02/26/2006 The next logical step would be floors! The garage (picture above) had to be filled with sand and it took 13 truckloads or 200 tons!! The pipes in the basement are the plumbing.

3/21/2006 These pictures are both from the second floor.In the picture on the left I'm standing where the hall will be looking towards the master bedroom. The picture on the right I'm standing in the hall looking into the living room.

3/24/2006 Here are the stairs to get up to second floor..Picture on the right is the view from the top of stairs looking down the hall. The upstairs hallway will have a railing looking over into the living room..We have affectionately called this the 'catwalk', this will be where we DANCE! And our live cat will perform amazing feats of bravery as he's 'bumped' off the edge.

Here is the view looking downstairs from the hallway..and a bear must have wandered on to the construction site and befriended Robyn?!?! Soo much wildlife on the South side...The picture on the right is looking into the Master bedroom. It's the first room straight down the hallway.

04/01/2006 - We got the roof over our head, but we've had a few delays because of lots of rain. We are still planning to start the rough heating/cooling and plumbing next week, but obviously we are still waiting on windows and doors...in due time! We wanted an open floor plan but right now this is ridiculous..

04/04/06 - Finally got the roof finished and all the soffitts. Our windows also showed up today and you can see them standing up in the back of the garage. The windows will be installed tomorrow and we are told that framing will be finished tomorrow. We hope our plumber shows up tomorrow and our heating/cooling guy is coming Saturday. They were all supposed to be started on Monday but the rain has been an issue..see next pictures!

So...as previously posted we had lots of rain..and remember from the first pictures we had a big pile of dirt. Well that dirt acted like a dam and we had a couple feet of water behind the basement of the house. So..that had to go! (more rain forcasted for this week) our framer friend John brought out his big toys and broke through that damn dam. He did this tonight (04/04/06) around 9pm and I'm sure the neighbors love us.

We hope to finish framing and have everything closed up on Wednesday 4/5. Plan to have the frame of our deck in this weekend and rough plumbing and htg/cooling. Won't be much new to see the next couple weeks until our drywall, roofing and siding friends show up. Will keep you posted.

04/05/06 - The updates are coming fast and furious now! We got our windows installed today and they look MARVELOUS. If you look really close at the big front window above the garage, it's broken. Kind of windy today so it blew over and went BREAK. It was an all around busy day, the plumbing guy showed up and when I last saw John at 7pm he was digging post holes in the mud pit behind the house (notice the hole in the dam in picture below..NICE). Tomorrow should be just as busy with the last of the framing and the beginnings of a roof. Forecast calls for rain tonight but we are hoping it stays away for one more day.

I've got the electrician slated to start next Monday, we are hoping plumbing and htg/cooling will be done by then. After the electrician is done, I'm hoping my brother Curt will come to town and help me cable the house for a home network. I'm pretty jazzed about that, one of those 'fun' things I get to do since I ain't too smart about other things...

04/11/06 - Last weekend was very busy. On Saturday we had roofers, htg/cooling and the framer all working. In addition, Robyn and I did some cleaning with my Dad and Robyn's parents.It looked like a construction site but cleaned up very nicely. Unfortunately, the electrician lined up for Monday didn't show and hasn't returned my phone calls (PO'ed). Tomorrow I will start the search for another electrican if my original doesn't come through. A little frustrating but this is a busy time of year for everyone in this industry. Ed is our plumber and a great guy. We expect him to have the rough-in finished this week. Pictures below show the finished roof and the start of our deck being build by MC Framer (John). Good guy but he eats a lot..like me! All the doors were on order but now in at Home Depot. Might get those in this weekend and still planning to do some wiring with my brother. More updates very soon!

05/10/2006 - Our apologies for not posting any updates for nearly one month. Several issues have come up but as you can see we have the roof finished with siding and the deck is nearly done.

05/29/2006 - It was a beautiful Memorial Day weekend and we accomplished quite a bit on the house. You will notice the big pile of dirt is missing with the updated picture above right. We had our framing inspection last week and after a few fixes, we are planning to blow insulation Tuesday, then start to drywall end of week. Things should start to look a lot different next week, looking forward to sharing more pictures!