Bailey House

THE END

2009-12-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

We're in, We're done!! The past couple of weeks we have been moving over our belongings from the home on Homer to our new home. We passed our occupancy inspection and our final electrical inspection. Yeah! We are meeting new people in our area and have attended our new ward several times. There are great people here that we are excited to get to know. Everything is new and a little weird feeling but Viki and I commented to one another yesterday that it is getting to feel natural to drive to this house as our home now.

It has been an interesting, busy, frustrating, and exciting 6 months. I can't say that I am sad that the building process is over. One of the most commonly asked questions that I get asked is, "Would you build again?". My answer is certainly not any time soon. The most common reasons that I have heard to build are that you get the house you want where you want it and you get more house for your money. As far as the first reason: We got as much of the house that we wanted that we could afford. It is true that we were able to get the house in the location that we wanted. However, more house for the money may not necessarily be the case. With the current economy this is a close call as without sweat equity I think we could have found a better value in an existing house.

As far as reasons not to build, we heard that the process is hard on a marriage, stressful, and building always goes over budget. Yes to all of those! I don't think that building itself creates new problems in a marriage but it does bring out or accentuate the differences in a couple in the way they reason, solve problems, and make decisions. Having these differences highlighted in our relationship throughout the building process has been challenging. Thank goodness we have eternity to embrace how the other thinks as there remains room to improve in this area. Building is stressful especially if you like to be involved and want to stay within a budget. There are decisions to be made about every aspect of a house. The very simple seemingly inconsequential to those that have a bearing on the functionality of a home all tend to wear you down after a while. Everyone told us to expect to go over by 10% of original building budget. I blew this off thinking that we could certainly do better. Again, without sweat equity we would probably be 10% over the budget, primarily because nobody works for free, changes in the plan usually increase costs, and original building budgets are based on building a house to code or with the use of base model fixtures, carpeting, etc. Any decision away from base model materials increase costs.

One highlight of the building process has been our dealings with the Bank of Commerce. Initially, I locked our loan rate at 5.125%. At the time we were 60 days out from closing and I got worried that rates were going to begin to rise. About a month later I got a call from Connie at the Bank of Commerce. She told me that she had renegotiated our rate down to 4.875%. What!! There was no obligation on her part to help us out, but she did and I am grateful. I am sure that she has saved us thousands of dollars over the life of our loan.

So, while I don't plan on building again I do feel grateful for the house we have, a marriage that is still intact, and the many learning experiences that I have had throughout this process.

Week 24: Dec 7 - 11

2009-12-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

Carpet went in this week. The first day they focused on placing the tack strip and pad.

We went with an 8lb pad throughout the house and a tempurpedic type pad in the living room. From what I learned about carpet the quality of the pad is just as important as the quality of the carpet when talking about the longevity of the product. We were encouraged to get a top quality pad and a medium grade carpet. We ended up choosing a carpet with a variety of colors to go into all of the kids bedrooms knowing that the walls would be a variety of colors during the kids growing up years. The remainder of the upstairs is a comfortable thick carpet that I hope will provide a nice place to hang out. The stairs and living room are a short fiber carpet with floral design. The floral design made me a little nervous. I live in a yellow house with carpeting that has a floral design. I don't know what that says about my manhood other than that Viki can make me do about anything. Now that the carpet is down I don't think the floral pattern looks too bad. The study and master share the color of the floral carpet but I couldn't go as far as having floral designed carpet in my study or bedroom so I talked Viki into a longer fiber.

This is the floral pattern up close.

This is the floral pattern look from a distance. The farther away from the carpet you get the more the pattern tends to blend in.

Tom and I installed all of the interior doors which included all of the hinges and door knobs. We have gone with a flared handle on the door knobs in a rubbed bronze color. Stamped on one side of the hinge is a manufacturing label. I thought it would be wise to mount all of the hinges the same way so I placed this manufacturing label in the same place on each door. Unfortunately, not all of our doors swing in the same direction and by mounting all of the hinges the same way I ended up placing some hinges upside down. As it turns out, doors that swing right have all of the hinges mounted correctly and those doors that swing left have all of the hinges upside down. I am leaving them in place!!! Growing up I often heard that having cows would drive anyone to swear and cuss. I now believe that building a house will drive anyone to swear and cuss.

We had our final occupancy inspection and were dinged on three items. All three items are now corrected and the inspector is scheduled to return again on Monday 12-14.
First, we need to post our address on the home so that EMS can find us in an emergency.
Second, all of the heating grates need to be in place.

Third, we need to have a 3' x 3' porch out the back sliding glass door. Viki asked the inspector if we could move in even with the need to make the three corrections. He said that we should not but that everyone does. So, we started moving in!!

