Blogin' it. - My first house. 

3/2/2006 - Thursday

Ok, the pictures decided to load correctly today, so they should display in this entry:)

The following pics are from last Saturday when we painted the ceilings and the garage walls:








Kevin took some pics of the septic tank installation:




More painted walls:)

3/1/2006 - Wednesday

I have pictures to share today, but they won't upload correctly. I keep getting an error. I really don't know why, because I am not doing anything different than I have in the past. *sigh* This has happened before, and the problem appeared to have fixed itself the next day. I guess I can't complain about the service too much. It is free after all.

2/28/06 - Tuesday

Kevin installed the septic tanks yesterday. This is another project that falls under the category of: “spend a lot of time digging in the dirt, and then spend a lot of money and time putting things in the hole you just dug.” I’ve learned that when building a house, there are a lot of projects that fall into this category. I’ve also learned that there is virtually no limit for how fast money can be spent. Just like that, another $1000 goes down the drain. I mean that literally, since those tanks are where stuff goes when it goes down the drain. The money is of course well spent, its just that I am looking forward to a time when we are not writing so many large checks. (Does this future exist? One can only hope:).

2/27/2006 - Monday

Wow. Sorry for the lack of updates. 'Guess I've been pretty busy this last week.

Kevin was busy last week too: The drain field is done. The ceiling has been insulated (we contracted that out). On Wednesday, Kevin bought a really nice Wagner airless paint sprayer, which he used on Thursday and Friday to spray primer on the ceiling and walls inside the house. The sprayer definitely earns the “tool of the week” status. The thing is truly awesome, and has already paid for itself in terms of time savings and convenience.

On Saturday, Kevin and I painted all the ceilings, as well as the garage walls and closet walls (anything where the final color is white:) On Sunday, we painted the bedroom, bathroom, and living room/kitchen walls. This took us until after dark to finish, so I didn’t take the time to get any pictures (we were both pretty tired, cold, and hungry by the time we finished). I’ll try to have Kevin take some pictures today so you can see the results of our oh-so-professional paint job: ) We definitely had to push to finish painting this weekend. Needless to say, it wasn’t much fun cleaning up the paint sprayer in the cold and the dark, but we both think it was worth the aggravation to just be finished painting already.

This week Kevin is looking to install the septic tank, as well as the pressure tank for the well. He may even have time to epoxy coat the floors before the weekend. I’ll let ya know:)

PS. For those who are wondering about our decision to epoxy coat the floors, here is the thought process: Kevin and I both hate carpet. HATE it with a passion. (Plus Kevin has allergies that carpet seems to make worse). We don't like linoleum much either. We can't afford hard wood floors, or even fake hard wood, right now anyway. So, a nice shop-like floor with area rugs is basically the floor surface option we both like and can afford. So there ya have it:)

2/21/2006 - Tuesday

Here are some pictures Kevin took while digging the drain field: (He hopes to finish that up today, and get it inspected tomorrow).






Here is the house on Saturday, the 18th, all covered in snow. Isn't it pretty?:)


The drywall just needs to be sanded before we can start painting:


Looking down the well:


Here's Kevin, ready to start lowering that pump down into the well:

2/20/2006 - Monday

How did Monday get here so fast? Seriously, its president’s day, and I could really use the time off. (I know I know, who doesn’t need time off…).

Anyway, Kevin and I had a very productive weekend, and we are moving in leaps and bounds towards finishing the house.

Saturday involved driving all over Greensboro, and making major purchases. We ordered and paid for all of our appliances (there’s nothing that says “old married couple” better than purchasing appliances together), and we scheduled them to arrive in about three and half weeks. I am really proud of our appliance decisions. We decided on a budget, and then did loads of consumer research. We settled on what models we wanted (Kenmore washer, dryer, and dishwasher, and a GE range and oven), and then shopped around for the lowest price (there was an excel spreadsheet and online consumer reports involved in this of course). I feel so responsible, and I think we were able to get really high quality stuff for our money. Hurray for Sears and their awesome sale this weekend (20% off when you buy 3 or more appliances). I am not sure what this says about me (on no! I am becoming domesticated... must fight trend towards...becoming.. boring old couple ...I can feel myself losing…battle…), but I am so excited about having new appliances, especially the dishwasher. I really, really cannot wait to have a new dishwasher. (Its terrifying, I am becoming one of THOSE people. You know, the kind of people who get excited when Wal-Mart opens, and when the BIG DAY OUT involves going to Home Depot….ahh…the decline is inevitable:).

We also purchased all of our paint on Saturday as well. Home Depot had a sale on Behr paint that ends today, so we went ahead and purchased everything we needed. I expect that next weekend will consist of nothing but painting. (There is a possibility that a paint sprayer will be in our near future.)

Kevin and I also made use of the sunny weather on Sunday. We were able to install the pump in the well. This was all new to me of course, and I am glad I was able to help (even if I am a little sore today). The well is drilled to about 440 ft. We put the pump down about 410 or 420 ft. I had never seen a submersible pump before, and I can see why they aren’t cheap (especially one that has to pump the water over 400 ft to the surface.) They are pretty neat devices. On the pump Kevin selected, the motor is actually quite small, but the pump has 22 stages. (I’ve got pics to post later.) Anyway, as soon as Kevin installs the tank in the house, we should have water.

2/17/2006 - Friday

My house has drywall. I am still excited:) The crew should be out next week sometime to finish it up.

As for Kevin, he has been digging all week. Which, let me tell you, he is enjoying immensely. He is a little more than halfway done with the drain field, and has gotten some of it approved by the inspector. However, the weather for the weekend is looking pretty bad, so the he won't be able to finish the drain field until it clears up again, whenever that may be.

2/15/2006 - Wednesday

DRYWALL!!!!!!!!













It took four guys four hours yesterday to hang the drywall. They are worth every penny! Perhaps the fnishing will get done this week:)

2/14/2006 - Tuesday

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

The dry wall got delivered yesterday. Believe it or not, that is the perfect gift for this valetines day:)

2/13/2006 - Monday

Sorry I have been absent. Here is the latest progress on the house:

First, the mystery of the lost pictures has been solved. No matter how many times I asked Kevin for the pictures I took last weekend on his camera, he could not find them. The reason for this is that he had, in fact, never downloaded them off of his camera, and thus could not find them on his computer:) So today, I will make up for it with LOTS of pictures:)

Also, it snowed this weekend for the first time all winter.


On Sunday, Kevin and I went out to the house. We spent the afternoon surveying and marking up the ground for the drain field. Once again, hurray for the surveyors level. Now that its all laid out, Kevin can do the rest by himself:) Let me tell you, he's looking forward to all that digging:) (535 ft!) However, he has all the pipe and materials necessary to get to work, so hopefully the weather will hold out and he can push through the tedious and dirty job of digging the drain field.

We also insulated around the windows. That spray foam is neat stuff, and the whole job took about 20 minutes:






The house, as it has been for a week, is ready for drywall:




Here's a pic of the cabinets stored in the barrel:)


Looking out through the walk-door in the garage. (This is where we store our trash:) Construction is messy):


We like to keep a moat around the house:


The back side of the house: