Blogin' it. - My first house. 

2/8/06 - Wednesday

Sorry, once again I forgot to put the pics from this weekend on my hard drive. So I can't post any pictures today. (If we had high speed at home, Kevin could just email them to me so I could put them up, but that's an entirely different issue...).

Anyway, Kevin has finished the insulation. (Which he is very happy about. Apparently, working with insulation isn't much fun:). He has some other business to attend to today, so he won't go out to the house, but he expects to start working on the well on thursday.

2/6/2006 - Monday

Kevin and I only worked on the house for a couple of hours yesterday before the game. The house has passed all relevant inspections so far. After Kevin finishes the insulation, the inspector will have to come out one more time before the drywall goes in.

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow, but basically all we did yesterday was clean up and get ready for the drywall to be delivered (which should happen sometime this week). This meant, of course, that we had to move all of our cabinets yet again. Yup, they are all in the barrel now, safe from the ravages of drywall installation.

2/3/2006 - Friday

Happy Friday.

The house is lookin' good. Kevin is putting up insulation today. The inspector is also supposed to come to the house again today. I expect we'll pass this time:)

2/2/2006 - Thursday

Kevin's forseeable future is filled with fiberglass: (Well, through this weekend anyway):

2/1/2006

The inspector came to the house yesterday. Aside from a few small things that he wants changed, we're in good shape for the drywall. The inspector gave us the go ahead to put in the insulation, except in the few spots he wants to check before he signs off. There is still a lot of work ahead of us: digging the septic system, installing the well pump, actually putting all the insulation up...etc., but we've got about two weeks before the drywall goes in, and I really feel like we're making great progress.

Here's a pic from our adventure on Saturday:


We may go on another adventure this Saturday too, if the weather is good. Last Sat. we visited the Jordan dam, which is an army corps of engineers dam. There are a bunch of corps dams in NC, all built in the 70's. They are pretty interesting, and are definitely major civil works projects. The Jordan dam has been made into a little public park. There is a playground, and people were fishing in the tailrace on saturday. Some of them were built for hydropower, and some of them were not. Either way, a visit to check them out is a nice break from house building:)

1/30/2006 - Monday

So, Kevin and I didn't work on the house at all this weekend. We both needed a break. Instead, we took a field trip to the Jordan dam, wich currently is not being used for hydropwer. More on that later.

For now, Kevin expects this week to be filled with passing inspections on the house, and putting up insulation. I'll let you know how that goes as we get to it:)

1/26/06 - Thursday

Slowly but surely, the house is coming along. As usual, Kevin is making excellent progress by himself. So far this week he has acomplished several things: The waste plumbing requires stacks that go up through the roof, which Kevin has done. Also, he has finished wiring for the the HVAC system, and the well pump (which we don't have yet). He has also completed the wiring for an alarm system, and the smoke detectors.

We're aiming to have the inspection on monday. This will allow us enough time to fix whatever the inspector doesn't pass the first time around (yes, try as we might, I am not betting the farm that we'll pass the first time:), so that we don't delay the dry wall contractor any more than necessary.

Here are some more pics:

1/24/06 - Tuesday

Kevin spoke with the drywall contrctor yesterday, who came out to the house to give an estimate. Hiring the drywall to be done was in the plan from the beginning, and the contractor is scheduled to start in about three weeks. The estimate is that it will take $4500 and about a week to do the job. Now, all I have to do is continue to remind myself that $4500 is not really a bad price, and that we are saving money by building the house ourselves, we are getting more bang for the buck, we are saving money, more bang for the buck, we are saving money.......(If I keep saying it, maybe I'll feel better:).....)

1/23/06 - Its monday again.

Quick update on this weekend: Saturday was a much needed day of rest from working on the house. Kevin and I find that on occasion, its benificial to do things like pay the bills, do laundry, go grocery shopping, etc. However, we went right back to work on Sunday. I worked on finishing up some of the A/C wiring, and pre-wiring the house for ethernet. Kevin worked on the plumbing, which is perpetually almost finished. (For those of you paying attention, yes: we are pre-wiring the house for ethernet, but not for cable tv, or possibly even a phone. I think those priorities are just right: the future is here:)

Sorry, no pictures today. I'll try to have some up asap.

1/20/06 -Friday

Of course, as always, my time estimates are a bit ambitous. (Hey, its wishful thinking, I know). However, the reality is that the drywall contractor we want to hire won't be able to get to us for three weeks from now. To me, this sounds like far too much time, (I don't want it to take that long), but in reality, there is still a LOT to do. Per lasts nights conversation, Kevin doesn't expect us to be ready for the inspection for another week (at least), and after that we have to put in insulation before the drywall contractor can show up. And, even if we end up waiting on the contractor for a little while, we still have to install the pump in the well, and construct the entire septic system (read: days of digging in the dirt). *sigh* I know, just because I want it go faster doesn't mean it will.

So, just like NASA has to do on a regular basis, I have to reset the launch clock. Move in date is now T-1.5 months.