Catch-up #1

These are pictures taken June 3 through 10. They are posted up here later than they should have been. They are still posted, and that's good.

From June 3, a view coming in the carport and looking through the hallway to the great room. The lawn chair is not permanent.


Looking down the stairs to the landing. The kitchen is on the left, and the master bedroom is on the right.


It was muddy that day.


And here's the reason why. Looking from the front porch along the front of the house towards the driveway.


The house wasn't sealed yet, so there were leaks.


That didn't stop us from being cozy. this is from the front door, looking diagonally across the great room to the dining room.


A side view of the stairs. The landing exists because there wouldn't have been enough room at the bottom if we did steps all the way down. And yes, a pool table can make that turn.


Did I mention that it was muddy?


The great room from the outside.


Now from June 7. The front door had not arrived, so the builder screwed a piece of plywood over the doorframe. Functional, after a manner of speaking.


The start of the electrical work. This is in the master bedroom, looking through the wall and basement stairs into the kitchen. Yes, that's a shower in the kitchen (temporarily). This is before we had them add a closet over the landing on the basement stairs.


Still some leakage in the basement.


Careful of that first step!


Bettie's knock-off crocs, kicked off.


Siding on the back of the house. The windows, from left to right, are the master bath, master bedroom, kitchen, and dining room.


And the front of the house. Living room, plywood door, hall bath, spare bedroom, computer room.


Now from June 10. This is where the carport will be.


Cool! They added the little closet over the stairs.


This is our furnace/geothermal heat exchanger. You can tell it's good because it has that swoopy blue thing on it.


The sump room. The house's electrical panel will be located here, too.


We branded the house. This is from the master bath, which has side-by-side sinks.


Just like flood-water, the siding is rising.


The back is all sided, and most of the roof is shingled.


We're not going to have a yard jockey holding a lantern. This is as close as it gets.


We'll see this guy's off-spring in 2025.

Basics

This is the first of 4 blogs about the house. Steve is catching up from a horrendous work schedule. The pictures have continued, though, and are reported here.

These pix are from May 22, 2008.

They have started the wooden part of the house. The floor is on now.



Bettie happened to catch the builders raising the first wall.



It's up - and it's good!



It almost looks like theater scenery - but it's real. The yellow board over the picture window in the living room is a laminated board.



And they're working on the back wall. This carpenter is kneeling in our master bath.



This is what it looked like when Bettie was leaving:



That's all for this day. Tomorrow is a whole new adventure.

Shazam!

This is what Bettie saw when we arrived the next day (May 23, 2008):


Four walls, and a roof! Maybe that's a normal day's effort for the builders, but for us it's incredible. They have the front porch framed, and the plywood on some of the walls.


Steve standing at the front edge of the porch. The picture window and front door open onto the porch. To the right of the porch are the hall bathroom, the spare bedroom, and the computer room (window covered over by plywood).



Steve and Bettie in their new house (and future home). Yes, I did carry Bettie across the threshold the first time.



Silliness: Steve is showering in the master bath. Good thing there's some plywood for privacy!!



The view out our picture window. The builder patiently explained to us that the dirt piles and diagonal boards are not permanent (yes, more silliness).



What is it with this silliness? Now Steve is pretending to be sitting reading in the "throne room" of the master bath.



It's our house, not public property, so this is not graffiti. This is inside a window frame of the master bedroom.



This is the other end of the house. There will be sliding glass doors in the big opening. Steve is checking out the acoustics of the new basement. Long reverb time - about five seconds.



And no wonder - there's nothing down there except for hard, flat walls.



Look out - that first step is a long one.


This is the carport end of the house. The yellow stuff is to help water drain down the outside of the foundation walls, instead of trying to go inside.

And that's it for today!

Cristo

That's right - our house got wrapped. I think we should apply for some arts funding. If that guy can get millions for wrapping buildings and sea coast, we should get some for wrapping our house.

These pix are from May 26, 2008 - Memorial Day.

The house as we saw it:



Inside, with nephews Joe and Paul. The house looks so spacious!



Interior lumber, plus a hole into the basement.



Aaaah - so that's why there was a hole in the floor - no support here! Note the Oriented Strand Board (OSB) supports.



Whew! They didn't cover up the windows!



We're going to have a very light, bright living room/dining room/kitchen



Bettie and her brother Dan check it out



Bettie and I had covered the front door with plastic, to ward off rain that might want to enter the house. So people had to use the "other" front door. This is Bettie's sister Karen and her husband Ron.



Visual effects: why the front door was unusable.



Silliness: Steve and nephews Paul and Raleigh take the house out for a ride.



Severe silliness: nephews Paul, Raleigh, Mark, and Ross jump on the bed in the master bedroom.



The back of the wrapped house. In the foreground are the rafters for the carport.



Silliness. Not sure what inspired this - if you could call it inspired.



This was imprinted on one of the pieces of plywood, and it reminded me of the posters that get splashed all over the plywood around construction sites. This one looks like it's listing all 72 bands that will be playing a concert.



The niftycool camera caught this bumblebee playing around some lumber stacked outside.



And that's it for Memorial Day, 2008.