Framing – House of Hyperbole

Empty Walls, aka Interior Framing

February 11, 2023April 10, 2023JessDellenLeave a comment

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.}

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!

Roof Raisin’

February 10, 2023April 10, 2023JessDellenLeave a comment

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…}

^{Plywood, plastic sheeting, angles for days, and—oh, look! More snow.}

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!

We Have Truss Issues

January 4, 2023April 10, 2023JessDellen2 Comments

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 Been Framed

November 29, 2022April 10, 2023JessDellenLeave a comment

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.