Chalk Lines

I love chalk lines. I use one multiple times each day. They are a vital tool in marking straight lines for cutting or placing walls.

I wonder why I never heard of one before. I imagine many other women are equally unfamiliar with this tool as I was. Yet, I see utility in using one for the various crafting projects women often do. Much easier to snap a line, leaving a trace of chalk, than trying to mark something with a ruler, especially in larger projects.

So ladies, give it a try. I bet there's a washable version that cleans easily.

Thank You

Thank you to family and friends for a lovely Christmas season.

Thank you to brother and friend for helping out for a few hours to build. Thank you to sister and her husband for trying to come support, even though the weather caused us to leave early. Thank you for father-in-law giving several Saturdays and providing a much needed drill.

Thank you for all the lovely gifts. Gloves and scarf to keep me warm. Pot and topiary like I wanted to decorate with. Gift certificate to Thai Pan to buy home decor and new plates to spruce up my future kitchen. I am excited about the large mirror I can put in my entry way, a beautiful picture frame, and the quaint pottery from Mexico. I have several options with those peices. Thank you for other toys and gifts I can enjoy when I actually live in my home: food storage and video games. And the new suit and purse I can wear to work to make the money to pay for the mortgage. And I can't wait to take a vacation and try out my new wet suit.

Thank you all for your generosity and helping make our collection of nails and planks into a real home (someday). Everyone is so thoughtful.

Thank you Jesus Christ for everything.

Progress

I'm behind on photos. But here is an update of our progress.

Newly Completed Projects on Our House
* windows
* doors
* bath tubs
* HVAC
* prepping for electrical
* backing for sheetrock (so the sheetrock has something to be nailed into
* plant shelves
* wall build ups to trusses (so the sheetrock connects to the ceiling
* towel bar backing
* nearly all the sheeting on the roof (the wood that goes over the trusses)

Framing Finishing Touches Left to Do on Our House
* finish sheeting roof
* shingle roof
* sweep and clean up site

Our second house is nearly at the same stage. We are waiting for the delivery of windows and doors and a few other details and we will be ready to make a stronger push on our 3rd and 4th houses.

House number 3 has two basement walls up. We need one more before we can put up the floor joists.

Oh No!!!!

I decided to be tough and brave yesterday and do the things most of the women in our group seem a little weary of. I got myself a long ladder and started nailing the attic access and truss supports in our garage. Garages are tall and I had to use one of the extension ladders rather than our Little Giant knock-off which wouldn't reach. I was proud of myself for navigating the use of such a large ladder myself and jumping into the work without the support of a man.

I was about 2/3 of the way done and actually thinking to myself, "Hey, this is kind of fun." I adjusted my ladder to a new spot and started climbing when the ladder lost its footing on the slippery garage surface. Basically the 45/50 degree ladder slipped, slamming both of us straight onto the icy concrete garage floor. I'm not sure how far I fell--I can't remember if I was at the top of the ladder or not. But I think it was between 9-11 feet.

I'm glad my quick reaction instinct didn't include cussing. I always surprise myself that I typically laugh when I have accidents. This time wasn't so funny--it was kind of scary. So instead, I found myself saying, "Ohh, Nooooooo!!" I think I was kind of speaking in slow motion.

I'm trying to remember my geometry and physics. Was it a better fall because I followed the angle of the ladder instead of simply falling off the ladder straight down? Or did it cause me to fall harder?

I thought the slam of the ladder and me crying out was loud. But no one noticed amid all the saws and nail guns. Finally someone on the roof noticed me grabbing my leg with the evidence of a fallen ladder next to me. I was pretty much fine. Just scared and sore.

Moral of the story--make sure there is something to hold a ladder in place on a slippery surface.

I feel a lot better today. Earlier my knee looked like I had attached two golf balls to it and I have several bruises and bumps to match on my elbow and shin. I feel lucky I didn't break anything. My pinky and ring finger feel a little stiff and sometimes tingly, but I think that will pass soon.

Most of the people in our group seem scared to get on the roofs and I was thinking I would be happy to get up there. Not so sure anymore now that I don't feel so invincible. We'll see. Maybe I'll wear the harness afterall.

Negotiating

Snuck out of work for an early lunch break to go to Home Depot so Russell wouldn't pick up on my sneakiness. I usually really like Home Depot because they seem very willing to negotiate--very customer service oriented. I went in planning to buy a XXXX. They had the best price of anyone, including Amazon. And I thought I'd negotiate to get the 10% off I was promised by joining some "I'm Moving" club they have.

