Our life has been taken over...

Building a house is like having children on a smaller scale. In the heat of the moment, one might ask themselves "did I really sign myself up for this!?" But in the rest of the moments it is just SO EXCITING and worth it and very fun. This week had a lot of decisions. Someone calls from the house and says do you want your sink this way or that way. Then you have to run to your plans, weigh all the options, look for a trick question, make sure you can afford it, make sure it won't mess up the hvac guy and then call them back, tell them your decision that you'll live with for the next 30 years and then hang up. All while your kids just want you to read them a book.

As I'm writing this, Joseph is up at the cool but still pitch black, very cold house with only his head lamp and a coat, in the rain putting in electrical boxes...

Here are the exciting happenings at the house!

A furnace!

plumbing in bathrooms! vents for hvac!!

 Shelley and her boys came to visit =)

 And HURRAY! Here is the DECK! 

We love our deck! 

 After fighting our uptight engineer (who called our house swiss cheese) we were allowed a 10'6 space for a sliding door. Then when we saw the prices for that non-standard size, we sighed and purchased the 10' door instead. Then, when they delivered all the windows and doors, there were TWO big doors. One 10'6 door and one 10' door. We are hoping their mistake means we can have our bigger door... This is the four panel 10'6" door. 

 And here is the two panel 10" door. 

 checking out the SLIDE ROOM!!! 

 Going up into the slide room!

 Jed moved all the dirt...and here is his excavator Joshua!

 The roof is all finished! 

 looking through closet into master

 Saying hi from the Slide Room

 All our cute windows! Hurray!!

 here is the deck off the dining room

just checking out what keeps us up every night.... =)

Next week: Preparing for 4-way. Putting in windows and doors, finalizing kitchen design and maybe engineered stone walls..

4-way means a guy from the county comes to check all the work up to this point (including all the electrical...!!!!! ) and if you pass, you can keep building. And if you don't, you can't. Evan (and his dream team) will come next weekend to help Joseph. Hurray and thank goodness! What a lot of work we've signed Joseph up for. =)

Trusses! Roof! Plumbing!

That is a lot of wood.

This is the room on the 4th story!!! I've been waiting to stand up here. But, this is on a ladder so its a little scary for me!

Elijah enjoyed exploring all the new trusses. 

I thought it would be fun to put one big glass window here. just kidding =)

Here is Elijah on the deck off the master, taken from Joseph's office

Looking into the master bathroom

Master bedroom back there! =)

Here is the loft- Joseph and Elijah are standing in the space for the 4th floor room

Standing in the loft, looking down the hall to the master 

we are just standing in the rafters.

Can you see Elijah? =)

the end of interior framing!!

We have a completed upstairs!! Well, the framing anyway. Minus odds and ends and changes. But still! We can walk around and see where all the walls are now.
Here are some pictures!!

Upstairs sitting room

Looking into master bedroom from sitting room

Joseph in his office!!! Hurray!! 

Looking into the office on the right and down the hallway into the loft on the left

Another view of the office. I love all the views!

Isaac's cute graffiti =)

Bathtub window =)

Henry sitting on the front porch, door to the left goes into the garage. Space above is Joseph's office

Slider off the master to little deck, yet to be built 

Slider off master on the other side, looking out to Monte Cristo

Noelle with Roo in her 'couch' (her way of saying pouch)

looking into the master bathroom- tub straight ahead, shower to the left

Joseph with his first load of gangs and cans!

Joseph has been setting these little gangs all over

Trusses!!

We have a crane scheduled for Tuesday to put all these on our roof!

So much to be EXCITED about!!!

Tonight's house visit was at sunset!

It is SO fun to walk through what we've been planning for a year! So, so cool.

They poured concrete for our front porch and garage! Hurray!

garage!

They also have been very busy framing.....




They built our main staircase!!!






Here is Noelle dancing through our loft! You can also see one of the bed rooms to the back left and the bathroom in the foreground.



Corner bedroom with two windows! Can you see the lake out the window? We can!!!






Guess what this is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





This is the other back bedroom







Here is the upstairs laundry... I can't wait to do laundry here! hurray!!




Here is Noelle in an impressive MID-JUMP shot in the front bedroom







Even Grace loves our new house! =)




Front porch! Joseph's office will be top right of this picture






HURRAY!!!!!


Next up, framing above the garage, moving more dirt and Joseph putting in the electrical boxes.