The Front Goes Up!

Having the back of the house all framed in brought a big sigh of relief to all of us.  Nathan wasted no time in starting on the front of the house.  He had a lumber load last Saturday, a friend of ours, Ed (an architect with High Plains) stopped by just in time to help unload.  :)  He was a good sport and said over lunch that he didn't get himself into anything he wasn't hoping for!  Another friend dropped off some huge tarps for us to use.  We have had more rainy days lately and we're able to cover a huge part of the house now AND all the materials.  We have nice people around us, that is for sure!

The part that is being framed now is the upstairs walls to our bedrooms & bathroom.  There is our master bedroom, a nursery/kid room and a bathroom. 

bathroom and nursery wall up

Nathan framed up a bit of roof on the west side.  After a rainy evening, we were informed by our neighbor that we MUST put the roof on this side.  It's a small chunk of roof, but after one night of listening to rain falling on styrofoam, Claudia had had enough!  Nathan started it that day.  A Baha'i in our community came over to help and it got framed up lickey-split!  This picture shows the detail of the roof line.  I'm quite taken with it.  It's a fussy detail, but it is worth all the hassle in my opinion!  On a more sunny day, I'll try to catch the underside.

We had the windows delivered this week.  They aren't the cheapest option for sure, but they were as efficient as we could get without getting into CRAZY money.  After seeing them, I'm SO glad we went ahead with them!  They are beautiful!  The green is fantastic and they just look...awesome!  They are triple pained, lovely details on the inside, wood windows with aluminum cladding, screens that have a tighter mesh weave to them, making them not so noticeable when you look out the window.  This will coming in particularly handy becuase we have bays of windows with only one bay operating (opening).  You won't have to look out the window and wish you could see out of it! AND it will be 'invisible' when looking through the in-operable panes.   They are also one of the highest performing windows we could buy, without going to a European brand.  Eurpoean windows are in the thousands of dollars range per window.  All that money gets you the highest performing windows in the world... The windows are also made in America, Minnesota.  We definetly paid a living wage on these!

Karen at Billings Window and Door ROCKS!  She knows her stuff (she's not paying me to say this!)  She's a bulldog (even calling her suppliers and asking why the Blanding's can't get a specific deadbolt locks...(sold as a set w/ the handles) but what if you live in NY and you NEED 3 deadbolts & you want them to all look the same...YES, Nathan said that to her, AND YES, she picked up the phone and asked the same thing of the suppliers!)  We went with Marvin windows.  Nathan took a trip out to Minnesota to the plant a few years ago and he was very impressed. 



Windows being hauled inside


Our patio door was ordered as a 'window'.  We did this because the door companies couldn't come close in R value to the Marvin doors.  We could have done a more normal door & had a great R value, but we are all so excited about having the dining room 'spill' out side that we decided not to cut it.  But the sucker is HEAVY.



Patio doors...and a delivery man posing nicely for the paparazzi!

 Thank goodness for the delivery guys!  The windows were so heavy!  Nathan saw one of the guys picking up one of the smaller windows, Nathan offered to help...that was about all he could do.  He tried to lift it and he almost hurt himself.  This was one job he was fine watching someone else do!  Those guys were TOUGH.

One roof down, One to go!

We have one side of the house roofed!  Well, almost roofed!  Nathan thinks he'll have it done by the end of today.  He's running out of space and has had to spend some time shifting materials and tools around.  This is a huge load of his shoulders.  He's been (we've all been) concerned about the timing and the weather, but it looks like we might just beat it! 

roof, as of yesterday

We're not going to do shingles this year.  Shingles have that tar strip on them that adheres well when it's warm, so Nathan would rather wait until it's warm to get that done.  In the mean time, to protect the plywood underneath we are using a commercial water barrier.  It goes on like tar paper, but has waterproofing qualities and can be out in the elements without getting ripped to shreds. 




View from the sidewalk in front



Before the roof was sheathed & front part started

Almost Real Time!

You can all thank my sister for asking for MORE PICTURES!  She knew that the progress was further along that what I had up on the blog.  I'm trying to get more and more geeky with this whole process so I can post pictures faster!  The pictures here are from yesterday!

Our progress so far:  We have the entire first floor framed in, sheathed & wrapped with the Tyveck.  The second floor framing, wall framing and attic floor framing are all done on Keith & Terese's side upstairs.  Nathan had a puzzle to figure out - where to put all the materials for upstairs.  He didn't want to haul it from the ground so with a (mostly) successful transfer of materials using a forklift, he got it all up there.  He drafted it all out ahead of time and put the lumber & plywood on dollys and can just move it around as he needs to. 

The house is looking quite large right now.  We are sure it won't feel so big after everyone gets used to seeing it there AND when the exterior materials are put on.  We've broken up the scale of the exterior materials.  This will be the largest house on our end of the street and we didn't want to have it 'sticking out'. I think you can see  the different materials detail from the drawings from an earlier post on August 15th.

Here is a picture of the house looking northwest (towards the back of the property of K&T's house)

looking northwest-ish

J is quite good at climbing the ladder to the upstairs (NOT the red one in this photo!).  Nathan has secured the ladder on the top & bottom since it will be there until the stairs are built.  I have a heart attack each time she's up there.  She is always very careful and is always compliant when I say she MUST hold my hand or have Daddy hold her.  She always wants Nathan to dance with her when there is anything new up.  It's pretty cute!

This is the viewing from the inside K&T's hallway looking south out through their kitchen to the roof deck.  Our bedroom will be across from them soon!

from hallway through galley kitchen upstairs

Terese picked a lovely large three-bay window to look out over her kitchen sink.  We are all quite happy to see the view from upstairs.  It feels like a tree house!  We had to make a decsion early on if we were going to do a basement or upstairs.  We couldn't afford both.  I think we're all feeling very confirmed that we made the right choice!




view from T's kitchen sink

 Just think, in a couple years there will be a nicer view, hopefully and apple and/or pear tree, raised garden beds, flower beds, trimmed trees...it's gonna be pretty fantastic!

The Help!

We've had neighbors come over to help, we've had friends in town help for a couple hours.  My sister-in-law & her husband were here a while back...my sister & her husband came also!  For almost a week!

the drill that W is holding is his FAVORITE!

Sorry!  They are so cute here's another picture of the cousins!

my sister & I have some pretty cute kids!!

Erik putting up somr tyvek on walls (a few walls went up without tvyek..E will tell you it's easier when it's laying down!)

A week or so ago my dad came out to help.  Nathan & Dad like working together!

One of the many things I love about my family is that they all pitch into projects as if they are their own (not in an annoying way!)  Everyone is so excited & they just want to do what they can.  It's super sweet of them!