Ended up interested in a XXXX and XXXX they seemed to have a decent price on. I thought to myself, "Hey, I only came in here planning to buy this, but now I might end up doubling my purchase, maybe they'll negotiate." Tried. Looked like a dumb little girl who knows nothing about XXXX. Failed. They offered me the 10% discount anyone can get from signing up for their Home Depot card. Wow, Home Depot. Thanks for your customer loyalty.

I left mad. But I guess they took a chance on me, called my bluff. I wasn't willing to walk away-- I still bought everything. And they wouldn't even negotiate on giving me my 10% mover's club discount because they will be sending me something in the mail. Conned me even more into getting the Home Depot card. I justify we will be making a lot of purchases from them in the near future. I hate store cards, hope I don't regret it terribly.

At least my purchases were originally decent deals and I will eventually have to spend the money on these things anyway. It is good they can count for Christmas instead of in addition to Christmas. BTW, Do these kind of things count as a tax write-off for home improvements? ;)

I am considering returning the items and having Russell try again. I do think they would have given me a deal if I were a man.

Does this ever happen to anyone else? I know it is especially bad for buying cars.

Mystery Solved?

Topiary Ball or Boxwood Ball. That's the name of what I want. Something kind of like this:




OR



PLUS



OR





I can't say these are the perfect combinations of what I have in mind, but closer than some of the other options I came across, I suppose. I really think the planter/vase makes all the difference. I like the pedestal style or a pot where it fits right in like an ice cream cone. Cute, cute, cute!

Now one of the questions is--do I go with fake or real? My colleague has a cute fake one from Thai Pan. The other has a real one. Can I keep a real one alive? If I want it next to my stove is it better to have a fake one?

Thoughts, please?

Christmas

With Christmas approaching, I have been thinking about what I want to design my home. It is hard because I have no design sense. I am trying to think out-side of the box and consider details that look great that I would never think of.

After consulting some magazines, I think I am beginning to picture some ideas for my kitchen. I've come up with two things I REALLY, REALLY want for my kitchen:

1. I was inspired by my sister's off-set tiered serving plates. I want one. Something with a little bit of style that I can put my fresh fruit on. I like some of these options from Bed, Bath & Beyond.






2. Two of my colleagues have the most gorgeous potted plants. I can't find a similar example to show, which is frustrating. They are shaped in a round ball-like shape, and consist of almost small little clovers. If anyone knows what I am talking about, please help! I think they are from Thai Pan. I'd like to get one before they stop selling them.

Second House

We should have finished the interior walls on the second house on Saturday, but it started snowing which erased our chalk lines which mark where the walls go. Plus, we were running out of studs.

Three Weeks

Three weeks in, here is our house. It is exciting to see it come together and actually look like a house!

Trusses

We "flied our trusses" on Saturday. I was responsible for hooking the chains up to the trusses for the crane. I also led where the crane put the trusses with a rope, turning the trusses the direction they needed to go. I can honestly say I never thought I would be working with a crane.

Shadow Boxes

Here are the shadow boxes.

Three along the stairs, at off-set heights. Notice the sheeting in back that extends the depth of the shadow boxes.



This has an arch as well. Someday we will put a nice photo or painting.

Arches

We built--or mostly my husband did--three arches. It was a little tricky to make sure they turned out symmetrical, but I think they turned out quite well. Here is the biggest arch separating the living room from the dining/kitchen area.

More Interior Walls

My husband and I built nearly every single wall in our home. It took a long time because we have a lot of unique angles and closets.




Bedrooms/hallway/closets. I didn't realize how hard it is to take photos so you can actually see what everything is!



Pantry/mudroom



Kitchen




Entry

Interior Walls

We spent Thanksgiving doing about 1/3 of the framing of the interior walls while our teammates built the garage. They brought Thanksgiving dinner and we ate on site.







My husband and I built nearly every interior wall. We had to read the floor plan/blueprint, measure out each wall, mark it with a chalk line, and actually build and place the walls. We added a short wall next to the toilet and changed the size of the coat closet to give a little more room to the master bedroom. Here is the side of the house with the three bedrooms and two bathrooms. My husband is very good at this. I am grateful for that. I just follow directions and don't have to worry about messing up the locations. I think we've done a good job. I'll take more photos of the finished framing.

Exterior Walls

Here's me looking out of my kitchen window. I'll be doing dishes here soon.




I didn't build any of the exterior walls, but I did help hold some of them up.

Basement walls & stairs

Stairs are tedious and complicated. I had the easy job: I personally cut each riser and tread--3 feet wide. We had a little mix up with the math and I had to additionally cut the risers skinnier. My husband did a great job cutting out each stair shape in the wood that holds the stairs up (sorry, I don't know the technical name). Together we glued and nailed the stairs on.






