Helper Bees

Travis' parents were up again today to help Travis work on the house on his day off. His dad got all the garage door panels installed, his mom painted lots more trim, and Travis got a lot of trim done on the basement side. One of the roofers was out shingling the back side of the garage too. Tomorrow we are going to try and install the roof vents for the fireplaces...hopefully all goes well!

More Shingles and Trim

Travis has been busy trimming out windows. The roofer has been shingling away too. Almost the whole front of the house is finished. The plumber and HVAC guy are working on the inside too. Our two windows are finally in at Lowe's, so we just have to pick them up and install them. Still no framers...I was right when I guessed they wouldn't be here this week. Oh well, hopefully they get it done next week.

Trim

We went out to the house around 3:00 today and of course we found no contractors. The roofer sliced his finger, so he went home early. He stopped by when we were there and was saying that the framers were doing floor joists at someone else's house, so I'm pretty sure they won't be at our house this week. We hung some more trim, mostly around the outside corners today. We also put a piece of siding up so we could see all the colors together. We won't actually side until we finish the trim, so don't expect to see any more siding quite yet:)

On Contractor Time

Whenever we go on vacation to an island or something, the locals always say that you are on island time. You don't have to worry about what time it is, if you are late, etc. Well I think contractors must be on island time. It might not help that hunting season has started too. We went out to the house to see a whole bunch of work done today. Needless to say, not much happened. I didn't even bother taking pictures. We didn't go out there to work today because we didn't want to be in the way of the framers. We were pretty frustrated to find that they weren't working because today would have been a great day for us to get a little more done. The plumber was out at the house and he put some holes in the floors for the piping to run through. The roofers were there too, but there wasn't many more shingles put up. They did stack all the shingles on the roof though. The framers and HVAC guy weren't there. I hope they show up tomorrow...

Working Away

We have one garage door installed! We are going to paint them later...

Here's some trim.

Working hard. Look at our concentration:)

Travis' parents were in town to be our free labor on Sunday. It feels like we did a lot of work, but there isn't much to show for it. I know in the commercials for garage doors, they show that installation goes quickly. I'm pretty sure after seeing how complicated it looked today that those commercials are false advertising! We got the one in, and now that we know how, the other two doors should go a little faster. We painted lots of trim and we even got a few pieces hung. If you look in the third picture, everything below the trim line will be rock. We still need to trim out the outside corners, but basically everything else will be siding. Tomorrow should be a big day. The framers will be framing out the front door arch way, the roofers will be there, and the HVAC and plumber will probably be there too.

More Shingles

The roofers basically got all the hips and valleys on the back of the house shingled. The pictures don't really show it, but you can't tell that there are shingles on the roof until you get really close. The HVAC guy might work on Saturday...I know I was amazed too. I didn't know there was a contractor who would work on Saturdays! Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I will have pictures posted of the house with some trim :)

Shingles

The roofers were back at the house today. Travis said they had just pretty much gotten out to the house at 1:00 when he got there. They shingled some of the back of the house, and they plan to get the rest of the back of the house by Friday. We were expecting the shingles to have more color, but oh well. Our trim gets here tomorrow, so we are going to start putting some of that up this weekend. The HVAC guy and plumber might also start doing some work tomorrow.

Quick Update

I don't have any pictures, but there has been some stuff going on at the house lately. Travis and I went out there on Sunday to do some work and the roofer had been there. He finished tar papering the house and even layed some shingles. They didn't work today, but we knew that. Hopefully they are able to start back on our house tomorrow. Travis and I poured some concrete posts in the front of the house so that the framers could finish the front entry way. Travis talked to the foreman and they are thinking they could probably finish that next Monday or Tuesday. We also redid the framing for the master bathtub. It used to be just straight across, and we wanted to add a nice curve in it. We had to rip apart what the framers did, and then it took us a little while longer than expected because curves aren't exactly easy to frame. I should have some new pictures tomorrow.

Tar Paper

Back to the good news, bad news routine...

Good news: the roofer is almost done putting up all the tar paper. There is just one little section that still needs done.

Bad news: the framer has another small job, so he won't be out to our house until probably Wednesday next week.

Good news: once they are back on our job, they will be done in a week and a half to two weeks

Bad news: the one section of drip edge that we put up, the roofers took down. I thought it looked good, but it must not have been up to their standards. I am obviously not a roofer, and I am still so happy that we hired it out!

Tomorrow we are going to buy our interior doors and buy a different tub for the master bathroom. Travis and I are not your normal size person, but the first tub we bought was definitely too small...

Framing is complete

The roofer was back out today and put tar paper on about another 1/4 of the roof.
The remaining doors were put in
The master bath was framed in
More door pictures...nothing makes the house look taller than looking at it from this view:)


We still have to do a final walkthrough with the framers, but they are basically finished. It feels so good to finally have them done. Now that all the doors are in, we are going to go out and buy some locks. We also bought our garage doors last weekend. We have got some decisions to make, but next on the plate is trim and siding for us. Inside the HVAC, plumber, and electrician can now get started. It felt like we were in the framing stage for so long, and now that we get to move on to a new stage, it is all that much more exciting again.

Roofing and Doors

We went out to the house on Friday to put in the vent pipes for the fireplaces so that the framers could sheet them in. We were surprised to find that the roofer had been out there and put up tar paper on some of the roof. It was a good thing he started when he did because it snowed over the weekend, and there was no way he could get up there today. Most of the snow has melted, so I would imagine they would get back up there either on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Here is the downstairs fireplace all framed in.
and the upstairs fireplace in the great room
My pictures of the doors aren't that great, but I just wanted to show that some doors were installed. I took the closeup because they have the blinds inside the glass (anything that requires less cleaning in this house is probably best!)

