It's Starting To Look A Lot Like A House

The devil is in the details. That seems to be what today was. Details, details, details. I'm so very lucky however, that I have a builder who is an honest conscience man who worries about the details.....in detail. He makes sure that everything is going together just right, solid and level.

And my house is actually starting to look like a house. With trusses in place, walls up and windows framed, one can actually see what we are aiming to accomplish here.

First he cut off the old roof vent and then plugged it. There is more work to do there later as a past leak has caused rot damage to the hip beam, but for now, it is shaped and plugged. The repair work will be done when the new section attaches to the old.

My kitchen window went missing when they started to join the new to the old on the east side. Eventually, the wall to the right of the window is going to disappear entirely and be a corner leading into the new section and the window opening will grow up to be a door.

At the end of the day, however, you can really see what is going on. The more it comes together, the more I believe I made the right decision to get this done now. It just feels right.

Once again, this proved to be a short week due to a combination of holiday, bad weather and rut season. So the year is coming to a close with so much left undone, but so much promise for the time still to come.

Happy New Year all!!!

All Trussed Up

I didn't get to spend much time at the house today as I was running around picking up supplies, dropping off equipment and taking my mom to the doctor. I did get back just as the crew was leaving though to find all the trusses up in the new section of the house.

Hopefully, we can get these covered tomorrow as the bad weather is suppose to move in tomorrow afternoon. And even better...we can join the old and the new and make it one.

Trusses

The work this week started with a bang.

The guys went to work immediately and finished putting up the wafer board over the framing. Then they got busy and started building trusses.

Didn't take them long and they were moving the first one into place.

And we did it all under the light of a silvery moon.

After they got the first truss up, they built three more but kept them on the ground. They will go up first thing in the morning. The rush is on now to get some work done, because the rain is moving back in on Wednesday and "they" are even using the S word for Friday. I don't doubt it because it was painfully cold today and it isn't going to get any better as the week goes along. But we did get started and it's really starting to look like a real house. It's exciting!!!

Merry Christmas!

Week Six came to a close early due to the holiday, but...... so much got accomplished. They finished all the framing before they called it quits.

We got the front door framed.

And we got the south door framed.

And at the end of the day, the whole new addition, plus the old part of the house was framed and ready to be covered in siding.


So tomorrow while Builder is stalking Bambi in the latest monsoon to hit the area, I'll be pouring over door books, trying to pick out THE ONE that will grace the front of my house and say welcome to my guests. It's proving to be harder than I thought. You'd think you could just go in, say I want a door and that would be it. Oh no!! Not so. You have to pick out steel, wood, or fiberglass, chose between five dozen types of glass, full, 3/4, 1/2 or top only glass mount, not to mention all the mountings, caning, and hardware. Do I want side lights, top lights, any? Geez!!

So Christmas is here and I have all these decisions to make. That's okay though. I have so much to be thankful for. I am blessed with friends and family that love me, a house of my own, food in my tummy, and clothes on my back. I have more than enough and am surrounded by love.

Merry Christmas to all. I wish you as much and more.

I've Been Framed!!!!!!

It's a beautiful thing.


The sun came out today and the temps went up into the 50s and it was sooooo nice. The guys arrived early and went to work. It didn't take long to get things up and running.

The guys weren't throwing together just a plain wall, though. They were doing specialized work because the wall is going to be an entire bank of windows. I'm going to have an unbelievable view. It's all very exciting.

This is the east side.

And this is the view I will have.

So instead of nailing up long boards, the guys spent a lot of time, nailing together headers.

But at the end of the day, you could see the walls starting to form and get a pretty good idea of what is going to happen.

Tomorrow the weather is suppose to be clear again, so they should be able to make good progress. Then when the rain moves back in on Wednesday evening hopefully, we will have some type of cap on it to keep things dry. We'll see how things develop.

Three Day Weekend

No work today as it is pouring buckets here. It's snowing just north of here so I guess we are lucky. We put up a covering and a splash guard over the exposed decking yesterday before ending work and I am so glad I did. It means the decking is dry and the crawlspace isn't filling up with water. I love having a conscientious builder who thinks to do things like that. He is a good man.

So instead of watching wall building, I spent my day doing laundry, cooking and cleaning. I think I would have like the wall building better. It was a good day for it though and tonight I have the Christmas tree up and decorated.

Floors!!!!

The subflooring is in. The guys went and got supplies this morning so they didn't start until around noon, but it went quickly after they starting putting the wafer board down.

And in between nailings there was always the painful sitting position.

But when they finally joined the new floor to the old, it was just about perfect.

And when the day was done, I had a beautiful subfloor in.

Tomorrow we are on to the walls.

Above Ground

We are up out of the mud!! It's cold but we are not wet. Life is good.


Monday was a day of getting supplies and doing small things that didn't really seem like a lot but are very important. The guys spend a few hours in town getting materials for this week's activities. Then they came in and put plastic down in the crawlspace and painted the foundation blocks with Dryloc to help keep the moisture out. I have the world's prettiest crawlspace.






On Tuesday the center beam was put together and placed on the pilings and then the joists started being fitted into place with the spacers.







So by the end of today all the joists were up and a the floor is beginning to take shape. Tomorrow they will start laying down the decking.

The Foundation of My Home

What a week! It started out pretty good with blocks getting laid on the footings, just like they should be.

Most of the first row of blocks was laid that first day. Then Tuesday came.

A front moved in during the night and with it rain. Lots of rain. Lots and Lots of rain. Work was impossible. Builder was in and out pumping out water and that was about all the work that got done that day.

When Wednesday came the damage was visible. The blocks that had been laid on Monday were totally underwater. The crawlspace was a minor swimming pool. The guys were slopping around in muck for the entire day.

A good portion of the day was spent pumping water.

But life goes on and so does the work. Wednesday dawned sunny, but cold and very windy. One of the guys was out due to taking care of flooding at his home, but the two left wrapped up and went at it. And slowly but surely, a foundation wall started to emerge.

When Friday arrived, it was just a matter of capping off the backside of the wall, cleaning out the crawlspace and putting a drain down along the outside of the wall. It was all done and by the end of the day and the end of the week, a real foundation was in place.

So the fourth week came to a close with the foundation in place. Next week we will be laying wood down. I'm beginning to see the vision become a reality. Stay tuned.

Footings.......At Last!

I have footings!!! Whoohoo!!! The guys came in on Friday morning and worked like mad all day to get it done before the weekend. They suceeded.

First they finished digging the trenches.



Then they laid rebar and stationed it to be inside the concrete.



The cement truck showed up at 3:30.



Then the hard work really began. The guys had to work really really fast once the cement started to flow.

And right in the middle of all of this, an ugly cold front was moving in with a cutting wind and snow in the forecast.

But the work got done, and by 5:00 the cement was in and laid. The truck left and the third week came to an end.

So the footings are in and a great thing it is too, because..............






We had snow this morning!!!! We only got a couple of inches and it was gone by noon, but it was snow just the same and early in the year for such. Builder swears he'll be laying blocks on Monday whether it is raining or not. We'll see.........

Mud, Mud, Mud and more Mud

Well, we haven't gotten much work done this week because we are awash in mud. And it's cold to boot. The guys came out and dug some more on the footings but the trenches kept flooding due to the downpours so they finally gave it up and we spent the rest of the week pumping out yucky water.


The dirt is red clay so it's holding water really well. One of the guys was skiing across it using a shingle as his board. I think a new redneck sport has been invented!

It's suppose to snow tomorrow and they are talking rain all next week, so who knows when we'll get concrete down. We'll see...........