Windows and Siding and Doors, Oh My!

Not surprisingly, I have not posted for quite some time. Disclaimer: I figured I may as well wait until there are more visual updates on the house so that I could attach pictures to the post. All of the windows have been installed, the siding is up and the exterior doors have arrived. Our electrical rough-in is complete and has passed the inspection! The fire sprinkler and central vac plumbing is in, and the security and sound wiring is finished. Moving right along huh? The wood on the inside of the windows is in the process of being stained as well as the beams in the great room, kitchen and master bedroom. Once the staining is complete, the insulation will be installed and then on to the sheet rock. It's getting closer and we are very happy with the progress.

Photo descriptions (top to bottom):
1. The first window that I stained. Not too bad for a rookie. Of course, it will look much different once the interior walls are done and the trim is around the windows. My wonderful hubby did the taping on all (44) of the windows. He rocks!

2. Back doors to patio from kitchen.

3. Front door.

4. Windows from the outside.

5. Front of house. By the way, the paint color on the siding and gable-end shingles is only the pre-primed color from the factory. We will probably have to wait to paint until Spring! Boo hoo.

Kudos to Kendall & his crew

If you are a native northwesterner, you know how mild the summers typically are in the Pacific Northwest. This summer has not been typical when it comes to the weather around here. We have had very hot weather--even over the 100 degree mark! Well, I am not sure how the guys working on our house survived that hot streak, but somehow they came out standing & thankfully, still hydrated. Here's a HUGE pat on the back for Kendall and his building crew for all of their hard work and especially for all of the sweat they poured during those miserably hot days. I am glad for them that the days are much cooler. Thanks construction team!!! Now, I will say a little prayer that you all survive the mad, aggressive, nasty yellow jackets swarming around you all day long. This too, shall pass.

PROGRESS.....

The pictures tell the story. The construction progress is going nice and smooth (my fingers are crossed as I say this) with only a few bumps in the road so far. All of the trusses have been put up, as well as many large beams. The covered area of the porch is being constructed right now and next week the plywood will go on the roof. We finally (it took us a couple of weeks) made one of the biggest decisions that we have had to make so far. The decision was regarding windows and let me tell you, it's so nice to have that decision made. Whew--that was a TOUGH one! More to come later, so stay tuned!

River View From "Our House"

Let The Building Begin!!!! Yay!!!

This is getting so exciting now! As of last Friday, we have a subfloor for our main level and as of today we have framing for the main level as well! Are we excited???? YES WE ARE!! It seems to be moving along so quickly, I hope the pace can continue. Although, as seasoned home builders have informed us (no names mentioned here!) building a home is a timely process. In fact, it's very long and drawn out. As for now, we're feeling pretty optimistic. So happy to be able to actually walk around on what will eventually be our home. : )

From Laborers To Project Directors

After the foundation was poured the next step before installing the subfloor was to pour the concrete slab for the crawl space. Remember how we had to put in a ridiculous 4 foot foundation? Well, part of that paid off since the depth allowed us to use our crawl space as the supply plenum for the HVAC system. Our wonderful structural engineer, Harold, designed this for us. Thanks Harold! The entire length & width of our crawl space is cemented. What's more, the kids think it's a fun place to play. Although, it's very dark since there are no windows. I am thinking it could be a good "dog house" for Casey! Just kidding!!!! : ) he he
Kaven & Kira had a blast watching the concrete truck pour the slabs for this. As you can see, they were very into their "directing" positions.

We're not breaking child labor laws....really!

Kaven & Kira have grown to love "going to see our property" nearly every night of the week (or as often as possible). Kaven mostly enjoys throwing rocks off of the bank and I think he could do this for hours upon hours. Kira loves walking around and singing all of her favorite "Little Mermaid" songs. She serenades us throughout every day of her life! On this particular day, they found something they both loved. A shovel and a rake and lots of rocks! We nearly had to pry their hands off of the handles to get them out of there. Actually, we threatened them that Kendall (our builder) would be upset with us if he knew we were using his tools. : ) Fun times!

Foundation Is Poured

Okay, this post is almost a month old! I am failing my blogging class!!! I am clearly not very disciplined at keeping this blog updated. I am going to try to do a better job at posting more often. I hope I don't eat my words. The first of July is when the foundation for the house was poured and there has been a lot of progress since then (the next few posts to follow will bring us up to date). The foundation is the backbone of the home, which made this step of our journey an exciting one.

Hole in the ground

We now have a hole in the ground where the foundation will be poured. A four foot foundation that is, as opposed to the standard two foot foundation. One of the (not so) fun findings during the structural engineering phase of drawing our plans was that we were in an "Exposure C" wind zone. What does that mean? Simple: Exposure C wind zone=more expensive building costs. Additional costs include a deeper foundation, shear walls, lots of hold downs or Simpon "strong ties", etc. Basically, we will never end up in the Land of Oz searching for the Wizard. That's a good thing.

Blogging 101

Notice: I am the student & teacher of the Blogging 101 course I have just enrolled in. Hopefully I will learn to navigate the blogging world fairly easily and quickly. In the meantime, patience will be a virtue for the student, teacher, as well as reader. Honestly, in 1 million years, I would have never expected that I would create a blog. Here goes nothing.

I wanted to begin a journal of this venture we are about to begin. Unfortunately, I should have started this a long time ago~about 1 1/2 years ago. Yep, that's right, we started this building/planning/designing/property searching/you-name-it adventure way back in the Fall of 2007 when we began searching for property to build on. Finally, in June 2008 we purchased 2.28 acres in Castle Rock, WA....the location of our future custom built home.

Ground Breaking News!!!

The day that we have been anticipating for well over a year has finally arrived! We officially broke ground and began the construction phase as of yesterday, June 11, 2009. What a journey it has been thus far and what excitement we have to look foward to as we progress in the building phase of this chapter in our life. Hang on tight this is going to be a wild ride!!!