My last blog was right after day 1 of framing. As I said, the framers (Niehaus Brothers) was INCREDIBLE. It was so much fun to watch them work and I could not believe that they were finished within two days. Being able to actually see a house and see rooms in the house was probably the best part of this for me so far. :)
One of the cool things about this particular framing company is that they build large pieces on the ground and then have a crane there at all times to lift the big pieces into place. They did this with our
back porch, the kids balcony, and the chimney!
The balcony on the right of this is off of the kids rooms. They will each have a door that goes out to this area.
I was very excited when the windows started going in! Makes it look like a real house!
This is a pretty good picture of the truss that Tommy built. If you remember, he built this in our apartment by timber framing cedar posts. He then stained it and viola! There it is in it's permanent home above our front entry!
Once they finished on day 2 we were able to go inside and walk around. WOW. This gave me a much better idea of how everything would actually look when it was finished. Here are some pictures of the inside at this stage.
This is upstairs where we will have a balcony looking down to the first floor. The walls in this room will have floor to ceiling walnut bookcases that Tommy will build for us. This is a room I have always wanted and can't wait to have all of my books in one place!!!
I was standing upstairs when I took this picture. This shows the living room which will be two story and have a big stone two story fireplace. The windows will bring in so much natural light to this area!
This is standing in the living room area looking at the staircase that goes to the second floor.
This was taken standing in the living room looking up towards the library room. The room under the balcony will be the open kitchen.
Here is the first picture of Tommy and I in our new house!!! The couple that works and wears overalls together stays together. HA!!!
The plumbing and the HVAC system went in shortly after the house was framed.
This is looking out into the garage - WHERE WE WILL PARK CARS. Yes, this is a HUGE deal to me. Anyone who has ever been in our previous homes knows that our garages were Tommy's workshops and there was NO vehicle going in there. So for him to have his own work space in the basement and an actual place to park vehicles is like a dream come true. HA! The concrete guys came to pour the floor and the other cool thing about this garage is that the floor to the garage is flush with the floor to the entry. No steps - this will make for carrying things inside easy and will also be handicapped accessible.
We did a walk through of the house with the electrician to determine where every outlet, switch, fixture, etc. would go. I'm not sure if everyone does this but well, Tommy Forker does. HA!
Another exciting day was when our huge boulders were delivered for our landscaping. The sound of that many boulders hitting the ground out of dump truck is....alarming! We will be using boulders around the front entry of the house - it will be similar to the landscaping in the backyard at our previous house.
This is the excavator in the spot where the boulders will go around the house. It's amazing watching the boulders be placed - like a puzzle being put together!
A few of the boulders are placed to the right of the entry in the two photos below.
Oh...this....see this? This guy has been our best friend now for yet another project on yet another house. This is what we have been using to heat the basement/Tommy's workshop so that we can use it as a workspace. This thing puts out some serious heat! Thank goodness.
Watching Tommy and I carrying in these giant bags of denim insulation was comical I am sure. I had to kind of roll mine in...but hey, I tried. This is the insulation that will go in the ceiling of his workshop. He is using this because it is supposed to be great for noise insulation. I will be very thankful for this when he is planing something in his workshop while I am watching Grey's upstairs!
Tommy decided to wire the entire basement himself since there were so many outlets for his equipment. Getting the first shop light up was an accomplishment! We could finally see with real lights not just shop lights!
One of the big projects that we have been working on are the garage doors. We had similar garage doors at our last house that we purchased. This time
This was what the small door (the basement garage door) looked like before being stained.
Below is the large upstairs garage door once completed. These were done last weekend when not only did it snow and ice but it was FREEZING. That heater came in handy because we needed the basement to remain a certain temperature to be able to finish this process. We could see our breath during this process but the doors were nice and toasty as the heater was blowing directly underneath them.
This past week the bricking started! This will go around the bottom of the house. The rest of it will be a lovely dark green siding. I can't wait for that to happen!!
The other very cool thing that happened this week was the 12x12 cedar beam was installed. This guy is HUGE and HEAVY. This is in the open living area and goes all the way up through the second floor.
Insulation began this week which is especially good because now the basement will stay a little warmer! Watching them spray the foam insulation is pretty cool! The next step after this is dry wall!!!
That is all for this week (well, the past couple of weeks!). Things are moving somewhat quickly now which is great to see. I am so ready to move into this new home and start making it our own! Thank you for checking out the blog and stay tuned for more updates!
