We’re (hopefully) in the final stretch! We’re also in a sort-of liminal space in that we have a ton of projects going on simultaneously so it’s been hard to gauge where we are on the timeline because it feels like everything is happening, yet almost nothing is technically “finished.”
The biggest project we’ve made tremendous progress on is the flooring. And right behind that is the tilework. Both of which look absolutely fantastic.
All the vinyl plank flooring is down!
The mudroom floor is in progress.
The guest bathroom tilework just needs grout.
The master shower shelves are looking great.
Super stoked I let the builder talk me into a bench.
This will easily feel like the longest one to two months of my life because 1) my excitement has reached critical mass, and 2) the trailer is hot and damp this time of year. We have three floor AC units and five dehumidifiers running almost nonstop and it still feels muggy inside. All. The. Time.
We ordered our garage door in December. That’s how absolutely bonkers supply reliability has been. I really wanted windows that went down the right side, but Mike convinced me that would look dated so I acquiesced.
Not only did we get the garage and man doors, we also got a lovely concrete floor! (Not pictured because I forgot to snap a pic before they installed the door and I’m afraid to open it because I don’t know what it’s anchored to. lol)
This round of work included can light installation in addition to fixture and fan boxes. They also started putting up the insulation.
Can lights and insulation and the wrong screen room door—oh my!
And we got our furnaces (yes, plural, because we’re apparently building a palace—lol) hooked up.
Boy howdy has it been a busy month-ish since my last post. When we last left off, we were waiting for the basement floor to be poured. That happened!
It took THREE cement trucks, but we go ‘er done.
Then we got into a ton more digging. We had three separate trenches dug for water, gas, and electric. So that was fun. I think water and gas are all buttoned up, but our electric provider won’t hire enough people to support the demands of their outdated system (that they refuse to maintain or upgrade) that keeps getting absolutely wrecked by every storm that passes through. We’ve had two or three tie-in dates so far and every time it’s been pushed because of a storm. The last storm was so bad that we were without power for somewhere between 36 and 48 hours. Mercifully, the dogs were at camp and we were staying elsewhere for most of it.
Next up was one of the milestones I’ve been dying to reach: WINDOWS! One of the things I absolutely adore about this house is the massive windows the plan calls for.
Fun fact: There was supposed to be a second front door on the far left. W H Y Y Y ? ? ? I have no idea. We nixed it with no plans to do anything with the space. I started to have some regrets, but we accidentally ordered an extra window, so we get a ton of natural light in the mudroom now. Not mad at it.
While windows were being installed, they also started roughing in the HVAC, plumbing, and wiring. I’ll spare you photos of that because there are so many pipes, wires, and vents that it makes me go cross-eyed whenever I look at it. Why not enjoy some more window/natural light porn instead?
Master bed and bath before.
Master bed and bath after.
Even the garage gets in on the window action.
Dinner with a view.
Entryway before.
Entryway after and I’m OBSESSED with this door and sidelights!
I was so busy watching the roof go up that I didn’t even realize the interior was getting framed out. Seriously. I normally go over every day and see what’s new, but I didn’t check inside for a couple of days because I thought they were just doing roof stuff. Then one day—bam! Wall studs are up.
View from the front door (that big opening straight ahead is where the triple sliding door will go.)
View of the front door if you’re standing in front of the triple slider.
Kitchen and dining room bump-out.
Here’s something fun: Cathedral ceilings were NOT included in the plans for the kitchen/living room area at the center of the home. The roofline was practically made for a cathedral ceiling, but we had to ask for it or we would’ve gotten straight ceilings. Considering we opted for eight-foot ceilings elsewhere in the house, these extra three feet in the main area will keep it from feeling like a hobbit hovel.
Master bed leading into the master bath. I’m fairly certain this bedroom is bigger than our current living room in the trailer.
Nothing makes me feel fancier than this skylight. It was also not included in the original plans. Apparently, we have to think of everything.
Mudroom. I kinda like the bathtub here. Maybe we’ll keep it there and start a new trend. lol
Thank the old gods and the new for all this progress. Even at this break-neck pace, I think we’re running about two months behind thanks to the truss drama, a temporary gravel shortage, and uncooperative weather. Now that we’re under roof, though, we can mostly take weather delays off the table because so much of the upcoming work is indoors. In fact, they’re already prepping the basement floor for concrete!
It happened! It finally happened! The right trusses were delivered, installed, and covered with shingles. We have a real roof—hallelujah! Holy shit! Where’s the Tylenol?!
A reminder of where we were last time…Trusses midway through the process.Plywood, plastic sheeting, angles for days, and—oh, look! More snow.What a beaut!
The original plans had a flat roof straight across the front porch with some cool columns poking up through, but with the winter/snow we get here, our builder advised against it. It looked fancy, sure, but we didn’t want to have any water or weight issues with winter storms getting as out of hand as they can around here. Our builder ran into a few other issues with some of the angles because they weren’t really worked out in the blueprints (cool, cool). But he sorted it out and we’re ready to move this party inside!
Look, I didn’t want to have to make two “truss” puns in a row any more than you wanted to read them, but desperate times…
The trusses were delivered on December 20th. It was pretty exciting with all the trucks and cranes and absolutely massive-looking trusses everywhere. Alas, most of them are somehow the wrong size.
