SO, WHAT’S HAPPENING?

We are just about finished framing the second floor.  After we got the basement walls waterproofed, it poured down rain again.  So, we took the great big, huge tarp that we have and we attempted to cover the first floor and part of the second floor.  The problem was, that the water pooled in three different areas, so as we were trying to pull the tarp down, I took videos of these vast gallons of water dumping into the first floor.  I looked down and was thinking “This is my bedroom floor.”  At the end of the day, you just had to laugh about it, but at the time, it wasn’t very funny.  That held us up for about three days because we had to let it dry out.  So, we got slowed down a little bit due to that.

On the second floor, the back two walls are framed and tomorrow we’ll be working on framing the rest second floor and the front of the house.  So, we should have that done. 

We went over to the house one evening this week with the children (Andrew, 14 and Sarah, 5) for the first time in a whole week.  The two walls for the back of the second floor - for their rooms - are up.   When we take them over there tomorrow, it will be the first time they will be allowed to climb up and actually be in their rooms for the first time. 

I was excited to see their faces, the first time they got to climb up from the basement to see, “This is where the kitchen is going to be, and this is the bathroom, a here’s the dining area and the living room.”  I’m sure my face was the same way, but watching it on your children is a million times better.  It’s like the first time you go to Disney.  It’s absolutely amazing to watch their faces, as they watch the house go up that they’re going to live in.  Andrew is doing a fair amount of help - as much as he can do at 14.  He’s there on the weekends doing things.  And I know that later in life he’ll look back at this and go, “wow.” 

The windows are in, and our front and side door are in as well, but we haven’t had them delivered to us yet.   We’re ordering the garage doors tomorrow.  We’re also picking out roof shingles and siding tomorrow.  We’re looking for a warm, natural brown color for the siding and singles.   We’re looking at probably choosing a Shaker style for the shingles.  They’re made out of a composite material that is partially recycled, so that makes me happy.  They had several different color choices, so I have to go and see what goes with the siding color.

WHAT ABOUT THE BASEMENT FLOOR?  HAS IT BEEN POURED?

It’s still not done yet.  And I keep saying to John “Are we going to get the basement floor poured?”  And he’s like, “You know, there’s no reason to rush it.”  And, I’m thinking, “OK, that’s fine.”  Right now, every time we get a delivery of something, it goes into the garage.  So, I guess until we get to the point where we’re ready to pop the windows in, if we pour the basement floor and put stuff on top of it, there could be spots where the water wouldn’t drain as well as it should.  Right now everything’s setting on three inches of rock.   So, drainage-wise, he wants to wait until we have the roof on.  The first floor is on, but when we got that rain the other day and pulled the tarp off, all of that water ran down into the basement. 

SO, WHEN THE FRONT OF THE HOME IS FRAMED, WILL YOU THEN MEASURE FOR THE TRAPAZOID WINDOWS?

Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll be able to measure for the rough openings for all of the windows on the front of the home.  Then I’ll probably order them early next week.  And they generally take about 14 business days to come in.   I don’t think they’ll set the windows until the roof is on.  So, the next thing that will happen will be the roof trusses.  It should take about 14 days for them to make those, so we should have those in a couple of weeks. We only put the order in for the roof trusses five days ago.    About the only thing we need to do is to get a crane for the same day the trusses are delivered.  

WILL JOHN RUN THE CRANE TO SET THE ROOF TRUSSES?

John will probably run the crane.  We have a friend who has a crane and will rent it out to us.   He knows John is capable to run it but John says that if, for insurance purposes, his friend needs to run it, he’ll run it.  It’s a “guy toy” so they’ll probably end up taking turns.  I think it would be an awful lot of fun.   John’s having a blast and he’s building his dream home on top of that.

IT SOUNDS LIKE THERE’S A LOT GOING ON.  IS THAT PRETTY-MUCH IT AT THIS POINT?

That’s pretty much it.  There seems to be a whole bunch of stuff moving really fast.  I know it’s going to slow down once we get the house closed in.  But right now, it seems to be moving really, really fast.