Sunday, May 2nd

Last Sunday Ken continued the framing process, and I took lots of photos. (In addition to taking pictures, I cleaned up the weeds along the fence).

Trimmed the Winged Elm

Front door

Kitchen window

View from kitchen island: hallway with bedroom, bath, laundry room to the left. Living room to the right.

View from living room corner...from left: master bedroom, dining area, kitchen, bedroom

Clear view of living room and back porch.

Master bedroom entrance

Master bedroom

Master bath entrance

From left: shower, tub, double sinks

View from shower: closet door

View out of tub windows (see why we need to clean this area up? lol)

Trumpet creeper

Shed treasures

Virginia creeper

Ken hard at work

Tree Trimming

Last night we took a break from framing to trim some branches on the oak tree. These branches are in the way when it comes to the truss installation, so we figured we might as well cut them out now. Ken's (brave) son boldly offered to help with the tree trimming:

Ken, climbing the ladder to tie it to the tree with rope to reduce the chances of it sliding around up there

The boys, gearing up

While they were playing with the chainsaw, Nat played with Zeus

I think it's safe to say they were having more fun...

Both are full of energy :)

Meanwhile, Ryan climbed the ladder and pulled the chainsaw up by a rope

Although he handled the height like a champ, he was high enough to make me and everyone else watching pretty nervous!

Didn't even seem to phase him...

Here you can see the huge branch in midair after it was cut

Once that huge branch was cut from the limb, the entire limb bounced up and likely pulled the ladder up with it a bit. We were all pretty tense, and the chainsaw managed to drop in the midst of this.

So, that was a wrap on tree trimming for the evening...

Unfortunately Ryan was still up there and ready to descend, but the wind picked up and became a little unsafe. He was now working with less ladder at the top, and we worried once he got lower, the branch may fly up a bit more. As you can see, Nat was a concerned onlooker :)

The wind finally died down and he was able to descend low enough to step off onto the wall

I'm sure he was glad to be on solid ground! But then Ken had to climb the ladder to untie it from the tree branch, and I'm pretty sure I shaved a few years off my life watching him on the way back down.

Next, it was time to pull the fallen tree branch out of the living room.

 One branch down, two more to go. We have decided to go the safe route of hiring a professional (like I told everyone last night: the cost to pay someone is worth my sanity!), so hopefully they'll be able to cut what we need without cutting too much! 

The framing continues...

As you can imagine, the framing process is long and on-going. Once the wood went up, I took lots of photos since it was so exciting. So, this post is another one that is heavy on the photos. These were taken last Thursday. We skipped date night to do some work, and we were glad we did. It was a cloudy, humid evening and it looked like the sky was ready to drop open at any time. I even snapped my first lightning picture at the end of the night!

The hero shot

Framing: you can see part of bedroom in very left, another bedroom in middle, and laundry room/bathroom is in right of photo. Taken from dining room.

Standing on back patio. Master bedroom to the left, living room to the right and kitchen/dining room in middle of photo

Adding brace board

He knows no fear...

I was nervous enough to stand on this ladder and hand him the camera!

View of house from above. Two bedrooms, foyer, and parts of bathroom & laundry room

Another bird's eye view. Dining room, master bed & bath in center of photo.

In less than a year, I'll be sitting in this same spot, but on a couch :)

Standing at kitchen island

Leaping in dining room 

Catching air in the kitchen

Garage

More brace boards

Dan & Ken, having a pow-wow

My pride and joy- took 15 mins and a whole lot of patience to capture this! I would sit in position for about 5 minutes, eye up to viewfinder, finger on the shutter. I'd lose my patience for about 10 seconds, then a strike would hit! It was pretty frustrating...

Framing will continue for sometime, as we still have to frame out some closets and whatnot. For the most part, we are nearly finished. We cut some big limbs off of that oak tree today- more on that to come in the next day or so. This was probably the most stressful part of the entire house building process so far, and I wasn't even a part of the work! 

More Framing

  Since the initial framing was kicked off two weeks ago, a lot has been accomplished. All exterior walls and most interior walls are complete, and windows were framed out this weekend. 

Ian, Dan, Ken and Sharon getting ready to lift bedroom #2 wall.

Ian building the wall

Ken putting the finishing touches on the wall

Heave-ho

Holding it in place until it is nailed to the concrete and surrounding walls

I took this photo a couple days later while burning some trash. The smoke filled the entire neighborhood and each time I heard a siren my heart skipped a beat.

We spent half of Easter Sunday working, and the other half taking it easy. Here is Nat standing in her bedroom's window. 

Ian using the "persuader"

Nat and Ian building a wall

They make it look easy

We've spent several weeknights and most of our weekends working, but have still had plenty of time off. We are right on schedule, and roof trusses should be delivered next week some time. We are considering new house colors, so repainting the shed may be on the agenda for the next couple weeks. Today I spent my time cleaning up the weeds along the wooden fence and trimming back the jasmine, while jumping in to help Ken when needed. More on framing to come!