How many of you out there have built a house???? And when I say "built a house" I don't mean hire a contractor or builder that builds they house for you while you sit back and eat ice cream and pick out paint colors and cabinet knobs! No way! When Chris and I had a brilliant idea to "build a house" we thought it would be fun to do most the work ourselves and save tons of money!!! Great plan....right????It really was a good plan and we did save a ton of money but it doubled our time from 4 months to about 9 months. We enlisted family members to help us along the way...one major player and the brains behind the operation was my Step Dad. He has built several houses in Kentucky so he packed and moved down to NC with us for a few months to help get everything "under roof"...and he drug my Mom along so she could document the house from the ground up in pictures(thus leaving me with TONS of pictures)
The one above is of our empty lot...like how is covered in Kutzu? If you have no clue what Kutzu is, just google it and it will tell that it can grow 12 inches per day and will NEVER DIE!!!!
Nothing kills this junk I swear!
The concrete truck pouring the footer(I may lose some of you guys on some of this house techy terms so bare with me)
Kyle spreading mortar(I love how little he looks)
Trying to hid and take a break!
Kyle was always keeping the help company. He loved asking questions and learning how to built things.
Yep...that's me...hard at work! We spent every weekend out at the house for 9 straight months. There was never any question about "Hey Babe, what do you want to do this weekend???" Nope...it was all about the house!
Kyle working the hammer.
LOOK! It's my living room....what??? You can't tell????? geeeezzzzzz!
Me, taking a much needed break. I was actually putting glue down on each beam for the subfloor to be laid.
hmmmmmm.....I don't think he is wearing the proper "house building attire"
Raising the first wall!!!! I was at work when they did this so I am SUPER glad my mom was there to get pictures.
This is Chris writing "His" on MY closet door header (cause my closet is bigger)...neener, neener, neener!!!!
Sweet little Kyle raises a bathroom wall all by himself!
This will always be hidden under the sheet rock in the hall of our house.....{{tear}}
Me holding the ladder while the guys are up top.....see...told ya I learned alot! We have so many pictures from start to finish that I will have to break it up in several post for you.
....to be continued.........
15 comments:
So cool! What a great adventure you all shared!
Wow, what a great memory for you and your family. Bet your glad now that is a memory!! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!
That is so cool that y'all built it yourselves! You just look completely give out in that one picture. The best part is that you have something tangible that represents all that hard work.
BTW, in college, I had to do a research paper on kudzu. That crap is from the devil - I'm sure of it.
I was thinking about August just last night. Lucky me will have that monthly visitor again this trip too! See how lucky I am?!?!
Happy Independence Day my dear friend!!!!!!!!
I am so in love with that miranda lambert song!
I can't imagine building a house on my own...though I hope I get to one day!
Kudzu is all over SW Arkansas... It's pretty, but i agree annoying to deal with!
How very cool that your hands helped build your own house and walls piece by piece. Amazing! I wouldn't know where to begin!
(my necklace is up and posted !!!)
Love it! I wish my sweet hubby was handy like that. Alas, (yep I said it) we are stuck with calling a repairman for all our problems.
Happy Independence Day!
Oh wow! When I was 10, my parents built a house...and I do mean built. It was a log house and it also took us 9 months on weekends to build thanks to the help of family members when they could be there. By the time we were done, my Mom could drive a stake in a 12 inch log in two swings. We had a family joke that whenever there was a mistake, "oh, well, we'll just stick a plant in front of it". I painfully admit that my sister and I dreaded the weekends out there because we didn't get to be much help and were bored (there were NO other houses in the subdivision we were building in, ours was the first, but now I can smile at the sweet memories.
Oh the memories these pics bring back. We thoroughly enjoyed helping with the adventure. I cannot believe how little Kyle was.... I know I was there every step of the way... but WOW - he's all grown up now (not quite, Kyle! lol). The results were a beautiful home and we are so happy for you all and so glad we were a part of it!
I just realized that is Bennie, Chris and you walking and measuring in the 'Kudzu pic'.
That is so neat to look back on and see what your house started out as! Such a cool experience! One I would never had patience for haha! Cant wait to see more! Hope you all had agreat 4th weekend!
You are a brave woman! I don't think I could do that. A remodel almost did me in!
How cool is that!?!?
I would love to built our own house someday! Thanks for posting about this. I love the pictures
Building a house together and you are till married! Great! We remodel our house a little at a time and sometimes it gets sticky but we are still together and speaking! Right now we are changing a bedroom into a scrapbooking room. Watch my blog for pics, soon! Take care!
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