It’s time to share some of the pictures of the adventure of building our house here in Oregon. We stopped and started quite often during that time but we certainly learned a great deal along the way!
While living in southern California, we purchased some cheap land in 2006 (read 5 acres for $7500 no joke) with the idea of a retreat, retirement or investment project for our future. After months of my hubby designing and planning, broke ground early 2007. I was pregnant with my 5th kiddo, but we managed to take a bunch of trips up to see the progress. The older kids loved being out in the forest wilderness and I loved them being able to roam free.
By the time Ben was born in September, we had the shell up. The crash of 2008 sent everything into turmoil in our business, so we moved up on election day November 2008, to try and survive with very little income.
By the end of 2009 we had mostly finished the house. During this time we lived in a trailer onsite – yep 5 kids, a dog and 2 crazy worn out parents. These pictures are a quick look at the big stages. Any more and we would be here for a week!
Where you see my cool minivan in the first picture is where the house ended up. We had to move the site around to avoid huge rocks yet stay close to the road for the utilities.
The grading took a great deal more work than I had imagined, but you can see the final pad and grading for the footings below. The other pictures show the concrete forms for the footings and then being poured.
The kids helped any way they could, and with four of them it was amazing how much of a help they were. Pregnancy allowed me the privilege of sitting and watching them all! Oh, and taking the pictures.
Once the flooring joists were in, the framers transformed a pile of wood into the shell for our home.
We had spent so much time and money on drilling the well, grading, and concrete, it was The grading and well alone had used up $50,000 so it was great to finally see a structure. It was like magic how fast it was built.
Then came the windows and insulation. Excuse the weirdos, the fiberglass goes to your head after a while.
After the roof was installed (the day before a rain storm of epic proportions phew), then the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC came next.
We had this cute guy help out – he was super affordable. Oh m y word we had fun doing all this crazy stuff – but boy did we sleep well too.
Next was the dreaded drywall. If you ever build a house here is my one tip. Pay someone to do the drywall and mudding. I don’t even want to think about how long it took and how much dust there was.
Look at the amount of drywall Home Depot dropped in our driveway. I about died. So the boys helped! It took all of them together to lift one sheet, but it worked. They learned so many skills during this time – I’m so thankful they got to build something with their dad. Honestly without them it would have taken a decade to finish the house!
Gallons of paint, building the kitchen cabinets, installing the bath fixtures and the like were added at this point, but let’s go outside.
Side note- my littlest kiddo was obsessed with turning over every stone in search of critters!
The Tyvec weatherproofing, which is stapled on top of the plywood, was finally covered up with hardiplank siding. My hubby started out his working life as a carpenter, for which I am eternally grateful.
These are the main stages of building with all the blood, sweat and tears well spent! After more paint and what seemed like endless details, our house became our lovely new home. I’s so thankful for this country home to raise our kids in.
Check out my sweet mum helping with the paint! That is all I can relive through today guys – would I do it again? Probably not, unless I could just watch someone else do it!
Blessings to you, sweet friends. Love Kay.