It didn't look like the framers did very much work today. Not sure if it was because we went out there twice today or if they just really didn't do much. The doors and the master tub were delivered today, so I was hoping that those would all be installed. They still have to install the two entry doors from the garage, the french door downstairs, and another door upstairs. The tubs still need framed in and a few other minor things. I do think that they will be done this week though. There just isn't much left to do.

Windows and fireplaces

View of the front of the house. The front door isn't really white, they are just leaving the protective covering on for awhile.
View of the fireplace (cardboard covering is still on), the front door, and the dining room framed out. Although a column didn't need to be put in the corner of the dining room, we decided to put one in, just so that it would appear more "formal" and have it's own set area.

This is the great room on the left and the nook to the right. The great room window is the six windows put together to make one.
Travis pulled down the cardboard, so you could get an idea of our front door. Mocha wanted to be in the picture too:)

As promised, here are your pictures of the windows in the daylight. Travis drove to Bozeman today to pick up the fireplaces. The framers set them in and framed the dining room out. They also installed the front door and the top window in the great room.

For those of you that are real observant, you might have noticed the box of Miller Light in the 2nd picture. We brought out that little treat for the contractors since today was there Friday. Who wouldn't want to work for us if we provide them with beer???

Windows

So, I have to apologize in advance. We didn't get out to the house until dark, so my pictures today aren't very good. I promise I will get some better pictures tomorrow, so make sure to check back. All of the windows that the framers had out at the house today were installed. The window that was in Kalispell was delivered to Helena, so that even got installed. Out of the 45 windows, only one window was damaged during shipping and we accidentally missed ordering one window. From what I could see, it looks great, and I can't wait to see it in the daylight tomorrow.
Master bedroom windows
Travis in the office

Forward Progress

Travis and Mocha checking out the media room.
The curved stairway
Our view from our Master Bedroom hallway
Today was mostly a day of good news. We found someone to roof the house and they are going to start either Monday or Wednesday next week. They should be done in about a week or two. We were so happy to find a roofer and they were recommended by our framers, so they should do a really good job.

Travis rented a Uhaul for tomorrow and is going to deliver the windows and doors out to the house for the framers to start installing first thing. He also has Thursday off of work and is going to drive to Bozeman to pick up our fireplaces. We talked to the framers today and they said they should be out of the house by next week.

Also, as you can tell by some of the pictures, almost all of the interior of the house is framed. It'll be so exciting to have the house all closed in. Stay tuned for pictures of the installed windows and doors!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards???

Okay, so we haven't gone backwards, but it feels like any good news always has to be paired with bad news. I guess that can be attributed to the "building a house" rollercoaster. I haven't posted in a couple of days, so I am warning you in advance that this will be a long post.

Travis and I both had Friday off last week, so we decided that we were going to start putting shingles on the roof. The roofing materials had already been delivered to the house, so we just needed to get a few other supplies. Friday morning we went out to get some drip edge from the store that carried some in stock. We had a color picked out, but after our impulse siding purchase, the color no longer worked and they didn't have a color in stock that we liked. So, we went to store after store looking for drip edge that would work. We finally found some and it was in stock, so we felt like little kids on Christmas. We got out to the house and our Power Pole (powered scaffolding) was delivered, so we spent most of the afternoon putting that together. We were finally ready to install the drip edge, and we didn't like how the corners were looking, so we took a piece home and practiced for the next day.

Saturday we got out there and put up a couple of pieces of drip edge and were feeling pretty good. We got the ice and rain shield ready to put up next. Just as we were raising ourselves up in the Power Pole, it started raining. So that ended that day.

We went out there on Sunday after Travis got off work and were going to see if we could get shingles on the roof. After much frustration, we are contemplating having someone else install the shingles. The roof is so steep and with all the valleys and peaks, it makes it so complicated. You can see our progress in the third picture. We tried calling a couple roofing companies today and they are all really busy right now. Since we already have the materials, they don't really want to deal with us because they want the profit on the materials too. Travis is going to work on the roof for the next couple of days, so we'll see how everything goes.

In other (good) news, we got our well installed. They had to dig 165 feet and we got at least 30 gallons per minute. More good news is that our windows and doors came in today. Bad news - 1 window which is made up of 6 windows was delivered to Kalispell. Since the Lowes store up there accepted the merchandise, the Helena store now has to buy it from Kalispell. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will work together because the Helena store is not being real "service oriented" with us right now. On another good note, the concrete guy came back today and fixed his error where he missed a wall by 8 inches. He also started taking some of his forms and trailers off our lot today. I'm hoping he gets the rest of them out of there tomorrow, so I can take a picture of the backside of the house and not have a whole bunch of junk laying around.

As for the framers, they are almost done with all of their work. All of the trusses are installed and the roof is all sheeted. Now you can get a much better idea of the entry way (2nd picture). Basically all they have left to do is a little bit more of interior framing, tyvek, and installing the windows and doors. I got a sneak peek at the windows and the front door today and they look amazing. I can't wait to see them installed!

Truss and sheeting update

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I have been out of town and with the work the framers are doing right now, it is hard to see much progress. They have finally started working on the double vault (2nd picture). I think there are only about 3 more trusses that need to be put up. Our windows were supposed to be delivered today, but they didn't make it on the truck. Now we won't be getting them until next Friday. On an exciting note, Travis and I are about to start our portion of the work. We bought some siding today and are buying our shingles tomorrow and it will all get delivered out to the house tomorrow. Both of us have Friday off, so we are hoping the framers get a lot of work done tomorrow so that we can start putting up shingles on Friday.