Take the Poll!

When do you think we'll move into this house?? Take the pole on the right hand side of the screen and voice your opinion. Originally, we should of already been in the house. The current goal is to move in before the end of the year. But, when do you think we'll move in?

Taking Shape

We have all of the roof trusses in place, with the exception of the porches. However, those should be done this week. The house is looking really great.

The house - it's gonna look so different when the front porch is on.

Now, that's a steep roof. The pitch is 10/12.

The back of the house. Again, that back porch is gonna make things look even better.

The wood that makes up the eaves is being put in place.

The bonus area above the garage and laundry areas. You have to look past the bracing to see the space well.

This is the bonus area above the family room below. This is going to be some nice space in the future.

So, that's all for now. The roof is getting finished, the porches are to go in, and we hope to get the hurricane tie-downs in place this week. Keep looking for pictures.

The Flying Crane

Today is Crane day at the Harris Residence. We have a 60-ton crane on our site lifting our roof trusses into place. This crane is much larger than what we actually needed, but they didn't have anything smaller available today. So, we got this crane for the cost of a boom truck.

The crane lifted the roof trusses off the ground and set them in place, to be nailed off.

Check out that crane!

Our roof is starting to take shape.

The trusses over our bedroom are set, now you can see some of the built in bonus area.

These trusses are over the front of the garage.

The back of the house.

The Flying Crane.

This is what the house looked like when I left it this afternoon.

We should finish up these trusses today. We still need to do the front and back porches. Then, we'll sheath the roof and put down felt. The hurricane tie-downs still need to go into place. There's a couple things to finish up, then the framing will be complete. Next on the list: roofing, windows, and brick.

Pony 'Wall' Express

We have the pony walls up on the second floor. For those of you who don't know what a pony wall is - I wouldn't, had we not been building them - they are the four foot walls that the roof trusses will rest on to shape our second floor. We have about 1,500 square feet of bonus space upstairs, that will be built out at a later date. For now, it's going to be unfinished. This space will have a 8' ceiling at the center and slope down at a 45-degree angle to 4' walls. This picture shows the second floor plan:

There will be bonus space on either side of the stair well, with attic space on the far right.

So, now that you know what we're trying to build, here's some pictures to show you what the progress looks like.

The house is getting height!

The gaps in the pony walls are where the dormers are coming through. See picture of house sketch on right side of blog to see what the dormers look like.

The back of the house. The trusses are scattered, close to where they will be placed.

Here's the pony walls from the second floor.

More pony walls. The bracing coming off the walls at angles is only temporary.

Check out our roof trusses.

The roof trusses were delivered Thursday morning. We will be getting a lift or crane on Monday to set the larger trusses in place. The smaller trusses will be set by hand. I can't wait to see everything together, it's just like a giant Lincoln Log house. I am in the process of selecting the brick now, so many choices. But, this really is exciting!

You won't even recognize the house . . .

The plywood sheathing on the first floor walls is complete and the subflooring is in place. I'll let the pictures show you, it's pretty fun to see the progress.

This is what our house looked like on Monday afternoon. The sheathing was tacked in place around the entire exterior of the house.

The windows sills are in place, but the wood just went right over the openings.

The back porch, starting to take shape.

On Tuesday, the wall sheathing was finished - we have windows!

The living room. We have four large windows across the back porch. You can also see the subflooring above - ah, sweet shade.

The Master bedroom, you can see the closet in the corner.

The back of the house. I love all our 6 foot windows!

The was rigged up to get the subflooring on top of the trusses.

The subfloor, looking toward the bedrooms. The area cut out on the right is for the stairwell.

Subfloor from the other side - looking toward the garage and master bedroom.

Birds eye view of the master bedroom. Roof trusses will cover this area, and will have the bonus area built in.

The back of the house and backyard.

The roof trusses were delivered this morning and they should go up this week. The progress is very exciting! Stay tuned.

Grass, Wood & Golf

Progress is the word, here at the Harris Residence. We have been getting ready for a large surge in productivity on the house.

