I'm building a house.

6/22

We stopped by last night to take a peek on our way home from Norfolk and we didn't get there until around 9 so it was already dark but I managed to take some pics. The wood was delivered and they will start framing this week.

 

The laid gravel down, this is where the driveways will be.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3167/2604290010_e23c78cbf5.jpg

 

The carpenters put the chalk lines down. This the downstairs closet.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/2603461389_84e04f2843.jpg

 

This is the entrance from the garage.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/2604289926_f61d956bc2.jpg

 

And this is the nook in our downstairs hallway, next to the coat closet.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3051/2604289888_333c2c8e43.jpg

 

Here is a bunch of pics of the wood/building materials.

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I'm not sure what this was. It felt kind of like wood but doesn't look like sheetrock...but what do I know?

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Ceiling/floor/roof trusses.

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Today

Framing has started!

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2607249763_6631ae59f7_o.jpg

Someone put graffiti on your floors.

nice dude! she's coming together! I like the checklist lol

We drove down to the site today and they've started on the first floor. The second floor should be up by this weekend and the all the materials are onsite, except for the 4th floor which will arrive next week, and if they stay on schedule the 4th floor will be done by the end of next week.

 

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I would have gone inside, but we were told not to unless we called in first for insurance reasons so they can give us hard hats and junk, and the field manager lives on the property and happened to be walking his dog while we were there. It was actually good because I've been wanting to ask him something. When we stopped Sunday night and took the pics of the chalk lines we noticed that quite a few pipes were not within the walls... It turns out that the original plumber was in a serious car wreck and all the diagrams/etc were in his truck and destroyed. So they had to have someone else come in and lay the pipes based on the architectural drawings, because of this the pipes ended up being put in slightly incorrectly. He said it's a lot of work to fix, but it won't slow us down since they can fix it while the carpenters are working on the 2nd floor and it should be all fixed by the end of next week. They have to dig the concrete out, move the pipes and then re-set new concrete.

damn dude looking good, can't wait to see the finnish, going to be a badass house

Looking good man.

I totally haven't updated in a while...

 

6/28

 

We went to the property today and they have started framing the second floor. I was surprised they were working on a Saturday but I guess to they need to get caught back up since they are a little behind.

 

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Funny story. We were in the sales office and our saleswoman came in with a lady and her mother, she had been showing them a house with our floorplan. We got to talking and the woman said how she has money down in another community and they were supposed to have a delivery date of last winter, this this summer and nothing has happened. She is tired of waiting with nothing going on. Turns out she has money down in the townhouse community that we were originally going to buy in and walked away when we got a bad vibe. Turns out the builder, Engle, filed Chapter 11 back in January- a MONTH before we even went there. So the saleswoman knew they were filing for bankruptcy and still tried to sell us a house and in the contract they could have held my good faith money for up to 2 years! Man, we dodged a huge bullet.

7/6

 

Pics from today. The third floor framing is done, fourth should be completed this week and roof materials should arrive this week as well.

 

Front of the building, the third floor is our first floor. We are right below that green stack.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/2643979202_c4bc237472.jpg

 

Our first floor, living/dining room.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2643980008_91f507751b.jpg

 

Back of our unit. From bottom to top, garages for our unit (right) and the bottom unit. The second floor is the deck for the unit below us, that is off their 2 smaller bedrooms. Then our deck is above that, off of our kitchen/family room and then our balcony is on top. The cool thing is that all the ecks/balconeys are staggered.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3181/2643151817_8c91d18cea.jpg

 

The small frame is the balcony for our master suite. Below that is our deck, off of the kitchen/family room.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3007/2643982722_6f98ccbb5d.jpg

 

Here is one of the two water pipes they had to relocate, it was in the hallway but now it's in the wall.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/2643153819_9028b553a9.jpg

 

Closeup.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2643981230_087987b399.jpg

 

This is the other water pipe that was in the garage, being rerouted into the wall.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3119/2643152527_82941cca3e.jpg

 

As usual, there are more pics at my flickr site. =)

7/13

 

The shingles should arrive this week, once the they are on they will put the stairs in so we can then walk up onto our own floors. Also, all the concrete from the moved pipes is reset, it looks like they did a good job.

