Thursday, August 26, 2010

House Update: Roofing is finished, dormers are on, plumbing started

The roof is now finished!  Before it was roofed, we had a major downpour every day.  Now that the house is in the dry, it probably won't rain for a month! :-)



There will be an arched window in that arched opening above the back porch....
..... and this is it!

Most of the house is now covered with house wrap.  It should be finished soon. 
As you can see, the 3 dormer windows are now up, too.

Here's a view of the front from the other side.


This is looking into the middle dormer from the inside.  It looks into the foyer.


Here's a closer view of the same thing.  The ceiling right above the window will be curved to match the arch.


This is the view from standing inside, looking out onto the back porch.  This is the same arched window from earlier, shown from the inside.  It looks into the living room.


The other major development is that the plumbing has been started.  This is part of the guest bathroom.

Here are the laundry room hookups.
More plumbing will be done later in the week.

That's it for now!  David has spent all day today setting some of the smaller windows.  Things are moving right along!  Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

House update: Roofing has started, and stairs are in

The back of the house has now been shingled, and they are working their way around to the side.
Here's a closer view.  The color is called Williamsburg Gray.

The front of the roof has been covered with plywood, but they haven't started putting down the black tar paper yet.  The big open space down the middle is where one of the three dormers will go.  It will look into the foyer.
The other big accomplishment of the day is that the stairs are in.  They go up to the bonus room, which we are going to make into an office.
This is the view from the top of the stairs into the bonus room.  They got the floor down in it today, too.
Here's a close-up of the garage, with the bonus room window above.  Because of the way the house sits on the hill, it's a LONG way down from that window!  It's hard to tell from this picture, but when you are up there you are on eye level with the top part of the tree in the front yard.

Roofing should be completed this week!  Plumbing will also start tomorrow.  We lost a few days because of all the rain, but David is working hard to keep things moving along and stay on schedule.  We are still in the quickest stage of building.  Soon we will enter the stage where the more tedious work begins, like wiring, plumbing, floors, trim, etc.  That is when David is going to be REALLY busy, since he will be doing most of that work himself.  I'll keep updating when the big changes happen. 

Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

House update: Framing continued- the roof is going up!

The house is starting to look at lot more like the actual house plan now!  It is starting to take shape rather than looking like just a bunch of boards and bricks.  For a refresher, this is what the house plan looks like.

This is what it looks like now:





Here's a close-up of the roof over the front of the house.

Here is the view of the front from the other side.

That's it for now!  The roof will be going on next.  We're getting there!  Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

House update: Framing

The house has come a long way since the last post!  The foundation was finished, and David put down plastic in the crawlspace for a moisture barrier and then had river sand brought it and dumped on top of it.  He spent a long day out in the hot sun raking the sand out to cover the plastic.  The sand will help keep the crawlspace dry, and also make it a little more pleasant when crawling under there because it keeps you out of the red mud!

Our framing crew started on Saturday.  We are using Rangel Framing, owned by Daniel Rangel from Greenville.  David is also out there every day he isn't working.  Here are a few pictures of the progress so far:

This is looking into the garage.  It opens on the side of the house.

This is the view from the back corner now.  Part of the cathedral ceiling in the living room is going up.

Here's another view from the back.  You can start to see where the back porch will be.

A closer view of the back of the house, from the other corner.

Inside the living room, with a lot of bracing still in place.

Looking into the kitchen area.

Looking up at the catheral ceiling.

But don't try to go out on the front porch.... that first step will get you!

Later on both porches will be poured, but for now it's just an empty shell.

The framing has come a long way!  They still have to frame the upstairs bonus room and the rest of the roof.  Next comes roofing and siding!  More updates will be coming as progress is made.  Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

House update: We've got bricks!

Our house has now gone from a hole with some cement to..... a hole surrounded by concrete blocks and brick.

This will be the front porch.

Here's the view from the back right corner.



This is looking into the garage.

This is the view from the backyard.

The foundation is almost done, as of today.  They still have to build the front steps.  Framing is set to begin soon!  Then it will start to actually look like a house.

I'll update as soon as it looks different!