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Where the heck have we been? Oh, you know, around. We still have no internet connection at the house so updating is tricky. Currently we are parked at the town dock in the truck, picking up the free wireless access in the nearby park. If you want to feel highly suspicious sometime, may we suggest using your laptop while sitting in a pickup that has a washer and dryer stacked in the back? It looks like we are trying to offload hot goods.
Anyway, we are still trying to minimize the chaos in the house while getting as much work done as possible, but there isn’t much to show. The bathroom and laundry room are tiled, grouted, and sealed (hence why we’ve collected the used washer and dryer from the very nice person who sold them to us on the cheap. Clean underwear, here we come!). Doors have been hung in the bathroom and bedroom. The cabinet for the kitchen sink is built and the sink has been dropped in, but not connected. We’ve fixed the not-so-hot hot water problem in the shower. The entryset is on the front door. We organized the kitchen into something resembling a kitchen. Things are progressing.
In other news, we’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon. Before we moved in, we were mildly concerned about the number of spiders that were still in our house. They moved in when the house was still 100% construction zone and made themselves quite at home. We don’t mind spiders at all. They are helpful little buggers, really. They eat the mosquitos! That is something to love in an eight-legged critter. But there were spiders everywhere in the house, which was a little unnerving.
Since moving in we’ve still noticed spiders, but they are dead spiders. And there are dead moths. And dead unidentifiable…bugs (do we look like entomologists?). There’s bugs, and they are all dead. Weird right?
Not really. Turns out that our cat, in addition to thoroughly enjoying the giant jungle gym that is our house while continuing her campaign of terror against the dog, has found time to develop her skills as a consummate bug hunter.
Keep a sharp eye out. You might be next for Reboo, the Great Huntress.
Gotta go. The coppers are circling. A photo post will follow soon.
The move is complete. Laundry baskets full of shoes are stacked up in front of the fridge. The bathroom supplies are next to the miter saw. We have a shower but no sink, the hot water isn’t actually "hot", and you need to be really careful not to splash because the bathroom floor isn’t grouted yet. We have a stove and microwave for cooking, but only condiments in the house (can you make a meal from Worcestershire sauce and dijon mustard?). It doesn’t really matter because we aren’t sure where the pans or plates are.
The kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and bedroom have walls. The only room with a door is the bathroom (we are a modest house). We have a closet, but no rods to hang things from. We have a television, but it is currently hidden behind a stack of drywall. We have a growing pile of laundry (made worse by Cherie’s recent travels), but no washer and dryer. We have power, but few installed lights so we still need to use flashlights. Our mattress is on the floor.
The dog spends her time fruitlessly searching for a comfortable place to lie down. The cat keeps trying to escape. There is dust covering everything, including the animals. We don’t know where the checkbook is. Getting from room to room requires climbing over tools and boxes. Our front door still doesn’t have a doorknob. There are bits of drywall, stacks of wood, and tufts of insulation everywhere.
Home sweet home.
It has finally happened, we got power today. I showed up to the house around 6pm tonight to find out that the power company had run the wires. It was now up to me to throw the switch, and throw the switch I did. Several switches or breakers were turned ON, in fact. After turning them on in the basement I ran upstairs and turned on the kitchen lights for the first time… only to realize, we need light bulbs. So, to feed my need for power I grabbed the first thing I could find with a cord to plug it in. The bright red Kitchen-Aid mixer never sounded so nice. All I could think of was, "Look at me, I’m sailing, I’m sailing!" I liked it so much I checked all the outlets with it. I got the refrigerator plugged in and running. Tomorrow I move everything to its newly cooled compartments. The bathroom fan works too. I am still filled with joy at this minute. Next problem telephone service and Internet, but that is not to be thought of until tomorrow. I’m sailing!
Recently, someone found our site by googling the term "build a house in four hours." They didn’t stick around. We can’t imagine why, what with the lightening progress we are making.
In a comment to our last post Angela of Pete and Ange very politely asked when we were moving in. Ha! Not in four hours, that’s for sure.
It’s a very good question, but we don’t have a very good answer. Our plan from about five months ago was to move in at the end of August. Two months ago, we told our landlords we would be out of our rental at the end of August. We don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the end of August is…next week. Next Thursday to be precise.
We still don’t have a functional kitchen or bathroom. Oh, yes, and we still don’t have electricity.
We finally admitted this week that our chances of moving next Thursday were slim. Very slim. Slim like in an equation where slim=no chance in hell. This is particularly painful for Cherie, whose entire professional career has been concerned with meeting deadlines. This is a deadline that we will not meet. Period. End of story. A perfect streak of met deadlines blown.
We may be sulky, but we are not ones to live in denial. We bit the bullet and called the landlords for an extension. Luckily, they like us. Also luckily, they had not rented the place, mostly because they needed a few weeks to get it in shape for a new tenant. We have two weeks of grace.
September 10th is the new deadline. Wish us luck. Except for you, Mr. Build a House In Four Hours. Because you are just nutty.