This past week, we got the banner boards in place on the floor trusses.

The banner board is the pine 2x4 that is going across the top of the side of the floor trusses. This board locks the trusses together and keeps them in the right place.

On Saturday, Adam's Aunt Alice & Uncle Stan came out to cut our grass - or, I guess, cut our weeds. Either way, they had gotten to be several feet high and were very itchy to walk through. So, they brought out their riding lawn moyer and cut down the forest - THANK YOU, Auntie and Uncle Stan!! It is so nice to be able to walk around itch free and we actually feel like we have a yard now.

Weed cutting in action.

Before - I can't see the back yard . . .

After - we have a back yard!

We also layed out where the hurricane tie-downs are going. There are somewhere around 200+ holes that need to be drilled into our concrete for metal rods to hold the house down. Adam and my dad did most of the layout. We should be drilling the holes and getting the metal this week.

Meanwhile, I went to Lowe's with my mom and we bought a lot more wood. We used some of this wood to put together some posts. The structural engineer calls out for these posts underneath the beams. Check out some of our handywork.

This is a 5-ply post, as there are five 2x4 pine studs nailed together.

This was a special case, because a post under this beam would be sitting on the plumbing. So, we had to build a header around the pipes.

We are getting more help on the framing this week. We should be getting the sheathing, subflooring, 2nd floor walls, and roof trusses set within the next week and a half!! So, be looking for lots of pictures.

Also on Saturday, Adam and I went golfing with my parents. We got rained out after 9-holes a couple months ago. So, we got our rain checks and went back for a free 9-holes at Slammer & Squire. It was a lot of fun.

The gang before our first hole.

Adam and me. I'm still not that great, but I had a few good shots that made the whole day more fun!

Beams, Beams, they're good for the heart...

I hope these blog titles entertain you, I try to please my 5 readers. I put a lot of thought into my puns.

Anyway, we've been putting up some more beams. They FINALLY replaced the beams that were damaged, due to sitting out in the dirt and water. So, we were able to get all but one beam into place this past weekend.

This is the longest beam, at 23 feet. Adam and his dad lifted it up onto the walls one piece at a time, then used the palm nailer to tie them together in place. These beams are HEAVY, and they did it all by themselves (no help from equipment).

The wood is also very hard, so the nails didn't really want to go in. It took awhile, but we eventually got it up, in place, and nailed together.

The other end of the beam is hanging off them beam over the laundry room.

They also put up a rather long beam over the garage. This one didn't have any extra walls to help hold it up - another difficult one.

We placed two more beams over the dining room and foyer.

While Adam and his dad were doing heavy lifting and nailing beams together, I got Clint to help me clean up the place. We have hardly swept anything since we've poured the concrete (2 and a half months ago). There was also piles of wood and bent nails everywhere. After clearing away some wood - to have clear footing for a ladder - and finding a dead snake, I knew it was time to do something. So, I bought a push broom and set to work organizing wood, picking up nails, throwing away scraps, and sweeping out debree. It was surprisingly a lot of work, but I'm happy with the results.

There is one pile of wood, you can get to the plans table, and the floor is clear - makes me feel MUCH better!

We piled up all the wood around the house into one pile - it was scattered everywhere and many pieces of wood still had nails sticking out - YIKES! I love our yard, isn't it gonna be great?!

Our bedroom. I really should of done a 'before' picture - because you wouldn't believe the amound of leaves, dirt, sawdust, nails, and wood lying around.

Here's my sweet husband. I am so thankful for all the hard work he's put into this house!

This last picture is from Sunday. Adam and I came out after church to get the last beam into place. We took a ton of measurements, to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. We found our problem - the truss was built wrong. Here is our picture to document that the vertical members are about an inch and a half off. This is not good, because there is a pony wall with roof trusses resting on it, above the vertical members. But, we'll see what becomes of it. We managed to get the beam on top of the walls, but not nailed together. We hope to get a lot more material out on site this week and get this framing done soon!