Tahanan ni Manang

Porch

2007-09-22T23:03:00.001-05:00

At the start of spring this year of 2007, our first project was our porch, because that is one of the projects we could do ONLY during these days, and because we wanted to be able to enjoy the breeze on a summer day here, just outside our house.

I asked hubby if he would want to put the captions in, to which he answered, "yes, but not tonight."
So bear with the above...those are my captions.

Kitchen - What we have accomplished during summer 2006

2006-11-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

I took short video clips of our kitchen from different angles after working on it the whole summer of 2006. These are short mainly because my digicam's memory card was a small one. (The next videos will have longer ones, promise!). I shot these clips mainly because I was updating an aunt in Texas about our progress. She and her family visited us during early summer.

Notice that here we have returned our kitchen appliances where they should be, although the layout is different from how it was prior to working on our kitchen, mainly because of the creation of an island.

The Master Bedroom used as Temporary Kitchen

2006-10-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

As we got ready in June 2006 for working on the kitchen, we used the master bedroom as the temporary kitchen. We placed the fridge there, used the dresser as countertop, and Gary installed the temporary countertop (which we previously had in our kitchen) with sink on one wall near the bathroom. All other building materials are also stored here -- pile of hardwood flooring, tool boxes, etc. We had this setup for two weeks (Gary could not bear to have the busiest area in our place of rest anymore, so we transferred them back to the kitchen area as soon as we could, though it was still far from finished.)

A Better View of our Living Room as of June 2006

2006-10-30T10:07:00.001-05:00

After we were done with our living room, we now (June 2006) used it as storage area for some kitchen appliances and pantry items while we worked on our kitchen. The rest of the kitchen items were temporarily placed in the master bedroom. Here I also showed the balcony (my office) from below. This is a short clip of how the living room looks at this time. Pardon the children's noise (they seem to make more noise when they know I am taking a video.) and the mess. Hey, what can you expect of an unfinished house with no cupboards and cabinets yet???

Living Room video as of June 2006

2006-10-19T10:48:00.000-05:00

This is a video starting from the entryway into the balcony where my office is located, and opposite that is the future library. The stairs leading to the balcony originates from the kitchen and leads to a landing surrounded by the kids' bedrooms. There is a short hallway from the stairs to the balcony, where my office is located at one side and the future study area (no books/shelves there yet) on the opposite side. When entering the balcony, the triangular windows of the living room are readily seen. The balcony is situated above the living room covering about half of it. Towards the end of the short video, I am showing a view of the living room. Pardon the mess and the seemingly barren LR (we are at this point bereft of shelves, curtain, and all those finishing touches).

Working on our Kitchen Project

2006-10-19T08:19:00.000-05:00

We have demolished our temporary shelves and countertops in our kitchen and here is how it looks like after the initial step of installing the insulation and plastic sheet, plus some pipes for the water source. As usual, my son wanted to be in the video, so please be patient with him. Later on I will post slides of photos that show the gradual (read: SLOW) changes that we make as we work on our kitchen. We stopped at the tile floors, and we will have to work on the cupboards, cabinets, and ceiling later when we have enough money to finish those.

How we made our arches

2006-09-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

We receive many "ahs" and "ohs" from friends and relatives who see our simply elegant arches, so we are sharing here how we made them, in case you also want to add arches to your homes (instead of plain squares dividing one room from the connecting room).

Just watch this slide and learn:

Disclaimer: We are not professionals. My husband learned how to make this by watching the person he hired when they were building his first house (which got burned in Sep 2002).

Living Room Post # 7

2006-06-12T13:20:00.000-05:00

This is now the finished window and walls. The trim is not fancy, as Gary does not have enough skills to come up with a fancy one, (although, IMO, skillful enough to make such a simple yet smooth trim).

Here Gary starts laying down the hardwood floor. The blue sheet is a thin foam lining to make it soft enough for people to walk on and to add protective feature for fragile items that might accidentally land on it.

Then he starts to work on the balcony which is where my office would be.