Upper Stairs Platform



Basement Supporting Wall

Injury

My husband sprained his ankle really bad last night on-site. We have to wait three days to see if he has torn anything and if so, he will have to have surgery.

It looks like I will be working by myself to get our 35 required hours this week. Crossing my fingers he is better by Saturday to help us fly our trusses. Even so, he will be slowed down significantly for awhile. If he is unable to put in any more time this week, I think I will be about 10 hours short.

If anyone has the inkling to help volunteer, I could certainly use your help this week.

More Footings & Foundations

Foundation



Footings

Progress in Photos

Footings




Holes dug for the foundation




Our lot is surrounded by a church and open fields. Other than that, it doesn't actually feel too "rural."

Saturday

Two weeks officially.

We put up the remaining interior walls yesterday. It took a little longer than we expected, but we were working on a lot of the custom details. I am really pleased with the shadow box my husband built above the stairs. It will be perfect for housing a picture right as you go down the stairs. Maybe we can eventually add some nice lighting. He also did a great job putting in three off-set boxes along the stairs. I am pleased with his creativity as the supervisors had very limited ideas about the sizes and shapes of the shadow boxes. He was able to add several inches in depth and width. Most people end up with 3inch shelves--what good is that?

We also worked on cutting out the archways. We have one between the dining room and living room, another from the kitchen to the mudroom, and another in the shadow box. I think they will turn out well.

Our trusses are prepped for our roof, which should go on next Saturday. We are on schedule for our original date of Tuesday, but will wait because we will have more light and manpower on Saturday. We have a goal to fly trusses on both our house and the second house on Saturday. The floors went on the second house (I think they finished) yesterday and we have a lot of work to do to meet this deadline. Hopefully we are speeding up as we learn what we are doing. Interior walls take FOREVER, though.

More photos to come soon--once I have my camera battery again.

Shadow Boxes?

Tomorrow we are putting up a wall next to the stairs. I want to build in some in-lays, shelves, shadow-boxes? I tried to google shadow boxes to get ideas of what I'd want them to look like--the sizes, shapes, how many--but I can't figure out the correct term. Any ideas?

Foundation

Here are a few pictures of our foundation. My camera died before I could get the rest. So more to come soon.

Tomorrow is our official two week mark. After nearly 60 hours of work this week between my husband and I (others have worked,too, but not as much as we have), we have completed the basement walls, stairs, main floor, exterior walls, garage walls, and interior walls.

We have also started house #2 and have the basement walls and some of the floor joists done.

Hopefully tomorrow we can put up the half walls around the stairs, put an extra board on the top of all of our interior walls, prep our trusses, and then get the remainder of the floor joists and flooring on house #2.

Floors & Exterior Walls

Things are moving along, but a little slow (I think). Yesterday finally felt like we were making some progress. Perhaps we are all meeting the learning curve now? I spent the evening finishing up the floor boards on the edges--cutting them to size and making sure they fit properly. It seemed like it took me way longer than it should, but my sis-in-law and I finally managed to complete the task. Now I just need to go back and trim some of the long edges over the stairs.

The other teammates went really fast (compared to how we've been moving) and did a great job framing some of the exterior walls. Hopefully today they will make progress sheeting them (putting the wood on the outside)and then maybe we can get the walls raised tomorrow.

I want to go build tonight, but I don't think anyone will be there. So we will probably stay home doing chores around the house (we are house-sitting for in-laws--putting in the time for their generosity in caring for our dog long-term)--plus my husband has several tests to study for. House sitting hasn't been particularly fun. I've had 7 piles of animal poop and just as many spots of pee to clean up so far. UGGGHH. Stupid passive-aggressive cats! Anyway, I am accompanying the ward choir this week at church and I hope they don't ask for the sheet music back--the cats peed on that too!! Gross that I have to play on pee-stained music. And cat pee stinks so bad. Is that defiling the chapel, by the way?

Anyway, anyone want to come help build tomorrow? I hear it won't snow as bad as they originally predicted! ;)

Building a House Really Isn't That Hard--At Least Not Yet

We started building yesterday. I was very enthusiastic, even with the winter blizzard. Ironically it was very sunny and warm for most of the week, but terrible yesterday. We started with blanketing our neighbor's concrete, then tried to sweep the water off the line where our basement walls would be. It was hard because it was snowing faster than we could get the water to drain. Plus, it took us 20 minutes to realize that the basement drain was plugged.

My husband did a great job helping us chalkline the walls in the basement and we started laying out greenboard and 2x4's, while the rest of our group worked on the greenplate, porch cap and rim joists. I was happy he seemed to know what he was doing and most of us just followed his lead. We did have a supervisor to answer questions and direct us, but he also had to train and oversee 11 other people. I am happy that I am starting to understand this stuff. After only a few mistakes, we had our bearing wall up before we had to quit for a lunch meeting.

