road base, sand and topped off with perfectly leveled 1′ by 1′ concrete pavers.

The egress windows are a particularly important part of our plans for this house because Utah building code requires them to be there as a safety precaution as an alternative means of exit from the basement. Since this house was built in the 50’s, when no such regulations existed it only has one method of egress from the basement: the stairs.

Because we make sure all Altamira Properties remodel projects are done correctly (and legally) we pulled permits and drew up plans that insured that this house would be fully brought up to code. In order to install egress windows in the basement we had to cut into the concrete of the foundation to make more room for these specialized windows that swing open to allow someone to escape the bedroom into a window well and out of the house in the case of an emergency.

 In other more general news, we are plugging away at the upstairs, ripping out walls and adding new support beams. Check out this gallery of all of our progress!

Also, if you haven’t seen the floor plans that we drew up for this house, you really should check them out. We have them here on our original posting of this house, here. or in this gallery below if you like. It may help you to understand what our end goals are for the house and why we are ripping down walls left and right.