Don’t ask me how. They have access to the blueprints. Our builder has impressed upon them near-daily that the house needs to go under roof for winter work AND the trusses are already nearly a month behind, but here we are on January 4th still waiting for the new ones.
Oh, and the real kicker? The truss company isn’t coming out to take back the wrong-sized ones. So our builder has to disassemble them himself because they’re taking up a ton of space. He’ll use the wood for extra bracing and support, so it’s not going to waste. We’ll get whatever’s left over and hopefully be able to build a shed with it.
Look at all these (mostly) unusable trusses!
It’s absolutely wild to me that we’ve hit so many roadblocks this early in the process. From the loan taking three months longer than expected to having the block crew pull out at the last minute to the roof trusses being late and then the wrong size… It feels like a lot. It also feels like it’s taking forever. That’s partially because we’ve been living in a very small space for almost a year and a half. (Our original goal was to only have to live in the trailer for a year, but that was aggressively optimistic.) And it’s partially because we started the loan and contract processes back in March and we’re not yet under roof 10 months later.
At any rate, this is the number one reason why we insisted on buying property with an existing home on it so we’re not at the mercy of anyone else’s timeline. We can stay here for as long as it takes to build the big house without any concerns about being out by a certain date, renting back from new owners, living in a hotel, etc.
We’ve hit our first of what I presume will be many hiccups along the way. For whatever reason, the company building our trusses is behind. We were supposed to start framing the roof at the very beginning of December, but now it’s looking like we won’t have trusses until at least the 18th.
Our builder is itching to get the roof on so he and his crew can be sheltered from the elements now that the weather has turned. Because we’re so far behind schedule—thanks to a certain loan company I won’t name—it’s especially important to enclose the house and work over the winter because 1) we want a house to live in, and 2) the folks building it need to actually, you know, work on it and be paid.
When we were slogging through the loan process, I felt like I was herding cats all day, every day for months on end. We’re at a point in the process now where I’m able to be patient and relax a bit because I know that for as desperately as we want to be in the house… our crew is even more eager to finish, get paid, and move on to the next thing. I no longer feel a constant pressure to command the ship—I think that at this point, everyone else is rowing just as hard as we are toward our destination.
We live in unprecedented times where supplies and staff seem to wildly fluctuate from embarrassingly bountiful to unimaginably rare. I know that everyone is doing what they can, and hopefully we won’t be too far off schedule because of the trusses. Anyway, please enjoy some interior shots from exterior framing!
Mudroom, laundry room, master suite, dining room, etc.View from the front door. Peep that big-ass hole where our triple sliding-glass door will lead to the screen room!The dungeon.
Things are really starting to take shape and I can barely contain myself! We’re at the point now where I can see the big house before I even cross the street, thanks to the framing. Also: Should I be concerned about all the rain and snow that’s saturating the wood all the time here in London—er, western Pennsylvania? Because the precipitation has been out of control over here.
I’ll probably never stop talking about how much I like being across the street from the build site because I love-love-love stomping over there to see new progress. I know it won’t always be this obvious and that later it’ll look like nothing is being done because it’s all internal. But damn is it fun to watch all this progress.
Just the basement level.Main floor is framed. Screen room above the patio now has a floor.
All that digging and timber-clearing were cool and all, but this is what makes it feel real. Really real. Stuff-is-actually-being-built real. And with the foundation in, it’s way easier to visualize where things will be and get a better idea of room sizes, views, etc.
The bump-out on the left will be a covered patio and on the right will be a little sunroom type of deal in the basement.
At this point, the block has clearly been laid and the beginnings of our drainage system are in place. The walls were reinforced with rebar and concrete, and they moved some dirt into the basement/patio areas to prep it for getting a floor. Whenever that happens. They also tarred the outside of the foundation for extra waterproofing.
Openings for a people door on the left and a vehicle door on the right.
I’m still in various stages of cat-herding with the gas, electric, and water companies at the moment. I am legitimately floored by how much project management I’m having to do. lol I’m constantly calling and emailing people about things. Half the time I have to pass them along to the builder because I have no idea wtf is going on. They get all specific with me about BTU outputs and junction boxes and no. Just no. I have no idea, please talk to the professional about that.
Something neat I didn’t know about footers, likely because I’ve never built a house before, is that they can look really sloppy. If you know me, you know that I’m a bit of a neat freak and I don’t do well with chaos and disorganization and things that aren’t straight/even.
So imagine my (internal) anxiety-fueled meltdown when I realized that some of our footers are literally just trenches in the ground that have concrete poured into them.
So we just like, dump a bunch of concrete in there and hope for the best?
To be fair, some of them were nicely framed with straight, parallel boards and crisp 90-degree angles.
That’s better. Clean lines. Woosah.
But the back of the house looks like complete chaos.
To be clear: I know this is just going to serve as the base for the foundation block. No one but us will ever see this and its appearance is totally inconsequential. I was just not expecting something so… messy. lol
The funny thing about the uneven edges is that the concrete looks like a liquid even when it’s set.
House of Hyperbole 