Framing the House Finally

First day, Monday Jan 23, 2012 was slow getting going.  The electricity wasn't available and the lumber hadn't been delivered and it took a couple of hours to lay out the house and sometimes berate the Architect for his inept drawings.  Not really, but there is a difficulty between the 2D of the drawings and the real-life implementation.  It didn't help either when I could not understand anything the Mexican crew was saying except "TACO".  

The walls were layed out and the electricity hookups were put in place and the lumber was delivered late in the day and it began raining.  Just leave it to me to make it rain in Texas--start building a house.  80% chance of rain tomorrow and 100% chance of rain on Wed.

Tuesday morning the guys were there before 7:00am and plugged in with Spanish music going full volume.  The day was misty and threatening rain and the crew of 8 guys were hustling to get as much done before the full storm.

I found this sawhorse an interesting, dangerous but efficient way to cut a board.  I counted his feet when he left and he still had two.

First wall up was the front bedroom.  The header is over the front window which is 6 ft wide.

They were just flying and didn't even seem to be talking to each other...just knew what to do.

This is the back wall which is the longest continuous wall in the house and the last of the outside walls to go up.

Beautiful, isn't it?  Some of these guys were short but don't think all of them were since the outside walls are 10 feet high.

This is the front window which is 9 ft wide so should let in lots of light.  We had about 4 inches of rain with some areas in Central Texas getting 7 inches in 4 hours.

The rain caused us to lose a day, but look at all they were able to complete.

Our shower.  And also see the outlet box on the back of the electrical panel.
These tanks each hold 350 gal.  Do you know how long it takes to fill up one of these tanks with a 5-gal bucket?  TOO LONG..I quit when I had 50 gal in just one of them.  I have to find a water supplier for our construction needs.

This is the bedroom (as Becky says).  Although I, as yet, have not taken the time to lie in the hammock.  Maybe when it gets warmer..very cold at the site today (Wednesday) when I met one of the Rainwater Harvesting Sub-contractors at the site, and still misting.  Maybe we can get the garage framed and start on the ceilings and roof tomorrow.  More lumber to be delivered before sunup and I have to be there to unlock the gate for them.

Good thing I am not still in Austin and near by in Georgetown.