The Little House That Could
I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…. Much like the children’s story, The Little Engine That Could, our house build seemed to be an uphill battle the last 5 years. But, we kept pressing forward (at what seemed like a snails pace sometimes) and are now on the other side of the hill, coasting down! Ok, so coasting down might not be exactly accurate, but we see light at the end of the tunnel at least!
Where to begin…oh yes, we were awaiting lumber the last time I checked in. Shouldn’t be a super hard step, right? Wrong! Our lumber was supposed to arrive shortly after my last blog. After a few days had passed, we contacted our lumber supplier to see what the delay was. We received word that our order was accidentally cancelled and everything had to be re-ordered! Given that we had our framers ready to go for over a week, this was not acceptable. After a very “strongly worded” phone call, they scrambled and had the manufacturing facilities just send everything separately to us asap! Order 1 showed up with a few items we ordered and a bunch of items we didn’t order. The next day, order 2 showed up and this time it was about half and half. The framers stopped by to see if there were enough materials to start while we waited for the remaining supplies, and as they were looking through the floor joists, they realized they were all the wrong size!! Ugh!! We called the store and they said it would be several weeks to re-order. Oh dear, the lumber delivery is not starting off well. Time for our steel beams to show up! Thankfully they were all correct, but the delivery driver ran straight into one of our septic pipes, bent it, and then claimed he didn’t do it! Luckily, after digging up the pipe, Kris was able to cut it down below the break and salvage it so we didn’t need repairs on our 1 week old septic system.
While battling the lumber company, we began calling other lumber companies and found someone that could deliver the rest of our supplies in a couple days. Done! More expensive, yes. Do we care at this point? Nope! Let the framing begin! The workers wasted no time and quickly assembled the first wall, then the second wall, and before we knew it, most of the first floor was complete! Kris was even recruited, along with our trusty Bobcat, to help install the garage beam while they waited for the crane to arrive. Let me just say, I had one lesson driving the Bobcat and definitely wouldn’t have jumped in like he did! The garage beam went up in no time! We love our little Bobcat! Once the crane arrived, they started placing the steel support beams. As you’ll see in our photos, while lifting the heavy steel beams, the crane truck wheels were completely off the ground!! Yikes! They obviously knew what they were doing because nothing tipped over and no beams were dropped. Whew! Next they moved to the second story and the roof. The crane was brought in again to place the roof trusses. It was quite the site to see and made it feel so real to have a roof on the house!
Week 2 of framing posed a whole new challenge. Kris had to go in to the office the entire week for meetings which meant I was the general contractor!! Eek!! Day 1 started off well. I found that they framed in a wall where there wasn’t supposed to be one! Uh oh! Take it down guys, I need to see the mountains here! Day 2 was even better! I arrived to find a giant well drill on site, along with several other huge trucks blocking the entire side of the house! Turns out the well drillers decided to show up unannounced and start drilling! Seriously?? Of course this had to happen on MY week?! They were supposed to wrap up the well by Wednesday, but the drill broke down and the crew just left without any word about when they’d return. Meanwhile, we’ve still got the framing crew trying to work around the well rigs. What a complete mess of a week! Friday afternoon, the well crew came back to fix the rig and said they’d finish drilling on Monday. Thankfully, that’s Kris’ week to be general contractor! Ha! I was very happy to hand that duty back to him.
Week 3 of framing brought us to the home stretch! Not before having a doorway built in the wrong place and also finding out they don’t frame in our stairs, which I’ll write about in a future blog since it’s an ongoing project…that Kris and I are tackling solo! Oh, the things I never thought I’d be learning about or doing.
At long last, the framing is complete! We now get to physically walk around in our house and see in person what we’ve only seen on paper and in 3D models. We definitely feel at home already. Our patio will no doubt be our favorite spot in the evenings, though the view from our kitchen is pretty spectacular as well! The little house that could, is finally a reality!
Check out all our framing and well drilling drama on The House page!
