Some light gardening ahead

Dea got near 100 tulip bulbs for Christmas; can't wait for them to bloom!

Another Inspection PASSED

God are we absolutely awful at this blogging thing or what? One would think a bunch of "techies" would do better.

Well, here we are another 5 months down the road and the house doesn't look that different, we have passed the Framing Inspection which involved framing of course, but also, rough in for electrical & plumbing. That leaves two inspections left, the Final and the Certificate of Occupancy... make that three... the Health Dept has to be called to come back out and give us final on the septic system.

The inspector had a few minor suggestions for us. He wanted some additional bracing in the rafters and bolts to pass through the header at the porch posts instead of the nails that are there now. Otherwise he continues to like our design concept, so much in fact he is incorporating our breezeway concept into an addition he is making to his home.

We have purchased the paperless drywall, so nothing is stopping us from putting up the ceilings now... which I will do as soon as I find and purchase a drywall lift and that "special" drywall screw setting adapter for my drill.

Winter is here, we've had a few mornings below the freezing mark and we had hoped to have the place insulated by now. That has to come before putting drywall up on the walls. So that is next on the agenda after the ceiling. Oh and a hot water heater would be nice.

Things seem to go very slow when you are determined not to go into further debt to finish your home.

Just wanted to let those of you who may still look here that we have not abandonded our homestead or this project.

Merry Christmas to all!

Sonny

Long time coming...

Its been over 3 months since we posted anything new so I've loaded up the camera, the laptop and came by Johns today to borrow some bandwidth to put them up here with.
The siding is on now, still have trim work to do, but since I've had a time with the thousands of color choices and charts and samples, which are never what they seem on paper, I haven't found the right color. So check out our progress, granted it may not look like much... but its amazing the small things done you never see.




We are getting there, next week we are planning on fencing in an area 100' x 40' for the dogs, and I will start staining the house, so it may be a few more weeks til you see anymore pictures.

Grass seems to be growing along the driveway and so Ive been scooping it out with a shovel and creating a lawn... to Sonny's dismay since he now has to cut the yard once again, but hey... free grass! We did manage to get enough rain lately to lessen our fire danger, so we were able to burn the tree scraps and some of the building material refuse. Rain sounds awesome on the roof, but you can't hear a thing when it start pouring. I like it though, its wild.





















Pearl seems to enjoy walking around the rafters, she has managed to find her way out and across the roof to the other side... brave little kitty. Today she was contenet to just hang out up there.

Ken waits for my return with more plumbing parts, seems you always need another adapter somewhere.

George taking a moment and then celebrates getting the mast installed.

A butterfly drops by for a drink.

(Remember, if you click on a picture it will increase in size.)

A sad day...we are alone... oh no!...

Sonny's brother Ken went home today, as well as my brother George and my Dad. I was sad to see George and Dad go when they left our house last night. I missed saying goodbye to Kenny, but he will be back, in fact, I have no doubt they will all be back... if nothing else but to fix our mistakes that we left alone will surely make.

George and Dad worked for 3 days and got most of the house wired. At least the part we plan to live in is complete with the access easy to get to on the other side where we will be storing most of our things. I am amazed at the neatness and quickness George can wire a house. I'm so proud of him! I'm also so very glad that I convinced him to become an electrician 13 years ago when he got out of the Army. I think he is a natural. I would have love having him in my shop 13 years ago.

We would like to thank everyone, especially Kenny, who helped design and build and without which we would have been in one of the modular things probably. His expertise is amazing and anyone in or around Michigan who needs some remodeling done or other projects, we would be happy to pass along his info.
Thanks to our dear friends, Brian and Charla who put a whole lot of sweat and hammering into the construction as well as daily support by sharing with us their house, food, showers, and internet connection.

Thank you as well, John and Norma! They also shared with us, their home, their showers and fed us when we first arrived. They too toiled with us and their help is much appreciated and we have truly been enjoying being close enough to spend time together with them both.

It has been such a joy building this house with everyone. It is indeed a pleasure to look upon it and know it was built by our families hands, experience and love. We thank you all and return our love, our good wishes and gratitude.

Sonny & Dea
Pictures coming along after this post.

Water will be flowing soon

Walls are all framed in for the west wing now, Ken suggested and added a closet, the shower is set, need to do some additional plumbing, add some pipes, fixtures etc. and we can have running water too!

Roof almost complete now

Just a few hundred more screws to go around the outside edges and two corners to complete. Time is getting short for Ken, we will miss him, there is no way we could ever have done this without him.

Electrical Team has arrived!

George and Roy have completed their non-stop trip from KS and have hit the ground running, but they keep mentioning something about being on vacation....

Check out their progress.

Another day of progress, we should be able to finish the roofing tomorrow provided the winds don't kick up.

Metal Roofing Delivered

Doesn't look like much lying in a pile, but looks GREAT up where it belongs!

We have the front and back porches covered so far.

Plumbing, Interior walls & roof supplies delivered

We picked up a shower, toilet and various pvc pieces and parts over the past two days. Today work began on framing in the interior walls and the metal roofing arrived.

Tomorrow we plan to start the roof!

More fun in the sun as it is supposed to be in the 80's.

I've been told it has been too long since our last post... I come today bearing more pictures of progress, but first...

Our metal roofing supplies should be delivered on Monday so the "final" work on the roof can finally begin on Tuesday and tomorrow we will start the plumbing work along with building the wall for the bathroom.

The Pella warranty guy is scheduled to come April 25th to look at the door locks and strikers which all seem to be having problems. We can close them, but not lock them.

Now the pictures I promised... these are of our front steps.

We have doors and windows in!

The house is wrapped against the weather, the roof has paper on it, waiting for the metal roof to come in and Sonny and Ken got the doors and windows in too! It looks awesome.

East Side inside

West side entry

The Bedroom

The Bathroom

The Bar & Entertainment Area

The office/game room (computer games for those who don't know)

Ok these are inside pics, west side

West side entry







The bedroom








The bathroom








The kitchen








The living room

I took some of the inside too.

Front porch looking east








Front porch looking west








Breezeway front to back








Back porch looking east








Back Porch looking west

More Pictures!

Roof Progress