It's been a while...

Been a while since we've updated the blog...

 

As you'll see from the pictures we are all buttoned up for the winter, and have even decorated a bit!  The roof has been shingled, we've added a front door, and a nicer set of stairs, and B has been busy doing inside stuff and finishing up the framing of the attic, closing off where it connects to the master bedroom.  We have also gotten the electrical set up and ready for hook up. As you'll see in the pictures below, it was quiet a task and disruption to our yard. Ha!

Here are a few pictures of the line we trenched for our electric to run from the street to the house.  Currently our power lines are running above ground (quiet the eye sore)  so we decided with the new house we would run them below ground.  We started this project on a sunny Sunday morning, as you can see B starting by the house and electric box on the house...  me giving the machine a try...look close this was our second trencher.  Yes, we broke the first one.  Well we didn't break it, it broke on it's own, we just happen to be using it.  So by 12 noon, we had a new machine and kept trenching away.  By 8:30pm B finally finished up in the dark. This trenching is quiet a task!!  It's not as easy as it looks and it takes 
FOR-EV-ER!!!! By the time B was finished running the cable & electric in the trench the ground had started freezing and it was a ton of work to get the dirt back into the hole as we were chipping away at the frozen ground.  B and I both agree that, trenching definitely goes down in the list of jobs that have NOT been fun with this house project!  

Once we finished trenching, our yard looked like we had an animal problem!!  

                             

                             
           

           Our temporary door and new steps!  

Fire blocking complete throughout the whole house.  This helps prevent fire from spreading up through the walls quickly.  "Fire blocking in stud walls is required in wood framed buildings to stop draft in cavities between framing members.  These spaces can create drafts that will allow the fire to spread readily if not dealt with.  In other words, these cavities can act like the flu on a fireplace."

Finally, finishing up the day of fire blocking... a good days work!  Great job B!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We hope all of you had a very Happy Thanksgiving and a great time with family and friends.  After  Brandon got an early start on Black Friday, he was very quickly slowed down by the lines at Menards.  What was meant to be a quick trip for a few items ended up taking most of the morning.  So we ended not getting a full day in.  Getting a late start on Friday meant only the bottom two windows got installed. B did prep the rest of the windows by cutting out the tyveck from the windows and getting the flashing tape on though. Still a good amount of progress in my opinion.
 







Once again, working in the dark...this time we brought a light out to see while finishing up the installation of the first two windows!  Beautiful!  Who's getting excited now!? 

Saturday was a great day and we got a TON done! The rest of the windows were installed.  Here's a few pictures...

Sunday was also a very productive day, we got the triple sliding glass door in the master bedroom installed.  Wow! I was really nervous about that one.  We had Matt, Stacey, Brandon, and myself move it from the garage, up the stairs and down the hall into our room. Thank Goodness it didn't fall out of the house!

In this picture the sheathing & tyveck above the triple glass door is complete and the house looks like it's almost completely buttoned up for winter. 

Monday our roofer showed up to start the shingles.  He was able to get the tar paper up on one side, and fire and ice on.

Getting you up to speed

Let's rewind a bit...

...back to last week Wednesday we had a lot happening all at once here.   Can you see all the things that are happening?   We have windows being delivered,  we have lumber being picked up, and we have the Chris Craft (our wood boat) out, and we also had our roofing materials dropped off!  We decided to store the windows in the garage where the wood boat usually sits so we could protect them from the elements until get installed.  The lumber pick up was due to over ordering (by almost a full truckload!)  That or we didn't build the house correctly! HA HA! no really, who was responsible for lumber?

With all of these materials and deliveries it's looking like we will have a busy holiday weekend.  Brandon finished up the top of the house, enclosing it and putting up the Tyveck paper. 

If you saw us you probably thought we looked like a bunch of Hillbillies or very Inventive... When you have a bonfire giving you light, you keep working till your done, ha!

Street View

Street View shot...

Since we haven't had much activity lately I thought at least I'd post a picture of what the view now looks like from the street.  Looks very different down our little street when you turn onto it from the main road.  Crazy how things are so different from just a month ago!  Hope all of you have been enjoying watching the house progress. 

Lots more to come this week...stay tuned!

Shingles Anyone?

Snow!?!


We woke up Sunday morning with some accumulation, how about you? 


Sunday was our goal day to complete the sheathing of the roof so the roofers could get out this coming week to shingle.  We did finish as planned, just took a little longer than expected.  Well, not really it just gets dark a heck of a lot faster now.  This picture was at about 5:45pm Sunday night.  This was the last piece of sheathing that went up.  Yahoo!  It's done!

Here are a few pictures from Monday with a bit of daylight to see the finish product.  

            

The next few photos are taken from a drone courtesy of our neighbor, Tom!  These are some very cool shots! We are so lucky, thanks TOM!!!

One of my favorite shots from the drone.  Looks like it's pretty straight!

Roof

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!

No, not really, the roof is NOT on fire. Quiet the opposite actually. It's still frickin cold, and now it's snowing today! What!?!  I was not ready for snow, were you?  I mean seriously where did our Fall go?  I guess we have been so busy building that we have missed about 4-5 weeks of the season.  Maybe it was just a rainy cold Fall? Not the best conditions to build, but Oh well...the show must go on, and we are still thrilled that we are building and have gotten so far in just a few weeks.

As you may have noticed we have slowed down this week a bit (on the posts and work) to try and heal and kick our colds to the curb.  Well that didn't work, the kids are feeling better and back to normal but B and I are still fighting this darn cold.  I think I got the worst of it, as usual... :(  Here are some pictures we've taken over the last few days of work.  

Almost done with the ROOF!!!  

Stay tuned...

Our end goal here today (Sunday) is to have the roof finished so the roofers can come out this week to shingle! 

TWO WEEKS

Two weeks ago...

It's now been two weeks since we started the framing the house, and we are ready to slow things down a bit... We have accomplished almost everything we wanted to in a two week period.  I'm not sure if Brandon's goal was a little bit lofty or if our minor set backs were what put a damper on things, but we were off from our goal by about two days.  I guess, those two days could have been made up if there were better weather, or if Brandon didn't break a rib, or if we didn't all come down with colds... Sometimes you are just meant to slow down and if you don't, you are knocked down.  Unfortunately I think we were knocked down a bit, that's okay.  We have gotten a tremendous amount of this build done in just two weeks! 

A quick look back...

Now here are a few pics of where we are as of today 11/7!

Looking a lot like a house, don't ya think?














Roof rafters going in