Well, it arrived. The first overnight in our house. We had some work on the roof that needed to be done early in the morning before the shingles heated up and we needed to push ahead on the drywalling. So why not work late and stay over?
Saturday
9:00 Finally make it to the house. Finish the last tiny bit of framing: building in a shampoo niche in the shower, building the front edge for the tub, and framing the small door into the attic.
12:00 Lunch! Yay!
12:30 Begin drywalling the master bedroom. The cathedral ceiling that seemed like such a good idea back when we were putting in the rafters suddenly looks pretty daunting. Luckily, we were able to borrow a drywall lift from a kindly acquaintance (thankyouthankyouthankyou!) that made the job, if not easy, at least possible for two people.
1:00 Still drywalling.
2:00 Still drywalling. We said it was easier, not faster.
3:00 Still drywalling.
4:00 Still…you get the point.
5:00 After 5 hours of drywalling, we have managed to finish only one half of the cathedral ceiling and place one sheet on the other side. We weep for a bit.
5:15 We head back to our other house to forage for dinner supplies and fetch the dog.
6:00 Back on site. The dog gets a good run through the woods while we fire up the grill.
6:30 Grilled shrimp, mushroom, and onion kabobs with corn on the cob. Blueberries for dessert. Cherie begins blowing up the air mattress herself after Michael’s ingenious plan to use the air compressor fails utterly.
7:00 Back upstairs. We decide to abandon drywall. Cement board in the tub surround, then. During breaks, we continue to make ourselves lightheaded trying to inflate the air mattress. Dog begins campaign for another run through the woods.
8:00 It gets too dark to see and we are forced to fire up the generator so we can use the stadium light. (When are we getting power, anyway? Sheesh.) The air mattress is getting full, but our brains are shutting down from lack of oxygen. Dog has turned her back on us entirely.
9:00 Start to feel bad for being “Those Loud People” in the neighborhood. Consider that the house next door, which has three small children, probably deserves better. Turn off generator.
9:05 Decide to go have a look at the meteor shower that is supposed to be taking place right now. Grab sleeping bag, emergency bottle of port, and newly awake dog.
9:10 Settle down in the open space of the power line easement on our property. Get ready to have romantic evening communing with nature.
9:11 Dog sits bolt upright and stares intently in one direction, extremely tense and in full alert mode. We shine our flashlights around entire area, listening to every little noise from the woods, convinced that the dog is protecting us from rabid raccoons or vicious coyotes. See no evidence of any animal of any kind.
9:20 Realize that the dog is actually protecting us from the headlights of cars passing on a nearby road. Express our disgust with the world’s most useless watchdog and settle back down.
9:30 We see a meteor.
9:40 We see another one.
9:50 Another one.
10:00 C: Well, that’s about all the fun I can stand.
M: I think I just fell asleep.
10:15 We set up the air mattress and sleeping bags by lantern-light in the master bedroom. It’s just like camping, only without bugs or rocks in our backs or raccoons trying to eat our food. The dog settles into her bed (which is 100 times more comfortable than our air mattress) and we shut off the lantern.
10:15:03 The dog hits the air mattress and wedges herself between us, shaking uncontrollably. Apparently our new house fills her with even more terror than car headlights.
10:30 Dog still shaking.
11:00 Dog still shaking. We give up hope of calming her and go to sleep.
Sometime in the next hour: The dog goes to sleep.
3:00 Michael gets kicked in the head by the dog one too many times and boots dog.
7:30 Holy crap. Do we really need to get up?
8:00 Michael hits the roof–literally. Cherie spends the next two hours handing tools up through a hole in the roof as he installs the vent in the bathroom and the sun tunnel.
10:00 More drywall. Oy.
Okay, we’ll spare you the rest of the drywalling. Boy, that timeline thing gets old. Here’s what the bedroom looks like:
(We don’t know why the photo looks like that. Too much dust in the air, maybe?)
Other side:
The finished bathroom:
And the finished dog:
And so ends the housebuilding marathon. We won’t be doing it again next weekend because we will have another houseguest! Those people never learn.
There is a conversation about this blog that is frighteningly common in our house. It goes something like this:
M: Hey, did you put up that picture of the [shingles/wiring/random 2x4 that looks like every other 2x4 in the house]?
C: No.
M: Why not? We did something.
C: It’s not a good entry. There’s no story. You want me to just slap random pictures up there?
M: But…but…it’s progress! And I took all those pictures!
C: I’m not going to put something up unless there is some sort of comprehensive structure and storyline to the entry.
M: *sigh*
C: Stop looking at me like that.
The problem is that housebuilding doesn’t always happen in big, easily relatable chunks with a nice storyline, especially housebuilding the way we do it (slow and painful with lots of swearing). So this is a catch-up entry. Here, in no particular order, are some of the things we’ve been seeing:
Electrician handiwork in the basement:
C: Wow. Just…wow.
M: I don’t understand how that man works.
The final brackets under the bay window:
C: Those look great! Um…how are they different from what was there before?
M: They are white! And pretty. And there is a gentle, subtle curve in the front, see? And did you see how nice the underside of the window looks?