It has been quite a bit of work getting everything packed, loaded, hauled and placed in the new house. Viki led the effort of packing as dealing with the madness of organizing and sorting everything while dealing with all of the kids put me into a serious bad mood. I did best just to mind my business and lift and haul boxes. 4" of snow on the day of the move added to the excitement. I have a feeling that we won't be fully moved in for at least a month.

Week 23: Nov 30 - Dec 4

2009-12-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

Tile work in the bathrooms is finishing up. I am very happy with the detail that Jared Hill has given to our home. Not only has he done a very detailed job with the placement and layout of the tile, he has also been very deliberate with all of the preparatory steps to insure we have a product that should last many years. I was initially afraid of tile in the shower as I have heard many horror stories of leaky showers that lead to a lot of frustration, remodeling, and additional costs. After watching Jared put in place multilple layers of water proofing protection I have more confidence in having a tiled shower. He and Viki worked closely together on all of the design work. It looks great.
Electrical is all but done. Kevin came out and spent a late evening with me and we finished the kitchen by fitting the island with an outlet at each end. We also wired and installed the double ovens and the microwave and installed the doorbell.

Countertops have been installed. Soapstone is what we chose to use in the kitchen. It is an interesting material. The benefits we like in soapstone are its unique appearance of different shades of black, gray, and white with a hint of green in the background, it's tolerance to heat - Viki can take something directly out of the oven and lay it directly on the countertop without worrying about damaging the stone, and it does not stain. One downside is that it scratches easily. However, repairing the scratches is easy. With a high grit sand paper scratches are easily removed and mineral oil is all that is used to keep the surface sealed. This is our first experience having a solid surface countertop so hopefully we will have a good experience.

This is soapstone before being sealed with mineral oil.

This is what it looked like after I applied the mineral oil.

The remainder of the countertops in the home are laminate. It was interesting to watch the process of countertops being made. The man first built the countertops out of wood, sanded and shaped them and then glued the laminate to the countertops that he built. I had always imagined that the countertops were built in some factory so it was neat to see them constructed on site.
We have running water and functioning toilets!!! The closest gas station is over a mile away so it has required some planning in the bathroom department before going out to the house to work. For the most part the fixtures are chrome except in the kitchen where we chose a brushed nickel which seems to match the stainless steel look on the appliances.

Garage doors are all functioning now. I had stopped the installers previously from finishing the job because I wanted the utility door high lifted. Usually the runners the door rolls on begins to angle back horizontally from the wall just above the top of the garage door. Because the utility door is only 7 feet tall I would have lost head room in that area of the garage. I had them high lift the door up closer to the ceiling to reduce the loss of head room.

I also had them install weather stripping on the door trim to keep the cold Idaho winds out of the garage. All that is left is to have them install the decorative handles on the outside of the door. Back early in the building process I had the builder move the support beam in the garage up higher and back into the garage farther. I am glad that I did because the garage runners barely fit in the current space. However, we had to go with garage openers at the side of the garage door because overhead openers required more space than was available between the beam and the opening of the garage door. This turns out to be a good change because the side mounted openers are much quieter and take up less space than an overhead opener.
In the end, coordinating the purchase of the doors from one company and the installation from a different company has led to some miscommunication which has lead to delayed completion time and frustration. However, we have good quality doors that look great, so I am happy.

Week 22: Nov 23 - 27

2009-11-29T08:25:00.000-08:00

Cabinetry installation has begun. I learned that there are basically two methods of building a cabinet, one with a face frame and one without. Both methods are structurally sound and capable of accommodating solid surface countertops. The main difference is with appearance. Cabinets with a face frame have a strip of wood that separates all of the doors and drawers from one another, whereas a cabinet without a face frame is built such that the door and drawer fronts all come in close contact with one another. Unless you know what you are looking for you can easily miss the difference between the two types of cabinets. We chose the cabinets without the face frame primarily because the cabinet builder with the best bid and references happens to build this type of cabinet.This is a picture of what will become the kid's study area. Kid's bathroom. Only one sink! Rather than two sinks here we opted for increased countertop and drawer space.
Upstairs bath. When I was pulling the wiring I made a guess as to where I expected the outlet should go. It ended up right behind where the sink will go. Kevin helped me fish a short piece of wire over to the side for the new outlet location over the future countertop area. Per electric code the old outlet/now junction box is suppose to be easily accessible. However, it will be covered with a mirror. I ended up counter sinking the cover plate flush with the sheetrock so the mirror can sit tightly against the wall. The box isn't necessarily easily accessible but isn't inaccessible either.

