Category Archives: Home Building

Today was a down day. Got up early and the cats were in the garbage bag. There are three of them that keep hanging around. We forgot to put the garbage bag in the old house last night. When left out they climb inside it and look for food. Got to Lowes at 8:55 amContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 142”

Steve didn’t like the way the basement windows had aluminum on the top. So today he redid the siding on the top of the windows using his handy little siding tool. They now match the rest of the windows. Then he finished hanging the shutters on both sides of the house. I had some carContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 141”

Today was a down day. Justin took a long weekend off. In the morning we went out and spent thousands of dollars on more materials (siding and electrical). We are having difficulty in finding an electrical meter base. Why you ask, of course COVID. In the afternoon Steve cleaned up around the house while IContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 140”

The bugs here drive me insane. The grass is literally moving with bugs. Time to put down pesticide. It is hard to put down pesticide when we are literally living outside most of the time. We will have to figure it out though. Some more siding was applied today. We under ordered so we haveContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 139”

We are not sure what kind of animal has been digging round holes by our house. Very strange, could it be the cats. We may have to move our cameras around to see what is out there at night. Today was cooler with rain in the afternoon. They finished the siding and aluminum fascia coveringContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 138”

Today was a very hot day. We had an appointment at DMV to get our KY real ID issued at 8am. It was packed and they have a horrible computer system that kept going down. Their systems don’t talk very well to each other. One was written in 1975 and one is new. They hadContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 137”

Today was a great day here at the compound. More siding and shutters are up. Steve loves clamps and uses them for everything. They are using a clamp and string to move the siding pieces up. This way one person is up on the ladder measuring and one is cutting and sending up the cutContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 136”

We are getting lazy. Steve really needed a down day. No work was done on the house at all. We just did the normal everyday chores like mowing the lawn and laundry. Bought a pumpkin named Wilson for the children of the corn people. We did book another fourteen-day MSC cruise for June 2022. MaybeContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 135”

Short workday today. More siding went up on the shed dormer side. High work is slow going. Now that the home is closed in it is easy to navigate to get to the different floors. I went through the nineteen window screens and seven of them have some kind of rip. Lowes needs the numberContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 134”

It was a really exciting day. The front door is in and the landing when you walk in is framed. While that work was being done, I went and had a fun date with my Granddaughter. This evening it is a cool 80 degrees and we have sweatshirts on. Well it is cool. Tomorrow isContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 133”

We hooked up a camera last night to try and figure out what was going in our garbage bag. So funny the alarm kept going off. We had three different cats and two different skunks. It was a busy back porch and we didn’t sleep well with the notifications. Today was spent working on theContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 132”

Today is the first day since we started this project that we slept a little later. Got up at 7am. Steve didn’t start work until almost 9am. The basement floor looks great today. More work was done on the siding around the front dog house dormer. Before the work could get started though they hadContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 131”

Last night it got into the 50’s. But quickly warmed up today to 90 in the shade. Look at the steam coming off the cabin as the sun rises. Today was mostly about getting the cement basement floor done. The first concrete truck came at 8am and the wheel barreling began. Justin wheel barreled mostContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 130”

Happy Labor day everyone! Today at our building site there was a lot of hard labor going on for sure. I am thankful for all the hard work being done on the high dog house dormers. They are getting there. I made some new friends today. My new friends don’t carry a conversation very wellContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 129”

Today was our no work Sunday. We had a birthday lunch and celebration for our three oldest granddaughter’s birthdays. The corn children even came by the cabin to celebrate. Steve set up his new beverage refrigerator. It will be nice to have room for some food in our refrigerator now. Trying to keep hydrated inContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 128”

Looking ahead we purchased the electrical sockets, switches and boxes. We are looking at service panels and wiring now. Another step in this journey. It is amazing how many electrical boxes you need for a new house. There are one gang, two gang, and three gang boxes. We have to locate the three gang. ElectricalContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 127”

As I stepped out of the cabin this morning, I was met with freshly sprayed skunk smell. Then walked to the old house opened the door and was met with a horrid smell. I could not even walk into the house. It burned my throat and made me choke. I had no idea what theContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 126”

Beautiful sunny cooler day today. Looking at the pictures of NJ, NY, and PA is heart wrenching. So much destruction and many frightening stories. A few family members personal pictures and articles were ruined from basement flooding. We have had a lot of rain and bad storms here in KY, but the east coast gotContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 125”

Steve cut the rebar and set it in the basement stone. The rebar is used to mark the height of the cement. It helps in the leveling process. The basement is now ready for cement and the 3000 psi cement is ordered. First delivery date is Tuesday at 8am. It will come in two trucks.Continue reading “Living the Dream Day 124”

It is so muddy and slippery that you have to walk on plywood around the house. Sometimes the plywood slides and you are mud surfing. Check out the picture of Steve. He’s in the dog house now!! I love those huge dormers. Last night it was raining so hard that I elected not to goContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 123”

It is very dark here at 6am. This morning the cabin outside light was loaded with yellow jackets. NO! NO! NO I can’t stand another type of bee. There must be a nest somewhere near our cabin. I had bought some bee traps from Amazon to hopefully catch the sweat bees. We put Cranberry juiceContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 122”

Hot, hot day today. Today was our off day, but Steve did put 1×3 boards around the basement windows. He wasn’t sure what to do with these windows since they are partially in the vinyl siding and partially in the cement block wall. He is going to wrap those 1×3’s with aluminum. The rest ofContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 121”

It used to take Steve one thousand of his man hours to build a house. That was with using electrical, plumbing, and excavating subcontractors. Also with two employee helpers. The cleaning never ends. These guys are hardworking in this heat, but they do leave a mess behind. Today, I worked on cleaning the upstairs beforeContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 120”

Fingerless gloves and knee pads are needed to roof in the hot sun. Today was the last day of roofing. Yea – success – roof was done by lunch time. Another milestone met. Last two windows are in. The house is starting to get water tight. Tyvek house wrap was ordered and the lumber companyContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 119”

Another hot day today and more bugs. We are trying to decide if Octagonal vents would look good over the dog house dormers. Looks like we are going with them. The back of the shed dormer is sheathed now and shingles are started. It just got way to hot to finish the roof. So theyContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 118”

We have had enough of the sweat bees attacking us. We have never seen anything like this. The amount of sweat bees here is incredible. Today was time for self defense and Steve went hunting. He is an excellent hunter. His weapon of choice was Hot Shot flying Insect killer. By the afternoon there wereContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 117”

Steve is whistling away and having such a good time with his new $65.00 stair jig. All I know is that we are getting closer day by day to being able to walk up stairs in the house. No more ladders will be nice. He is constantly buying new Dickie suspenders. The clips only lastContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 116”

Steve was up on the roof by 7:10 am. I headed out to pick up our shutters. I found a way to kill the sweat bees. Open the car door and let them in. Then close the door and let the sun shine in. Oh yea instant death. So remember how I was nervous aboutContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 115”

Today was another Sunday fun day. The weeks just keep flying by. Super hot and sunny today. After our normal Sunday errand running Steve got up on the roof. He moved the Dog house scaffolding from the rear dog house to the front. The plan is to be on that roof as soon as itContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 114”

Steve finished roofing the rear dog house dormer and Justin worked on the front slope. Slow going with the super hot sunny day, and all the ladders and planks needed. They quit early because the roof just got way to hot to work on. They were burning their hands on the shingles. There are soContinue reading “Living the Dream Day 113”