July 28th...roof decking

I figured out something pretty cool on my camera...the panoramic picture! I knew that it was there, but for some silly reason I never thought to use it so that I could get a complete shot of the house. The only bad thing about it is that the house looks a little warped in some places. I'll try to do better next time.
This is a front view of the house. There is still a gable that needs to be added to the garage and another smaller one on the front porch, but this shot gives a much better idea of what it will look like.
They also put up some decking on the back of the house. Here's a picture of that:

July 24th...Roof decking

We have roof decking down. I'd say about 1/3rd of it is done. Here's part of the back of the house.
Here's the other part that they did on the back.
And here's the north side of the house by the master bedroom/bath.

This is what it looks like in the game room upstairs.
This is what it looks like across the great room and over the master bed/bath.

Ty relaxing upstairs and blowing some bubbles.

July 23rd...strapping (?)

I'm not sure if I'm using the right word (strapping) for what they did today or not, but they put the boards around the outside of the house and reinforced the roof/rafters on the eves of the house. I didn't think it was very exciting, so I only took one sad picture. Here ya go...

July 22nd...more framing upstairs

The room above the garage is framed.
Here's the southern end wall...










Here's the door leading out of that room into the game room. The bathroom and stairs are to the left.







Looking from the game room back into the room above the garage.








Upstairs bath.

July 20th...upstairs framing

Framing upstairs: on the left is the stairs...to the right of that will be a bath (not framed yet) and to the far right is the gameroom.

July 18th...pictures

I got a new cord for my camera so I'm posting some new pictures of the roof progress.

This is Ty's playroom on the back side of the house.







New rafters on the front of the house where the porch and great room meet.


I also looked at the plan and noticed that there is more to be done than I thought. I'm hoping that by the end of the week next week, the roof will be ready to put decking on. Areas left to put rafters on: The garage bump-out, Ty's bedroom, the back porch, and a little bit on the front porch. Yesterday we went to the house and noticed that bracing went up. It kinda looked temporary to me, but what do I know? I'm not even sure what is going to happen next!

July 16th...more roof

The guys didn't work Monday and Tuesday at the house, but on Wednesday and Thursday, they put up more rafters on the roof. I have some pictures to show, but our new puppy, Emmy, decided that chewing on my camera cord would be a good idea. After I get a new cord, I'll post the pics. The new rafters are on the north side of the porch/exercise room and over Ty's playroom. I think the guys only have Ty's bedroom, and the front and back porch left. I can't remember if the dining room has rafters or if that roof is part of the back porch roof. Anyway...it looks great. I'm sure there's all kinds of bracing and stuff to be done before the decking can be put on the roof, but what do I know? That's why we are paying someone else to do this! That brings me to a good point. Before we started building, I looked for blogs that dealt with home builds and came up with a couple. But to my surprise, there weren't very many. Since I have never built a house before, I wanted to know what I was getting into from someones personal experience. I've talked to a lot of people about their experiences, but time frames blur and memories fade...that is one of the reasons I decided to write this blog. I know there are a few other people out there that might want to know what they are getting into before they start. We've heard so many people say that if our marriage can survive building a house, it can survive anything! Well...it hasn't been bad so far. But that may be because our contractor, Mr. Price is so wonderful. The other reason I am writing this blog is so that I could have a memory of the house build and share it with my family that lives out of town.

July 10th...an even taller roof!

I was amazed when we looked at the work done in the last couple of days. I thought the roof was incredible on Wednesday...but oh my gosh! It was even better today! Another dimension was added to the middle of the house, making it even higher. Plus, the porch gable (I think that is the correct term) was started. But when we started looking at it, we couldn't figure out why the gable wasn't centered over the front door, so we got home and looked at the plans and noticed that there is yet another smaller gable that hasn't been built yet that will be centered over the front door. Wow...we couldn't believe that the roof looked so complicated. And to think that Rae (the wonderful friend who did our plans for us) helped us simplify the original plans to make it more affordable! She did such a great job. Anyway, here's some pics:

I haven't shown any pictures of the back of the house (which may be my favorite because of the porch/deck) so here we go! This series of pictures starts at the garage on the right and works its way to the left where the master suite is.

This first picture is showing Ty's bedroom and playroom. The garage is behind these.






Covered porch with the great room behind it.







This shows a different angle of the deck/covered porch. You can also see the great room/dining room/kitchen.




Master bedroom and closet with the bath on the other side.







Front view of the house with the main porch gable.








Here's another view of the porch roof from upstairs.








I couldn't resist putting this picture up. Ty and Paige had a great time building their own houses out of the blocks they found laying around.

July 8th...More roof and porch framing

There were more rafters added to the great room and the front porch framing was started today.













On a special side note...we learned that "Special Agent Oso" lives right above our new house! For those of you who don't have a 3 year old, Special Agent Oso is a cartoon of a bear that helps little kids solve problems. Well...our "Oso" (ironically "oso" is Spanish for bear) is of the young black variety and apparently has made its home in our area. I guess that means we can't leave our trash cans outside! haha

July 7th...Rafters and a front porch!

Went up to the house after not having been for a couple of days and saw that they started on the rafters and poured the front porch. The house looks so much bigger with the rafters up there! I can't believe we are finally getting to do this!

Looking at the front of the house...this is the garage on the left













This is the entrance in the middle. (Notice the newly poured front porch.)







This is the master bed/bath and exercise room on the right.






This is a picture I took while standing in the game room upstairs. I was trying to get a picture of the new rafters and get an idea how tall the ceiling is going to be in the great room.












This picture was taken with me in the game room facing the other way. This room over the garage is labeled a bedroom, but I doubt that it will be used for that at first.

July 1st...more 2nd story decking

Here's more pictures of the second story with decking.

The raised floor is the game room and bathroom.








This is the room over the garage. You can see the stairs to the right. I'm standing in the game room taking this picture.

June 30th...stairs, decking, and more joists

Here's a few pics of the work done while we were gone on vacation.

The decking over the garage for the 2nd story floor is started. You can see Doyle standing up there.


Here's what it looks like from up top. You can also see Ty's bedroom and playroom from up here.





Here's a picture of the stairway to get up to the second floor.

June 30th...Back from vacation

We've been gone on vacation driving NASCAR cars at Talladega and sitting on our behinds on the beach all week. What a great vacation! Since this blog is supposed to be about the house build, I'll spare you too many vacation pics, but I have to post a few!

Doyle is getting ready to drive his 12 laps! He was able to drive 174 mph on the track and he managed to do really well.


After Doyle drove his laps, I was pretty envious that he did this, so I ponied up some $$$ to ride with an instructor for 6 laps and do 180+ mph while racing another car and bump-drafting and passing. It was so fun!


Us....well most of us (the camera cut part of Ty out) at Orange Beach.




Here's a pic of Ty since he was partially cut out of the last picture. He loves the sand!

June 25th...ceiling joists

This picture shows the joists on Ty's room from the deck.














Dining room...














Some big supports in the great room (I have no idea what these are called...)