Walked through the house today

Megan and I walked through the house today. Most of the exterior walls are up, and the interior walls on the first floor are done. Of course, as soon as the walls were up, Megan started rearranging the furniture. It was great to actually be able to walk through the house and see the plans start coming to life. It was even better that I didn't have to physically move the furniture.

I have quite a few pictures to show, but none of them really does justice to how much has been accomplished. Here's what the interior looks like when you walk through the front door. A closet to the right, stairs will eventually be placed to the left, and that's the family room to the rear.

The dining room opens into the kitchen, which opens into a breakfast nook or sitting area (We haven't yet been able to decide what we're going to use this room for).

The exterior view is better. Here's a view of the rear (east wall) of the house:

It doesn't look quite as good from the front:

It will look better from the front once the trusses are up. And if you look closely, you can see that we now have a front porch. Here's a better view:

The porch was formed and poured today. This was all I was waiting on to be able to apply for the first draw on the construction loan. So I can pay the excavator, foundation guys, and plumber.

The carpenters worked all day on squaring and bracing the first floor walls, and raising beams that will support the first floor. Here, they're lifting the biggest beam (a 35' x 14" high by 7 inch thick made out of four laminated LVLs). Instead of assembling the beam in position, they nailed it all together on the ground (actually on the street in front of the house) and hoisted it with the forklift. Probably a good idea since it weighs about 600 pounds:

Here are a few of the beams in place. The second floor is quite a bit more complicated than the first floor because it is fairly open, and because the walls on the second floor don't necessarily line up directly with the walls on the first floor.

The only walls left to finish on the first floor are a couple of garage walls. Here's the long one:

They're just about done constructing it and will raise it in the morning. So tomorrow--if the weather cooperates--they'll finish the garage and start on the second floor joists.