 

The fourth floor and roof are on.

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These are the windows for our living/dining room, our main floor.

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These are the windows for the two smaller bedrooms.

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This is some kind of metal strapping they have on the shared walls. Not sure what the purpose is. In some places the straps are vertical and bolted to an horizontal beam with a bracket.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3084/2665808246_dc154b592b.jpg

 

This is a pic from our foyer, looking up to the roof.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2664983925_22096dded9.jpg

 

This is the back, our two floors. The top is the sliding doors and window from our master bedroom onto our private balcony and the bottom is the two french doors that open from our kitchen and family room onto our deck.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3073/2665808666_80ee61c777.jpg

this looks great lyss! im excited!

this was really neat! its cool to see the progression. thanks for the pics =]

Yea yea yea... When do we move in?

We've got stairs! We went down to the house today and they have put the first 3 flights of stairs in. That means we can finally go up onto the floors that will be our house!

 

Front, some eaves are installed and the concrete for the front steps are poured.

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Here are the steps from the the garage hallway up to the entry.

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Here is our downstairs nook, framed in.

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I won't bore you guys with the pics of the stairs...2 switchbacks with 5 or 6 stairs a piece. We have 30 steps total from the door up to our main floor. We currently walk up 33 stairs to get our our apartment so no biggie, we're used to it- and it helps me keep my girlish figure.

 

Here is the living/dining room when you come up the stairs.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2686986840_89ca9a81d6.jpg

 

From the front corner of the living room facing the wall between the dining room adn the kitchen/family room.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3196/2686171685_9b709394bf.jpg

 

Here is the powder room, across the kitchen and next to the family room. It's a good-sized room. The room behind is the furnace closet.

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Here is the furnace closet in the powder room.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2686175299_a98a38f729.jpg

 

{cont.}

 

 

These are the openings for the 2 sets of french doors that go out to our deck. The left side is the family room side, the right is the kitchen side.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3237/2686988476_edf9a2372e.jpg

 

Here is the kitchen french door hole and the laundry closet, the kitchen is to the right of the laundry closet.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/2686988786_559cb39ae2.jpg

 

Here is the porch with the opening for the ac and water heater closet.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/2686173621_8ebb4564ef.jpg

 

Our view from the kitchen (right) french door.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/2686989512_ccbfc2ab01.jpg

 

Our view from the family (left) french door.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2686174503_fc6ec6a398.jpg

 

This is some crazy metal thing called a Steel Strong-Wall Shearwall. There were two of them on the front wall of the living/dining room.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/2686991160_ed973c8b7f.jpg

 

Bolts for the Strong-Wall.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3001/2686176043_a5521675a1.jpg

 

That's it for now. You can see the rest of our stairs in the pics, those go up to our 2nd floor where the three bedrooms and two full baths are. We are going back on Friday before we go out of town for a week so we should be able to walk up there and get some pics of the bedrooms.

I've got 4 updates to post, here is the first.

 

July 25th:

 

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This is the kitchen from the family room. The laundry closet on the left and the doorway to the living/dining room is on the right. You can barely make out the doorway to the powder room on the right edge.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3098/2734239206_b53b94d9a2.jpg

 

Still having issues with the flickr plug-in. The updated version of the plug-in doesn't work as well as the old version and is a bit of a pain in the butt to use...