He placed tracking lights there, and an arched entryway from the kids' bedrooms area where the stairs are.

Living Room Post #6

2006-06-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

Gary is now applying the primer to the walls using a motorized painter which he bough on sale at WalMart.

Patrick helped on the lower areas. He realized it was not easy even with the motorized gadget! At least he did not have to carry the container using his shoulder.

Living Room Post #5

2006-06-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

Before we proceeded to painting the walls, Gary did the ceiling here first. Above this is the balcony where I would have my home office. The wall on the right divides the living room and our master bedroom. That wall will be used for what we plan to be our "screen" for DLP projection TV in the future (we hope!).

Here, Gary is installing the recessed lightings on that ceiling. We placed three of them.

Living Room Post #4

2006-06-12T12:33:00.000-05:00

Mudding came next. Muds are placed over seams and holes created by the screws. It should be as thin as possible so as not to have problems with drying (may tend to crack if too thick, plus it gets harder to dry).
Here Gary is using the power sander, and I do it manually using a sponge sander for the finished touch.

Living Room Post #3

2006-06-12T12:28:00.000-05:00

Gary is putting up the sheetrock against the wall here.

The sheetrock has finally reached the ceiling!

Now we are ready for mudding and sanding.

Living Room Post #2

2006-06-12T12:10:00.000-05:00

Gary has installed the ceiling fan here, but we are yet to work on the walls. In this photo, the ceiling is pretty much all done. That staging which we use to reach high places would soon be removed out of the LR once we have worked on the highest hard-to-reach areas.

Gary finds his table saw and a lot more other power tools very handy!

You can see on the background the windows, with walls still bereft of sheetrock.

Living Room Post #1

2005-07-12T20:56:00.000-05:00

Here is the left side of the living room ceiling as viewed from the landing. Ahead is the right triangle of the upper window.

AS you can see, before the pine boards were placed (interlocking like puzzle pieces), there is a layer of green insulation board overlying the plastic sheeting overyling the fiberglass insulation.

Here, Gary had finished putting all the pine boards one by one on both sides, but he still had to tackle with the middle part which is exposed.

He made pieces of wood from 2x2 boards, shaped them accordingly, and stained them the same color (it was not easy for a non-pro calculating the angle and actually cutting the pieces to fit!). The next thing he did was to line the electrical wiring through these A-shaped boards (support) and box them in.

Here he had covered the gaps, boxed that thing, and made a line for the ceiling fan.

It is very warm to the eyes...very homey...

I could already imagine lots of things to do in decorating...

The next thing we did was to get a ceiling fan from Home Depot. Not much choices but I did not want to get online. It is better to see it in actual prior to purchasing.

This is the box of the ceiling fan that I chose. Big enough for the size of the living room (60 inches diameter), and simply elegant. (No fancy lights that look like baso for me, please!)

These were the parts ready to be assembled. Of course, that part had to be done by Gary!

Small things done during the cold months

2005-07-02T09:43:00.000-05:00

During the winter, Gary did little things like installing eletrical outlets. He also made the stairs leading to the second floor of the garage.

We used the second floor to store things temporarily, like the swing, boxes of clothes, construction materials, etc.

We are dreaming of someday converting it into a "Planetarium" like space where we can watch the skies on a clear night and do some stargazing...

A Recap of What We Have Accomplished So Far with Our House

2005-01-13T21:27:00.000-05:00

It's a new year - 2005. We started working on our house in 2003. Without the money to hire professionals to make the plan, and work on everything from construction (including foundation up to roofing), to electricals and plumbing, as well as the minor construction work like insulation and walling with sheetrock, we try to make do with what skills we have. I myself have no prior knowledge with building, especially a house built in this kind of climate. With my hubby's explanations, I'm beginning to learn the why's (I used to wonder why in foreign movies, the walls were very easily destroyed by hurtling a man's body onto it. Now I know that it is not made of cement and that it is hollow. And now I also know that wood is a better insulation than cement and is less expensive.) I began to understand more about the dynamics of air (hot vs. cold) and water (good thing I have a very good understanding of the basics of fluid and air dynamics from physics lessons from high school to college; if not, I would be gaping at my hubby everytime he explains something).

