House - Week 13

The roof is almost done!



View from front.



View of the left side of the house. The garage is below and the bonus room above.



View from front-right side of house.



View from rear of house.

New House - Week 12

Framing continues to move at break-neck speeds with the roof almost complete so I have lots of pictures this week (for better or for worse). Let's dive right in...





View from front.



View from rear.



The rickety ladder looking thing in the middle is what the workers climb up and walk across to place the beam in place. This "plank" is about 20' off the main level floor, which means that if you fell off the back side you would fall 30'. YIKES!



Closer look at the catwalk.




View from front. At the end of this week they have completed 2/3 of the entire roof structure. It looks like a house!







View from rear of house looking up to the vaulted great room.



Another view from rear of house.



This is the view from the window over the kitchen sink.



Standing in the kitchen, looking into the great room. The fireplace is on the far wall. The hall on the right leads past the butlers pantry into the dining room.

Sophia's 1st Birthday!

I guess I better stop blogging about the house long enough to post some photos of Sophia's first birthday. We had a full house! Since Sophie wasn't too interested in open gifts, Anna and her friends made short work of them.



We got Sophia's cake from Magpies in the Old City (http://www.magpiescakes.com/). The cake was incredible!! Stop in for a cupcake the next time you are down there.



Sophia's first cake! No turning back now.




Anna and friends making sure the cake is okay.







Like bees, more and more of Anna's friends followed the smell of SUGAR.



Sophia with her rocking chair from Mimi and Grandad and the baby, baby grand from Mommy and Daddy. The look on her face demonstrates why we call her "Her Majesty, Little Miss Figgy Pudding".

New House - Week 11

Still trying to catch up. This week the framers began the second floor of the house. After just two days, the upstairs rooms are starting to take shape. Unfortunately there are no stairs for us to go up with our measuring tape! We will see if they are getting it right up there in a few days.


Monday:


View from front-left side. As of yesterday they had just put the upstairs sub-floor in place are raised the first of the upstairs walls.



View from rear of house.


Tuesday:


View from front of house.



View from front-left corner. The garage is behind Laura.



View from rear.

New house - week 10 1/2

Last week the framers built the majority of the main level. Due to several modifications we had made to the original plan, this phase resulted in several "re-do's". We have learned that during the framing phase we need to check in daily with measuring tape to ensure that the framers accurately capture our specs. There is nothing quite like receiving a plumbing fixture quote at $4k over budget followed by explaining that the framers need to re-do half a day's work. I thought building a house was supposed to be fun?!



View from the front of the lot. The main floor walls are in place.



A closer view of the front porch. The opening in the center is the front door. The windows on the left and right are the dinning room and master respectively.



Standing in the great room, looking into the kitchen. Can't you tell?!



The stairs will go in the angled area. To the right is the kitchen.



View from the rear of the house. Left-to-right across the back on the main level are the master, great room, and kitchen. The lower level on the left is the walk-out basement.

New house - week 10

In the second week of framing we saw the main level walls take shape. It is finally rising out of the ground!


View from the road.



View from the driveway.



View from the back of the house. From left-to-right across the back is the master bedroom, great room, and kitchen.



Standing in the master bedroom, looking all the way across the house to the kitchen on the far side.

Building the house - week 9 1/2

Oh boy am I behind on house updates! Framing started almost two weeks ago and SO much has happened in that time. The last two weeks have been a roller coaster... one day we make a lot of progress, the next day we have no activity, and the next we discover mistakes. Whew! As it turns out this is considered "normal" when building a custom home. Are we having fun yet?!



Anna likes to pretend she is driving Herman's tractor.



Before the framers started the basement was an awesome place to ride bikes and scooters!




The main level floor trusses are in place.



The main level sub-floor is partially installed on top of the trusses.



The sub-floor is complete. This is the view from the foyer, looking toward the back of the house. Left-to-right across the back of the house will be the kitchen, breakfast area, great room, and the master bedroom. The open area on the left is where the stairs will go.

Building a house - week 9

Finally framing starts! This is the beginning of an exciting phase where the house will begin to take shape. Since this phase moves quickly we are trying to take pictures on a daily basis. The photos below were taken over a 3 day period.

First day of framing consisted of closing in the "daylight" side of the basement and establishing the interior load-bearing walls.

The interior basement walls are assembled.

Floor joists are in place.

View from front of house.

The sub-floor is now added to the floor joists.

The sub-floor is in place. The cutout on the left is where the stairs go down to the basement.