Friday, December 14, 2007

All finished...

It's been several months since we moved in (and finished the house). Sometimes it just takes a while to get the pictures pulled together. Check out the web gallery for all of the pictures we took throughout the process as Jake built our house.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Check, Check...

We worked on the house on Saturday, again. Jake and Steve finished sheeting the roof and trimming it with fascia. We got all the exterior doors in place and cleaned up the interior so inside walls can be framed this week. It's fun to be checking things off the list.

This pic is obviously the front view. The backhoe obstructs a small part of the view.













This back view shows the completed (sheeted) roof, the beginnings of our deck and the exterior doors.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Back View
Here's the back of the house on March 6th. It looks huge from behind. Our 4 year old niece Lauren asked us how many kids we are planning to have. Before we could answer, she said, "I think you're going to have 100 kids to fill that house!" It's a little deceiving from the back.

Monday, March 05, 2007

More Progress

Here are some updated pics of the progress since our truss day:

February 26th, Monday after the trusses













February 28th, Wednesday after trusses.













March 5th, Today!
The outside is all sheeted and roof is almost completely sheeted. This is starting to look like a house! Good work Jake and Steve.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Fire!

Monday night Jake casually informed me that our new house almost burned down. I was a little surprised, but not too worried....since he didn't seem to be. Here's the story in Jake's words:

"My dad and I heard fire engine sirens and saw them drive through the street behind our house. Then we heard them again and they were driving on a different street behind the house. We thought, 'That's sad, there's a fire somewhere.' A few minutes later, the fire marshal parked in front of our lot and started a conversation with my dad. I guess one of the neighbors, from across the valley, saw smoke coming from our house and flames inside. She also noticed me and my dad sheeting the roof and thought we were stuck above a terrible house fire. What the neighbor didn't realize was the flames were contained in our fire bucket and the smoke was floating through the unsheeted trusses on top of the house. The fire bucket works like a fireplace for us. We use it to keep warm while we are framing on cold winter days. The helpful neighbor was a little paranoid about house fires, because there was a bad house fire just a few days ago in Ogden. So, it was all just a misunderstanding. Because the helpful neighbor was witnessing this 'tragedy' from across the valley, she couldn't give the fire department a location. That is why they were driving back and forth on the streets behind our house. They could see the smoke but could not find the streets that lead to our house."

Although it was a false alarm, I'm really happy to know that we have observant (albeit distant) neighbors who watch out for our safety and aren't afraid to call for help when needed.

Thank you to whomever you are. This world needs more neighbors like you!

Monday, February 26, 2007

And More Framing
We've made lots of progress since I last wrote. This pic shows the house with most of the exterior walls, but no walls yet for the garage.













Between February 20 (when the picture above was taken) and the 24th when the trusses were set, this is what they accomplished:

Jake and his dad finished the upstairs exterior walls, poured the garage and front porch cement and set whatever trusses they could set without a crane.

This pic was taken on the morning of the 24th, right before the crane came.















Here are a couple of shots of the crane in action:


Thursday, February 08, 2007

More Framing
It's been so fun to watch the progress that Jake has made on our house. Last Saturday was his birthday. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he wanted to work on the house. So, we bypassed an opportunity to sleep in and dressed for the cold. We worked on the upstairs (outside) walls. Jake cut the wood and I nailed two by fours and stapled plywood sheeting. (I only made a few mistakes.) I guess I don't have a lot of upper body strength. After three hours, my arms and hands were sore from the weight of the nail gun. I wish I had more free time, because I really enjoyed working on the house. The only part I disliked was sweeping. Why do you have to keep a construction site swept anyway?