So, before we actually start doing something this year, here's a recap of what we have done so far:

All below can be archived from first part of Our Tahanan blog.

2003

april - cleaning the site, water pipe

may to june - foundation done

june - laid the radiant heating system, cement floors and erected the first wall

july - proceeded with the skeleton of the house (walls and joists and rafters)

august - finished roofing, added doors and windows

From this point on, the plan for the interior is pretty much flexible. WE try to arrive at a final plan inside as we get the feel of living in it. We also install electrical wires as we feel necessary. (Well, we usually make it a point to have an outlet every 2 ft along the wall, enough for working with the vacuum cleaner anywhere in the house without needing an extension cord. But we keep in mind not to overload the lines.)

september - I and my boys arrived; worked on temporary shower/bathroom/toilet and sink and countertop
installed major appliances (washer/dryer, oven, dishwasher, fridge); bought dining set
later purchased and installed fiberglass shower/jacuzzi and toilet; phone line activated again; computers set up
I worked on fiberglass insulation in preparation for the cold weather
Gary started working on the main furnace in a room within the garage.
october

november- jacuzzi installed

december - furnace and chimney in living room installed; chimney
stairways made

2004

january - insulation and plastic sheeting of living room finished
- enclosed the washer/dryer in the washroom adjacent to the mud room
- started working on the 2nd floor rooms (insulation/plastic sheeting/sheetrockin)
- I made temporary shelves in the kitchen

From this point on, the details of our incremental work on our house can be viewed on the archives of this blog.

april - further work on 2nd floor (mudding/sanding)

may - painting the kids' bedrooms; beds made; wirings for power/telephones/computer network installed

june - worked on powerline (transferred main line)

july - gary transferred his office location to second floor contiguous with Ben's room; worked on garage doors and trims; started on sidings

november - finished sidings; made stairs in the garage door to convert second floor into storage room

Some friends (both old and new) find it amazing that we are building our house almost without the help of people outside of our family, but believe me, if we had the money, we would hire someone else. Although we would probably not spend more for a larger, more lavish housing. We planned this house so that we have enough space to move and for everything to have its place, without being estranged from each other by mere distance and space. Also, as part of our foresight that in our empty nest stage, we will not have a big empty house to see us through until we reach our sunset. Our master bedroom was located at the first floor in preparation for weak arthritic knees...Hubby and I have long decided to live together forever, here and for eternity and beyond, if there is.

On the other hand, building it by ourselves is not so bad...we get satisfaction, we can't blame anyone else if something goes wrong, we learn from our mistakes, and yes...we can rightfully say that this lovenest (which may not be a dreamhouse to other people's standards) is truly one we built with our blood and sweat, and therefore, our hearts will always reside in this house.

Plans for this year:

work on the living room

work on the kitchen

I already have an idea of what I would like to do with my kitchen. One thing definite: I will not have granite on my countertop save probably for a small space where it can take the trauma of hot pots and also serve as my kneading area when baking. That is, if we will have the money for it.If not, laminated countertop will suffice.

I am practical and I abhor lavish and extravagant practices for the purposes of showing off and maintaining image. That's also probably one reason why I created my blogs. A lot of people show off what they have on the internet, and you can very well see the reasons why they are such show offs---they have the money obviously! My blogs reflect the life of a simple family, one that is probably the average (at least in this area), that despite a frugal lifestyle find happiness that is deep, mainly because of meaningful relationships that are not based on money or economic status, but one that is based on love and a sincere desire to help one another...These blogs are no Cinderella type of story. It's more of reality, but very unlike the so-called reality TV shows which really annoy me.

