AUSTIN—If anyone has been by the State Capitol lately, they may have noticed a bit of construction as two major renovation projects are underway.

The State's Preservation Board is overseeing all of it, and they say preserving a building as historic as the capitol is no easy task. The Texas House is extra empty during the interim.

"And now you'll probably notice that the carpet has been taken up so that we'll have the opportunity to lay a correct reproduction of what should be here," said Ali James, Curator of the Texas Capitol

The House Chamber is one of 10 historic places inside the Capitol. The renovation era is between 1888 and 1915. So it takes special hand-woven carpet to preserve the character of that time.

“It gives us a great opportunity to tell the story of the House Chamber just like it would have been done 100 years ago,” said James.

Upgrades that definitely weren't done 100 years ago are also underway - like updating the voting boards and other electronic devices.

"We have to make sure that everything works flawlessly when the time comes so we'll be doing lots of testing in August and September," said James.

The outside of the building is  also under construction.

"It was largely driven by the need to repaint and restore the windows after 20 years of exposure to the elements since their last restoration," said Kevin Koch, Architect and Project Manager.

Crews are working on 777 windows. There’s so many windows because the building was built at the advent of electricity.

"You wouldn't want to pay for expensive gas or electricity and so natural light was very important to the building. So you have not only a lot of windows around the perimeter, but they're all very tall because the taller the window, the farther the light will reach into a room," said Koch.

The restoration work inside the House should be done by the end of October. The outside work should be complete by the end of December, which is just in time for the 2017 Legislative Session.

While people can't peak into the House Chamber during renovations, the rest of the Capitol is still open to visitors.