Dirty and Clean

There's a lot of dirt in your yard...

Good thing they dug a well so you have water...

Too bad the plumbing isn't connected....my kids need a bath.

Rewind: Day 115, May 10

What has been most interesting about the process of building a house is how few people are needed to do a job when they're really good at it.  There were only 3 guys who framed the roof, the roofers (shingling, etc.) were a 3 man crew, drywalling was done by just 2 guys, the mudding team is only 2.... and the crazy thing is that everyone does their job in about 2-3 days.

Most of Gary's crews seem to work for him on the side, going to their primary job during business hours and coming to this house around 4pm and/or on weekends.  Thankfully, it doesn't get dark until 8:30 right now, so there is a good 4 hour work day each evening.  Prior to the drywall going up, insulation needed to be blown in the walls.  There was a team of two young Mexican guys who prepped the entire house for this.

The prep work involved glueing a plastic mesh to every stud, floor to ceiling (they did this over only 2 evenings).  A 4 inch hole was cut in the mesh about a foot down from the ceiling between every single stud.  When they were through, a truck full of insulation drove up to the door, a large hose was attached and the insulation guys blew insulation into the pockets.  Afterward, the prep team returned and cut out the holes covering each electrical box.

Most of the rooms were filled with the synthetic pink insulation seen here.  However, both offices were filled with a mix of materials primarily made up of shredded newspaper.  

Now you know how to prep and fill insulation....you too, could have a second job building houses!

Day 124 , May 19

The day the drywall arrived, the guys tried to bring it up the hill to the driveway.  Only problem is that the truck was so heavy and the stack was so high, it couldn't sit on the hill without slipping.  The guys ended up bringing the large trailer of drywall to the base of the property and loading it onto a different (smaller truck), then drove it back up to the driveway and unloaded a second time.  There were multiple sizes, the largest being about 5x12 feet.  

Day 94, April 19

Welcome to our home!!  Bethany & Harold came for a visit mid-April to do the hard work of picking out fixtures, countertops, outlet locations, etc.  There are many decisions to be made, and even more choices to pick from that they were both tired (and in need of a martini) by 5pm each day.  

On the day of their arrival, the boys were pretty excited to give Grandma & Grandpa a tour of their own house!

Owen and Grandma checking out one of the offices:

Practicing serving drinks in the kitchen:

Checking out the view from one of the offices:

The living room, with fireplace (as seen over the kitchen island):

The back side of the house.  There will be a deck on the left side of the upper level.  The back yard will have a bit of a drop off, but just gradual enough to mow:

Day 85-87, April 9-11

Raise the roof!  The month of April was focused on putting the roof on the house.  As with everything else, it was pretty amazing to watch them put it all together.  The boys thought the roofing looked like a skeleton!  We had more great weather to do most of the work, with the exception of a couple days toward the end.  There is another house going up in our sub-division and those poor guys had to work on the roof during 40-50 mph gusts of wind.  Thankfully, our guys took that day off!