Always room for improvement.

Ever since we started building the interior walls I've been second guessing where EVERYTHING is going! It is a good and bad thing that we are doing this by ourselves... The good thing is that I can change something while in the middle of building it. The bad thing is that I can change something while in the middle of building it! I'm so happy that I have a errr "patient" husband! Maybe not so patient, just tolerable of my wishy-washyness. For now I'm happy with the second bedroom - we haven't changed the size of it yet! But, I continue to try to rearrange our bathroom to get more space. Everytime I try to change where the sinks go or the toilet, I always go back to the original plan. I guess it is best to go with what you had in the first place!

We are so excited to work on the house right now. It is so gratifying to see all the rooms in place. We should be finished with the interior walls, all the top plates and the framing of the front and back porches this weekend. We are leaving on Sunday to go to the annual Solicitor's conference in Hilton Head. I am excited about the break but also hate to leave our work. I'm sure it will still be here when we return! We will be back on Wednesday to work on roof trusses!

I want to take a picture of the interior walls. We've borrowed this super cool lift from a friend that can lift me about 50 feet in the air. I will try to snap a picture from above tomorrow!

Working on the interior walls.

We started working on the interior walls last night! We have the bottom plates down for each room, closet, etc. I wish I could get a picture from above to show everyone but I can't get high enough... Basically it looks just like the house plan! The bottom plates (2x4s) serve as an outline for where all the walls will go. You can actually "walk" into a room via a doorway! Or, at least you can tell where the doorways will be because of the bottom plates. I'm a little worried about the size of the 2nd bedroom but I think it will be okay. The laundry room is HUGE! I'm going to be able to throw a party in there! Super excited about the storage space that the laundry/mud room will provide!

Thanks to SuSu and Mr. David for the help yesterday. SuSu was quite a trooper through the rain, humidity, and darkness of the evening! I often forget to say something about our biggest little helper, TJ. He is the ULTIMATE trooper for not complaining, keeping himself busy, staying out of the way, etc. He often goes without a good meal all day or has to put up with the blazing heat of the Lowcountry. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful nephew! Thanks "T" for being so special and understanding!

Walls are up!

Saturday morning 7:30 a.m.


The first wall being built.


The first wall up! The window closest to Mr. David is the laundry room. The front window is in the dining room/office.


Russ, Matt and Daniel guiding our bedroom/bathroom wall into place.


Almost there...


View from the driveway.


One of the back walls going up. We had to do the back wall in 3 sections because it was too long... Didn't want to replay the incident with the garage wall!


All major exterior walls complete! You are looking at the back wall of the house - With a window over our tub, the kitchen window, then the back door.


View from the front!


We finished every wall except for the 2 smallest ones.


It is raining today so I'm not sure how much we will get done. But, hopefully we will get pretty far on the interior walls!

Sub Floor Down

Our sub floor is down! You can really see how the house is shaped now! We were so surprised at
fast it went down. It only took a couple of hours. Thanks to Mr. David, Mr. Glen, and Timmy Clark for helping. We are marking out where the walls go tonight so we should have a wall or two up tomorrow! Yeah!

Floor joists finished and sub floor started. (The part in the front with no joists is the front porch. We can't do the joists there until we have the walls up. Same for the back porch.)


Russ using the nail gun to put down the plywood.


Side view of them finishing the sub floors!

Pictures!

Russ laying the last brick! We saved $2,300!!


We actually have wood on the house!


Floor joists as of midnight last night.


Finishing up tonight. If you look close you can see all the metal plates that we had to nail on today! Every 12" and 12 nails per plate... NOT FUN! It took us all day. If the house blows away with a hurricane, the entire community of Lebanon will go with it!

Bricks are finished!

I am happy to say that we finished all the masonry on Sunday afternoon. No more concrete! As Russ was laying the last brick he reminded me that this 3 week DIYer saved us a whopping $2,300! Makes all that mixing and heavy lifting worth it when you think of it that way... I swear my left arm is bigger than my right from all the shoveling I was doing! Our original goal was to finish by last Tuesday night. A few rain days/nights got us behind so Sunday was good for us. We were told that it would take at least a month, so less than 3 weeks was VERY good.

Russ and his dad worked yesterday and tonight on the rim boards. Yes, we actually have boards on the house! This is so exciting! By the weekend we should have the subfloor on and ready for walls. It will go pretty fast for the next few weeks so hold on to your hats!

I would like to thank my mom for letting us take a vaca at her house while she was vacationing in Michigan. Though we love living with the Hilton family and being so close to the job site, it was nice to have some quiet time for a little while. We've been so busy working on the house and hanging out with the family that we haven't taken much time to just be "us." Thanks Ma for letting us crash at your pad! I've always wanted to say "crash at your pad." HeHe!

It is back to crashing with the Hiltons as of tomorrow. We are excited about being back with the family and able to hang out with TJ again. We've missed the little guy! Thanks Hilton family for allowing us to live with you while we are working on our house. What would we do without y'all?!

bricks

The brick and block work has really gone quite well. We were told by some friends that built their own home that it would take us a month to complete it. Well, today is the 2 week mark and we are almost finished! In fact, we would be finished tonight but we've had to suffer through 3 rain days. Can't lay brick in the rain... But, we've stayed busy doing other things instead. The work is NEVER ending!

In the last couple of weeks we've had a few birthdays that need to be mentioned. Russ is officially 31, TJ is 4, and Mr. David is getting younger everyday! Happy birthday to all the Hilton boys!


This is the front of the house. Can't you imagine walking up the front steps!?


Inside the garage


The first wall we built!





Russ working hard. The mortar between the bricks has to be scraped. Don't worry, it doesn't look that bad once it is all said and done.