House Build 2023

[dodge man]

It’s looking good.

There is a saying, I can’t exactly remember but something like “90% of the work gets done in 10% of the time then the last 10% of the work uses 90% of the time”.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

That may be the case, but this week has been a whirlwind of action. Today I have painters, cabinet people, ceiling installers, and septic installers at the house. If I can just get the last little bit of trim done I would feel a lot better.

 

[EddieWalker]

Are you going to stain the ceiling? I've done that before and it was a horrific mess. I sure hope they are better at it then I was. Now I stain and seal the tongue and groove boards before installing them.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

The wife just wants to seal coat it with a shiny finish. The decorative trusses will be wrapped with 1X cypress and stained dark.

I offered for them to use the shop to pre-finish the tongue and groove but they didn't want to. The painters are one heck of an efficient group. There's a bunch of them and they are always working.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

That may be the case, but this week has been a whirlwind of action. Today I have painters, cabinet people, ceiling installers, and septic installers at the house. If I can just get the last little bit of trim done I would feel a lot better.

Everybody is wanting to get paid! That's why the action.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Ceiling in the great room is mostly done! The T&G will probably just be clear coated. The decorative trusses will be wrapped in Cypress and stained a dark chocolate color. There will be a decorative beam in the peak that will match the trusses. The master bedroom will have the same ceiling minus the decorative trusses but with the center beam.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

It seems like I can never get my part of this house build caught up. Entergy just came and ran power to the house, yay! Since that is in now, I have to trench water from the front of the house around to the shop, trench power from the house to the shop and finish grade where I trench including across the driveway. The septic system was put in at the end of last week and we immediately got 3+ inches of rain so now I need to finish grade that too, it all settled quite a bit. Gotta get all the trenching and re-grading done before the driveway and sidewalk can be formed in the next week or so...

But, I'm a Roman Soldier at church for the next 3 evenings for our Bethlehem Revisited program and it's supposed to rain all day Saturday again... How does anyone have time to have a job...

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Little update. I'll post some more pictures before too long.

Painting is mostly done. HVAC was hooked up yesterday, so now we have a little heat. I ran water and power out to the shop from the house last weekend. Garrage doors should install this week, driveway and sidewalk should pour this week or next. Countertops go in on the 27th flooring the first week of 2024. It's getting close!

 

[EddieWalker]

I may of forgotten this, but where are you living while the house and shop are being built? Are you renting? I'm just curious what it's taking to go through this process.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

We almost built before we sold our old house in the neighborhood. But, I got nervous. So, we ended up buying a mobile home, moving out to the property and selling our old house. There was one on the property before so we just put ours where the old one was. The septic and water service were still in good shape, that saved us quite a bit of money. We've been in it for about 2 and a half years. The house site is about 100 yards from the trailer site. We will move directly from the trailer to the house and sell the trailer, hopefully very quickly. We can't close on the mortgage until it's gone.

We are all SO ready to get out of the trailer. When we moved in it was me, my wife, and youngest child (14 at the time 16 now), a weenier dog, and a cat. We were tight but relatively ok. Then about 3 months ago our oldest daughter (21) went through a divorce and now she's back with us, with a whole house of stuff and 3 extra cats.... We are bursting at the seams and quick to get at each other's throats. It's a challenge but we are making it.

Shop is done short of big door and electricity. It has been helpful for sure. Most of the oldest child's house stuff is in it. I've also been plaining the cypress we are using for some of the trim that I got at a sawmill in there. I'm just running a big extension cord from the temp pole for now. I do have the conduit run and breaker panel ready for wire. I'm just having to use my time on the most pressing deadline at the time so it's just going in stages.