This is the half bath. Bathroom lights were also installed this week. This was quite the project as the wiring had to be fished out from behind the sheetrock. Taking advice from "This Old House" website the lights were mounted 75 inches off of the floor. This height is suppose to provide good lighting with less shadowing on the face when standing in front of the mirror.
This is the master bathroom.
Laundry room with adjustable shelving that will serve as the pantry. The rest of the laundry area with the adjustable shelving for each of the kid's laundry baskets.
Kitchen area. All of the cabinet faces are built out of knotty alder. The kitchen is painted white with a dark brown glaze highlighting the corners, sand through and distressed areas. The rest of the house is stained brown but has the highlight of the same glaze as used in the kitchen. We went with a slightly distressed look to help blend in the expected future dings and scratches.
I installed the stairway lighting. It took some thought and several visits to the lighting store to figure out how to light this stairway. Initially, I just wanted to put a light up on the ceiling. However, it would have either required a ladder or a special tool to change the light bulbs, so the lighting store people encouraged us toward the sconces. When I asked them how high to place the fixtures they reached up above their head and just slightly forward with an outstretched arm and said about here. I thought there would be a little more science behind the decision.
Kid's bath with tiling around shower/bath.
Flooring in the bonus room is finished. It is called "Spalted Maple" and is manufactured by Lamipro. It was a much quicker process than installing the solid wood on the main floor. Oddly enough, the stars must have been aligned in my favor, as I was able to lay full floor planking from one side of the room to the next. No need to cut a plank down to get it to fit nicely to the wall.
Viki has been busy adding more color to the house.
The garage has become the work center. Thank goodness for power tools.

Week 21: Nov 16 - 20

2009-11-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

Tom and I were able to finish the wood flooring in the entry way and kitchen. I don't think that it looks too bad for a couple of novice flooring guys. Working around corners and changing directions with the plank placement were the two most technically challenging parts of the job. Physically, the repetitive stooping, squatting, kneeling has kept the both of us sore all week.

Now attention moves to the bonus room where we are going to put down a laminate flooring. We chose this over carpet because Viki wants to do quilting in this room and she did not want to loose needles in the carpeting. Also, we want the area to be the place where the kids do all of their creative / messy projects. I wanted to avoid staining carpet with their crafts. We also looked at Vinyl flooring, which would have worked well except that the cost to prepare the subfloor and pay for someone to install the flooring made it more expensive than the laminate. Here comes some more stooping, squatting, and kneeling. All of this activity with the house is turning in to pretty good rehab for my knee. The harder I work the better it seems to feel.

I have started with preparing the floor by removing any debris, scraping down sheetrock mud splatter, and pounding down any elevated nails to achieve as flat a surface as possible. A thin foam pad is then laid down on top of which the laminate flooring will be placed. Laminate flooring is a "floating" floor meaning it does not get anchored down to the subfloor.

Kevin Layton and I were also able to put the finishing touches on most of the electrical work in the home. We hung lights, put in switches and outlets late into the night on several occasions this week. Now the focus is on putting covers over everything. After the cabinetry is installed we will be able to finish with the remainder of the lights and outlets. This picture is showing the newly hung outdoor lights by the newly placed garage doors.

Garage door installations has begun. My cousin, Jason Beck, owns Allstar Garage doors down in American Fork. He was able to get me a good deal on these doors. We are working with a company locally to have them installed. This is certainly a better look than the blue tarps.

All of the tile flooring was completed in the laundry and bathroom areas of the house. Just in time, too, as the cabinets have arrived.

Viki has been busy decorating the kid's rooms. This was Landen's choice for the theme of his room.

This has been our method of kid control while Viki and I put in time at the house. Junk food and movies make the best babysitters.

Week 20: Nov 9 - 13

2009-11-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

The painters have moved out leaving a new feel to the house. Viki took over by adding color to the kids' rooms. This is a picture of the girls' room.
Tom, Viki's brother, and I began installing the wood flooring that will go in the kitchen, entry, and mainfloor hallway. Ray got us started and is letting us use his tools. I took a day off of work to get as much done as possible. I began the project thinking we would be able to finish the flooring in a day. I was wrong in my assumption. By the end of our first day we had made it the majority of the way across the kitchen floor. At that point, I was so tired that I honestly could not keep a focused thought other than that I wanted to stop and go home to rest, and I had worn a hole in my knee.
The process starts with first preparing the sub-floor by vacuuming up any debris, smoothing or scraping down any rough edges,and then stapling tar paper into place. The tar paper acts as a moisture barrier and helps to lessen the noise that can occur when two pieces of wood are rubbed together. The wood planks lock together with a tongue and groove system and are then held together using a staple gun. For a couple of amateurs I think we are doing a pretty good job. Viki chose the flooring, Teak wood with a scraped surface and tobacco stain. It looks great and works well with her paint color choices. We also have crown molding now in the master bedroom.
The tile guy has started by installing all of the cement board to the subfloor and has began the process of building the master bath shower. I had initially planned on trying the tile on my own, but changed my mind as we are running out of time. We are supposed to be moved into the home in the next 4 weeks. If there were no time or financial contraints building would be a more enjoyable experience for me. Cabinetry is being built. Currently, everything except for the kitchen is complete.

