SIPS going UP

My goodness we have a house forming! Steve, Jonathan and crew are putting the pieces of the puzzle together quickly. We all hope to have the roof on before the fall rains begin, usually in early Oct.

We were happy to show our friends Linda and Ed as well as Kim and Tim the site when they visited us this weekend. Each couple picked out "their" room, so Bob and I suspect we may be on our path to a B&B career. The site is lovely and the house will be wonderful. We went to the Portland "Street of Dreams" (a Parade of Homes) and decided our finished house will be superior to those in all regards. We did get some ideas and a lot of photos for decorating and color ideas, but our design and structure was so far above what we looked at!

Here are the latest structure changes. The roof will be vaulted with all three floors of windows facing Mt Hood.

Hammer and nails

Hello all, it has been a while since my last post and I have many photos from which to choose. Steve and team have made HUGE progress since the last post. Bob and I visit at least weekly and we have been startled by how fast the house is coming together. As of yesterday, the septic tank and drain field have been "planted", the basement has been framed courtesy of Steve and son, the floor of the main level is just about complete.

Here are some photos showing the basement and the progress to date.
Our first "visitors" were James and Julian Hyatt, our cousins from Portland. The huge machine was squirting cement into place for the basement floor.
The 2x4s are framing the basement, and the "siting" for the placement of the house couldn't have been more perfect--check out that view!


The SIPs (structural insulated panels) should be delivered this week. That will make up the exterior walls of the house. To be continued.....

The Sun Keeps Shining

We are having (we are told) a typically beautiful summer in SW WA. A few days in the upper 90s, but most in the high 80s or low 90s. At night it cools to the upper 50s....really low humidity and nice breezes have made the month of July perfect! While we build the house, we are living at sea level; up at the house site (1400 ft elevation) it stays about 5 - 8 degrees cooler.

These photos are now about 5 days old; we'll get up there this weekend to see the latest.

I've done a bit of research on BLOG CREATION. It looks way more involved than I care to go to make this fancy and snazzy...so what you see is what you are gonna get! Thanks for your positive comments and interest. :)

The second photo is from the constant spot (note the well head to the left)....but some big machine DESTROYED the boulder that I've been standing on. :(

Sunny skies in WA

Bob points to the level of the basement floor on the left, and the weekly update photo is below.

We have been very lucky with the weather; other than a couple of days of rain last week, it has been dry and mostly sunny. Perfect, really, to put up the forms and pour the concrete. We checked out the progress last Saturday and took these photos. I'm shooting a photo each week from the same spot (on top of a boulder with the well head in the lower left corner of the photo) so we can watch it develop over time. Now, back to appliance shopping online. Thanks to all for your positive feedback! Does it seem we are excited? Yep, we are.

No concrete just yet...

Things are happening, and are we beginning to be able to visualize more of the house. One of the shots on this page shows the view from where the dining room table will be....can you see Mt Hood through the trees?

It appears the basement will be large enough to store a few bottles of wine. We've heard they have some good stuff in OR and WA. :) I haven't yet figured out how to label these photos. Bear with me as I learn to blog.

The rains have stopped and the digging has begun

Spring is the rainy season in this area, lasting well beyond average this year. We need to clear the house site on the property and have a huge bonfire, with a county provided "burn permit". Because the summers are dry, we can't burn after a given date in July...our window of availability is getting shorter. We both have been a bit nervous that the timing wasn't going to be right; but we were wrong.

So far, the property has been cleared, the burn has happened, and a great big CAT has arrived to do some digging. We've got it staked out. The excavator began last week! Concrete will be mixed and poured this week. Holy Cow.

Paperwork, paperwork

Bob and I are finally beginning to believe this is going to happen! On June 4, we signed the paperwork at the "closing" for the construction loan. It was so official, they had our name on the board of daily activities for the office. We felt important. The staff must have thought so, too, as they took our photo.


Only a couple of weeks prior to this, we FINALLY picked up the building permit. Bob has been dealing with the county permit office since Oct 09. Does he look happy?

During the planning phases, we came to believe the adage "one step forward, two steps back", and we are just beginning!