Where we are at now

So my Dad who has been away from the project for a bit wanted to see some pictures of where we are at in the house build.  

We are almost done with framing.  At least upstairs.  Somewhere along the way we decided the basement is huge, why don't we use it and put our living room down there as one open space.  Besides, we have this huge ass staircase in the middle of the room going down anyway so we might as well.  My existing living room will become a dining room and the area transitioning between the old space and the new will just be open.  Open and airy.  Make sense?  

Enter Cara who now has to drive her happy butt out East to the County buildings to amend the permit.  See, if you want to have a finished basement you need to have a permit for that.  Right now I have a permit for an unfinished basement that wants me to put a door at the bottom.  Yeah, I want an open staircase to allow as much light down into the lower area as possible.  A door just isn't in the plans.  I have a phobia of dark split level like basements with teeny tiny windows, and that is definitely not my intention here.  I want it to feel natural to go downstairs, and like it is still part of the floor plan.  Not like you are entering a dungeon or cave of teenage angst where parents hide their broody children away from the world to play video games till they can be social and nice to the world again.  Nor do I want this to feel like some room out of 50 Shades of Gray either.  That could be fun. ;)  This will hopefully not feel like a basement at all.  I am not quite sure how to go about that yet, but believe me, I will find a way, and it will likely involve a lot of white paint.

We shall not talk about how high our friend is teetering up there on two Home Depot buckets like a mountain goat.  The best part about house building in Colorado is there is you have friends who can set up and break down large theater sets for national traveling productions, (think Batman flying through the air.)  Add in family members who have climbed very large mountains for fun and worked in rock climbing gyms.  Between the two, we have a ton of gear and equipment to basically belay and harness everyone in so they are safe.  Pretty sure that is not how it is supposed to be be done, but hey, it's done.
 

It is kind of hard to see, but we purchased attic trusses.  The space up there is huge.  This way if Dave decides he needs some sort of man cave, or I need a room to craft creepy dolls and wrap presents like Candy Spelling, then we can cut a hole and add a staircase outside the house to access the space.  It can also be a space for when Calla is done with College and has decided she will live at home forever and take care of me when I am old.  #seperationissues  

One of the other cool things about building the house yourself with your friends who also happen to be your trades people is you have the ability to hide your utilities.  The plumbing will be hidden as best as we can as well as the ducting downstairs.  No soffits.  

Trickiest part of the whole damn thing was tying it into the house.  It looks simple, but Geeze Louise this is where those of us who actually passed geometry, figured thing out.  Those of us who cheated in Geometry along with 1/ 2 the track team swept up saw dust and picked up trash.  

The space next to the stairs is my closet.  The bedroom is where the miter saw is living.  Yes, I know the closet is half the size of the bedroom.  Our master bath is in the back sunny corner.  The pantry is where the electric box is, and directly next to it is a small powder room.  I am standing in an open hallway with a door that goes out to the side garden onto a wrap around deck and in front of the large picture window with views of rolling farmland and the Rockies.

The stairs going down.  Yes, the same stairs the dipshit dingo dog fell down 10 ft.  Picture only a frame, no plywood, where the landing is half way down.  That is what he high centered himself on.

So that is pretty much it for now.  Kind of slow going when you only get to work nights and weekends on it.  But we are getting somewhere.

I am back in the office today with my calves still like rocks because someone, *cough*myself*cough* decided to pretend she was 14 again and jump like it during the Master Ballet Class on Saturday.  But damn, it was worth it to jump like that again.

Webpage almost done.  Finally!!!!

Hasta Pasta.
Me:)