Insulation and drywall

It has been so exciting this last week. Our insulation was put in and the dry wall is being hung. As a group we also started a new chapter in working on the house and is always referred to as finish work. It doesn't mean we are super close to finishing but a lot closer than before. It so far is a good turn of pace. Sorry about the quality of the photos I took then when it was dark and we only have a few lights in there.

This is the living room. This insulation is really neat- it is blown in with water and adhesive and the actual insulation is recycled little pieces of newspaper. It is great energy efficient insulation.

Back of the garage, door on the right is the furnace/water heater, and the left door goes into our utility room and kitchen.
Main hallway with the drywall up. The door straight ahead is the main bathroom.

One of the bedrooms, looking into the closet.

Major inspection...

Progress and been going very quickly even though it is not progress we are doing but progress contractors have been making. In the last two weeks things that have be done are, the plumbing, the electrical, the insulation in the outside walls and dry wall on the celling. It also seems to get done quickly and without input really from us. We were just so happy to have it get done and be that much closer.
Things we have done on the houses are just a lot of little things that had to be done before the next stages. A few of them are:
- had to put in a few small walls in the bathroom next to the tubs
- add boards around the windows if the gap was wider than the wafer board (on Thursday I spent most of the evening finding the table saw and cutting the strips)
- getting backing done for dry wall
- painting the trim around the outside doors
- fixing a hole that was accidentally shingled over on our roof, that then had to be corrected when the plumbers come in(thanks Dad and Garth)
-sealing and masking the air duct work (it helps with the energy star rating that our home should get when it is done)
-adding a few things here and there, that got overlooked before
- and a lot of clean up.
I think that is everything but I could have missed something. It is great to be moving on to an other section of building. We will be starting finish work on the first couple of houses and it will all be inside, yeah for heat when it is getting so cold.

Rock conclusion

So this is the conclusion on the chapter of rock on the house. It has seemed to last forever and it has. Taking this long was not planed but with cold weather, and it getting dark at 5 it was hard to get a lot done. So it is up and the grout is in and it feels so nice to be done with it.

Doors

This week we had Doors put in. The first one that went in was our garage door and no we didn't have to install it. Second set was all our outside doors. I didn't help with this but it is hard to do it seems. A funny thing about our group and doors is that several of us all choose the same style of door, we must have similar taste.
The weather has been rough so we haven't been working out side as much these last two weeks. We did get a lot of the house prepared for installation and dry wall though. I have been working on a lot of backing which is putting pieces of wood on top of walls in between rafters so that when the dry wall is put in they have something to nail to, or a back support (backing). I didn't take any pictures because I think it is boring and it is hard to tell that anything has been done. Also we finally have our furnace installed. They were suppose to put it in weeks ago but got to it this Friday. We won't have it turned on just yet but as soon as the electrical and plumbing are done it can be turned on, heat inside on cold days, it will be so nice.

Ready for Rock

The last couple of weeks since the roofs have been finished it was time to move on to put on the rock fronts on the houses. When I refer to the rock it is a man made thin concrete that looks like real rock. It doesn't hold anything up like rock use to but it looks really nice and it is easier to work with than real rock and it gives a lot of choices. It takes a lot of prep work before a single rock is placed up. I was a slacker with pictures so I only have a picture of the scratch coating after it was all done. Last Saturday we got all of the houses scratch coated and started to put the rock up. It was been difficult and they learning carve steep, but now we have done it for about a week it is getting easier. The weather has also been prefect and I wish we could have about two more weeks of the warm weather.

We have also had some issues getting our rock. The company we were ordering from had a website to look at rock samples. We found a color they had on a house but it wasn't listed any other place. We ordered it and then when it didn't show up, the company said they didn't know what picture we were talking about and had changed it on their website. It was a little bit fishy and weird so we had to choose something different. We now have the second order but I was a little worried about it for the last two week. Our house is one of the easier houses so it is not the priority to get done right away so waiting was not a problem.

