Landscaping!

A family friend is remodeling his backyard to make way for a swimming pool and getting rid of a TON of bushing and flowering plants.  So we took that as an opportunity to get all that we could and transplant them to the house.  We planted most around the exterior of the house and then used the rest around existing trees in the front yard.  We're not sure that they will survive and flourish but we don't have anything to lose!  They are various sizes right now but once they are established we will go back and do some heavy pruning to even things out.  There is an assortment of boxwoods, gardenias, oleander, and yaupon.  This is the only picture I have that actually show the plants...way too tired after digging all those holes to take a picture!

 



Where Things Are Situated

I took this picture the other day to show the view of the house from the highway.

 

You can barely make out the front porch posts in the very center of the picture.  The pond looks quite pretty in this photo but don't let it fool you!  It can be very green and gross looking sometimes!  Hopefully as we work more on this piece of land we can work on cleaning out the ponds (there is a smaller pond to the right of the driveway that is not visible in this picture).

We Have Walls! (Sort of...)

This summer has been BUSY but we have gotten a lot done even in this crazy heat.  Of course we can only work from daylight until 9 or 10 but that is plenty for me!

Since we have to work when we can and can't devote all day every day to construction, we have built all the exterior walls and stacked them on the foundation to be "raised" on a future date.  I know this isn't how most people build houses, but this two-man construction crew works very differently.

We stayed fairly true to the original plans for the house with just a few minor adjustments of doors and windows.  We have 6 foot windows in the living room/dining room area and the bedroom along with 3 foot windows in the kitchen, utility room, and bathroom. 

The original plans also had a door from the bathroom leading outside but we chose to move that to the utility room so that it would be accessible from the carport (yet to be designed).

Most days we built the walls on the foundation and then added them to the large stack that we had already completed and covered with a tarp.  However today we just built the last two walls on top of our stack.  Not 100% sure why, but it sure was easier in my opinion!  A fully constructed 10 foot tall wall is kinda heavy and awkward!

 

 

I wish that we were raising the walls next week but I think Dad wants to wait until we have taken our vacation in a couple of weeks so we're going to start on the interior walls next.  There are only five of those so I'm hoping that will be finished next week.

After that is putting it together and adding ceiling joists and beams and stuff that I don't really understand yet!  You'll learn all about it when I do!

A Post About Posts

My dad retired in March and I naturally assumed that this meant he would spend every waking hour finishing my house.  Right.  We really haven't accomplished much over the past few months that can be seen with the naked eye.  But work is being done!

We have ordered and received about half of the boards needed to frame the house.  We have ordered the plywood needed for the walls and hope to receive that order in the next week or so.  Dad has sketched out the exterior wall plans to measure out where the windows and doors will be so that when we start putting them together we'll have our ducks in a row.

The one thing that has changed at the house site is the addition of the porch columns.  Dad took 10 ft tall pieces of square pipe and created the columns from those.  He painted them white so that they look nicer but they will not be seen in the final product.  We're not sure if we're going to cover them with HardiePlank (the rest of the house will be done in this) or a faux stone that we've seen.

There are still two posts missing in this picture, but they have since been added to make a total of 11 porch columns.

It wasn't until the columns went up that I realized how tall 10 ft ceilings will be!  But I'm excited about the tall ceilings because it will, hopefully, make the house seem larger that its tiny square footage.

Hopefully this summer sees lots of wall construction going on (even though it will be 100 degrees every single day).

Building It Up To Take It Back Down

So Dad decided the best way to tackle the large roof was to basically build parts of it, cut the wood for the remaining parts, and take it all down until we need it again.  Which is a good plan when your workforce consists of 2-3 people.

He started by using some online program to determine the correct angles of all the boards.  Then we were able to set up this center frame and build outward from there.

The house has a hip roof (as opposed to a gabled roof) so that requires a lot of intermediate boards.  We worked on setting up one portion of the roof and made sure that all of the angles and lengths were correct before cutting the remaining boards.  We then could cut corresponding angle boards for the remainder of the roof but those were just cut and stored for later.

We took it all apart and placed it in our storage container for when we are ready to put the roof on.  Then all we will have to do is pull out each section (which are clearly labeled) and screw them back in place.  Hopefully that will make our job slightly easier!

Now we are moving on to the walls!  We took the Easter weekend off BUT my dad just retired from his job (after 39 years) so I just know that he will devote all his new free time to finishing the house!

Laying The Foundation...Of The Foundation

So we've accomplished a lot in the past few months!  It won't look like it from the pictures, but all of the work that goes into a foundation is overwhelming. 

Once all of the forms were redone after the rain incident we were able to begin laying the rebar.  Pieces had to be bent and cut to make the rectangular shaped pieces that would sit down in the 4 ft. "ditch" around the edge. 

Then all of the long pieces that stretched across the foundation had to be arranged and wired together.  That work is back-breaking and I did not enjoy it at all!

Luckily it only took a couple of weekends to get that all finished and then it was go time on the concrete!  I have so much appreciation of what goes into foundation work and I know that this foundation will last a LONG time!