A roof over our heads.

October 26th, 2013

The roofers have completed the roof.  The shingles are Rustic Black.  We like the sharp contrast and all our neighboring houses are light colored so our house stick out nicely.

Ikea kitchen and bath cabinets.

October 26th- November 2, 2013

Kitchen and bath install gets a start!

 1st step to the kitchen install.  Marking out the cabinets on the floor.  We measured and marked them out with tape.  This will help when we install the cabinets and tells the plumber and electrician where to pull the roughins.

Step 2.  Get a power screwdriver.  You can get one pretty cheap, I think this one ran me $20. I wore out my old one.  It's much lighter then a drill which makes it more comfortable to work with and fits inside smaller cabinets.  If you have a lot of cabinets to install, which I do, this thing is well worth it.

 

 

 

Assemble your base cabinets.  I use the cardboard boxes to protect the cabinets during assembly.  I assembled just the boxes at this time.  I don't add any drawer rails until after drywall to avoid dust in the mechanisms.  It also makes them much lighter to maneuver.   And we have to haul these upstairs.

I also haven't nailed the backs on the cabs yet.  I need to find a T square to make sure they are square and Brian picked up a new cordless brad nailer that he promises I can use.  That should speed up the process.

I label each of the cabs with the Ikea part number and measurements for easier identification later.

Friday was a busy day at the house. Driveway, windows, and shingles installed.

October 25th, 2013  

 Crushed concrete goes down for the driveway.

 Windows are here and installed.  Except for one, the kitchen window didn't show up.  Seems like one element for the kitchen has to be missing at all times.  The kitchen sink showed up and oh my gosh is it heavy.

The roof gets shingles. 

Brian and I spent the day at the house marking cabinets on the floors and preparing for the electrician and heating and air.

Insulator light sconces

Insulator Light Project

Remember the insulators I picked up online.

Brian made them into light sconces for the hallway.  We will have the electrician direct wire them in.

Want to know how he did it.  Check out the link to his Instructable. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Galvanized-pipe-and-glass-insulator-wall-sconce/

Front porch roof goes up.

October 18th, 2013

The porch overhang and roof goes on.  And it looks fantastic.  Our construction crew really did a great job.  Makes we want to go get some of those rocking chairs from Cracker Barrel and an ice tea, maybe a hot chocolate, it's a little cold outside.

The crew also finished all the gables except for the back and put up on more Tyvek.  They also did some dirt work, so now there is a gentle slope away from the house instead of the house on an island surrounded by a moat look.

Rain, Rain go away!

   October 14th, 2013.  It rained.

 It rained some more.

 And it rained some more.

Ahhhhh, so much water.  Honey, how do you feel about a pool?  We swept and scooped out as much water as possible.  The construction crew cleaned out the rest the next day.  And with the miracle known as the relentless Nebraska winds, the house dries out.

You got mail...well you have a box anyway

October 13, 2013  Brian puts in our mailbox, hey, someone had to take the pics and I put the stickers on it.  However, our address doesn't seem to exist.  The county has assured me that our address was registered.  But I sent myself a letter and it hasn't arrived.  Is mailing yourself something less or more crazy than talking to yourself?