Garage and Furnace Room

2005-01-09T09:06:00.000-05:00

When you enter the furnace room this is what you will see: the furnace (which Gary covers with insulation materials as well), and the oil burner (blue, on the left). The two are connected, with the hot water coursing through the copper pipes. The silver pot-like thing above the furnace is the expansion tank. It has a rubber valve inside, with air on one side and hot water on the other. It serves to "absorb" the fluctuations in volume (since the furnace goes from cold to hot to cold, creating volume expansion/shrinking depending on the temperature). The expansion tank maintains the pressure at 10 psi. Without it, there is the danger of explosion secondary to very high steam pressure if water/air gets too hot.

This is a better view of the side where the oil furnace is, with its own expansion tank. During the early days we placed our upright freezer inside the furnace room (I asked hubby if it would not do harm that the freezer is placed in the hot furnce room. He said the freezing cold air in the garage would do more damage.) Those circuit boxes behind the expansion tank are relays getting signals from the low-voltage thermostat to the high-voltage furnace. (I'm not sure if I got it right...that's what I got from hubby's explanation...haha!).

Sidings All Done!

2004-11-10T13:19:00.000-05:00

Gary has finished the siding all around the house (hooray!). He worked hard for the past months (starting first week of August), often working late at nights when he comes home and also during weekends. Here is a view from the front. The narrow beam of wood showing is where the future porch roof will be attached. Then at the cove between the living room and the kitchen will soon stand the sunroom.

And here is how we plan for the front of our house to look like in the future...(Gary used the Punch Pro software to design our house)

And this is how it appears from the back...

This is how we want the back to look like in the future...

The porch, sunroom and deck will all have to wait as our budget will permit. Meantime, Gary is planning to work on the interior next, especially that the weather has gone icy cold outside. We are so delighted to have finished the siding, as cutting the vinyl in a very cold day is quite hard. The coldness turns it brittle. Besides that, working at a height on an icy cold windy day is no fun at all. And I was so relieved that finally, the worst working-with-heights project is finally over. Though the ceiling in the living room is quite high, too, it is far less scary and the height is shorter than with any of the heights from the gable ends' exterior down to the ground.

2004-10-23T19:05:00.000-05:00

Tadah! Before night was over, Gary has finished that biggest gable end of the house. I am sooooo proud of my husband!

2004-10-23T19:03:00.000-05:00

The window on the 2nd floor was hoisted up there using a rope. Gary used the top rung of the ladder as "pulley" around which the rope went, one end tied up to and pulling up the window, which Gary held as he went up the ladder, and the other end Dad and I pulled down synchronuously as Gary lifted up the window. Then Gary continued working on the siding and the soffits.

2004-10-23T18:58:00.000-05:00

Gary continued upwards...

2004-10-19T12:41:00.000-05:00

Then after fixing the chimney back he also made a door there beside the window, then installed the corresponding fixtures (he ripped the shack's door off to transfer here), then started putting the sidings up. These were done last weekend. That night Mom and Dad dropped by just in time for Dad to help Gary lift the window up the staging to be installed on the second floor.

2004-10-19T12:37:00.000-05:00

After finishing the cul de sac in two days of the weekend prior to the last, Gary started with the highest and most difficult wall behind the garage. Here he is putting the chimney bib in place first. He had to dismantle the chimney prior to that.

2004-10-19T12:34:00.000-05:00

Then continued putting the vinyl sidings in place...

2004-10-19T12:31:00.000-05:00

Gary has just placed the flashing at the cul de sac behind the washroom, as part of the prep for putting the sidings.

2004-10-19T12:27:00.000-05:00

Here's now a photo from south-west view of the house...

Comparing to the plan...really, really close!...(outside part of the house, that is!)

2004-10-19T12:23:00.000-05:00

Continuing up on the second floor's outside walls opposite the bathroom and Juliana's bedroom, Gary used the staging again (conquering his fear of height) to finish the siding and the soffits...

2004-09-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

Last week, Gary worked on aligning the french doors both at the living room and our bedroom...

then worked on the siding at the walls where those french doors are, and started working on the gable end of our bedroom.

So that with the gable end of the living room finished, as well as those walls at the sides, here now is how our house looks from the west end toward the back. This part is what can be seen from the road, which is quite far, so that we still enjoy our privacy.

