Week 9: And then there was light... and water, and a roof!

We've made it to week 9 of our home building adventure, and the shock and awe has yet to subside. It's hard to believe that just two weeks ago we were staring at a giant hole in the ground with concrete walls, and now we have a fully framed garage and two-story home! Just look at that view. At times it feels like it has always existed and at others as if it's a mirage and may evaporate before my eyes. To create something from nothing and see it come to life is unlike anything I've ever experienced.

Building a house is no joke, though. The number of decisions to be made on a daily basis along with the details that must be reviewed can become overwhelming. Throw on top of that hectic work schedules, the election (oy vey), and well... LIFE. I'm tired! Thank goodness this process allows us to see all of hard work come to life.

But enough about us, let's get into the good stuff! Tyler and I drove over early Tuesday morning after an attempt to vote at 6am (FYI - not a good idea). We were greeted with the start of second floor framing! Visualizing the second floor has been one of the most difficult for me thus far. I've struggled to conceptualize room size and am continually asking Tyler to whip out the measuring tape to check and double check my measurements. Least to say, I was very excited to see progress and the opportunity to walk the space soon.

The super tall framing in front was really starting to come together at this point. It suddenly flowed and looked like it belonged - whew! As I said last week, we will have a large window wall filling this space. It's going to be really cool, I promise. :)

By Wednesday morning, we received the photo below from our builder stating that electricity was officially be trenched. All lines will be run underground, insuring we won't need any poles on the land. We are ~385 feet from the road, so this was quite the investment to complete. If you're wondering how far 385 feet is, just imagine a football field which is 350 feet long...

By Thursday, a crane was onsite and roof trusses were being installed!

It's like a real house or something. :)

Tyler had to stop by again on Friday morning, so he snapped a few more photos. Just look at that progress!

Oh, and check out the view from one of the guest bedrooms. Large corner windows are one of my favorite features. I can already picture a comfy chair sitting right there...

Here is the view in the other guest bedroom. There will be two large windows, side by side.

As always, we had to go check everything out over the weekend and take a close look at the details. Below is a view of the electricity that was run from the road as well as a look across to the house.

Quite a bit of progress was made, even since Tyler visited the previous day. The sheathing (green stuff) is now covering the majority of the home and the roof is prepped for installation. Nearly all of the second floor framing is complete, too. Unfortunately, we still don't have stairs quite yet, so I haven't been able to get to the second floor. Tyler just LOVES to rub it in that he got to go up on Friday morning, but I know I'll get to do the same soon. :)

The well was also installed first thing on Saturday morning. It is located behind the garage. You can see the white pipe coming up from the ground as well as some water from their tests. We were able to locate water at 52 feet, and you can be sure I breathed a heavy sigh of relief that we didn't run into any issues. I've heard such horror stories about wells, so I've had my fingers crossed since we decided to build in the country.

We are thrilled with the progress and extremely thankful for such great fall weather. We've been able to make excellent progress, and it feels like we may actually get this thing weathered in before winter weather arrives. Whew! We're hoping to get windows installed next week, and I suspect the roof won't be too far behind. The electricity and plumbing should also be installed soon.

I'm hoping to get into more of the design details in the weeks to come, but let me know if any of you have specific questions. Our passion for sustainability and simple design mixed with farmhouse and Scandinavian details is something I can't wait to see come together. I'm looking forward to sharing our vision!