The cabinet maker actually makes his doors, most places tend to outsource this process. The boxes of all of the cabinets are made out of a melamine covered particle board. The final stained wood that will be visible will be attached to these boxes.

Week 19: Nov 2 - 6

2009-11-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

Cement work was completed this week. As it turns out there was a reason that the garage steps were not centered on the door. Per code if there are more that 3 steps there has to be a railing. So, the area offset from the door is the space dedicated for the railing.
Holes have been drilled through the base of the home to allow the crawl space some ventilation. The plumbing work actually runs in the crawl space. I questioned our builder about freezing water lines. Fortunately, all of the piping will be insulated.
Painting is basically complete. There are some areas that need touching up, but that will be completed following all of the flooring installation. During the course of the week the painters went through a lot of masking tape and paper isolating out the different areas to be painted different colors. We chose a flat white for the ceiling, and egg shell brown for the walls and an antique white semi-gloss for the trim. The painters call this a three tone paint job. They started by completing all of the nail hole patching and then placed silicone at every corner and joint in the trim to smooth out all of the transition points and fill in any spaces. Next they primed the trim with an oil based primer and then primed the whole house with a latex primer. They used the oil based primer initially on the exposed wood trim pieces as water based primers would have caused the wood to swell a bit making the surface rough to the touch. That ends up being my cool learning experience about building for the week.

This is a picture of the bonus room "Viki's Space". She chose to keep the room light in color to keep it from feeling like a cave. She had it all painted antique white, the same color as the trim in the rest of the house. I find the color a bit yellow, but she finds it just perfect. The trim will then be the brown that makes up the walls in the rest of the house making the bonus room exactly opposite in color arrangement compared to the rest of the house. This pretty well highlights the opposite yet somehow linked relationship that Viki and I have.
This is the upstairs family room showing the brown wall color with the accent trimming around the doors. A painted closet. The paint sure makes that area look sharp. I am trying to imagine the color with crayon, pencil, and scuff marks. I am worried about how I am going to react when the little "accidents" start happening around the house.

Landen and I were able to begin installing the recessed can trims and light bulbs. He asked if he could try and install one of the trims. After working together on the first one he was a pro and helped to complete two full rooms.
We decided to go with two styles of trim. Inside we chose a baffled trim, a trim that allows the light bulb to sit recessed up in the ceiling. Outside the trims used are called "snow cones" because they allow the light bulb to stick down below the trim and ceiling about 1/2". Contractors tend to use the snow cone trims because they are the least expensive. Lighting professionals, however, feel thay are evil and to be avoided at all cost. In fact, Viki and I took a verbal beating from a lighting "professional" this last week for even considering the snow cone trims. They feel that with the light bulb exposed your eye is naturally drawn to the bright spot rather than to what it is you are trying to light up. The baffled trims looked better to me but were nearly 3 x the price compared to the snow cone trims. As I battled wants, needs, and costs for several days I took a lashing from Viki about being "baffled" about whether to use baffled or non-baffled trims. Real funny! Fortunately, I found a deal where I got the baffled trims at a good price.

Outide the bulbs are tucked behind a support beam so having bright spots were less of an issue for me.
The three girls in the family highlighting the doorknobs and lights that they have chosen for the house. Both Sadie (7) and Maelynn (12) celebrated birthdays this week.

Week 18: Oct 26 - 30

2009-11-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

Trim work is winding up and the painters are moving in. We chose to go with a simple trim pattern. Simple to look at and EASY TO CLEAN
The door jam highlights the style of trim placed throughout the house. The white spots are the areas where the painters have come in and filled nail holes. They will come back later and sand leaving the areas smooth and flat.
An example of the closet organizers in the home. The closets follow the basic theme of having a shelving system with an area on one side to hang long clothing items and an area on the opposite side of the shelving split in two to hang shorter clothing items.

The forms have been placed to complete the last stage of the cement work. Garage steps. I just noticed that the forms are not centered on the door! It is stuff like this that drives me crazy with building. Aren't steps suppose to center on the door? If not, if there is some benefit to being shifted to the side of the door opening then I need to know. Otherwise, I grow an ulcer worrying about details like this. One more call to the builder.
Front steps. Exit outside the garage utility door. We initially planned to not pour this as a cost saving measure. As it turns out you have to order a certain amount of cement or get charged extra for making a small order. You have to order 4 yards of cement to avoid the up charge. So we ordered 4 yards and were able to include this pad with everything else.
Garage entry door as well as a place for the heat pump.

