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.

Backfill and Driveway

 

Today saw backfilling around the foundation and the driveway beginning to form.  Also, we met with the materials supplier to choose our windows and shingles.  These needed to be ordered today for delivery in the next couple weeks.  While we were at the supplier, we also picked out our siding and exterior trim.  We'll post some picture of these soon. 

 

From the back left corner of house showing the two egress window wells



Dirt piled up at the back of the house

From the back left corner looking down into the basement.  The rough-in plumbing stubs will interfere with the roller derby once the house is done!

Shot from near the street showing the driveway taking shape.

The garage has been partially filled, quite a few more truck loads will be needed to complete this phase!

Prepping for the Drain Tile

      Drove over to the lot this morning and found the foundation walls had been waterproofed.  The tar goes up about halfway on the exterior of the walls that will make up the basement.   

Left side of foundation

After dinner, Karen, G and I drove back over to see if any further progress had been made.  Several truck loads of gravel had been dumped on the lot for use in and around the foundation.  Also, the drain tubing was on site ready to be installed.  

Gravel piles

Drain tubes

By the end of the week, we hope to see the tubes in place around the foundation.  Gravel will fill in around and above it.  Also, the basement floor should be poured and the foundation backfilled.