2004-09-16T20:50:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday I went back to mudding. I continued where I left off - the kids' bathroom. Here are the materials I used: mud, mudbasket, taping knife, and used freezer bags that I use to apply the mud along corners or joints on the ceiling (hard to use the taping knife for those!)

The joining tape

Me in the process of applying the mud

This is how it looks like when the mud is applied. I try as much as possible to make it smooth and to hide the joining tape beneath the thick layer of mud. If there is severe discrepancy in the levels of the edges of the sheetrock, I use more mud to creat a smooth and discreet hump along the joint, so that when the paint is finally applied on the wall, it will be smooth. But I have to let this dry first (at least for 24 hours) then smoothen it with sponge sander (that is a lung hazard because of the very fine powder - see my earliest posts), then apply another layer of mud and do the sanding again before painting.

2004-09-16T20:34:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Gary started working on the back part of the house (which was the wall of our master bedroom.

Then continued to finish the wall of the living room facing the west...

Our house's external features now approach that of the plan. The only eyesore now is that spot on the wall of the 2nd floor where we plan to put up the future porch's roof before continuing to work on the wall siding.

So, going back to the plan, let's compare...Almost there!

Problem is, we don't exactly know when we will start with the porch. Next summer, maybe?

2004-09-05T21:15:00.000-05:00

This is now how our house looks like from the front-side view as one walks along the driveway towards it. Pretty nice, huh?

2004-09-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

Gary tried to finish today the siding on this end of the house. (He had to pause for the birthday celebration of Patrick's then went back to it until dark.) He said that he wanted to do as much as the weather will permit because when it gets too cold in the fall, the vinyl siding gets too fragile it's impossible to cut through it without totally damaging it. Anyways, this wall is the hardest of all because the triangular windows made it hard to shape the siding accordingly.

2004-08-23T09:35:00.000-05:00

Gary started working on the part where the future sunroom will be. He left a small strip there below the roofline for the sunroom's roof to be attached. He also left most of the front part naked so when we are ready to attach the roof for the porch, he won't have a hard time doing so. Getting there!...

Posted by Hello

2004-08-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

During the past week, Gary had been working on the siding. Here, he has also installed the window on the 2nd floor of the garage...

Here he has finished the garage side, as well as the cul-de-sac corresponding to the washroom. He has removed the staging...

and transferred it to the west side where the living room is.

2004-08-13T15:53:00.000-05:00

Gary built this staging to make it easy for him to put the sidings up that high. He uses cranks on both sides of the poles supporting the planks to go up incrementally. However, when he got to the triangular part, the planks would get caught at the roof's ends. He had to remove the extensions at the sides.

2004-07-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

The past weekend Gary started working on the sidings of the house (something which is best done while it is still summer - warm and dry outside). For a starter, he had to establish lines as guide to make sure that the bottom-most sidings are placed at the same level. He used an optical level to mark the points with my aid (I marked them down with a pencil, then he drove a nail on those points).

While I squat here waiting for his cue, I took a shot of him peeking through the optical level

This is the optical level...at first I thought it was a videocam of some sort! Haha!...ignorant me...

It had some calibrations like in a microscope, with a tiny bubble that had to be centered to determine the level. When one takes a peek, there are crossed hairlines that point at that spot where I would make the mark. We made several marks on corners of the house, at least two points at each surface to make a line. What a wonderful gadget!

After all the preparations of marking, as well as putting the trims around the garage doors and the corner molding (all plastic molding came with the sidings - totalled $5000 when Gary purchased them last year), here now is Gary's first siding in place. Tadah!!!

By the end of the day, this is what Gary had finished putting up. Beautiful!...<br><br>(Gary wanted that vinyl siding, as well as tin roof and our windows and doors, for a maintenance-free house!)

Posted by Hello

2004-07-18T19:53:00.000-05:00

Gary worked on the garage's sheeting (?) this weekend...

He also installed the windows at the sides of the garage. Now it is ready for piling wood and we will no longer worry about them getting wet during rains or snow.

