Framing the Upstairs

The past 2 weeks the boys have been working on framing the upstairs. (Where the kids bedrooms, bathrooms, and schoolroom will be.)

Here’s a diagram I drew of the upstairs. The black walls are walls that were on the house when we got it. The red walls are walls that the boys have framed. (Please note that the drawing is not to scale. Also, the proportions are a little off.)

The 2 bedrooms are on either side of the upper story. The boys’ is on the far left and the girls’ is on the far right. The schoolroom is in the front of the middle space and the two bathrooms are in the back of that same space. (The red wall in the back of each bedroom is the front wall of the closet. Also, the red box in the boys’ room is the 2 foot box around the chimney pipe of our wood stove. Oh, and the red wall just to the left of the girls’ bedroom wall is the wall beside the stairs.)

Abigail investigating the blueprint. (Laid out in the floor of the girls’ room.)

Josh, Daniel, and I checking the girls’ closet wall for level.

Josh and Daniel nailing in the last studs for the girls’ room wall

Josh hammering on the girls’ wall a little to make it level while I held a board up to prevent the sledgehammer from marring the studs.

Daniel cutting a notch out of a rafter to help the bedroom wall fit better,

Samuel stacking up scraps.

Daniel measuring studs for the end wall of the boys’ closet

Josh and Daniel assembling the last of the boys’ room wall.

Josh and Daniel raising the boys’ bedroom wall.

Josh, Daniel, and I measuring the boys’ room wall to estimate drywall and installation.

~ Amy

House Set Part 2

Setting the second module.

Raising the roof on the second module. (In case you’re wondering, some of the shingles were put on in the factory. The big hole is for a shed dormer.)

See?

God’s beautiful sunset!

Here’s that same sunset reflected on the back of our house. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I can’t wait to do dishes in this house. (The kitchen sink is under the two windows that are right next to each other.)

The crew working in the dark.

The next day. . . (Note, that most of the shingles are on and all the walls are up. The garage will come off of the mudroom extension in the left of the picture and the porch will wrap from the front corner in the right of the picture, around the corner, and to the door off the mudroom

The hole for the steps down into the basement. (It’s currently covered over with plastic.)

By the way, here is a picture of our second module almost in the creek.

~ Amy

Sill Plate Installation

Our men spent Saturday installing the sill plate so as to be ready for the house set on Monday. A sill plate is basically boards that go between the top of the concrete walls of the basement and the bottom of the walls of the house. The sill plate serves two basic purposes, 1: It enables the house to be bolted down more easily. (It might be a little difficult to bolt it into solid concrete!) 2: To act as a moisture barrier to prevent water from seeping up the walls of the house.

Countersinking the bolt holes in a sill plate board so that the bolt heads do not stick out above the board.

Josh positioning the next board.

Josh drilling in a bolt while Daniel holds the board down.

Daddy is hammering the bolts thru the pre-drilled holes in the sill plate and the concrete wall.

Sill plate in progress (The pink roll is Sill Seal. It acts as a barrier between the concrete walls and the boards of the sill plate.)

Daniel traversing the wall.

Almost done!

Josh is drilling in a bolt while Daniel is keeping the nut from spinning.

The completed sill plate

Just remember, TOMORROW IS HOUSE SET DAY!!

~ Amy

House Factory Tour

As you may know, we chose to build a modular house as opposed to building a normal ‘stick built’ house. What is the differance? Well, the first and main difference is that a ‘stick built’ house is constructed on site whereas a modular house is built in a factory. Secondly, a modular house is built stonger because it has to stand the riggers of transportation from the factory to the house site and the strain of being craned into place. Thirdly, modular houses are generally built faster as they are built in a more concentrated enviornment.

In our case, the house will be built in the form of two rectangular boxes or pods and transported by two semi trucks to our house site; with the main floor approx. 80% complete. The roof will then be lifted up and the house will be made water tight within 48 hours. From there we will finish the upstairs and the basement as well as installing the hardwood floor on the main level.

We had the opportunity last week to tour the factory where our house is being built.  We were able to see our house on the production line.

Below we are going to look at the first half of our house. (Ours is the pod in the middle.)

the master bedroom to be

One of our walls being framed.

Examining a place on the plans with the owner of the factory.

Drywall for the second pod

The floor of the second pod (It’s 70 feet long)

An up-close of the plans

~ Amy

Constructing the Basement

Digging the last of the basement

Leveling the ground with 6 inches of gravel for the walls to go in

The first load of pre-cast basment walls

Looking at the crane over the trees from the crest of the driveway

Several wall panels in place (The yellow pole is a brace)

Craning in the next panel

Hoisting!

Lowering into place

The last corner!

Easing it into place

Ta-da!

The walkout

looking toward the garage end

The first of four cement trucks

Pouring the slab

The completed slab, drying

Just in case you are wondering, the dirt is going to be filled in aound the basement. This is called backfill.

~ Amy