...over the past two months.

Progress is slow, but steady.  Over the past two months, we've installed our fireplace, bathtubs, and have ordered most of our doors (exterior and garage).  Jeff and Martin have diligently been working on the "blocking", which is the final framing stage.  Also, Jeff's uncle Scott was here last weekend to finish the electrical work.  Just a few more miscellaneous tasks to complete and we're ready for the next phase - stucco!

  

Fireplace between the Master Bedroom and Bathroom.

Front of the house - Bay Window



Bay Window - exterior


Below...Jeff is installing the racquetball court lights.



Guest Bathtub



 

Master Bathtub

Aspen's Bathtub

The boys have been entertaining themselves with all the packaging materials!

Misc. Framing

There's alot of small jobs to be done right now before the next phase can start.  The next phase consists of drywall and stucco.  Until then, here are a few things we've been working on...staircase(s), installing lights, finishing the formal dining room recessed ceiling, building the wall around Aspen's bathroom tub, and a few other miscellaneous/timing consuming things! 

MAIN STAIRCASE

Yay...the staircase is framed! 
We can get down without the use of ladders!

SPIRAL STAIRCASE

Framing the spiral staircase...a fun, family event!

It was built in our old house, then rolled down the street to the new house.

The spiral staircase leads from the main basement to the sub-basement / racquetball court.

ASPEN'S BATHROOM

Framed wall around the tub.

LIGHT BULBS

Chase has been helping a ton these days. 
On this day he put in all the light bulbs!

Jeff and Martin finished framing the formal dining room recessed ceiling.

Raised platform for seating in the Theater Room.

Lunch Break with Uncle Scott!

Chase, building a maze for his ball.  He already calls himself an engineer!

A few additions to the backyard.  Martin brought his boat and Isabelle's 10'x8' playhouse over.  The kids are having a blast playing outside now that the weather has cooled off a bit.  The pit is for the trampoline.  Once it has stucco on the walls, we can move the trampoline into it.

HVAC, Electric, and Plumbing

  

From the outside, it looks like we've come to a hault. 

However, inside, a lot is happening!

HVAC

  Heating and Air Conditioning vents are going up!  It looks like a bunch on snakes are taking over the place!

PLUMBING  

Laundry Room

Kitchen Island

Master Bathroom Sink

 ELECTRIC

We have 85 outlets in this house!

Ceiling Fans

Can Lights



Tile Roof

 Getting ready for the tile roof.

The tar paper has been layed and the boards have been placed.

Tiles are now loaded.  Just waiting for the weight to settle everything, then the tiles will be placed.  Oh, the joys of watching it all come together! 

Final Framing

We finished the final framing this week.  It's exciting to "see" the house come together. 

This photo is a view of our master bathroom.  I'm standing in the bedroom taking a photo of the bathroom and directly behind that is the master closet. 

Doti gets into the action.

Martin and Jeff are working on the formal dining room.  It has a recessed roof.  We'll put in some unique lighting to make this a nice focal point.

I'm standing in the living room bay window, taking a photo into the house.  As you can see, our living room has two archways on both sides of the wall.  Through those, you can see the great room and kitchen area.

This month, we also worked on installing the electrical lines.  I took this photo from the neighbor's yard.  We had to cross under the next door neighbors driveway and connect the wires to a new SRP box (notice the orange and white striped construction signs in the far right side of the photo.)  That's where they installed the new box.  Since the driveway was torn out, the neighbor was not able to drive into her garage for 24 hours.  On top of that, she was without power one morning for about 4 hours.  Luckily, she didn't seem to mind too much and has been really great to work with!  With electrical lines in, we were able to get a temporary metering device, allowing us to have electric without the use of a noisy, old, generator!  Yay!

Framing - Main Floor

Last weekend was one of the most productive weekends we've had.  Ed, Luke, Martin, Scott, and Jeff worked hard at framing the main floor.  Despite the heat of July, the guys worked diligently.  Fans helped cool the air and within days, the house was coming together more than ever!  It was really exciting!

Jeff's uncle, Scott, came down from UT to help put in all the electrical work.  He spent most of his time wiring the basement, while the rest of the guys worked upstairs.

Doti's brother, Martin, is Jeff's right hand man!  Martin is out there with us at least one day a week and most weekends. 

In this photo, Ed and Jeff are working on the banister.  Ed is Jeff's colleague.  He and his son, Luke work as many weekends that they can.  They're a two-man team we can't beat!  Ed is the mentoring, hard-working type.  A great guy to have on your side!

Luke is cutting the wood for the banister.  He and his dad work really well together.  It's a life lesson for us all to see them at work.  Someday, we hope our boys enjoy working as hard as Luke. 

Thanks Luke for spending your summer break with us!

In this photo, I'm facing the laundry room on the left and the nursery and guest bedroom on the right.  We built a mechanical loft above the laudry room.  Access to that will be through the garage.    

For perspective, Martin is standing in the pantry.  Doti's not sure if it's big enough, but compared to what she currently has, it's 3 x larger! 

In this view, the master bedroom is on the left (not framed yet).  The long skinny room down the middle is the powder room with access to the back yard.  Next to that is the kitchen.

Framing the Basement Walls

Today, Jeff, Martin, Luke and Ed started framing the basement walls.  What a great team; we're so lucky to have them help.  With the roof on, working inside isn't so bad.  We have a heavy duty construction fan which creates a nice breeze.  Today's project was to frame the boys bedrooms and closets.  Although the house is big, once walls are put in, it makes the space seem so much smaller!

Roof

It's the first of June.  Our roof is going on this week.  The timing is perfect as temperatures here in the valley haven't quite hit 100 degrees.  It's an unusually "cool" summer so far. 

We hired the roof job out.  The guys came with a crane to put on the trusses.  Once the trusses were on, they laid plywood down, forming the roof cover.  I video-taped the men lifting the plywood sheets as if they were 2x4's.  I guess when you're use to it, large sheets of plywood aren't that heavy anymore!  They really made it seem easy.  Within 4 days, the main roof was complete.  They're still working on the patio though.

The largest of the roof trusses were delivered and placed in the street.  The crane carried each truss up and over the neighbor's house.  They did it with such ease, but I'm still glad the neighbor wasn't home at the time!

It's all coming together nicely!

Garage and front entrace.

The photo is a bit dark, but I'm standing across the street taking the picture.  We were concerned that the house would look too large next to the neighbors, but since there are two-story homes in the area, it blends in well (for the most part!)  It's still a big house!

There's nothing better than a huge space for driving bumper cars!  Although Aspen's big red car doesn't have a motor, she gets bumped and moved by the boys with no problem.  She loves it!