Hammock

The boys make a hammock with a sheet. It's fun to live in a wood house.

Screen door

It's symbolic. We will soon have a mosquito-free zone on the porch.


We think we have a cool granddad.

Living room tiles installed

Completing the living room floor and now for the border.





Remy takes a break to show the boys how to make a Cuban kite.

Remy is here - tiling begins

Our friend, Remy, is with us for the week, tiling the addition. He has some ideas for new designs! In the LR he creates a diagonal brick pattern by cutting the 18x18 tiles in half. Oooh....

Celebration at the beach

Funny, this is exactly what we did last year after roofing, except that was on the Gulf coast, and now we're at the Atlantic. Yeah, we have a tough life in Florida having to choose between two oceans.

Roofing done by noon!

The last panel on the south side was down before noon. Grandma was on hand to help with baby. It takes a family to build a house.

At last, Roofing day

We started on the north side and made good progress with two friends helping. Fortunately the day was cloudy, a big relief over last year which was so brutal in June.



With three people on the roof and two handing up panels and screwing down the final two rows, it went fast!

Electricial wiring

Wiring a First Day is a challenge for electricians. Fortunately we've got great ones who are thorough and meticulous.














Sharing the electricians ice cold drinking water. Do we have water just a few paces away in the house? Yes, but this is much more fun.

Windows

Putting in windows. It's starting to feel closer to being done. But still the goal of getting the roof on lures us to keep working hard.













Interior view through the east-facing windows from the upstairs loft.

Extractor fan for oven hood

Daylight through the roof! Eek! We steel ourselves to cut a hole to externally vent the oven hood. Fortunately, it worked out just fine and now we can get that stove top frying and steaming without choking everyone in the house.

Chuck the Plumber

All our subs have been great.

Chuck the plumber is no exception.






He does excellent work and is willing to describe everything to three small boys! Gotta keep him.

Since we're on a concrete slab, we roughed in all the plumbing we thought we would ever need.

Interior framing

Framing up the interior walls.


Putting tongue and groove on the wall between the bedroom and bathroom. This bathroom will open into the bedroom and onto the porch.


Closing up the wall that separates the bedroom and the living area.

Insulation and Strapping

Insulating a roof is HOT. There is no way to escape that radiant load. But it is reassuring that it will be doing the same job under our roof.


We put 4" (double stacking the 2" boards) under the roof and 2" in the walls.

Simpson strapping and Typar

Now for a bit of Simpson strapping for hurricane protection. Engineering is for 110mph winds where we are.


And then we cover the complete structure with Typar moisture barrier so that the tongue and groove doesn't rot! These hidden details are not glamorous but are oh so important in the building process. When you're building your very own dream house for your very own self, you want to do it right.

Creating a ceiling

Still tongue and grooving, now onto the roof to create the finish inside ceiling.

Gable ends get T-n-G

Tongue and groove continues up the gable ends all the way to the tippy top.