Behind the scenes lighting and carpet have been chosen and re-chosen. Floor coverings were finalized and ordered. I am in a little bit of a moral wrestling match regarding the lighting. When we were first planning out lighting placement we went to a local lighting store and sought help. They offered help for free with the condition that we get lights from them. They helped us with some lay-out decisions and we went back and chose out lighting from their store. Then an independent lighting guy drove up to the house one day and asked if he could just give us a bid. As it turns out the independent guy can get us the exact same lighting for about 15% less. That ends up being $400 - $500 dollars difference. As for service, the lighting store offers a show room and good help with initial lay-out but makes no contact with us unless we initiate the contact. The independent guy stays in contact with us on a regular basis and has walked through our home and met with us on numerous occasions to talk about options. What to do? Both have provided us with service. I don't believe the lighting store has provided me with $500 better service, but I feel committed to by lights from them. Right now I am leaning toward buying lights from both places and confronting the lighting store about adjusting their prices to be more in line with the independent lighting guy. Which should be interesting because I hate confrontation in any form, except with Viki, who has become my sounding board for expressing frustration regarding the building process.

Week 17: Oct 19 - 23

2009-10-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Oh the interest rates. Two weeks ago the interest rates were right around 5% if we were to commit to long-term financing within 60 days and 4.8% if we could finish in the next 30 days. Unfortunately, we were not quite within the 60 day time frame. Now that we are a little more confident in our expected completion date in early December, the interest rates have jumped up to 5.25%. It sure would make me happy if we could get back down to 5%, as every little bit helps.

Taping and texturing of the sheetrock is now complete. We went with a texture on the walls called Santa Fe. One of the main benefits of this texture is that if there is ever a need to patch a hole in the sheetrock in the future, it is an easy texture to match. The ceiling has a similar texture but the sheetrock mud has sand added to it to give it more body. It was fun to watch the guys put it on. They had an interesting system where three guys worked as a team. The first guy would put a layer of sheetrock mud on the sheetrock, then the next guy would come behind him and do the same thing but in different directions, and then the third guy would finish up by doing a swirling action with his trowel. I think that it has turned out nice and has definitely added character to the house.

Our poor siding guys keep moving ever so slowly forward one small section at a time. I am crossing my fingers that they will be finished early next week. They have started covering the front porch support poles with white trim.

I have been able to start turning on power in the house as the power company finally hooked the house up to permanent power. I can only complete outlets and fixtures in areas where they won't be painting which limits my work to the storage room and garage for now. Fortunately, all of the lights, switches, and outlets that I have connected have worked. I am depending on my electrician to do the 3 and 4 way switches as they are a bit challenging for me.

Our builder, Ray Ellis, has begun working on the trim work. This includes all of the closet shelving, base boards, and window highlights.

The yard was graded this week providing a better perspective of how the yard will eventually look.

Week 16: Oct 12 - 16

2009-10-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

Sheetrock is now in place and the guys doing the taping have been busy making all of the walls look smooth. The gas meter was installed.
We are still waiting on the electric company to hook-up permanent power to the house. Our house seems to have landed in a dark hole on their radar. I have had to call several times to order the hook-up and have had to get the inspector involved to convince them that we are ready to have power. The glitch appears to be with the communication from the state that oversees all electrical work and the power company. The computer system linking the two groups is not working well right now.

Viki and I chose our cabinet maker, Mike O'connor, and have chosen the style and color of cabinets to be installed throughout the house. Viki also chose the paint colors and we have most of our flooring now picked out.

Week 15: Oct 5-9

2009-10-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Work effort on the home this week has been focused on putting up the sheetrock. They have completed the first floor of the home and part of the second. Everything just got smaller. At least, my perspective of the size of each room changed as I was no longer able to see from one end of the house to the other. But, I am liking the change as the house is beginning to feel more homey. Viki and I have been spending time choosing cabinets, lighting, and flooring colors and styles. This week was also special as Viki and I were able to bless Miles. Grandparents on both sides of the family gathered to celebrate the occasion.

Week 14: Sept 28 - Oct 2

2009-10-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

After making a few minor corrections, the electrical inspector gave us the o.k. to move ahead with covering everything up. What a relief.

After passing the inspection, I took a couple of days off from the house and spent time at home doing chores around the home we are living in now. I needed a little break from the house. In retrospect, I am glad I have learned what I have about doing the electrical in our house. It has definately been a learning experience. I have tried to balance in my own mind whether or not the effort to do the electrical was really worth what was gained. For me, it has been worth it because I have learned a new skill, made a new friend in Kevin Layton, saved a little money, and have a custom electrical job that I think will serve us well. That said, I would be slow to volunteer to take on an electrical job again now knowing all of the effort that is required.

