Interior walls starting with the dining room

Dining room and "big room", with lumber in foreground in the formal living. 

outside the back door, looking into the kitchen

the kitchen, and the island electrical pipe in the middle of the floor

opposite side of the kitchen viewing the laundry room door, utility to the right.

Next to the front door, looking down the hall.  All the bedroom doors are on the right of the hall, windows lining the hall.

Master bedroom is the last to finish, and was completed (except for window framing) on November 27, 2011!!  Happy Cindy! 

Wooden walls following the tire walls

The first trip to the lumber yard was soon followed by nailing down the perimeter plate.

After putting the perimeter plate down, we started on walls the exterior first.

Yay!! The first Wall Is UP!!

Bigger sections require 2 people to lift

Morgan likes her bedroom wall!

Perimeter Complete!! 

September's Progress

O.k.  So we bought lumber-- This is what we did with it-- made a wall!  And Up it Goes!! 

The second section went up even more quickly than the first!

 Kristina & Morgan came and helped some, here they await their next command.

Cindy & Joe push another wall up here, they're not too heavy, I don't think.  Joe told me this part would go quickly, but, Man!  One month ago we were finishing pouring the concrete!! 

 This view is from the South West corner,  taken from the direction of the road.  We got this far Sunday, September 25, but quit in the early afternoon-- it got too hot again, and we were tired from having worked solid Thursday, Friday, and Saturday too.  Joe's "Boss" was out of town (his Dad) and he needed something to do.  I took a few days off work and we busted some tail!  As of today (Saturday) we're 3/4 of the way through with the outside wall!  We hopefully will be able to finish that part tomorrow, and then the rest of the week finish out window and door frames. 

Last, but not least, my sister thought my accessories should match my house, so she found a cool website to get recycled truck tire inner tubes-turned purses, wallets, belts, etc. (englishretreads.com)  This is my b-day gift from her!  I get lots of compliments for it!  The blue fabric is recycled waterbottles, too!   Just kind of goes along with the theme, here!  Hmm... what else can we recycle tires into???  I'll let you know when we start our landscaping!  We have alot of leftover tires, we're going to have to get rid of them somehow....

Let's get ready to LUMBER!! (haha)




OK, so we've bought lumber before, and call me silly, but this is the first lumber trip for the house's actual FRAME!!  I was excited and had to take a picture!   

 


The FIRST piece of board down for plate.









The next day when we were working further down on the plate, there was a tremendous squealing, and we looked over just in time to see both snake and prey (a baby ground squirrel, to our dismay) in the middle of a violent thrashing!  They were completely in the air twice that we saw.  We did get a little closer to get a picture, and to check for rattles, but it was a rat snake, so we were relieved and much less apprehensive to have witnessed such an event of nature!




 

Near dusk, so this picture is blue, but this is the master bedroom and bath. Kristina is standing in Joe's closet, and Joe is working on the plate around the shower.  This is from 8/13/11, weekend after we did all of the perimeter plate.  We do get over here evenings during the week, but the days are getting shorter, and it's still 100* at 8PM sometimes, so we don't always work every night.  Joe is Superman, and can work through any heat, it seems, but
I really can't stand working in it over  95* unless the sun is real low.

Joe, still working on measuring shower, the commode is where the cinderblock is, and the pipe behind Kristina is the drain for the tub.  Give me some walls and a roof!  I'm moving in!! 









Finishing the Concrete

Second half ready to pour

the 15' section that had to be ripped out because the septic line buckled under the first 1/2 pour...  found it Thursday, and Joe and Dad took off work and got it fixed on Friday before the 2nd pour on Saturday- Whew!!  that was close!   



The first couple of wheelbarrows, again used to fill the footing first, and this time, the septic lie passed the test post-pour.




Joe's Dad running the power trowel to smooth things out



the 2nd half still fresh and dark,

I like this pic with the sun starting to set making pretty beams across "Our Place"

Tomorrow-- let's buy some lumber!

Saturday, July 16,  concrete getting ready to pour 




 


The first wheelbarrow carefully poured over the plumbing. Unfortunately, we found the following Thursday, not carefully enough, and this 15 foot, 18+ inches deep section had to be torn out and the plumbing rebalanced so the last toilet would flush properly...

After the footing was poured then they started on the frst of 3 sections of the "pour". 







All the guys working like madmen to get the concrete level before it got too hard in the heat to move anymore.



And, Voila!!   Half of our foundation shiny, smooth, and beautiful!! More concrete to follow next Saturday. 

Form boards are up along the south wall  the Middle of July

and Jay Jay kitty cat approves of the pit we dug for the fireplace so the concrete is stronger to support the masonry of the chimney.

Jay Jay still peeping out of the fireplace pit...

And now "The Guys" (concrete crew) are ready to push some concrete around!!    BRING IT ON!!   We did have to divide the slab in half so the amount of concrete was manageable.  It was getting too hot by noon to work much past the middle of the day. (100+)

Finishing plumbing

The bucket is approximatley where the kitchen sink  will enter the line, and here we have the "END of the LINE"  !!   Powder room finishes it!                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Graywater line going in, coming off the powder room sink at a 90* angle.   It has to empty on the opposite side of the house because the graywater drain field cannot be closer than 100' to the water well. Apparently the alkalinity of the graywater can damage the pipes to the well.     Joe adding the stinky purple pipe stuff to seal the joint......and now ready for the form boards!!

The Merry Month Of May....

The Full Moon rising over the Great Tire Wall

 Plumbing underway, 

And plumbing Complete!  And now, on to grading the dirt inside for final foundation prepwork.

April 2011

SO excited about getting our new garbage dumpster!!    I'm all about keeping our worksite clean...

AND, speaking of clean...  our first toilet's plumbing in the septic line- completed!  on to the next 4.         Dirt, Glamorous dirt...More to come...