Blue Moon

Well news year's eve 2009 has a blue moon which is weird because it seems like the sub contractors work on the homes once every blue moon. On the 27th one of the subs put up the trusses, and today they put up half of the sheeting. Before that, it was late November when the stairs were put in and that had been the last activity on our home for a whole month(besides shoveling snow out of it). Hopefully the subs will finish the other half of the sheeting soon.

Faith in the program is waning, but hopefully we are past the halfway point and will be over with the whole thing sooner than later.

Basement Stairs

This week the stairs to the basement were put in. Also, the windows have been cut out. The trusses should be next!

Interior Walls and Garage

Yesterday we got a lot done on the house. The interior walls were laid out, built, and then put up. The exterior walls on the garage were built and put up as well. It is starting to look more like a house every week!

Entry Door

Here is what our entry door will look like.

Exterior Walls and Shearing

This week the exterior walls were finished (except for the garage), and the sheering was put on.

Exterior Walls

The exterior walls were started today. You can see the wall facing the backyard. The first large opening is the door going to the back yard, then to the right is the kitchen window, then the master bedroom window

Floor Sheeting

The sheeting for the floor was installed. The layout for the upstairs walls was started

Rim Board and Floor Joists

In the last couple of days the rim board and floor joists have been added. Today the green board was put in the garage and tomorrow we will probably put in the sheeting on the floor.

Basement Framing and Main Beam

Today we got a lot done on our house. We had about a dozen volunteers from Wells Fargo in Park City and they were a great help. We got the main beam and posts put in today. The green boards on the top of the foundation were put in. Also, the framing around the stairwell and the utility room was done today.

Basement and Garage Floors

The basement and garage floors were poured and leveled. Looks great!

Grading the Yard

Today the yard was graded and the last of the gravel for the window wells and garage was put in. It also snowed today. If you told me last spring that it would snow before one nail was put in our house, I would never have believed you.

Foundation Backfill and Basement Plumbing

Today we went and checked out what was done on Friday. The foundation was backfilled and the basement floor was filled with gravel. Also, the drain pipes were put in.

More Foundation Work

Yesterday the damp proofing and the window wells were put in.

The Foundation Was Poured!

The concrete was poured into the forms the other day and yesterday the forms were removed. I was able to stand in our house this morning!

Foundation Work

The footings have been poured and the forms for the foundation are up. The foundation should be poured in the next day or two.

Finally!!!

We started working on a few of the other lots in the group a couple of weeks ago and have been making pretty good progress. But, we have been growing anxious waiting for work to start on our lot.

Well, we finally got to see some progress. Our foundation was dug out yesterday!

Exterior Colors

After a lot of deliberation, Natalie picked out some of the exterior features of the house. The colors aren't quite perfect on the computer, but they are close and will give you an idea of the color scheme.

House Plot Layout

After deciding which floorplan we wanted, we met with Guy (our onsite foreman/contractor) to decide where we wanted the house placed on the property. We had to follow a few codes like having the house back 25' from the sidewalk, etc. This is what we came up with.

Floorplan

The toughest decision we have had so far was choosing which layout we liked the best. We finally chose the Aspen.

Lot Choice

In the self help program, home building choices are done in the order in which each family was accepted into the program. We were the 2nd family accepted into the program, so we had 2nd choice for our lot. We chose Lot #5, which is directly west of the Blazzard's and just north of Natalie's parents' land.

The top picture shows a satellite view of our lot and shows where we are in relation to Rod and Connie's land and where we live now.

The bottom picture shows a ground level view of our lot. Unfortunately we didn't think to take a picture until after all of the weeds started coming up. The view is to the SE.

The beginning

We decided to create a blog of our home building experience so that friends and family can see what's happening. It will also be cool to be able to look back at the process when we are finished.

We are building a home through USDA Rural Development. It is a self help program to help bring families into rural areas and to also help facilitate home ownership to low income families. We applied in July of 2008 and were accepted into the program this last winter.

As of now, there are 4 other families in the program with us, but there will eventually be 8 in total. Each family is required to put in 30 hours each week building the houses. We help each other building the homes and no one can move into their homes until all of the homes are finished.

We were hoping to start building in May or June, but it looks as though we won't begin construction until August.