....would there be a sound? You bet there would!

Last June (2012), I made a post entitled "If a tree falls in the woods..." This is the continuation to that post. Yes. It's taken us over 6 months to take down the remaining trees. These ones were by power lines so we had to hire this done.

These are the remaining locust trees that needed to come down in order for the electric company to hook the house's electric service up.

This is the tree service. 

Better view of the trees. These things are massive.

All gone!

The house looks so much different without any of the trees behind it anymore.

This is the mess we were left it. Some of these logs are 30+ feet long.

This is going to be fun cleaning up.

Playing catch up

It's been a while since I posted. Things have been going on at the build site, but rather than make a bunch of separate posts, I'm going to make one really big one. :)

 The insulation baffles have been put in. Attic insulation baffles are forms, typically made of cardboard or plastic, that create a gap between the attic insulation and the roof sheathing, allowing air to flow from the soffit vents into the attic itself. Baffles are secured to the roof sheathing near the eaves. They effectively prevent the attic insulation from covering the soffit vents, promoting airflow from the soffit vents across the roof sheathing to the ridge vents.

 Closets in the kids rooms have been put in as well. As you can see, we are going with swing open doors for their closets instead of sliding or bifold doors. Those styles of doors, to me, are just too easy to take off of their tracks.

 This is a view of the children's bathroom. As you can see, we went with an all-in-one bathtub/shower enclosure. This bathroom is roughly 5x11 and all three children will have to share it. We're going to be having a large vanity as well as a pantry in this bathroom.

 This is how we've been heating the house, since we don't have a working furnace, or duct work. It's an OLD Ford brand torpedo heater. This thing is older than I am, but works amazingly well.

This is the pit known as the stairwell to our basement. We currently use a large extension ladder to reach the basement. Eventually, we will be adding an L-shaped set of stairs into the basement. 

 One of our windows was put in to allow natural lite! We went with SilverLine windows by Andersen. These are double hung, double tilt vinyl windows with Low-E glass. I love them! They are also rather large in size as they are egress windows. The windows are roughly 3x5!

 Our ceiling light outlets are starting to be put in as well. If you look closely to the left of my Dad, you can see one of the recessed lights going in down the hallway. We went with 6" recessed fixtures.

 This is a shot of the walk-in closet in the Master bedroom. It's approximately 5x6 with 8 1/2 foot ceilings! I love this closet! We're planning on having a double set of rods, shelves, and other random goodies. Plus, I'm going to add a sliding barn to close it.

 This is the master bathroom. It's definitely smaller than the other bathroom at only 5x8, but hubby and I don't need a lot of space. We've lived in places with -much- smaller bathrooms. I'm just glad to have a tub in this one.

This is the rest of our windows that have yet to be installed. That cute little one in the front is our kitchen window. It's actually an impressive 3x3 window! It's going to make the kitchen so light-filled.

We have (more) interior walls (Part 2)

My Dad, Hubby's Dad, and Hubby all worked hard today in order to finish putting in the interior walls. They got them done though! It's amazing how putting in framing for walls makes it look so much more like a real house. We have a lot of bracing to put in, but next steps are plumbing, electrical, and HVAC.

 Building more walls.

 Putting the wall in place. Even Little Man had to get in the action.

 Little Man just loves being helper at the construction site. 

 Looking at the doorways for the bathroom (left) and the stairway to the basement (right)

 Building more walls!

 The kids' rooms!

The master. 

We have interior walls (Part 1)

Today was an eventful day. MD and DH leveled the main beam of the house and we put up some of the interior walls. Tomorrow, we'll hopefully finish the interior framing. Hopefully. :)

My Dad marking where the interior walls will go. 

My Dad laying out the framing for the first interior wall.

 The first interior wall all put together.  

 The second wall!

 Look! We have a room! Whee!

Same room, different angle.

When your Dad tells you to NOT play in the mud, this is the reason why. Miss Attitude decided she knew better. She ended up sinking well above her ankles and had to rescued. 

We have (interior) wood!

This is all the wood to make our interior walls. It's 144 2x4x8's, 6 2x4x12's, 30 2x4x14's, and 14 2x4x16's. That's a lot of wood.

Exterior

This is a collage of the plans for the exterior. Some of the products have been decided on, but we don't know for sure where we are buying them from, so there won't be a link to the exact product. Once they are bought and installed, I'll link them.

 1. 30x60' White Vinyl Double Hung Windows 2. Black Raised Panel Shutters 3. Nickel Door Knocker 4. Outdoor Light 5. White Vinyl Siding 6. Retractable Screen Storm Door in Black 7. Door Color: Tuscon Teal 8. House Numbers 9. Entry Door

 Tamko Heritage Series

As you can see, Home Depot and Lowes are definitely playing major roles in this project, especially because there's a Home Depot 3 miles from the build site. 

Kitchen plans

Once again, we've changed up the layout for the kitchen. After thinking about it for the last month, I finally realized that NOT having a window over the sink was going to royally bother me. So, we're still keeping the L-shape, we're just changing up the layout some. By doing this, we've also removed the pantry. We're substituting a pantry cabinet.

We think this layout is going to be the best possible layout for us. Gotta love making changes while things are still in the planning stage. Next week, it won't be so easy. We're starting construction on the interior walls next week! Things are going to start to really move now. We're on track to a move-in date of June 1!