Other things that have happened on the house is the rest of our cement was put into place. That includes, back porch, side porch out of garage, front porch, driveway and then on a second day the sidewalk to the front porch and the approach to the drive way.

I just had to put our name in the cement. I put 2008 Little if you were wondering.

BabySitting

Part of Building our house for me is babysitting. Not only do I babysit half the time but Maleah also has to have a babysitter. This has not been an easy thing for me to do. I love to watch kids but it can be very challenging at times too. Every other day I watch two little girls age 7 and 3 and of coarse Maleah. Then on the other days their mom watches Maleah. On the days that are good weather we go to a park and play. It takes up a lot of time and they have fun. This week was Halloween and there is a Pumpkin walk in North Logan, and that is what we did for fun. There are displays of craved pumpkins and painted pumpkins. It is fun and elaborate what people come up with. At the very end they have cute cut outs that they kids put their faces in. Here are the two girls that I watch. Maleah hated it and I couldn't get a picture worth posting.

Shingles

The house is completely shingled. Thanks to Jermey and Kelly that come tons of extra hours this week because we would still be working on Saturday on it without them. They got so much done that on Thursday I only could help put the ridge cap on top because that was the only thing left to put on. Everyone worked so hard and it a relief to have it done before it gets any colder.

Windows

On Tuesday we got to put our windows in our house. It is a fun step closer and not as hard as I thought it would be. For us it is not been hard because the window opening have framed in correctly. Because I want to I want to put up the steps in brief detail.

Step1: Make sure the window and the opening are the right size. Also check the opening to make sure it is cut out completely.

Step 2: Is is chalk around the opening to help seal the window when it is in. Joe tried on the second window and it was all over the place so I fired him from doing an other window and was promoted to screwing in around the window which is step 4.

Step 3: Put put the window in place, as seen below as Joe and I lift up and put it in.

Step 4: is making sure the window is in sqaurely and screw it in, and that is it.

Simple enough even though you can really mess it up.

We are really happy to have our windows in our house. It is another step closer don't you think.

Leaky Roof

Last Saturday, our big working day, was completely horrible with RAIN all day. We did how ever get to work inside houses all day. It was nice to have roofs done and get the inside ready for electrical and plumbing on other houses. Our house got the sheeting on the roof and I can tell you at that point it was a very leaky roof. It was sad to have to get a few things covered because it was so hard to avoid the rain coming through the roof. Good to say though that it will be soon be covered with shingles. Also the few roofs that we do have shingled we know so far are not leaking, so good job to us. The following pictures were not taken on Saturday, but Monday which was a good day working.

Trusses

We have been waiting for almost two weeks for the trusses to be put up on the last two houses. The company had the trusses ready to go on the house that wasn't yet framed so we all thought it was going to get done faster. It wasn't but we had a lot of other things to keep us busy with. On Wednesday when I went out to pick up the girls this is the site I saw.
I was so happy that I just wanted to jump up and down. My house is very close to having a roof. It is great to see how fast they put the trusses up on our house and the other last house.
Pile of trusses last week waiting to go up. It was sad to see no progress for a week but exciting to now have them up.

Walk through walls

Last Saturday, we celebrated having all the houses framed with a BBQ. During the BBQ the two girls that I watch every-other day wanted to go to their room(we were BBQing at their house) in their soon to be new house. Several of us said that they should walk through the walls now because they won't be able to do that for much longer. It was very funny at the time and very true. Sorry my story didn't really explain it well but it was a cute time.

So on the topic of walking through walls I got a few pictures of the inside of our framed house, when we can still walk through walls. This is one bedroom close and the master suit father away.
From the previous post this is where the tubs should be. This is looking into the walls that we had to wait to put up because of not having the tubs earlier.
This is our kitchen/dinning/family room area with our back door. All the wood has now been picked up.

We've been FRAMED

So from the last post you know we started to frame our house. Progress went slow until Saturday and we got almost all the walls up and the wafer board on the outside walls. It was great to see that it is the shape of the house now. Framing is really neat because when you get a wall done you can see a lot of progress. In just a couple of hours I help build and put up four walls with Teri. We were just getting them done.