2004-07-18T19:48:00.000-05:00

This is now what Gary has made of his office adjacent to Ben's.

2004-07-11T20:34:00.000-05:00

Gary has finished installing both garage doors and the doorknob at the side door of the garage near the power meter...

Gary has finished installing both garage doors and the doorknob at the side door of the garage near the power meter...

It easily slides up and down. (I am really very proud of my husband!). He said that in the future, I will just have to click on a remote control to open the doors without getting out of the car. (Matagal pa yun!)

2004-07-08T12:44:00.000-05:00

Gary worked on the garage door last Monday...

Taraaaaah! Future plans: automatic open-close remote control...

Gary's office beside Ben's room

2004-06-26T13:22:00.000-05:00

This was the "dead space" beside Ben's room that Gary decided to convert into his office.

So he started stripping off the part of the ceiling and wall at Ben's room to make a doorway for it.

Then next we (including the kids) lugged his stuff up.

Power Line

2004-06-25T13:21:00.000-05:00

The CMP already did its job. We have now transferred the line and the meter. Gary (my brilliant handy husband) here has just finished covering the trench.

2004-06-15T17:06:00.000-05:00

I worked on the garden. Added this part around the trees for the annual flowers so I could place there some of the flowers that Mom gave me...

some more photos of the flowers (can't remember their names...)

My garden that time...

DAd helped me haul big rocks to line the boundaries of my flower garden using his tractor.

wild strawberries...Dad was showing me the berries starting...

Gary rented a small excavator to dig up a tunnel for the elctrical wiring and the telephone wires as well...

Patrick was watching by...

the pipes containing the electrical wires...

the tunnel continuing to the house...

I am really so proud of my husband that he knows these things. IF not, we would have had to hire another person to do it (which we can't afford at the moment), yet I don't like the feeling of paranoia that gets into me when something like this is done by another person. What if he does not do it right? What if he overcharged? Anything can go wrong...I feel so secure with Gary on these things and I am so grateful for having him for my husband...

2004-06-07T13:10:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday Gary managed to fix the fountain at the flower garden (despite the missing hose). And yesterday (Sunday) he also made a switch to make it easier to turn on from inside the house (He's such a talented man!)

2004-06-07T13:09:00.000-05:00

Gary installed door trims at the children's bedrooms, using pine boards stained with the same paint as the ceiling.

Babe's room

2004-06-01T17:43:00.000-05:00

We finished Babe's room today...Gary started putting door trims using the pine board and painting it the same color as the ceiling...

The second floor is now too colorful: Blue room for Patrick, Green room for Ben, and Red (as in RED!!!) room for Babe...I wonder what to color their bathroom and hallway with?...

Patrick's Room

2004-05-26T22:48:00.000-05:00

Gary painted the room (Patrick chose thise blue color)

2004-05-26T22:43:00.000-05:00

Juliana had to sleep on the floor (with mattress naman eh!) because Gary has not made a bed for her yet

2004-05-26T22:42:00.000-05:00

Boys on their bed ready to go to sleep (?). Hopefully tomorrow we can finish Ben's room as well...

Boy's rooms

2004-05-26T13:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we prepared their rooms for painting. I sanded the harder to reach parts

2004-05-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

Patrick helped in sanding the lower part of the walls

2004-05-26T13:34:00.000-05:00

These are the beds that Gary made for the boys. He has painted them both but one needs a final painting tonight.

Hopefully tonight the kids will be able to sleep in their rooms. By weekend, we hope to finish Babe's room as well.

2004-05-25T05:36:00.000-05:00

God! It was a health hazard! I had to protect my lungs because of the fine powder dispersed in the air as I try to smoothen the walls

2004-05-25T05:34:00.000-05:00

Today I did sanding of the walls of the boys' rooms...

See the lines and grooves that I have to remove...

Applying Mud on the Joints

2004-05-23T22:08:00.000-05:00

This shows the first layer of mud that I have applied on the corners.