Insulators arrived and in 3 days had all of the exterior walls sprayed with poly-urethane to seal the house and then covered with regular insulation. The poly-urethane is rated R-7 per inch of depth. The insulator guy said that with the sealing value of the poly-urethane it can provide as much as R-14 per inch of depth. All of the exterior walls have been filled with 1 inch of the poly-urethane except for in the bonus room where the ceiling was filled with 5 inches. Hopefully, the home will prove to be efficient in heating and cooling around the wide range of temperatures here in Idaho.

The brick work is now complete and looks great.

Our siding guys are doing a good job but seem to have fallen into a tar pit. They do a small section a day, if that. I am glad that I am paying them for the completed job and not by the hour.

Week 13: Sept 21 - 25

2009-09-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

Oh, Boy! Oh, Boy! Oh, Boy!!! The rough in electrical is complete and the state inspector is scheduled for this coming Monday. If it all passes, then the insulators and sheetrockers can move in and do their work. It has been a long month working on the electrical. Every evening after work and all day Saturdays have started to wear me down. Last night, Kevin hooked up some temporary power in order to test all of the receptacles to insure continuity throughout all of the electrical lines. There was power to all of them!

We also put a few light bulbs in which became the highlight of the month for me as I am finally seeing the "fruits" of our labors.

I also completed running all of the low-volt wiring in the home. I estimate around 2000 feet of the RG-6 and CAT-5 wiring throughout the house that will someday provide for TV, telephone, internet, a theater room, and an option for individual room controlled audio. With the low-volt wiring now run I estimate around 7000 feet of total wiring throughout the house. Ironically, as we were about to leave last night we realized we had not run a line out to the heat pump. Hopefully, I haven't forgotten too many other details.

Brick and siding work are moving along and looking great.

We have a driveway!

Week 12: Sept 14 - 18

2009-09-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a busy week. When we started this building project I had a desire to contribute in some way to the contruction of the house. For some odd reason I chose to do the electrical. I made a gross underestimation of the time and effort it takes to complete the electrical portion of a home. Thank goodness for Kevin Layton, the electrician who is helping me, as I could not do this on my own. I feel like we are finally coming to the end of the project. This is good as I am already 2 - 3 weeks behind schedule. The only rooms left are the garage, a couple of appiances in the kitchen, the outside back lights, and the storage room. Then the fun of organizing the panels.

In the end, I will have run close to 4000 feet of electrical wire. That is almost a mile of wire in our house! I feel like I have created a large electro-magnet.

The exterior of the home continues to move forward. The siding guys have nearly comleted two sides of the home and the brick guy is steadily moving across the front of the house. I am liking the look of the red brick on the yellow and white siding.

Also this week, the curbing for our driveway was completed.

Week 11: Sept 7 - 11

2009-09-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

After a week of working out at the house I am sore and tired. I am not used to 10 hours of manual labor. My fingers have blisters, blood blisters from hitting them with a hammer, slivers and small scapes of them that are amazingly painful. Last night I came home so tired that all I could do was take a shower and lay around. Thank goodness for Viki, who is taking care of all of the baby's needs.

This week the exterior doors were hung along with all of the windows. and the house was wrapped in a tarp like material that is suppose to help seal the house from all of the wind we get in Idaho.

Excavation has begun on the driveway and the garage floor was poored with cement. We are going with asphalt with a cement curb edge on the remainder of the driveway portion primarily because it costs less, but also because it doesn't crack and split as noticably as cement. The plumbers installed our new on-demand water heater and Viki's soaker tub.
We decided to go with the on-demand water heater for a variety of reasons. First, our roof line with the dormers over the garage made it such that in order to vent a regular water heater through the roof, and stay in compliance with code, we would have had to have a 10 - 12 foot exposed pipe running from the garage roof to a point above the house roof line. Aesthetically, that is not acceptable so our next option was to take some room out of the kitchen and upstairs living room to accomodate the pipes in the wall. I didn't want to loose any space, especially in the kitchen so we said no to that option. Next was a direct vent, basically a fan assisted venting, of the water heaters out the side of the house. Two regular water heaters direct vented ended up costing more than the on-demand system. Besides satisfying the particular design challenges of our house the primary selling points behind the on-demand, tankless water heater is that money is saved by not constantly having to heat a tank of water and that one can have limitless hot water. We will see! Between the mounds of laundry, dirty dishes, and dirty bodies in our house we use a lot of hot water

I started pulling wire for the electrical system. Tom, Viki's brother, has been helpful to come and assist me. Neither of us really know what we are doing and it shows - look at this confusing mess.>