We all worked really hard, unfortunately, the snow drove most of our group home a little earlier than usual. But after a quick lunch break, a few of us continued on the basement. To maximize our numbers, my sister in law and I decided to work on the floor joists. Normally I would be a little uneasy about jumping into this sort of thing and the saws and stuff, but I don't really have any option to be sheepish. With about 2 minutes of instruction, we were off laying floor joists, just the two of us. I am pretty sure neither of us ever imagined ourselves putting in floor joists--nail guns, saws, muscles, and all.

After we hoisted and I drug all of the floor joists for the opposite side of the home across the whole yard, we called it a day. The others were able to complete an additional wall where the stairs will be in the basement.

I enjoyed myself and realize that building a house is pretty simple, afterall. I had a good day and look forward to building more on Tuesday. We all worked hard, but I am feeling rushed to push forward. Too bad everyone had to leave early--we probably could have gotten the floor down.

If anyone wants to try building, we'd love to have you. I know a lot of people like to do service over the holidays, right? ;) We would like to finish all 7homes by April so we can qualify for the home buyer tax credit, but that will be quite the feat. The group that is 3 houses ahead of us is worried about meeting the deadline. So I wonder where that leaves us.

I'll have to post pictures soon. Happy building.

Still waiting

An update. We are still in limbo waiting to start building our home. Today we visited another group's homes to see the process so we understand the directions. We may be starting on Saturday with a group of 10. Or, we may split off into a second group of 6-7. I think the Rural Housing people are crossing their fingers we split. I hope not. Although they insist we will be starting right away regardless, I am doubtful. They were supposed to dig our hole and pour our foundation as soon as we closed, which was earlier this week, and it hasn't happened yet. Plus, I think we still have to wait for permits and for the concrete to cure or settle or whatever. I'm just doubtful it will be before November. I am ready to start. Afterall, they've been telling us 1-2 weeks since August. Let us start before it snows and gets too cold. Plus, my husband changed his school schedule to be more accommodating for building--a lot of good that has been so far, the semester will be nearly over by the time we start!

I am optimistic about finishing quickly. But that depends on our group and how hard they work. We saw the homes that started in June. They will be done with 8 homes in 4 1/2 months. WOW! I want to get done that fast, but it is probably unlikely.

We have picked out the features of our home. I chose our stucco color, which I hope is green. It's pretty hard to tell the exact look from a small sample. I think it looks green, but my husband says it looks gray. Either way, I suppose I like the color. But who knows what it will look like full scale. I probably won't even remember anything I chose by the time we get to the end. We also went with cream trim, brown garage doors and gutters, cream windows, and a black roof. We also chose limestone for the rock on the front, which I hope is a nice creamy/yellow/gray. We'll see how it all comes together in several months.

It's amazing how I never noticed the color of stucco or gutters or roofs, but now I am consumed with noticing what colors I like. I notice every shingle and every stone.

We also chose from a small selection of light fixtures, cabinets, countertops, and carpets. I hope we made the right choices. Pretty sure we'll just be happy it is done and won't care too bad.

Cross your fingers and/or pray we can start as soon as possible.

We also drove by the lot today and saw 4 pheasant roosters fly into our yard. According to Russell and his dad, that's a good omen. At least for a family with bird dogs.

Approved!

We have been approved for the Mutual Self Help Program. I do not know all of the details yet, but the rumor I am hearing is that we will start in September. I am crossing my fingers that September means a date closer to the 1st and not the 30th. I think we will have 10 families in our group.

Anyone interested in hammering in some nails this fall?

Floorplan

We attended the open house for the recently completed homes in the Mutual Self Help program. It was helpful to be able to walk through the completed homes and see what the options look like. Although we have not officially been approved, we were allowed to select our floor plan and our lot. Apparently each lot is pre-designated with a house plan to ensure a variety within the neighborhood. Amazingly, the exact lot we wanted also happened to come with the house plan we are interested in. I'd say that is pretty amazing!

We are excited to move forward and our loan is currently being processed. If it processes quickly, we have been told we can join the group that has already begun the pre-construction meetings. That means we start building right away! However, if it takes too long, we will be the #1 family in the next group which will start in a few months. Apparently there are already 4 families in that group (including us) so if we have to wait, I hope we get 3 more families to sign up and get approved right away! I am crossing my fingers we get to start with this current group, but there may be advantages to waiting. I'm sure waiting a few months won't hurt much except for my patience. It would be nice to start before it gets too dark and cold, though.