My house is kind of getting bigger.

[skinz78]

We recently went to the bank to refinance and that was like pulling teeth. Two years ago we built our house. It is two story's. We finished the bottom floor "1800 square feet" and left the upstairs unfinished like an attic "900 square feet". Well the bank sent out an appraiser and he took pic's of everything and submitted them to the bank. Now our house appraises for twice as much as what we borrowed. But in one of the pics of the attic you could see my chop saw up there. I built some speaker shelves for my surround sound system. The bank saw the saw and jumped to the conclusion that I was finishing my attic without a permit and they insisted that I go get a building permit right away or the refi was off.

My wife and I had talked of finishing the attic some day but not anytime soon. Well the refi was definatly not something to walk away from so we went down and bought the permit. $1300 later I could go ahead and insulate and sheetrock the walls. Our system rocks!!! Well we got the refi done now and I figure since I spent the $1300 on the permit I might as well finish it. Help do my part to stimulate the economy.

You may know that I am an electrician so I do have the background to take on a task like this. I am doing everything myself except for insulation and sheetrock. Insulation is actually cheaper if you hire someone to supply it and install it than if you go and buy it yourself and install it. And sheetrock is just so easy to screw up so I let the pros do that.

Enough sniveling. Here are some pics. I screwed up when I uploaded them to Photobucket, so they are small. Future pics will be bigger.

It has 4 rooms, sizes are approximate. A living room 16' x 18' with a library off to one side 6' x 10'. A storage room 8' x 10'. And a office for me and a sewing / craft room for the wife and kids, both are identical at 16' x 12'.

The first pics are of when it was framed and I was wireing it.

Standing in the middle of the main room looking into the doors of the two similar rooms with the stars to the first floor on the right.

Standing in the middle of the main room looking into what will be my office.

Standing in the middle of my office looking out into the living room.

Looking into the library

Looking at the view out my back yard, that is a little creek called Tummwater creek in the back ground.

Looking out my front yard at my closest neighbors house.

Stringing wires

I even got the missus to help out.

 

[tri_pod_rod]

im sure the house will be a beauty

 

[skinz78]

Ok now the insulation and sheetrock has been applied.

This is in the living room and all pic's are taken in a clockwise fashion. The first pic is looking at what will be a built in bookshelf. I inherited all of my grandfathers westerns so they will go here.

The two doors going into the office and sewing room.

Library on left, stairs to first floor middle and storage room on right.

Storage room on left and the corner of living room that may possibly sport a fish tank someday.

This whole wall will get a built in entertainment center.

The two dormers looking out of the front of the house in the living room, in total there are six dormers upstairs.

The other rooms to come in another post.

 

[skinz78]

This wall is in the library, there will be a built in bookshelf in there.

The window in the library, Mrs Skinz wants a window seat built in but I don't know about that. She may get one if she behaves herself. LOL

In her sewing room looking in the door.

Wall to the right of the door

Looking out the door into the living room.

The little 4' nook I put in there just to break it up a little.

 

[skinz78]

Sorry for the blue ness, my white balance was off. I am no photographer that is for sure.

Ok this is my new office, looking in the door towards the window.

The spot where I plan on putting my computer desk and my 12 gallon nano.

My little nook. I have an antique dresser to put here, just a catch all for all my stuff.

Looking from the office to the living.

Thats all I have for pic's now, I am told it will be ready for paint by next weekend. I may have some pic's of that then. After that is done it is all up to me. I have a sawmill and plan on sawing all the lumber for the custom shelves and trimwork. I will try and get pic's of that as well.

 

[Curtswearing]

niiiiiiice

 

[Saltyfish]

Is that all for reef tanks? (I am so evil some times)

 

[skinz78]

LOL nope, no fish tanks if my wife can help it.

My 12g nano will go in my office. I want to build in a corner bow or a 2' cube tank into the built in entertainment center but she wants nothing of it.

 

[skinz78]

Sheetrock is coming right along. Should be on time for paint by this weekend.

 

[Saltyfish]

so you doing smooth wall or texture?

 

[skinz78]

Going with texture. LOL my two kids 6 and 8 would make short work of killing a smoothe wall.

 

[Saltyfish]

Nice, I just learned how to do a proper texture last year.

Before I only new the mexican way, through it at the wall and smear, I know it sounds bad but that is the best way to say it. LOL

Now I water the mix down with 1 gallon of water and then shoot it at 40 PSI with a small to medium tip. Looks so much better.

 

[loohunter]

nice work, iam a rocker/plasterer. sometime this year i am planning to smooth wall. USG makes a plaster that has a tensile strength of like 3000 psi:shock: i will probaly use that since we have 4 kids

 

[skinz78]

I just came down for the first time since I got home tonite. I have about 90% of the electrical done. I pulled up all the drop paper from the sheetrockers and the painters and upon doing this I decided to wait to lay the Pergo. The floor is kinda wet. I have heaters and fans up there going like mad, it is about 90deg. I have the windows open so the moisture can excape. I am off of work tomorrow so I plan on cutting some of the trim lumber. I may even have some pic's tomorrow nite.

 

[Saltyfish]

cant wait to see it, my house hunting is going very slow. We are all pre approved and such but the wife can't find anything she likes. Well she can find it but not in the price range I gave her.

 

[skinz78]

LOL isn't that always the case?

Seems like you should have quite a few to pick from nowadays.

 

[Saltyfish]

I doubt it, she is the kind of shopper that will spend 12 hours at the mall and come home with a pair of socks, When you ask her why she will say she didnt know what to buy.

That and I cant seem to find a Brand New house in Spokane with an indoor lap pool and having a city lights view for a reasonable price , I wonder why (champange taste beer budget).

 

[skinz78]

Ok I have some pic's but none of the upstairs. I have been busy getting stuff ready to go in up there. So far it is painted, I have built the bases for the shelves and I have installed the flooring in my wifes sewing room. The boy is acting sick so I have a feeling I will be staying home with him tomorrow. I may just get a bunch more of the flooring down and get some pic's.

Anyhow on with the pic's.

I have been milling up my trim lumber and the boards for the built in entertainment center. My dad had a bunch of logging done about 2 years ago and the logger stuck us with approx 6 log truck loads of Douglas fir. So I have quite a mess of logs to choose from.

I picked the big one, more work but I needed it's size to get the 12 foot 1"x12" boards that I needed.

Getting ready to load the log on the mill with the tractor.

I am rolling the log into the best starting position.

Making sawdust, this log measured 16" on the small end and was 12' long. It took me approximatly 2.5 hours to mill up.

Here is the lumber I made from that log. I needed about 5 x this much for this project.

Then the hard work started today. I spent 8 hours plaining, routering the edge, and stacking and stickering this lumber to help it dry out. I am beat.

That is it for now, hopfully I will have another update soon.

 

[Saltyfish]

Talk about working the land

That is amazing

 

[skinz78]

Yep I made all of the siding and all of the hardwood floors and intierior trim myself too when we originally built the house.