Taping corners

2004-05-23T22:03:00.000-05:00

I have long applied mud on the sheetrock joints save for the corners . (I had been waiting for my husband to demonstrate to me how it should be done on the corners). The blue strips here show the joint tape.

Boys' rooms

2004-05-23T21:42:00.000-05:00

My husband and I are currently woroking on the second floor, specifically the boys' rooms. He has just finished the ceilings (I helped in staining the pine boards!), electricals and telephone ports.

Working on the Second Floor

2004-03-19T13:48:00.000-05:00

Sometime in Dec 2003 Gary "sculpted" 4 bars into this shape, to act as support for the stair leading to the kids' rooms. Then placed the bars both vertical and horizontal to completee the steps of the stairs. We plan to have metal railings but we will do those at a much later time. For now this will just to give us easier access to the second floor so we can start working on it.

The lighter and easier task of sanding was left to me; however, since we were seeing more up and down movement of heavy pieces of wood and building equipment like the table saw, we procrastinated the sanding until such time that it the stairs are ready for the finishing touch.

Upon getting to the second floor this is what you will see...No railings yet.That wall far ahead meets the sloping ceiling. It will form part of the children's closets in the future. To the right are the boys' rooms-to-be, Juliana's and their bathroom (not seen here) will be on the left.

This is the side where Juliana's room would be, and the bathroom (on the right) already partly has the sheetrock. Gary sets up the bars first, then when the sheetrock is up, he will saw off the bars at the bottom of the doorway.

This is the view when emerging from the stairway and then standing on the left side. You will face this landing, which will give you a view of the living room if you are standing on its edge. We are currently utilizing it to store these pine bars (to be used for ceiling). Later it will contain books and probably a common computer (although we each have our own computers save for Ben...still working on his, waiting for the money to build one. Some parts are already with us, either from Gary's or mine upon upgrading ours, or given by other relatives/friends who upgraded theirs.) The windows as seen here are those of the living room. We might chop off some parts of these ceiling to make room for shelves or part of one closet room. We are flexible on our plans inside the house.

This is an earlier photo of the side of the 2nd floor where Juliana's room and the bathroom would be. No division yet. The one with the smaller windows is the part where the bathroom would be. That fiberglass bathtub (standing next to the window) will be installed later.

This part here somewhat shows the layers of the walls and the ceilings from outside inward:

(1) plywood
(2) green insulation board
(3) fiberglass insulation , attached to rafters and joists (wood bars that serve as support)
(4) plastic sheeting
(5) green insulation board (again, for the ceiling)
(6) sheetrock

The sheetrock serves as the inner wall. These are thick slabs of white and compact cement-like
chalk-like wall, attached to the supporting bars (joists and rafters). The blue lines there are the joint tapes, placed where sheetrocks meet, to cover the seams, and on which mud will be applied to fill in the spaces and sort of erase the seams to make it look like a continuous wall. The mud is allowed to dry for a day then sanded to make it smoother. Then another layer of mud is applied and dried and sanded for final smoothing, before the walls are painted finally. The joints at the corners will be covered later by trimmings (?) - bars of nice-looking smooth wood to hide where the paint ends.

Of course before the sheetrocks are all in place, Gary had to install the power and telephone/computer lines. This is a socket for telephone and computers (we have a LAN of computers, the lines for which are those of the white cables; each has a port for internet connection, hence the telephone lines which are grey).Of course before the sheetrocks are all in place, Gary had to install the power and telephone/computer lines. This is a socket for telephone and computers (we have a LAN of computers, the lines for which are those of the white cables; each has a port for internet connection, hence the telephone lines which are grey).

That blue box in this photo is a power line. There is another box that leads to the inside of the room, for light switch. The box facing the hall is part of a four-way switch that Gary made so that children (and adults) can turn off/on the lights from either side of the hall or from down the stairs. No groping, no trippin in the dark. The powerline is that yellow cable. That's a table saw in Juliana's room. That yellow rod is a leveling tool. (Gary would love a laser one which also comes with a stud-finder. A stud is that bar of wood that is sandwiched between the sheetrocks. Those are the only points were you could hammer/screw shelves/cabinets/frames, etc.).

