Teri,
New thread, a little more on topic...
> I still haven't touched the deck since we talked.
Whew! Relief... I thought you followed my advice and now had a problem.
> I actually turned on a couple of house heaters
We fired up the woodstove a few times this last week. More for the ambiance than the cold, but it did take the chill off the room. Of course, we got the house over 80 degrees inside and had to open a bunch of windows.
Gave us that warm, sleepy feel and we wanted to cuddle... But, we had work to do
> So you lay carpet too?
I haven't yet....
But, we've done everything else on this house, so why stop now. I've got a lot of studying to do before then.
> It is amazing how much money you can save by doing it
> yourself.
Yep, despite splurging on several big money items, our 1456 square foot house has cost us under $60,000 to build. Of course, that's a year and a half of free labor.
Unfortunately, the county is already taxing us for a $120,000 house and it's not even finished yet! Ouch.
> My H has done electical, plumbing, carpet, drywall
> (but both of us detest that).
Yep, been there done that. I don't mind drywall. My wife even enjoyed that. The worst part of our drywall job was putting up the 14 foot tall sheets on the tall walls in our house. We were constantly afraid they would snap in the middle as we slid them up the walls. But, with my wife in the middle and me on the end, we managed to get them all up in place. One of those big accomplishments for us.
Installing the insulation was easily the least enjoyable step in building the entire house. Especially the ceilings and under the floor in the crawlspace. It's scratchy, miserable work, no matter what. Even with glasses and dust masks you end up with itchy eyes and a nasty cough at the end of the day. But, it sure quiets things down.
Pouring the foundation was a LOT of work. It takes forever to build and brace all the forms, only to have to tear them all down again after pouring the concrete. Sometimes it felt like we were never gonna get out of working in the dirt.
Installing the roof trusses was probably more scary than difficult. By themselves, they flex around alot, and there's always a fear of dropping one off the wall before you get it installed, or having the whole works topple like a row of dominoes. We braced them like crazy till we had the plywood on.
One of my most difficult solo jobs was installing the 22 foot 2x12 rafters. I had to carry them to the house and somehow get them up on top of the 14 foot walls by myself. But, I quickly developed a system that made it possible.
> he doesn't build cabinets.
I've been building our own furniture for years. We couldn't afford to buy the furniture we needed, so I just started building it myself.
One of my first projects was a footstool. For some reason, my wife (girlfriend at the time) didn't care for the cardboard box I used as a footstool in my apartment. But, I thought it worked well.
So, I measured the box carefully and built a wood version with a padded top. Even made a hinged lid so I could store magazines inside.
We used that for years before we moved out here...
> Heavy into computers and electronics.
Yep, I'm a geek too...
> He's got to have a TV in every room.
I "need" a TV in the living room and bedrooms. Of course, we HAVE to have a VCR and DVD player for every TV too... How else would we survive?
> You are almost there!
We thought we would move in on the 18th, but we quickly realized that wasn't gonna happen, so we bumped it up a week to the 25th. Now I'm thinking that ain't gonna happen either. Looking like the 29th at this point. We'll see.
Of course, that's assuming we pass the final inspection without any problems...
So close, but oh so far...
Anthony