Week 10: Aug 31 - Sept 4

2009-09-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

We were in the lighting store yesterday and one of the workers walked up to me and asked if I was less stressed. I guess when we had been in the store previously I had behaved stressed out. Well, as it turns out, no I am not feeling less stressed. I worry that I have taken on more than I should with assuming the responsibility for the home wiring. We have all of the receptacles set but have not started pulling wire yet. Now that the plumbing and HVAC have been roughed in I am holding up further progress on the interior of the home. Fortunately, the builder is going to move the exterior of the home forward. Viki has all of the doors, windows, siding, and brick picked out. This should be going up over the next two weeks. viki has chosen out the style of lighting for the home. She has an amazing ability to make decisions very quickly. It took her an hour to make her decision and this was longer than it could have taken had I not been present. Something in me says that you have to grind out every decision until you have thought out every potential future experience surrounding whatever you are deciding about. We ended up agreeing on some oil bronze based lighting with tea stone glass.

This week I continued placing electrical receptacles and secured all of the can lights into place. The furnace was installed. All of the ducting is round. I guess this is uncommon for a residential home and more common in a commercial setting primarily because of space contraints between the floor joists. Because we went with some manufactured joists that look like trusses we had enough room to run the round ducting. Air supposedly flows more smoothly in round vs. square ducting so having the round helps me gain confidence in our system. I guess we will see come January how well it works to heat our home. I was a little nervous about the whole system because it was just a young kid installing the system so I had a good friend, Aaron Anglin, come and inspect the work. Aaron is a certified HVAC installer and someone I respect. I would have like him to install the system but his full-time job didn't provide enough time to do the work. He looked over the job and felt like the system had been installed very well and should do a great job for us. Yeah, one less thing to worry over.

Our electrician was unavailable this week so Landen and I took the afternoon and listened to BYU play and win OU in the opening football game of the season and built a go-cart out of scrap wood out at the house. It was fun to work on a project together with him. He thinks things through in detail and made smart decisions regarding how to secure and strengthen the cart.

Week 9: Aug24 - 28

2009-08-30T06:29:00.000-07:00

The plumbers have nearly completed their rough in work and the HVAC guys have started. Initially, we had planned on placing a ground source heat pump system in as a way of gaining effeciency with our heating and cooling. As it turns out the bid we were provided wasn't quite accurate, in fact, it was $8,000 dollars off of accurate. So we decided not to go with the ground source heat pump system. We are now putting in an electric air source heat pump in combination with a natural gas furnace. The heat pump will improve the heating efficiency of the furnace as well as function as an A/C unit in the summer. After spending two summers in an 85 degree house we are looking forward to some A/C next summer.

We have also made some progress with the electrical system. I would say that 80% - 90% of all the electrical receptacles have now been placed. Kevin Layton, a member of our ward and a journeyman electrician, is helping me wire the home. I am very grateful for his help as, to be honest, I have no business trying to wire this house. I got a wild hair last winter after taking a 4 night course in basic housewiring and thought I could figure things out. Well, I might be able to over the next six months, but I have to be done in the next 2-3 weeks. It is a good learning experience for me and even though it makes life a little more hectic it feels good to be involved in the whole building process.

This week was also very special as our little Miles Ivan was born. Viki delivered him at 8:38 p.m. Thursday, August 27, 2009. He weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. We are glad that he is here. The pregnancy was a bit trying as we were always on edge regarding the potential for him to have birth defects. We are grateful that is all past and that he is healthy.

A great week at the house and a great week at home.

Week 8: Aug 17 - 21

2009-08-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

I feel like things are moving forward again as this week the plumbers arrived. I was a little shocked initially to see how many holes they cut and drilled in my nicely framed home, but I guess the pipes have to go somewhere.

The man putting the shingles on continues to make progress. I am still amazed that he chooses to do this type of work without any help. As I watch him work I become appreciative of the detail he puts into his job. Each piece of metal sheeting and each shingle is placed deliberately, rather than thrown into place in a hurried way. I am confident we will have a nicely sealed roof.

We have also chosen out our window and door styles. We are going with a Roman arch look on the doors and the windows will have perimeter gridding as highlights. These should be installed in the next week or two.

Some arches were placed in our entry way. A little splash of excitement in an otherwise "boxy" house. The Roman arch highlights in our doors should fit in well.

Week 7: Aug 10 - 14

2009-08-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

Framing is complete! The basic form of the house is now well defined. All that is left to do is decorate. Yeah! We are excited about the look of the home. It is not gaudy or plain, just a happy combination of shapes. The nice look of the home probably has something to do with the feng shui angle of the home as it's South-West facing front coordinates well with my birth year.

