Alrighty folks!  I know I said I would try to keep you updated on the progress of the house more frequently, but that didn’t happen.  Hey, building a house is a lot of work!  So, instead I’m just giving you an update in one big heap.  After we cleared the land, we had to dig out the basement and dig trenches for the “footers” and fill them with concrete.  Here’s a quick timelapse of that process.  The people running around are Dad, James, Ricky, and myself:

After that we brought Roy in to lay the cinder block foundation for the basement:

It was really starting to look like something and now Dad and I had our work cut out for us!  Once the block foundation was up we put some gravel in the basement and started setting the engineered beams in the basement as well as the metal posts.

click for larger image

Once we set all of our beams and posts it was time to work our way up.  We went with an engineered I-beam for the floor joists.  Dad and I set all the first floor floor joists then put down our subfloor material.

Once we had the first floor done the view really started to take shape!

Then it was time to start building exterior walls.  The first one built!  The blocking in between studs is used because we are doing a vertical “board and batten” style siding.  The blocking adds a considerable amount of time per wall, but hey, it has to be done.

A few more exterior walls and now a few interior walls.  We only built the necessary interior walls for the second floor joists to sit on.

We asked James and his boys to come back to help us pour the basement slab.  They do an awesome job.  This is also a pretty good view of the basement with the engineered beams and metal posts.

Then it was time to start on the second floor.  A process very similar to building the first floor yet considerable smaller.

After we set the joists Dad and I put the subfloor down.  It felt great to be walking on plywood on the second story even if it was cold and rainy.

It has really started to look like a house!  I can’t wait!

The view from the second floor is even better than the first floor.  We are so lucky to have this as the setting for our house.

Looking down from the loft into the great room which will be timberframed structural Oak posts and beams

Then we started building the second story walls.  We moved pretty quickly through that.  Even though it was just the two of us.

We brought Lonny back with his tractor to back-fill around the house.  We can get to the front door now.

Well, that’s the progress report!  Dad’s off in Mexico so I’m catching up on much needed office time.  Yesterday I got a lesson on a forklift so  tomorrow I’m going to sand all of our timbers for the great room!  When Dad gets back we’ll be ready to set our posts and beams as well as the roof trusses.  We’ll be under roof before ya know it.  Let me know what you think in the comments!  More updates to come (hopefully sooner this time)

-Will “Bear” Walker