House Projects

Building a house – Not for the weak of heart! Part 1

After 12 years in our old house, we had finally out grown it. The with two kids taking up the other two bedrooms in our three bedroom house, The Wife was forced to work in the living room (She works from home). This was a less than ideal situation to say the least. The plain truth was the house that we had come to love was no longer working for us.

We had been casually searching ever since our Son was born as we knew this day was coming. After nearly 2 years of close calls, we never found a house that would come close to what we were after. Sure there were houses out there, but the market was heating up enough that folks were asking top dollar for houses that needed either lots of remolding, or had some other looming major repairs (roof or HVAC).

After a false start with another builder, we lucked out and found a lot in a subdivision that would allow for us to be our own builder/general contractor. Basic walk out lot in a subdivision overlooking a farm field:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

With the purchase of the lot, we plunked our house on the market and promptly sold it and moved into a rental while we built the new house:
Sara L.: Emerald Green House &emdash;

The official ground breaking ceremony happened in late October 2017, and things started moving then:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

Lots of dirt was moved and the basement was poured:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

Standing in the garage overlooking the basement:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

Once the concrete cured a bit, the framers got to work:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

In what seemed like no time, we had a plywood roof on, the outside sealed, and the framing done. We also had an early snow as well as the weather often worked against us during this build:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

Standing in the kitchen:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

We were starting to appreciate the view out of our back door as well:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

There was a brief warm up at the end of 2017 which allowed the roofers to come out, the brick layers to do their thing, and the last of the framing was finished. So we were rolling into 2018 with a sealed up house:
Sara L.: Pisa House &emdash;

On To part 2…

 

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