Things are still moving along on the house. We're painting this week. The color selection was a little tedious and I'd been dreading it for some time. I like to think that I have a pretty good grasp of aesthetic values, but historicaly speaking decorating and color coordination falls to the womenfolk. We finally managed to come to an agreement on the colors, and though they don't tend to go well together, the colors that clash are behind walls, so they shouldn't be too bad. I did manage to get Tina to compromise a little, but we ended up leaning much more toward her ideal choices than mine. For instance, there is an interesting shade of green that will cover the living room walls, and I've never been a fan of green. In the end it wasn't so much which colors to choose, but exactly where to put them. One thing we've decided to opt for is a chair rail in the living room walls at least, and some sort of wooden border between colors in the bathroom.

I've acquired my sound system for my home theater. I made frugal choices going with a 500 watt JVC system available from Wal-Mart. I got a receiver, and then a 5.1 speaker system separately. The overall price counting mounting hardware, wiring, receiver, and speakers was under three hundred dollars. They camne in yesterday, so I hooked up a DVD player to play a CD just to test them. I was quite pleased. When I switched the cabling for a digital coax audio, I could immediately hear the difference. Thanks to Aaron for giving me a couple of really great RCA coax cables a while back. Though they're really meant for analog audio, as I found out they will transmit digital signal just fine, and I'm sure the other one will work to go to my subwoofer, since the supplied cabble is about five feet too short.

Of course as soon as the paint is on and dry, we can start the processes of attaching the outlets and laying floor. Then it will really get exciting. Of course meanwhile we'll be working on the septic system, and having the heating/air guys doing their thing. I'm still hoping to be in by the end of November, but we'll see.

In the rather long interim since my last update we've come quite a long way. As you can see, the roof is now on and the vinyl siding is on. The back porch is now built, and not pictured we now have steps leading from the porch down toward the basement door. Drywall is in being applied to the walls at this time. The next step will be to pour the rest of the concrete in the back, including a peer under the end of the steps, and an area outside the basement door and under the porch. Heating and air will be in a couple of weeks, and I expect flooring to be under construction very soon as well. I still expect to be in sometime in late November, but if the current pace holds up it could be even earlier. Due to the slowdown in construction I've been able to get contractors to practically show up on demand. Keith Justice did the siding and he'd an old poker buddy so I'll be happy to give him a plug. His completed job was almost exactly what he estimated when I first asked him, and the work was timely and very high quality. Also Tim Snowden seems to have done an excellent job on my insulation and actually got it in a little under his bid, mostly because my dad was there to help him all the way. Speaking of my dad, I can't begin to estimate how much his labor and skill would have cost me if I'd had to hire someone to do what he's done. Also thanks to my uncle Dukie for taking care of a couple of things house-related, and thanks to Tina's grandfather, Roger Baker, who helped for two days in pulling all the electric wire through the walls.

In other news, I've ordered phone service for my new digs. I just kept the old phone service when I moved in where I am now so I had to change my number when ordering the new service. The new number will be 663-6024 and should be operational on October 22nd.

It's past time for an update on the home construction project. As I've said, we've come a long way from the cement floor. The main floor walls are now all complete. The trusses for the roof will arrive on Tuesday according to our supplier, Rogers Hardware. Hopefully it will be full under roof by the end of next weekend or very soon thereafter. I look forward to being out of the sun. As you can see below, construction involves a large number of 2X4's of various shapes and sizes. These are all put together with Number 8 and Number 16 nails, which we ran out of just before finishing with the inside walls. Thankfully, my father was perserverant enough to get out the old fashioned framing hammer and finish the last two. We've made a number of minor changes to the plan as we've gone along, out of mistakes, making things more convenient, and me just changing my mind as we got to certian points and I had a look at things. Of course the basic plan is still the same. Other than one short wall outside the bedroom door that we chose to completely eliminate, the changes have only been by adding or subtracting a few inches to the placement of a wall here or there. That's one great thing about building things for yourself. You can learn the process as you go along and you can discover ways to improve the plan on a board by board basis if you want. I've already managed to add nearly two feet to my home theatre, for instance. I remember in my first version of the plan, there was no home theatre, just a big open space that was practically useless. I've been updating the actual plan to be as built as we've gone along, so when everythign is literally set in stone, I'll post the new plan with the changes highlighted.

Sorry for the lack of updates and new pictures. I'll try to remember to get some new pictures this evening. The block is up, and the sub-floor is on. A lot of the dirt has been put back, but there's still a great deal of landscaping to do. The construction of the walls begins today. I'm excited to say the least. Saturday should be the day we stand up teh long front and back walls, and I've had a couple committments to help. I'm not sure how many it will take. I think we had six to eight for my dad's slightly longer walls.

We've chosen our colors. Black tin with white siding and black trim, with a dark red door. I've been second-guessed on the black tin a lot due to the increased heat, but I think the appearance will be top-notch.

My dad has been the primary builder on this project, and he's asked me for nothing in return. My mother even makes sure we have a good supper every evening when we're working on it. I think they'll be glad to have me so close. They've both gone way above and beyond what I could ask. They're planning on taking a few days off in about a month, but it should be under roof and there will be plenty of things that will keep me busy during that duration. My own confidence has increased. I hammered about 147 nails straight up yesterday without any major trouble, except for the nagging neck pain today. I still don't handle the circle saw. I could probably learn to do it well, but I'm afraid I'll ruin some very expensive wood in the process.

The only necessary change so far in my plan has been to move he stairwell over enough to reach the studs. That may make for some awkward trim space around the standup shower in the main bath, and slightly decrease the dining area, but I think it will be alright. I've elected to make the garage just a little smaller after I had a lok at how things laid out in the basement, so my laundry room, and more importantly my home theatre will be about a foot and a half wider.

My own endurance has been a little better than expected. I did get overheated for a few minutes while putting the left over block back on the truck, but that's been the only time I can think of that I was really just down and out. I was just a bit hungover that day and the 90% humidity, the 90 degree heat, and the 35 pound blocks were just a little too much to move all at once. I've had muscle aches every day so far, but a lot of the heavy lifting is done, with the basement and sub-floor complete. he only part I really dread from here on out is the flooring. I'm not very good on my knees.

The first photo is in, and I've also included the house plan for those curious.

As many of you probably know, I've begun construction of my very own house. It's a stressful but exciting project. After shopping around for a house on the insistence of my wife, I found out that my credit is actually good enough at this point to make it happen, assuming I spend a lot less building it than the eventual assessed value. That shouldn't be a problem. Currently I've got the foundation and half the floor in. The first run of blocks (up to floor level) is in, and the rest of the floor should be poured by tomorrow afternoon. I'll take some photos and get them up as soon as possible. Everything got underway June 30th when the dozer and backhoe arrived, just a week behind schedule. I'm not going to hazard a projected completion date but I'd like to have everything sewn up by the end of the year. By the way, my new address is 910 Cane Creek Road, thus the title of this blog.