The Walls Go Up!

So, it's been a long time since I posted! Holy cow we have been busy! I never knew that building a house could take so much time. But, when you are selling a house at the same time as building your houses become your full time job. No joke! The good news is our current house has sold and we are in the process of moving. The bad news is our new house still isn't done. We will be "displaced" for about 2 months. But, I am NOT complaining. I am very happy our house has sold. Did I mention we also have 3 kids ages 5 and and under? Yeah, that's also a full time job. 

So, here these photos show the first floor being framed. 

The first floor seemed to go up pretty fast. The second floor was more complicated and took quite a bit longer, but there is so amazing framing work! 

Please excuse the children in the photos.

This is from the first floor looking up to the second.

And the first floor looked a lot different with a ceiling.

Stairs. Yay!

And then the roof goes on.

Remember when I mentioned the amazing framing work? Here are some photos. 

It looked so cool we didn't want to cover it up! The steel cross beams are pretty awesome too. A crane put those up. 

So stay tuned. I now have a roof, siding, concrete, plumbing, electric, and drywall. More pics will coming soon. 

I would love to hear your comments and questions! 

From the Ground Up

Probably the very most important thing to me is to have a basement! I've lived in Missouri my entire life and somehow or another have never lived somewhere with a basement. In the six years that we have lived here we have had too many close calls with tornados. I must have a basement. 

So, on February 18, 2012 we broke ground! 

Day 1- Taking down trees and digging a little...

After about two weeks of digging and breaking rock (aka breaking the bank) we finally have the foundation dug! 

The forms are up and ready for concrete! 

Of course, nothing is simple and easy. A pump truck was need to to pump the concrete into the the forms for the basement walls. 

And after just a couple of days... I have my very first basement! 

The Plan

Six years ago Chad and I moved into our current house; our starter home. We planned on rehabbing and reselling it right away. Instead we started a family with the birth of our first daughter. We always knew we wouldn't stay in this house and we knew we wanted to build a new house. So, we set our eyes on a piece of land that we thought was beautiful and spent the next couple of years saving to buy it. 

So, about 2 years ago we officially bought the land; 3 acres on a lake in Missouri. Then we began saving and planning to build. 

We looked at thousands of house plans before deciding to have a custom house designed. Apparently, we are picky people! 

In a book we found a house that we love the look on the outside, so we based our design on it. That house is called the Tucker Bayou house (A Southern Living house) and is pictured above.

This is our design.