What Does a Doggie Say?

ROOF!   Ours is on...for the most part.

Unfortunately, we've encountered an issue.  What worked on paper, isn't translating to wood and nails without a potential winter weather problem.  The ornamental gable we have over the front porch causes a run-off issue where it hits the roof on the garage.  An un-sloped pocket is created which could cause ice to gather and the roof structure to fail.  Yikes!   So, we had to make an exterior change call.   We loved the gable, but we aren't going to put aesthetics over stability.

The red circle is the problem area.  To fix, we'll bring the hipped roof down.  

The following pictures are a walk around the house.

The garage feels enormous!  Lots of room for lots of toys!

Side of the garage, garage back door, and window over kitchen sink.

Garage back and window in dining area. 

Our covered back porch.  Looking forward to many evenings out there!

Back from the back yard.  Our bedroom window.  

And back around again.  

Hopefully the weather is as beautiful next week as it was this weekend, and we'll have shingles by Friday!

Side note:  This week we also encountered an issue with siding.  Comments were made to our builder that "the Hendersons picked some very expensive siding".  Our builder let us know.  We had picked a color and a brand, but the type we showed the supplier was the most expensive.  We didn't realize this...we were just looking at color.    So, we had to go back in and 're-pick' our siding.   Happily, we were able to get the same color "Spruce" as we had originally planned.   So much of this is a 'learn as you go' type of thing and it can get frustrating that we don't know all the right questions to ask.  Good thing we like each other so much that even the more stressful decisions we have to make, we get to enjoy making together.

Update

It's been a week since the last post. I'm adding some current photos so you can see the progress along with a little info.

Roof trusses are up.  Showing the gable end above the double garage opening.

Looking at the front porch

Overhang for the rear covered deck.

A view from the right rear

View from the right side

some fill is still needed on this side of the garage along with the back side

looking up through the trusses to the roof sheeting

Looking through the future fireplace and the rear covered deck to the back yard.

It's an Inside Job!

Our house is a-MAZE-ing at the moment.  The interior framing is nearly complete and we were able to walk through the garage door into the mudroom, throw our imaginary keys on the soon-to-be kitchen counter, and imagine where we'll be kicking up our feet in our defined family room. We even took pleasure in sending the kids to their rooms...of course, it wasn't much fun for us when they can escape through the walls!  

Standing in the kitchen, looking toward the garage.

Standing in the kitchen, looking through to the family room.

Standing in front of the fireplace, looking toward the stairwell to the basement.

A view from outside of the boys' room.

From the front left.  Our trusses are waiting to become a roof.

The footings poured for our back covered deck.

We'd love to see the roof start going up by the end of the week.  Also, I hope you've noticed that our garage floor was poured, the garage exterior framing was completed, and our front porch was poured as well!

Color my World

For those of you interested, we wanted to post a picture of our planned exterior color scheme.   This was created using Certainteed's "Idea Planning" tool.   The colors may translate differently on different computer screens, but hopefully you'll get a general idea.

Charcoal roof, Spruce Siding, and White trim.

We've Been Framed!

Greg and I had a long overdue date night tonight!  (Thank you, Jordan!) We dined on Chicken George at the Candlelight Inn and headed to Sears and Slumberland to do a little window shopping.   Of course, we could not end our night without a little smoochin' on our front porch...our NEW front porch.

Our future front door.

As you can see, the framing is underway!  The exterior walls are nearly finished and there are red chalk lines on the floor to mark out the interior framing that should happen tomorrow.  

View from the street.

The boys' room.

In the family room looking toward the kitchen/laundry area

Our boudoir.

Dining area and back deck door.

Fireplace and back windows.

Looking from back corner to garage.

Back of the house.

 The house is really starting to take shape.  Soon we'll be able to bring the kids up and REALLY send them to their rooms!

Floor Deck

We got quite a bit of rain last night through the early morning.   The weather did not prevent all progress on the house though.  The floor deck and a bit of rough electrical were installed today.

Karen and I also called the power company to have service run to the house along with temporary service for the build.

Pictures!

With the front porch in the foreground.

Grant standing towards the left rear of the house.

Stairwell from the garage.

Grant on the right side of the house.

View from the left rear at the floor deck level.

Where the power meter will be installed.

Floor deck.

Garage/house interface.

We caught up with the forklift operator...he didn't really want to be bothered while he worked.

Floor Joists and Supports

It was a hot one out there today!  We should be getting some cooler weather here soon though.  The heat didn't slow construction on our project.

Another view of the driveway.  Some fill still needs to be added on this side of the garage.

Materials staged Friday before Labor Day weekend. 

Starting to look like a real basement.  Support columns are in place as well as the headers and floor joists.

Side view of floor joists atop the sill plate and support header.

First of seven pictures from our front porch. 

An opening for the stairwell.

A quick look at the kitchen...  through the garage walls.

Garage meets the house.  The big dirt pit there seems to be a dump for  unnecessary building materials.

Garage.

Front porch looking forward.

Porch looking a bit to the right.  You can see a stack of flooring/framing materials yet to be used.

And of course a closer look at that stack.