It's Almost a House!

We cannot believe how much they have done since our last post! We had a foundation with some pipes sticking up and then they started putting up framing! This is looking toward the front of the house. They started off just framing the house so the part sticking out in front is the porch.



This is the view out through the front windows from the den/living room. We are pretty sure the extra wood crossing in front will be gone. Those boards are to support the frame. Mom is getting diamond polished concrete floors (sort of like acid stained concrete floors only less maintenance), so the support beams are not supposed to be nailed into the concrete. If you look, you can see where the supports are nailed to other pieces of wood.



This is a view from outside of the house looking through where the side windows will be for the den/living room. The doorway just inside the window leads to our bedroom.



This is a picture looking into the doggie bedroom from the side porch window. The door to the right leads to the bathroom. There is a doorway at the back of the bedroom that leads to our enclosed porch.




The next day, they finished framing the porches and put up some boards along the outside!



Mom and Aunt Bec went to Houston to see the family for Thanksgiving. Aunt Bec, the good, kind, considerate and responsible dog owner, came home to feed us. Mom spent the night in Houston so she could watch her college football team play a game. (The game was aired on a channel we don't get out here yet.) When Mom drove up on Friday afternoon, this is what she saw ...



In the picture below, you are looking at the back corner of the house. The part on the right (in the shade) is the back of the house. The first thing is the porch off of the utility room. Then there are two bedrooms (with paper on them) and finally the enclosed (screened in) porch attached to our bedroom. Going to the left from the corner is the porch, the utility room with the little window, the breakfast room with the big window, the dining room (with the paper on it) and the front porch.



This picture shows you the front of the house with the porch. The part closest to you is the dining room and the rest of it is the den/living room. This is pretty much the same shot as the first picture in this post but with a lot more house to see!



This is also the front of the house but from the other side. You can also see how the porch wraps around. The wall where the porch ends is the bedroom. There will be a window there. In fact, that is the window you looked through in a picture earlier in this entry.



This is the work they had finished up on Friday. Mom didn't even make it over there to see what they did yesterday. We are going to tell her to get out there and take more pictures. We want to be able to see all of the things that are getting finished. Since she won't let us go over there to check, we have to depend up on her!

Foundation

It has been a busy week. We have been barking at the guys building our doghouse almost every day! It looks like they stand around a lot so we tell them to get busy or we will get mean. We can tell they are afraid of us because they eventually get back to work.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures where you can see the whole foundation. The first picture starts from the front of the house which is on the left and the second picture shows the back which is on the right.

The low part on the left is the front porch. Next comes the dining room which Mom has already said we are not allowed to enter. Can you believe that? It is our doghouse and she is making part of it off-limits? We know we have mentioned it before but it just really makes us want to pee when she makes rules like that! Anyway, next you can see where there is a part sticking out toward you. That is the breakfast room. You can't really see it but next toward the back is the utility room which will have a special dachshund length sink in it for torturing us with baths. Then there is a little back porch.




Our doghouse will have lots and lots of porch space. Mom took pictures of it so you can see. It is the section that is a couple of inches lower than the rest of the foundation. You can see that it goes all the way across the front of the house. The part closest to you is 8 feet deep (from the front edge to the wall of the house) and the part farther away is 10 feet deep.



This is the porch from the other side. It wraps around the house a little bit. The part of the house with the porch on two sides is the family/living room. This section of the porch is a little over 7 feet deep. In case you are wondering, that is Aunt Bec's house in the background.



This smaller piece of porch is off of our bedroom. It is going to be screened in so Mom can sit on it most of the year and no matter what the weather is like. It will be a little warmer in winter and a little cooler in summer. It is also on the south side of the house so it won't get the cold north wind. This porch is a little over 8 feet deep.



Finally, just so you don't think we are going to live on big block of concrete, here is the first shipment of building supplies. They will use this to build the frame. We don't know if you can see the boards on the top that are green but those are called "green board" and they have a special treatment so they can be used in bathrooms and other areas where there will be exposure to dampness.



Well, that is all so far. Next time we will probably be able to show you the framing. It still won't look like much of a house until they get some walls up.

Plumbing

Hello all,

Things have been progressing on the new doghouse. Mom says it will seem like nothing is happening because they have to do things that go in the ground. This week they did the plumbing. You can see all of the stub ups in this picture. The stub ups are those white post looking things. They are in the kitchen and both bathrooms. Mom and Aunt Bec walked around checking the locations. They both said how small the area looks when there are no walls. When Aunt Bec's house was at this stage, she used a tape measure to make sure everything was big enough ... it was.



Here is another picture of the stub ups. They aren't very exciting but they do indicate progress! If you look at the right side of the picture, you can just see the corner of Aunt Bec's house. The garage and storage building is behind the trees in the middle of the picture. Mom says she is going to have to do something about those trees - or at least something about the scruffy part of those trees.



And, while we are talking about plumbing, the builders brought a lovely addition to the landscape. Mom drove up on Wednesday night and this is what she saw -- well, sort of, it was dark when she drove up and it is daylight in this picture. People are so silly. If the grass is good enough for us ...



Okay, that's all for now. Maybe Mom will get out there and take some super-exciting close up shots of those pipes. We are sure that the possibility has you too excited for words.

Foundation Work and Neighbors

Hey everyone!

The builder finished clearing the area where we are putting the new doghouse. Then he hauled in a lot of dirt. There were piles all over but Mom didn't get any pictures of them. She got home late and the dirt guy was here early the next morning and was spreading everything around before she could get out there with her camera. Here is a picture of the dirt when she got home. This is the side view.



This is the front view. The pile of lumber on the right was for the foundation frame. The yellow building in the back is Mom and Aunt Bec's garage and storage.



This morning we got up and Mom was laughing because the neighbors came over and were using the front porch even before she got to step on it! As you can see, the foundation is framed. The builder called Mom yesterday to ask where she wanted the septic system. (We are out in the country so we don't tie into a city sewer system.) Anyway, Mom is going to see if the system can go on the left side of the house. Mom also needs to settle on a color for the doghouse because the builder wants to paint the siding before he puts the roof on. Mom says there are so many decisions to make!



Mom went out later to take a better picture of the foundation frame. Here it is.

Day One - Site Clearing

It's started! It's started!

Today they started clearing the site. This is about the same view facing the front of the house after the trees have been cleared.



And this is the view from the side.



Not much to see but at least something has happened!

And when Mom got home from work, she found me (Sammy) and Jake checking out the cleared site. She seemed to think we should have stayed inside the fence. Aunt Bec is going to ruin our fun by blocking the escape route.