Laundry Room

This week we have started on electrical and (need to be started on) Plumbing.  The plumbing is supposed to get started tomorrow, I hope!  I am ready to start seeing sheet rock!

I had 5, yes 5 can lights installed in the laundry room.  The electrician said I should have no problem doing my laundry now!  I hope he is right!

The laundry room got built last week, it is 10 x 12, in order to be level with the existing house it had to be raised up about 4 feet.

That left this little cubby, storage area underneath. 

Then came the stairs, the reason why we started this project was because we didn’t have stairs coming into the house since we poured our cement pad over 2 years ago!  2 years with out stairs is a long time, but worth it in the end, now I have a garage, and stairs!

 

I love the stairs, they are so wide and not tall, just right.  These are roughed in for building purposes, they will be finished with that Trex type decking material.  Ryan’s one splurge.  I wish I only had one splurge.  The most used phrase around our house goes something like, “well we might as well do this….., or we are only going to build this garage once, we may as well do this…..”

I think it is going to turn out great!

The window went in yesterday, the washer and dryer will go right under it with the sink in the corner next to the house.  So, Sink, Washer, then dryer.

This wall will have cabinets and folding counter, and corner coat closet.

We did get siding ordered, hopefully plumbing and electrical roughed in this week, and colors picked out. I need to pick out exterior lights (4 of them, yikes!) and laundry room flooring.  It is getting closer, but yet still lots to do!

The kids were so excited that there were 6 ladders in the garage!!  It has been a bit scary trying to keep them off of them.  Emma was bouncing the basketball from the top! Everyone wants to be right in the middle of the construction, I am doing my best to keep them OUT of it!  Hopefully I have lots of progress to post next week!

Last Week’s Progress

The trusses and sheeting went up all in one day, I think.  It was really quick anyway.  It has been fun to see a lot of progress in a little time. 

I thought it would take a crane to get the trusses up but they did it with two guys up on ladders on each side and one guy (16 year old boy) pushing the truss up to them.  I left for about an hour and they had all of them up but two!  I am sure they didn’t want to spend all day long doing that miserable heavy job!

The next day they sheeted the roof.  It is ready for shingles.  Ryan had to bow out of that job.  He really wanted to roof it himself (I think, (I know) he likes to do the work himself, but spring is here and potatoes are being shipped starting two days ago!  He is not here to eat dinner, let alone put on a roof.

 

 

This is still pretty much how it looks today still.  They have been working almost every day, just not on anything that makes it “look” any different. 

I did go pick siding, doors, and garage doors yesterday.  That was fun.  I picked this board and batten siding, we are painting it white.

These are the garage doors.  Ryan really wants windows in them though, so they may change if it isn’t to pricey.  He is worried about not having enough light in the garage.  I would love them with windows!

 

And we just went with the nine pane doors, to add more light, but I didn’t want them too inviting.  I get tired of people coming in the mudroom door.  I don’t know why people in Idaho cant use the front door!  Drives me crazy! 

The windows are just a white vinyl with no panes.  Im not totally sure, but I think this house just may turn into the house of my dreams!  Ryan is doing a good job providing it for us.  I feel blessed!

Framing

The framing has begun, and actually finished yesterday.  So we have four walls now!  It look so big!  We are all excited!

The trusses went up today, I will post pictures after the crew is gone.  It is so nice to not be doing the work ourselves!  Everyday no matter if Ryan is here or not (which is more not) work is still getting done!  We are already planning our annual donut party in the new garage!  Last party we had over 90 people so I think we have to move it to the garage to accommodate everyone! Yay for progress!

Lumber Delivery

All the lumber came for the garage today.  Rett and I liked watching the little skid steer load on the trailer.

The contractor says it will only take one day to frame and one day to put the trusses up.  Im excited to see some walls go up!

Garage Floor and Skirt

The rest of the garage floor was poured and the skirt out the front.  It is really pretty, if cement can be pretty!

Framing should start this week!

More Concrete

I didn’t realize It would take multiple pours of concrete to get the foundation all done.  I think we will have three pours by the time its all done.  The stem walls were poured next, which are cool because then I could see where the doors are going to be, makes it a lot more visual. 

The final cement (I think) will come thursday.  They will pour the rest of the floor and then the skirt out front and repair some of my old sidewalk.

The contractor thinks he will finish in 4 to 5 more weeks.  They will start framing next week!  All of our snow has melted and everything is SO muddy!  I am ready to not park in the mud and to have a brand new mudroom!  Cant wait!

Concrete

The cement mixer (as Rett calls it) came for the first pour.  This was for the footings, they are completely under the dirt, we wont see them at all once it is back filled.

The contractor formed them all up and then covered them in those thick tarps so they would be ready for cement.  It has been really cold.  He said he added an accelerant to the cement to make it dry quicker.  Seems to have worked!

Garage Excavation

Ryan and the kids did the garage excavating.  We had to extend our already existing cement pad 8 feet and then dig around it all for the footings.  Then lots and lots of gravel and raking and shoveling, perfect for a bunch of kids!

It is coming along now!

(Getting) Official!

The plans for the garage came from the drafts lady yesterday.  They look good and official!  Ryan took them to the Planning and zoning this morning.  Hopefully the paper work wont take longer than the garage will take to build.  Im nervous! 

 

Ryan also started a little excavating and brought in some gravel.  Im going to be kicked out of my parking spot soon!

Fireplace Installation: Day 1

Ryan and I have been wanting, (and needing) to get a fireplace in our house for sometime.  We are always reminded we need one when the power goes out and we get COLD!  We wanted to put it in upstairs, but decided we would wait on that (we have a entire remodel project planned for the kitchen so we thought we would do it then)  ANYWAY, the winter construction projects are beginning and this is the first!

I originally wanted to put the fire in the middle of the room (right where the circle mirror is), but we decided the corner would be best.  Ryan got it all framed and ready for the propane guy to come.

We found a propane insert used on craigslist, Dad would be proud!  I just hope it works!  I forgot to take a picture of it. Hopefully we will have it up and running in a week (or two)  We plan to put rock on the face of it.  It should turn out really pretty!