Joe and Kaylyn standing in our garage.

We did have two big hold-ups and it was tub #1 and #2. These are great shower tub combos that we are getting but there are a few draw backs. The tubs were suppose to be delivered on Friday so we could put them in the bathroom before the walls were put up. The issue is that the tubs are just about 2 inches bigger than all but the front and back door ways. So if you don't put them in then you have to take out walls to put them in later. Well they weren't delivered until Monday. On Saturday we just had to not put up several of the walls and leave out some studs so we could put them in on Monday. On Monday evening, we were able to get them in to the right spots and finish up all the framing and bracing that needed to be done. The house looks so good and is so awesome to see all the progress made in just a week.

First Wall

Our first wall went up on Tuesday. It went up then came back down and then went up again. Of course we forgot to drill out a hole so that is why we had to put it back down. Then we were able to put it back up. We are making a lot of progress. Walls, walls, walls are going up all around the house. We are on schedule to get all the walls up by Saturday. I am just so excited about having our house up. Also after ours is done we will only have one more to frame next week and then we get to move on to something beside framing.

Wood

This stack of wood is what we will use to build our house. There will be a lot of other stuff that goes into it, but when this stack of wood is almost gone it will really look like a building. This stack of wood will take on a whole new shape by the end of Saturday.

Cement Floor

On Wednesday, the cement for our floor was pored. We were so excited. I almost wanted to get up on it and do a little dance, but it was still wet. I will however do one when the cement has cured and is able to be walked on. We are just one step closer.The first picture is our garage, and behind the garage is where our utility room and kitchen will be. The second picture is the rest of the house mostly.

Gravel

Gravel is a major project on our houses. When the ruff plumbing is done inside of the footings then we have to level the dirt inside the footings, and then gravel is pored on top of that. The gravel has to then be leveled out. The gravel has to be four inches below the edge and not to much higher or lower, because then the cement is pored on top of that. So if the cement is to thin that effects the floor of the house and if it is too thick it costs a lot more to get that extra amount. So it has to be done pretty close. It is usually very hot when we have done this and it takes a lot of man hours. We also had to gravel the last three houses in one week. It turned out good but it sure is a lot of work.

The ruff plumbing is done, and the plumbers leave us big mounds of dirt to level off.

Our group hard at work.

The gravel leveled off and ready for the next step of more plumbing and the cement to soon to come.

July 9th

We are building a house!!!!

I almost still can't believe it. To some of you this is old news, but we wanted to make sure that everything was in place before I posted it. We are building a house and start next week.

We are in a program called Mutual Self-help housing program ran through Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Coop. (nnhc). It is such a great blessing in our life, that we will be able to help build our own home and our neighbors homes as well. Joe and I never thought we would be able to afford a home, let alone a new one and a very good sized one. We had choices on lots and this one we choose and all the houses around us are also in the program.

We also had the choice of about 10 house plans. We picked our top three and got our top pick. Most people in our group have the house that was in our top three also and we are glad we don't have the same one. We are really nervous about picking out colors now.
This is our layout inside. It is so great that we have four bedrooms.

August 8th

We have been working full time now on the houses. Our lot has been staked out and a little has been dug out. We have finished framing House #1, House #2 we will start framing on Saturday, #3, #4, #5 and #6 are at various stages of having the footings and slab done on. It has so far been going very quickly. Our group is wonderful and we feel so blessed to be able to build these houses.
The progress on our house #7.

Update on August 25

Here is the progress on our house.
Joe and I put the blue board insulation up and laid out the plastic sheeting. It was really easy to pop into place. Since the picture it was back filled with dirt and the first stage of plumbing should be going in this week.
Our group is awesome and we already have 3 framed and well on our way to having the 4th one done by the end of the week. We are all just working so hard and I still can't believe that we will soon have a house to call home.