Building the second floor

So they are now working on the second floor, on the third week of construction. Only lost a couple days due to weather. Eventually the house will be complete!!

May the framing begin, Finally

June 11, 2014  The framing begins. So the cement had a little more than a week to cure. That makes it stronger, right? Well, the delay was not for curing but the framers or framer was "delayed a little bit" again. Seems to be a theme. There was one framer and his son (First season framing homes, second home) for the first few days. So far, there has been a maximum of 4 guys on the job at any given time. Very small crew. They said it is hard to find good help any more. Slow progress is better than no progress.

And that catches me up to a couple days ago. Since then, they have put the deck on for the second floor and built one wall for upstairs, but not stood it up yet so not much more to show in pictures. As soon as that is done, I will have  more pictures.
The framer said last week he hoped to put up trusses Tuesday of this week. This week he said he hopes to be done framing by the weekend and shingles next week. Now it's almost the end of the week and there is still a weeks worth of work to go...

Foundation work

May 27, 2014  They poured the basement walls, finally. They were "behind schedule a little bit".

May 29, 2014 they insulated the basement walls and then added more stone and backfilled.

Yes we are going to need a lot of fill dirt!!

Now for the waiting. The concrete must cure for 1 week minimum before they can begin framing...

Start building with a hole in the ground

May 5, 2014 was DIG DAY!!

Now we have a hole in the ground

May 9, 2014 they poured the footers

Yes, the house location sits low and will require LOTS of fill dirt. There was not much of a hole to be dug. Over the next week, they put stone in around the footers

Starting out and catching up

This is my first post for this blog. I am a little delayed in getting this started, so it will be a long post with a lot of catching up. I am Shawn and my wife, Carolyn wanted a new home. This is how it starts:
Feb 6, 2014 was our first visit to Wayne Homes in Bowling Green. We toured the models and was given a packet of available plans and our local price.
A week later, we had a follow up visit to iron out more details and options.
Feb 18, 2014 we paid our deposit and selected the Jamestown plan. After a few changes, we went with the traditional but added the full length front porch. We had selected the family elevation due to the porch, but found adding just the porch was cheaper, and we didn't care about the other design changes.
Feb 27 was our colors meeting. Things got expensive here, but luckily we were able to keep costs within reason.
March 17, 2014 we purchased the land we wanted and closed.
March 19, 2014 was the lot inspection. Carolyn was not feeling good, so we had to reschedule the pre-construction meeting in the office. Good thing, as you will see.
April 2, 2014 was the pre-construction meeting. To help control costs, we decided that I am going to do the phone and cable wiring, install the hard wood flooring and tile flooring, and we will take care of the counter tops and carpet ourselves, and get our own cabinets. The flooring was an all or none. We did not like the carpet options and tile options. We are not really saving money, but we are getting what we want. Real hard wood in the foyer, dining room, kitchen and mud room. Carpet in the living and family rooms, and everything upstairs. Upstairs bathrooms are getting porcelain tile. The counter tops I am doing is because I could save a lot of money over Wayne Homes price for the same solid surface counter top. As for the cabinets, I was fine with Wayne Homes cabinets except Carolyn was not happy with the wood / color options. All she wanted was a medium oak, no luck.
We also made some changes to the plans. We added a 3 ft by 6 ft closet to the loft area and moved the washer and dryer up there. We added a half bathroom where the washer and dryer was and got rid of the half bath in the middle of the house (Made it a closet in the living room). We also added a pantry closet, added a cabinet, and moved the refrigerator to the empty wall between the kitchen and garage, and took off the door to the mud room, and slid it down some. It added a lot more to the kitchen cabinets. The big change was we added a sun room at the pre-construction meeting!!
April 29 we closed on our construction loan. Have you ever dealt with a mortgage company, they are a pain in the butt...  Now the fun begins.