November 23rd - Stucco Finished

Well as of the 23rd, the stucco on our home was completely finished. The only things left to do on the outside of the house are the rock (which goes on the front) and the deck out the back door. Skylar will be building the decks for the homes (3 get decks) from what we understand and our good friend Adam will be doing the rock. That all takes place once ALL of the roofs are done. 

We had a minor set back with the fourth roof. We were under the impression that the labor done to shingle that house was going to be contracted out so we moved on to the next home. However, that did not work out and we ended up having to go back to the 4th house to shingle. This all happened the week that Utah County had its first snow storm. And it was a doozy. But we're finished with that roof and on to the FINAL roof. 

As mentioned previously, our home is the third on the list. If you're curious where the first two homes are at: they have been painted completely on the inside. The first house has begun installing the cabinetry in the kitchen. Then the lights and fixtures will be installed (by contractors) and we will install the finish plumbing and hardware. We go back and touch up the paint and I think at that point, we're done with house work. 

Picture time!

November 16th - Stucco Started

The stucco guys finished the first coat of stucco! Now, our color actually looks nothing like this. I am under the impression that this is a "primer" type of coat and the real stuff comes after this has set so that the stucco won't crack later. 

Also on the inside of the house, they mudded (is that a real verb?) the dry wall, so the next step is putting up trim, base boards and doors. AND they installed (my favorite feature) a thermostat!! It was a very cold day on Saturday, so I made a couple of trips up to our house to install our (finally delivered) basement window and just to warm up my poor little toe-sies. 

It has been a HUGE blessing how mild the weather has been so far. Our group is hoping for a late winter so that 1) we can finish framing and roofing before the snow really gets going and 2) so that we won't have to do landscaping. That depends partially on the weather. If we end up having to do it, then it adds another 2 months to the process...

PICTURES! 

60 degrees has never felt so warm to me as it did this past Saturday

Hey look! Good thing the heater was on before we had this last window installed. Sucks for the person who's paying for that...oh...wait...

November 9th - Almost an occupiable home! (With out any finish work)

It's that time again! Quick updates and recent pictures of the house. You'll see below that the contractors are totally prepped for stucco. The inside is all finished with the drywall and cleaned up. The outside is completely wrapped in their paper stuff and chicken wire. (I have no idea what that is for). And it is completely surrounded by their rather wobblely scaffolding. We also have stucco to be done on the build-ups on the roof, so after all of Skylar's hard work shingling the whole thing, what happens? They nail in boards to stand on. Such is life!

Back and garage side of the house

Full front view

These next pictures look like some from last week, except that now it doesn't look like a dirty meth house

Front room

Bedroom

Laundry Room

Second Bedroom

Another view of the front room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Skylar and Adam working hard on the roof of the FOURTH house

Master

Same

Garage

Stairs down to the basement

How did we pass inspection? We're missing a window!

Back of the house

November 2nd - We passed inspection!

On Tuesday, the 29th, we had an inspector come by and look over things before our actual imspection. We had the shortest list yet of things to fix and that's the hope right? That we'll get better and better at each home before inspection. Most of the things we had to fix were things we didn't know about initially so there isn't too much we can do about that.

On Thursday, the 31st (Halloween!) we had our real inspection and passed. First house to do so on the first try so far. Because of that we were able to start four way: electrical, plumbing, dry wall, HVAC, and stucco: all contracted work.

The workers were out last night and today so we were able to see how quickly they work. It's all a big mess right now, but this is what they have done so far! 

They have the wrap around the front of the house to prep for the stucco application

The garage is completely sheet rocked

The living room will be the hardest since the ceilings are so high. BUT the insulation is in

View into the kitchen

Messy bathroom on the main floor

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Master bedroom

Downstairs living room area

Downstairs GIANT utility closet

What will be a downstairs bathroom

Another something room downstairs

Harry Potter's room when he comes to stay

October 26th - Inspection on Monday! (that we will fail...)

We have a tradition in our group that when we reach the point of moving on to the next house, we have a potluck. Our house was "finished" (there's a basement window that was never delivered and a few shingles that need to be done, really) so we had our THIRD potluck on Saturday. 

Our supervisor, Nathan, brings his homemade smoker (that's right, homemade) to the houses and while we're working he smokes in someone's garage (it was ours this time) and it's pretty ridiculous how yummy it is. We had bacon wrapped chicken with baked smoked potatoes. 

On a side note, it's amazing to me to realize how much you really can do/make on your own. For example, Nathan's smoker. He's built several houses for his family already and plans to build another. He is the ultimate do-it-yourselfer. I know Skylar has aspirations to be just like that. He pretty much already is.

The house as of Saturday

Skylar and Adam working on finishing the shingles

Front Room

Electrical work

View into our room/garage to the left

Another view of the front room

Oh and I say that we will fail because, we will. One of the windows is not yet installed, the roof isn't quite done and aside from that, there are always a few things that need to be fixed or changed. It's just how it goes.

Most of the work you'll see from here on out will be contracted work: stucco, dry wall, all that fun stuff.

October 5th - Roof sheeted (ready for shingles!)

Now that you see the sheeting on the roof, can you appreciate the importance of trusses? And the need for them to be laid out correctly? Well even if you can't it's important. 

After you fly trusses, you sheet the roof, straighten up a bunch of stuff I don't even know about because I don't do that, build facia (gives a clean edge to the sides of the roof), any other build-ups that need to be done (our roof had several) and THEN you can start shingling the roof. 

Skylar worked on the roof that Saturday and I was quite annoyed because the windows that were supposed to be delivered the day before were still not there. I had to find lots of random things to do and ended up leaving earlier than normal and for good reason: I didn't have much else to do at that point in time AND it was General Conference! I went and got us ready to head up to Brigham City to spend time with the fam.

This is what the house looked like at the start of the day:

Hey look! There's a porch on that porch cap now!

Bathtub

Back of the master bathtub

There's even some water in it already...yuck

This is the top of the pantry. See that big bird nest of 2x4s? Skylar's doing. Although it needed to be done so that the sheet rock can be installed correctly. It just looks silly now.

This bad boy goes on the roof! There are pseudo windows on our roof. Pseudo because there isn't actually a room up there. It's just for decoration

What's all that crap on the peak you ask? Shingles! And other roofing materials.

And this is what the house looked like by the end of that Saturday:

That little build up is where the windows go. Also notice that the rest of the sheeting was put on!