BUILDING OUR BUILDING

What a summer it was!

On July 6th, I watched out the window for work to finally get started. We were pushed back due to tropical storm Cindy.

Things started happening quick! So exciting!

End of day two looked like this! and thanks to our erector whom I told I wouldn't publicly bash the day he "bowed out".. Days 3 through 26 looked exactly like this as well... he had bigger fish to fry:)

Lots of sad days. Staring like a puppy dog watching for someone to show up and work. Until finally he said he wasn't coming back which led us on a search to find someone else.

..and we did! We prayed hard to find someone good that would show up and save us!

The new guys started on July 28th and things started MOVING!

What a difference a day can make with the right help:)

We took advantage of having a scissor lift!

Three days after our new guys started, windows and garage door trim went in.

So excited to see some white going up!

Framers got busy on August 3rd to build the living side of our barndominium:)

Our contractor Brandon Terrell with Trademark Homes has been worth his weight in gold.

I annoyed him with my grid paper measurements and doodles of what I wanted everything to look like in real life. He apparently goes by actual measurements which is annoying to me. ha!

Decisions. Oh the decisions. I needed to go to the school ONE day for a couple hours to get some work done and got called to go home and make a decision. Some were big, some were small but no matter what, every one had to be made rightthatsecond...

Problems came up daily. Metal is tough to deal with, ya can't just cut it, nail it, add it, go to Lyons and grab it. All of it has to be ordered. All of it has to match. All of it has certain types of screws.

That's Luis in the background. He wasn't our hired erector, but he was the head guy of the crew that our new erector hired. And he was wonderful. Also, I think the workers thought it was funny to hide (or forget?) random things within our purlins.

Our framers continued as the building was going up around them.

The framer's son Buddy was so cute and helped his dad every day. I loved the little design he made with my stair scraps:)

Also..those sawhorses! They threw them together in no time and we are still using them today! They just build their own at every site so they don't have to travel with them. Such nifty workers.

Daddy wanted to give Buddy a whip and I think the whole crew enjoyed it!

We were finally able to sneak away for the day. I was so nervous to leave! This is heading off to Baton Rouge for back to school shopping. and by the time I got home, the whole roof was on!

This is when Brandon broke the news that it would be best to expand my island rather than try to squeeze one in with a table and chairs and after some talking into...I was sold!

Of course, the day I went back to school my porch was going up. Got home just in time to see the good stuff:)

Philip called me at the gym on this morning and said I needed to get home, Brandon was there, and AC guy and plumbers. It was 7:45 am! I love when days start that way! Lots got done all at once. Things were happening around me...like big holes in my new pretty metal..that I just had to trust should be there. haha

The start of all things electrical!

At some point, they hung our doors! Big beautiful doors of Philip's parents' that we refinished then had to have cut down on both sides and reframed. Because that's one of the downfalls of having a pre-manufactured building. Our guy accounted for the doors, but not the frame:/ and iron purlins just aren't as easy to move and shake as wood.

Ready for spray foam! Plumbing, AC, and electrical is in!

After spray foam. this was mid August and made such a difference in the inside temperature!

Trench digging for electrical lines and plumbing.

Oh Peepaw:)

My one-day loft! Sheetrock was next!

and garage doors too! 

And thank goodness the doors came because a week later Hurricane Harvey blew through!

More drawings for Brandon to try and decipher:) This one being my island!

and he made it come to life! I found those posts in a big bunch of wood piled up while I was going through what could be kept. They measured the same and all three men there said "nah you don't want that on your island" Brandon said, "yep I can do something with that!" and here they are:)

My kitchen is looking like a kitchen!

It's funny the things you get excited about when building...like sceptic systems;)

Love how the sunset paints my walls every evening!

There goes the wood that didn't make it on my island:)

Doesn't look like much and absolutely none of the numbers add up to the actual measurements..

But he did it again!

This is coming in from the shop.

and this is my pantry!

Peepaw took his oxygen off at the foot of my stairs and "wanted to see what's up there". I'll never forget that he bear-crawled up my stairs without a rail so that he could see my entire house. I found out later that he didn't tell MeeMaw he had come out to see it, she didn't know anything about his little adventure that day:)

I love my X's! and trim. and doors. and stairs. and drawers under the stairs!

and LOOK! THERE'S LIGHTS! We got electricity to our house on Sept. 29:)

and the next day, our appliances were delivered:)

Do we look like homeowners yet? :)

We are waiting on guys to show up and paint! Then floors, and countertops! It's all coming together! Hopefully I'll have pictures to fill a finishing up post soon!