Stroll Down Memory Lane- Insulation/Dry Wall

It’s time to catch up with our house building process from 3 years ago.  There was about a month lag where we were finishing up wiring/electrical and waiting for someone to dry wall. 

First up. Insulation.  We chose blown-in cellulose. 

Blown-in cellulose insulation is made up of recycled newspapers. We chose blown-in insulation because fiberglass insulation tends to settle whereas the cellulose does not.  The cellulose insulation also contains fire retardants which could slow the spread of a fire (what a horrible thought) and the cellulose also repels insects.

Look, it’s our bedroom…

And laundry room…

After the insulation was installed, the dry wall was installed…

In our bedroom…

Hall…

Living room…

Our choice in dry wallers was…poor.  I want their work day…which was 3 hours.  Seriously.  This was an extremely stressful time for us.  They quoted us two weeks as a finish date…which slowly turned into four.  The dry wall was the start of us relying on outside contractors to do the work.  Up until this point it was us or our builder (who was a one man show and was super reliable). 

During this time, we were also finishing up outside…because we had nothing else to do…

We finished up the brick on the pillars and added shakes to the top of the entry.

Hey, look! People might live here someday…

There you have it!  Our 3 house years ago this week!

Who votes for a 3 hour work day??

Stroll Down Memory Lane-Brick

It’s time to take another stroll down memory lane and check out where we were on our house building process 3 years ago…

3 Years Ago This Week: 

We installed the brick on the front of the house…

We chose

Alliance

brick in Pearl.  The brick is a mortar-less brick system.  We’re working on a post about why we chose this brick/how we installed it to share with you soon!  (Long story: coming soon. Short story: We wanted to install the brick ourselves but we aren’t experienced brick layers so we opted for the mortar-less system.)  Today, you get pictures…

I don’t remember for sure what is going on in the picture above but it probably has to do with Nate’s dad explaining to me that I needed to carry a large pile of bricks from one side of the yard to the other.  It was an evil game Nate and his dad would play with me.  I’m still not sure the bricks actually needed to be moved…notice how I appear to be paying close attention…

There you have it.  The week our house got mortar-less brick.

Who’s going to lose sleep this week-end waiting for the brick post??? Try to hang in there.  It’s going to be at least a week because next week I am inviting some awesome bloggers over to share their favorite projects with you!! Get excited!

Stroll Down Memory Lane- Siding

It’s time to take another stroll down memory lane and check out where we were on our house building process 3 years ago…

3 Years Ago This Week:

Our house got clothes (or siding if you prefer technical building material terms…)…or least it’s backside did!

We chose Timbercrest’s vinyl siding in Pacific Blue.  Why blue?  Every other house in our neighborhood is beige or white.  Our last house was beige.  We wanted something different.  “Different” is hard in siding.  We didn’t want crazy.  Just different.  We were sold once we spotted this color at Menards.

We called in reinforcements in the form of Nate’s parents, my parents and my brother.  We would still be siding now if it wasn’t for their help!  They are awesome.  Seriously.  It was hott.  Not hot. H-O-T-T hot.

We did give them water…because we’re nice…my brother hated coming to visit me because I’d always put him to work.  He really hated me after this week-end…

This is how we ended the week-end…

Siding a house is a lot of work but it’s really not as complicated as one may think.  I even did some of the cutting and nailing.  So if I can do it, anyone can do it.  We did hire our builder to side the third story.  Nate’s mom and I weren’t so excited about Nate and his dad climbing all of the way up there without the proper equipment.  Of course, we know that they could have done it…

There you have it…the day our house got clothes!

Have you sided a house?  What are your thoughts on siding color?

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