Week 7-Finalizing Framing, Plumbing, HVAC, and Electrical

I feel like the theme with the house this week is wires and tubes. Although the house isn't looking much different from the outside the inside is taking shape more all the time. This week the electricians have made great strides in completing the electrical. Ben has also completed most of the plumbing although they installed the wrong tub(oval instead of rectangular) so they will be back next week to finish and change out the tubs.

Girls upstairs bedrooms

On Monday they installed all the basement windows and Matt and Cameron(from work) were able to put in a couple of the upstairs windows as well

All the doors were delivered and will be put in the first part of next week

The timber trusses are both in and are just awaiting sheeting. We decided to hire out some of the basement framing, the remainder of the roof sheeting, and all of the blocking in an effort to get done and take some stress off of Matt's shoulders.

Each week things seem to get more stressful. I think its because Matt is working crazy hours and I am alone a lot. Im ready for this stage to be done. I love that we are getting to the point that we will start picking "fun" stuff. The smell of fall is in the air so we better get this house dried in and ready for the snow.

Week 6-Timber Trusses are Up and Our 1st Big Owie

The timber trusses have become a bit more time intensive than I think anyone ever expected. This has always been our problem and it continues to be. In the picture below Matt and Trav are playing teeter totter trying to get the timber to split the rest of the way. After awhile of trying to get it.

Monday the girls and I went up to take dinner and to do some work. I feel so helpless with most of the work since I have 3 little side kicks that come with me everywhere I go. So I took down a lot of the bracing now that the roof is sheeted. Hallie's job was to remove the nails from the 2x4 so that they would be safe and able to be used elsewhere in the house. Grandpa even taught her about a fulcrum and how it makes it easier to get the nails out. She is getting really good at it.

Wednesday night while trying to put up the big timber Matt got his thumb smashed between the reach fork prongs and the timber. It looked pretty bad but we were able to dress it for the night and then Thursday morning Matt went to the instacare where they poked holes in his fingernail to relieve the pressure and redressed it. It is healing really well but it has caused Matt a lot of pain unfortunately. We are just glad it wasn't worse

Thursday evening they finally got up the big timber truss after the accident Wed night. Things like this are a short lived celebration when you step back and see how much we have left to do 

We got a bid to have the AV done in the house for surround sound, music speakers, cameras for security, and all of our internet, phone, and data connections. The bid came back and was over 2700 dollars. Matt really is capable of running the wire but has no time to do that. So I called my dad on Tuesday to see if he would be willing to come up and run all the wire for us. He was so great and the next day had a plan in place to come up and run all the wire as well as getting us a good price on the wire. It was more than I could have ever asked. Saying thank you 100 times will never express how much we appreciate my dad driving 8 hours each way alone, using his vacation days, and running all the wire himself. It was fun to spend a couple days just visiting while he ran wires and I did a few other projects around the house. With him doing it and getting us a good deal on wire we got more than we even wanted for less than 600 bucks!

The girls have been really good to help. They were in charge of moving the wood and plumbing supplies so I could sweep the floor so it would be ready for the guys to frame it in.

On Saturday the 2nd and final truss went up. It really had to get up since the rental place was coming to get the reach fork on Monday...time was of the essence. They are going to look great and just another hurdle to jump to get to the finish line of finishing this house.

Im so ready for the framing part of this journey to be over! I have never seen Matt this stressed and I think we are both over the long hours he is working. We both feel stuck between a rock and a hard place we want to quit but if we do nothing progresses so we just keep swimming.

Week 5-Framing/Mechanical/Fireplace

This week Matt realized the framing is going to slow and he really needed to hire someone else to finish the sheeting on the roof so he could focus on the couple other framing projects(the timber trusses, finishing framing the basement, and the back patio) so luckily he was able to find someone to finish the roof so he could get other things accomplished and not hold up our schedule. Matt got our fireplace framed in so they can come install it.

For now it has become the girls stage where they put on shows and may stay that way when we move in

Wednesday night they were also able to get the beams put up for the back patio trusses

This week other trades have started to come in. The electric and plumbing should start tomorrow or Monday but today they finished the HVAC. Its nice to see things coming togethernow if we can only finish the framing completely!

We are really grateful for all the help we have received but I'm also relieved that Matt has found someone to take over the sheeting for the roof. I think he is way less stressed now that he doesn't have to worry about it anymore. Now the weather is starting to cool down in the morning and evenings...a sure sign of fall. Its time to get this thing dried in and ready for the winter!

These are a few pictures from how week 5 wrapped up. Im so glad we hired the crew to finish the roof I think it would have taken another month before it would have been done. 

Saturday the goal was to get the timbers put together and maybe get them up but it went every way but the way we had planned! It was terrible! Matt called and their chain saws weren't working to cut the trusses. Long story short I ended up heading up to take him another chain saw that I picked up from Jon and Steph's house only to get it there and it ran for about 30 minutes and quit! I ended up running to Home Depot to buy a chain saw and various other stuff Matt needed and getting dinner. I made 3 trips up and down the canyon. On top of that with 3 kids, my ulcerlative colitis flaring, and my milk supply decreasing it was a little stressful to say the least. But at the end of the day Matt was able to get this together...I can't wait to see it up on the house.

Framing Week 4

Another week of trusses is underway and hopefully by the time the week ends they will be complete and they will complete the sheeting so next week we can get our other trades in and get Matt back to not working 18 hour days.

North

North East

North West

West

South West

South

South East

East

North East

North East

North 

The girls have found very creative ways to entertain themselves. Although not all of them safe so we have had to keep a close eye on them but they are great to play together while I help clean the house up

 South 

 Saturday Matt got some extra help in the form of Carson and Nick. Lately it seems like our help has been less reliable which makes it hard for Matt to get things done since he can't do most of it by himself. So we were extremely grateful it worked otu for them to come help Matt for the entire day.

 South East

 East

 North East

 North

 North West

 West

 Yet again the girls making a place to play. This "swing" was a big hit until dad shut the fun down:(

This concludes our week. I can tell Matt is getting frustrated that things aren't going faster. He is exhausted and missing us girls more every day. At this point all the trusses are up minus the timber trusses and the back patio trusses(we are waiting for the concrete to be poured in the spot footings) We were able to go up Sunday after church and lay out some more of the basement. I just really want to be sure that we have enough storage in the house. We also went over where they were going to put both furnaces and the air vents to make sure they were in good spots. This week we also met with 2 AV guys and a central vac which we are considering putting in. Now with the trusses on it is taking more shape of what the final project will be which is nice. With school drawing near Im ready for Matt to be done framing so we can keep the progress coming. Multiple people have told us how quickly the house is coming along but we don't really feel that way but Matt and I have always held ourselves to a higher standard so that is probably the problem. Matt and I talked on the way home about how it might be time to call in some more help and pay someone to finish the roof to free up a lot of Matt's time. I think its time to look for some more help and luckily Matt is also on board. I guess we will see how it goes