DOORS!

Our exterior doors arrived this past week and we've been working to put them in during the cold weather.

Adam is putting shims in, to get the door in the right place.

Adam and his dad and brother pose next to the installed door. This one is going from the back bedroom to the back porch. No, there is no glass in it yet. That comes later - but, we are getting the glass with blinds on the inside. Looking forward to that!

The installed door in the master bedroom.

I'm testing the door in the breakfast nook - it works great.

And for your viewing pleasure, here's what our brick looks like:


So, this is what our house currently looks like:


We are getting the rest of the doors in, so we can get another inspection before the brick starts. It's going well . . . what do you think?

We have windows!

Before Christmas rolled around, we had our windows installed.

Here is Nels installed a window in the master bedroom.

Allow me to show off our new look . . .

Aren’t they great?!

Here’s another view of the front. The dormer windows are arched at the top – I love it!

And the back of the house.

It’s a lot of fun to get more finished products in there. The brick arrived on our site Friday and we should have our exterior doors next week. We are setting up someone to start brick next week and we’ll be hanging the doors ourselves. We have been working on the electrical layout and getting all of the exterior penetrations figured out, so we’ll be ready for brick. We had a great Christmas and New Year with family. Adam’s been working very hard to keep our house progress moving. It’s really coming together now.

Wrapping my favorite present

We got house wrap on our house last week!

Here they are putting up the house wrap on the back of the house.

Over the garage.

The house is wrapped!

We are having the windows set into place tomorrow. I'm very excited to see them in place. We hope to get the brick and siding lined up soon. We will also be starting to do more work in the interior. I don't know how much work will get done in the next two weeks, with Christmas and a vacation in Utah. But, I'll be sure to post about our progress again . . . but, no promises when.

Have a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year!!

Columns, Sheathing & Straps

Sorry about being a blogging delinquent. I don't really believe in excuses . . . but if I were to make them, I would say I've been super busy and also don't have access to high speed internet where I can blog. But, I don't like excuses, so sorry about that.

I thought I'd dedicate this blog entry to catching you up on what has been going on the last 3 weeks or so. The weekend after Thanksgiving, Adam and I headed back to Jacksonville to work on the house. We finished up the porch columns.

The back porch columns are in place.

The front porch columns are also done. They also removed the temporary bracing.

During the week, we worked on putting in more metal straps and working on the list the inspector gave us. On Dec. 7th we sheathed the front of the porch.

Adam working into the night.



We had to replace the wall in the great room, because it was bowed out. Here is the new wall.

We also realized we need more metal anchors at every splice in the bottom plates. So, we had to drill a few more holes and put anchors in. But, the kind we got didn't need epoxy, you screw it in. Here's the finished product.

Here's two of our anchors. They are Titen HDs.

Adam needed to add some long straps to the left side gable end.

We passed our wall sheathing inspection on the 11th and got a partial framing inspection on the 15th. There you have it. I'll write the latest shortly.

I am thankful for shingles

The roofers finished the shingles (except for a couple places where they're waiting on the brick to go in) on Saturday! I think the roof looks great . . . see for yourself.

Our new roof!

Our house is now dryed in.

The shingle color is called "Black Shadow".

The 10/12 pitch makes the roof hard to walk on, but isn't it pretty?

While the roof went in, we've been working on putting in more blocking in the porches.

Adam and Brian started sheathing the porch ceiling.

We also started putting in the permanent columns in the porches. See the metal at the bottom? We had to drill into the concrete to put that there - we are finally done with the concrete drill!

The inspector came back out on Tuesday to look at our wall sheathing and gave us a new list of corrections to make. So, we're not quite through with all that - We plan on making the corrections this weekend so we can get our house wrap and windows in soon. We also need to do all of our wall penetrations.

So, this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for shingles. I'm also thankful for a hardworking husband that is putting so much of himself into building this house for me. I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends. What are you thankful for?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We're getting shingles!

Our roofers started installing the shingles on the roof on Tuesday! Let me back up . . . we finished sheathing the walls last week. We put in more blocking in the porches on Sunday. The roofers put the metal on the roof Sunday and Monday. We got our roofing and wall sheathing inspection on Monday. We passed for the roof portion and started putting shingles on Tuesday. The wall sheathing still needs more work - mostly adding nails and trimming off the OSB, so it doesn't touch the concrete. We are working on these changes and hope to get a reinspection of the wall sheathing soon.

I think we're on track to finish the roof this week. Adam and his dad have been working (during the freezing nights) to get the 1x2 trim on the fascia boards, so the roofers can install the drip edge. They finished that tonight. Adam has also put in most of the plumbing vent roof penetrations. It's looking great so far - but, I don't have my pictures with me to put up on here - sorry! (To justify myself, the pictures aren't that good anyway because I've only been out there when the sun is setting, cause the sun sets too early these days.)

As soon as we pass the wall sheathing inspection, we'll cover the house in Tyvec wrap and put the windows and flashing in. It's so exciting to put finishes on the house that are final. I'm hoping the brick will be in by the time we take our Christmas picture :). I'll try and get roof pictures up soon, sorry I've been so behind with posting. We've been working very hard - especially Adam - and are doing as much as possible to keep things moving. I'm really enjoying watching the progess - I've been out there swinging a hammer too, though not nearly as often as Adam.

Now, that looks like a house!

Our roof is sheathed and is covered in felt! So exciting! Check out the pictures:


This was taken on Wednesday, when the front of the house was halfway done.


The roof was completely sheathed on Friday.


Here, you can see two of our gable ends sheathed, as well as the roof - this is the back corner of the house.


Back of the house. Our porch is covered! :)


The other back corner.


Adam and I are standing in front of the house - quite a change from that first picture I took almost a year ago!


We hired some guys to sheath and lay the felt paper down. Here they are on Sunday - it only took them 3.5 hours to lay the felt paper for the entire roof! Crazy.


Here's what the house looks like now - the roof is completely covered. Now, we're much better off if it rains. Also, notice the wood they nailed in over the felt. This is just so they can keep their footing on the 10/12 pitch. It's VERY steep.


Meanwhile, we layed down the rest of the subflooring in the bonus area. This is the part that is above the master bedroom.


We also put the sill in this window - so, sheathing can be finished.


We built the last exterior wall. This window looks out at the tops of the oak trees.


This is the finished wall and floor. You can also see the light we're using to work past dark - thanks, Mom!


This is what the gable end looks like from outside. We finished after 9 pm last night, so it's a bit dark.


And just for fun, here is a picture of what it looks like behind our back fence. There is a 30 foot easement with a large ditch. We technically own this land, but can't do anything with it. It's a bit overgrown now, but it's still kinda fun.

We also put in more metal strapping. We still have a ways to go before all the metal is complete, but we found out we don't need to finish that for our next inspection. Our next inspection is for sheathing. We have to have the roof penetrations complete with metal roof flashing. We made a contract with a roofer today and will make the penetrations and finish sheathing the walls this week. We hope to get this inspection by the end of the week and then shingles are next! Windows arrive one week from today. Adam has been meeting with LOTS of subs and is getting everything lined up. I feel like we are really moving now.
We are aiming to extend our construction loan, because this house won't be complete by December 20th. So, we're excited and look forward to the rest of the progress.