C: Uh-huh. What else we got?
M: You have no soul.
A backdoor:
C: Yay! Something to keep out the mosquitos!
M: Well, we still don’t have a front door.
C: *sigh*
The well drilling in process:
M: He gave us all complimentary ear plugs!
C: I am so happy I missed this.
The completed well:
M: I told you that the pipe sticking out of the ground wouldn’t be a big deal.
C: I’m not worried about the pipe. I’m worried about the industrial wasteland surrounding the pipe.
M: Landscaping is next year.
And some last minute clearing for the septic:
C: Speaking of industrial wasteland…
M: Chainsaw! More chainsaw!
Don’t think that the silence means there is nothing going on. There’s shingle dipping, there’s shingle shingling, there’s window trim, there’s plumber and electrician, there’s forced enslavement of relatives, there’s final interior wall-building, there’s so much going on that there’s no time to write about it.
We will try to get back on the updating wagon soon. As soon as July 4th passes and lives return to normal.
In other news!
We would like to welcome our newest niece: Parker Anne, born Sunday afternoon to Michael’s brother Clinton and his wife Julie. Parker’s got a couple of weeks to rest up, then we’ll put her on shingle-dipping duty.
We have electricians!
We have plumbers!
We have…okay, we only have electricians and plumbers.
Actually, we only have electrician. And plumber.
But Electrician! and Plumber! are Working!
And that is more than enough right now.
Things have been fairly quiet here as we engage in a strenuous bout of waiting. What are we waiting for? Answering that will require a list:
1) The Electrician. Michael drilled some of the holes for wiring, but we need the electrician to rough in all of the wiring, place all boxes, and install the recessed lighting. At our electrician’s suggestion, we went and purchased all of the wire and other supplies at Home Depot. Currently, they have the best prices for these sorts of things, prices that are changing daily due to the wacky copper market. Ever wondered what $2,000 of electrical supplies looks like?
*gulp*
2) The Plumber. All the sinks and toilets are ready to be placed, the boiler and water heater are in their boxes in the basement, and the tub is sitting on the front porch (yet another way we let the neighbors know how Classy we are). All we need is a plumber. Hello? Mr. Plumber? Are you there? Not that it really matters, because we also need…
3) The Well Driller. ‘Tis true. We are not on town water. We have consulted with the driller, dowsed (mostly for entertainment), and picked our spot. We’ve been assured that all the neighbors have found water within 200 feet. Now all we need is the guy with the big drill. Of course, if we had water and pipes to put it through, there’s nowhere for it all to go because we are also waiting for…
4) The Septic System. Nope. No town sewer either. We’ll have a tank and septic field system going in someday soon. It’s designed and the field is mostly cleared. We’ve got a few more trees to chop down and then we’ve got to get the contractor in. But that isn’t the biggest wait. The biggest wait is…
5) The Electricity. Not to be confused with The Electrician of #1, this is the actual delivery of electricity to our lot. Because of a ridiculous lack of foresight on the part of the electric company (“You mean that people are actually going to build houses on those lots? Houses that require electricity? That’s just crazy talk!”) , getting power requires replacing two full-size poles, installing two half poles, and burying the wire to our house. We are a month into this process and they’ve gotten as far as sending us the paperwork and asking for money. Let’s hope the rest of it moves a little bit faster. Because, really, without number 5, numbers 1-4 are unlikely to be very helpful.
It’s raining here today, pretty severely. We don’t mind so much. It’s been at least a month since we’ve had a day off from the house, and we aren’t exactly weeping at not having a chance to spend yet another Saturday in clothes so caked in sawdust that they could stand on their own.
But don’t worry. We aren’t sitting around eating bon-bons whilst being fanned by our houseboy (read: eating nachos while being panted on by the dog). We both picked up some side gigs for the weekend; not a bad thing considering the way building a house causes your bank account to hemorrhage money. But these jobs–installing kitchen cabinets (Michael) and some grant writing work (Cherie)–aren’t exactly photogenic.
So it’s time show you the stealth work that’s been going on while we’ve been distracting you with endless whining about housewrap and windows.
This is the upstairs. It insists on looking like a bunch of two-by-fours, no matter how many fancy angles we try to take the picture from. So we’ve added labels to make it clearer. Out of the frame are the third bedroom, behind and on the left, and the laundry room, behind and on the right. We couldn’t fit them in since there is still just a big hole in the floor where the stairs should go, and Cherie opted to not snap the picture while hurtling down through said hole. Hope you understand.
Like the decor?
Next comes the very exciting closet doors, installed in the master bedroom (as you look at the picture above, the closet is on the right side of the bedroom, taking up that whole end).
Yes, we see the humor of having closet doors before any actual doors on the house, let alone walls.
And, last but, oh my no, not least, comes the most exciting bit: the bay window. This thing is huge. Huge enough that Cherie (who is not a short woman) could sleep in it if she wanted to. Michael mocked up the sink so we could really appreciate our new dishwashing view.
Tomorrow it’s back to work. Or maybe not. We could get used to this life of semi-leisure.