Week 6: Aug 3 - 7

2009-08-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

Much of the framing on the roof was completed this week. Having the roof up has really changed the look of the home. If nothing else, the home has a lot of character and looks nothing like anything in the neighborhood. Pictures this week highlight the placement of the trusses forming the roof, use of heat reflective sheeting on the roof-this is suppose to increase the R-value of our attic by 20%, creation of the bonus room on top of the garage, and the creation of our front porch.

Week 5: July 28 - 31

2009-07-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

First Oops! We have had our first significant delay in the building process to date. The insulated sheeting necessary to complete the roof will not be available until next week. The trusses for the roof were delivered but because the sheeting is necessary to hold the trusses in place the framers are waiting to place the trusses.

Second Oops! The support beams that will hold up the bonus room were installed too low. We have planned in tall 10' garage doors to accomodate the large vehicles needed to transport, soon to be, 8 people at a time. The beams were placed only 8' off of the garage floor. I called Ray, our builder, when I noticed this problem concerned, and honestly a bit upset. A solution has been found. Ray figured out a way to reposition the beams that provides the desired garage floor to ceiling clearance. By changing the position of the support beams the height of the bonus room floor changed, as well as, the positioning of the bonus room trusses and how they relate to the rest of the house. Even with the change it looks like everything is going to blend nicely.

Viki has chosen the color of our house! The front of the house, at least the first story, will be red brick. The rest of the home will be yellow siding with white trim and fascia/soffit. I went to the siding store and bought a piece of the siding to see how it would look on the home.

Week 4: July 20 - 24

2009-07-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

Much of the framing work in the house was completed this week.

Highlighted here are the newly constructed garage walls.

When we drove up to the house today we noticed the new stairs immediately. The kids jumped out of the car and ran in to explore the new addition with as much excitement as they run to open presents on Christmas morning.

This is a view of the family room upstairs with Landen and Maelynn "striking a pose".

Here is a general view of the upstairs with Sadie and Maelynn.

Shown here is the kitchen area where some braces have been installed to eventually support the kitchen cabinetry.

This is Sadie, take note of the missing front tooth, standing at her future bedroom window with the school the children attend in the background.

Week 3: July 13 - 17

2009-07-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

Framing Begins

It is amazing how one's perception changes when the walls of the home are put up. It was very difficult to visualize the home with just the cement foundation in place. Everything looked small, too small in fact, to the point that I thought we had made a mistake somewhere in the plans. With the walls going up the home is coming to life and the size of the rooms feels right again.

Week 2: July 6-10

2009-07-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

This week things slowed down a bit as the contractor wanted to give the cement foundation time to cure before bringing the carpenters in to frame the home. The plumber did come in though and run sewer and water lines into the home and the cement crew came in and poured the basement floor.

I had the plumber place water lines for future sprinkler systems at both the front and back yard. I am hoping this makes for easier landscaping in the future.

As you can see, the basement is not large. Just large enough for the utilities (furnace and water heaters) and food and regular storage needs. We chose to build mostly above ground for two reasons; first, to save some money as cement costs are high compared to lumber and second, to realize greater energy conservation. Supposedly, a well insulated home above ground can be heated and cooled more economically. I am trusting our builder on this one as I have never lived in a home that did not have a basement.

I can't believe we are doing this!

2009-07-20T16:41:00.001-07:00

Yes, we are building a home! After two years of vacillating between building or buying we - really I mean "I" as this was never a hard decision for Viki - finally decided to move forward with building. There are many reasons not to build. With the economy in the tank and home prices down building would appear to be a less desirable option. Believe me, I have lost sleep worrying about all the different reasons not to build. But for some reason this path toward building has remained open while all other paths have either closed or just not felt right. I am posting about this building journey as a way of recording history, as it represents one of the more brave things that I have done since proposing to Viki and having children, and a major milestone for Viki and I as a couple. So, here we go!

We bought our lot in the Summer of 2007. Our primary motivation for choosing this property was it's close proximity to our children's school.

After a year and a half of working over a house plan that we thought would satisfy our needs for the next 20-30 years we realized that we would never be able to afford the construction of such a house. With the help of our builder, Ray Ellis, we came up with a new house plan more focused on meeting the needs of raising a young family. Finally, after months and months of pouring over the plan, getting bids, and the necessary financing a contract was signed to begin construction. As a way of realizing some cost savings we committed to take on some of the building responsibilities, including the electrical and flooring. Of course, I don't know how to do either of these tasks so am hoping all turns out well.

June 26, 2009 We committed ourselves to a construction loan.

Building Begins:

Week of June 29 - July 3, 2009

1. Placement of a temporary power supply.

2. Survey and excavation.

3. Cement footing and foundation are poured.

A very exciting week with a lot of visible progress. Cement workers, I have decided, are a breed of their own. They work extremely hard- fast and with purpose, appear to have little need for communication with the outside world, and have leather for skin.