This is a closer look of the outside switch. You can also see a door trim already in place (dark brown in color).

Master Bed/Bathrooms July- December 2003

2003-12-09T14:35:00.000-05:00

all photos here were taken anytime from July to December 2003.

During our first days here, the house could practically be likened to a person who was just purely skeleton and skin. The green insulation board on the walls of our house, plus the typar plywood facing the outside were all that separated the inside from the outside. Quite unluckily, the moment we got here, the weather shifted from very hot (summer) to one of very verrrrrry (brrrrrr?) cold one (start of fall).
This photo shows the master bedroom at that time, with a makeshift bed that Gary built, and we used inflatable mattress which we borrowed from my in-laws.

This shows the same room after I have installed the fiberglass insulation on top of the green insulation boards.

Adjacent to the walk-in closet was the master bathroom. This was taken sometime in September. The fiberglass shower room here was already an improvement from the makeshift one that Gary made out of plywood, and where I first would wash the dishes. The toilet first installed here was too short, so we opted for the taller one (easier for the oldies to get up from). I was the one who chose to have a pedestal type of lavatory. All the plumbing and the electrical/telephone/computer network lines are being installed by Gary incrementally according to the area he is currently working on.

The triangular jacuzzi, our source of pleasure and luxury from time to time, is placed at the corner against the would-be wall. In this photo the network hub of the computer is also seen as rectangular black thing near the speaker (we like music from Gary's computer when taking a bath) and the colored things on the window sill are the scented candles for adding romance....

My workstation beside the bed. Gary builds all of our computers and, when finances permit, upgrades them, along with the scanners and printers (at least him and I have our own).

Since we used the living room as a storage room for the flooring and for the staging which Gary used to reach the ceiling when he put the insulation and the plastic sheeting, we had to move the couch and the TV to our bedroom. Here the bedroom door is not yet in place...

Then sometime in January we finally had a door!!!! (hurray!) and the sheetrock on the walls, so finally, we had privacy (though sounds are quite easily heard from the outside so we always gotta be careful...

Living Room Aug 2003

2003-09-09T13:26:00.000-05:00

This is now the living room, the side that faces the back part of our house, taken sometime in August. I love the french doors opening to the same spot where the FD of our master bedroom opens too (in the future, there will be a deck there, leading to an elevated pool).

The kids used the area as their sleeping space initially. (The second floor had no partitions yet, and there was no stairway going up at the time.)

This was the side that faced the front and the west end of the house then. Noticeable here is the absence of insulation (it was Fall).

Then later, Gary put up the insulation on the ceiling, using the staging to reach it...

Garage and Furnace Room on their early stages

2003-09-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

This is an old photo of the garage which also shows the furnace room already in place. The furnace room was constructed during fall of 2003, in preparation for winter. Its walls are insulated with fiberglass to keep cold air out and maximize the use of the warm air the furnace produces.

When you enter the furnace room this is what you will see: the furnace (which Gary covers with insulation materials as well), and the oil burner (blue, on the left). The two are connected, with the hot water coursing through the copper pipes. The silver pot-like thing above the furnace is the expansion tank. It has a rubber valve inside, with air on one side and hot water on the other. It serves to "absorb" the fluctuations in volume (since the furnace goes from cold to hot to cold, creating volume expansion/shrinking depending on the temperature). The expansion tank maintains the pressure at 10 psi. Without it, there is the danger of explosion secondary to very high steam pressure if water/air gets too hot.

This is a better view of the side where the oil furnce is, with its own expansion tank. During the early days we placed our upright freezer inside the furnace room (I asked hubby if it would not do harm that the freezer is placed in the hot furnce room. He said the freezing cold air in the garage would do more damage.) Those circuit boxes behind the expansion tank are relays getting signals from the low-voltage thermostat to the high-voltage furnace. (I'm not sure if I got it right...that's what I got from hubby's explanation...haha!)