 

This is the powder room from the kitchen, the door on the left is to the living/dining room.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3215/2734239490_d3a1eb9390.jpg

 

Here is a pic of the hallway bathroom from the stairs. The master bedroom is to the left and the two spare bedrooms are to the right.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2734239794_5358b91c66.jpg

 

Here is the master bath.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3087/2733411147_05025319c6.jpg

 

Enclosure for the tub in the master bath.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3143/2733411461_a0cf63f55a.jpg

 

This is the shower, with the seat.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3241/2733411777_115cbd51c4.jpg

 

My "small" closet in the master bedroom.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3166/2734241266_70bb6c526b.jpg

 

Melissa's walk-in closet in the master.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/2733412457_57b2b38d94.jpg

 

And here is some crazy green stuff they sprayed on the lower walls in the garage.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3148/2733412787_881f39c271.jpg

August 4th:

 

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Our two sets of french doors, waiting to be installed in the kitchen/family room.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/2733466141_0783597106.jpg

 

The railings for the balcony and deck.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3197/2734295704_1c160914b3.jpg

 

Our front door...not painted yet.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3080/2733466681_93fa343905.jpg

August 4th cont. (Seriously...increase the number of images in posts...)

 

Not sure what these posts are for...

 

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Interior garage door installed.

 

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Rounded windows!

 

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That little wall in the middle of the room is for the kitchen island where our sink and dishwasher are.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3067/2734297850_5310dda527.jpg

 

They applied some type of spray-on surface to the balcony floor.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/2733468645_3893fd5fd5.jpg

 

A closer look at our two uninstalled french doors.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3231/2733468919_7fd5721797.jpg

 

The window in our master bath.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3109/2734298682_b480763f0a.jpg

 

That's it for now. The brick was delivered while we were there so hopefully when we go back this weekend we'll see a finished roof, installed doors and a good portion of brick put up.

August 17th:

 

I took a ton of pics yesterday. Not much changed on the outside, but we saw a lot of work done on the inside.

 

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1838.JPG

 

Front door installed.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1840.JPG

 

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1846.JPG

 

Master bedroom balcony door and some type of radiator in the utility closet installed.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1842.JPG

 

Water pipes are put in.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1845.JPG

 

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(Seriously, what is the f'ing limit???)

August 17th cont

 

Central air ducting was all put in.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1849.JPG

 

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One of the windows had a bunch of paper taped to it. It showed the location of all our optioned additions and the list of all our upgrades.

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Here is the picture that really hit home that this is OUR house.

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August 17th cont.

 

The floorplan with the locations for our phone/internet/tv jacks and ceiling fan outlet installations.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1858.JPG

 

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Here is all the ducting, this is in the ceiling of our bottom floor. All the registers for the main floor are in the ceiling and the walls, for the upstairs they are all in the floor.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1861.JPG

 

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August 17th cont.

 

This pipe is in the back kitchen wall.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1864.JPG

 

Laundry closet.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1865.JPG

 

Here is the furnace, it's in a closet in the powder room.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1866.JPG

 

Powder room plumbing.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1867.JPG

 

Powder room exhaust fan.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1868.JPG

 

More pipes and ducting in the main floor ceiling.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1869.JPG

August 17th cont.

 

Pipes in the family room wall.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1870.JPG

 

Ducting over the family room.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1871.JPG

 

Dryer exhaust.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1872.JPG

 

Outside utility closet...I have no clue what that thing is.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1873.JPG

 

Pipes and ducting over the kitchen.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1874.JPG

 

Large vent in the family room. The furnace is on the other side of this wall.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1875.JPG

August 17th cont.

 

Water pipe for the island.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1876.JPG

 

And now up to the top floor.

 

Ducting up to the top floor.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1877.JPG

 

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1878.JPG

 

Pipes for hall bath.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1879.JPG

 

Pipes for double sinks in master bath.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1880.JPG

August 17th cont.

 

Master bath tub drain.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1881.JPG

 

Shower and toilet drains in master bath.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1882.JPG

 

Really bad pic of the door to the balcony in the master.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1883.JPG

 

They've started putting in drywall in the master, maybe to rough in the tray ceiling.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1884.JPG

 

Pipes for the hall bath.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1887.JPG

 

Since all the registers on the top level are in the floor they covered them all, I'm guessing so debris does not fall into the ducting. There is one in each smaller bedroom, and two in the master.

http://www.iainburns.com/gallery/albums/2008_08_17/normal_IMG_1888.JPG

 

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That's all for now.