We've come so far! Daylen and I have been in the program for a year, building for a little under a year, and our finish work is done now! It sounds easy, but it took a lot to get ready for finish work! Especially since the majority of it was just us two.
First, I want to share a comparison from June 15 2019 - June 15 2020. This was the day we first chose our lot and visited it! So crazy what difference a year makes. It was just a field! Click here to see my blog post announcing we had started building.
Building is basically 3 parts. Framing, in between odds + ends, and finish work + landscaping. Framing took us all fall and through the winter, since we helped build some of all 8 houses. Spring was the odds + ends getting ready for finish work, and helping our neighbors most of the spring. And now, it's just us doing finish work.
Subs came a while ago and did drywall and mudding. See my previous posts for more on that. After drywall is completely done, next is doors! Once we were done with rock and helping build the other houses, it was our turn to put our doors in. Rob and Mom helped us since our doors got delivered right before our anniversary weekend, and we did the rest when we got back! I'm so grateful to my mom and Rob for helping us so much during this whole build. They are awesome. We love sharing it with family!
Once doors were in, we could work on trim! The trim not only looks good, but covers up the edge of the drywall and space between the drywall and door frame. We picked craftsman style trim, to match everything else in our house that is squared off and clean. Our doors, cabinets, exterior, windows, etc all match this.
I worked on trim while Daylen did stairs one day, and I was so proud I got it all done! Such a cool skill to have. Later, Daylen and I did window sills, baseboards, and banisters. We only did baseboards where carpet will go, the others will go in after flooring.
Next up was closets! My favorite and least favorite part. It was really hard to cut all of the boards exactly correct to the walls that weren't square, and shelving is really heavy and hard to move around. But, making closets was so cool. We weren't given any guidance really, or designs. It was completely custom. I drew on the wall with a level wherever I wanted shelving, dividers, and clothing rods and we built it! It's so cool to see it come to life after I draw it on a wall.
In our master bedroom, I had Daylen add in some secret hidden tiny shelves for me last minute. They're so cute!
Our house plan is one of the only ones, the only in our group, to have a mudroom bench included in our house plan. This was also completely custom. I walked through it on my Instagram step by step, so see my House Build 2 highlight for more. I pulled a photo from Pinterest and recreated it with a few changes! I love it. Our mudroom has become one of my favorite things about our house plan.
While I did the mudroom bench and some other things, Daylen finished our stairs. Back in December, we build the stair stringers and attached temporary boards so we could climb the stairs. During finish work, Daylen worked with our supervisor to make side boards for the stairs. They're the baseboards for the sides, and carpet will go up them. Then, Daylen cut the real steps and took the temporary ones off. He also did kick boards. The stairs took a while and were probably the hardest part of finish work!
It was so cool to see everything built and coming together! It took a while, but we loved seeing it all done.
After everything was up, we worked on puttying, sanding, and caulking. Each nail hole we made had to be puttied and sanded. Each piece of trim had to be caulked. It took forever! I do not enjoy sanding and caulking. Thankfully, our friend Sadie loves caulking and came over to help a few times. My mom also got to putty!
It was such a sigh of relief when our finish work was done! I'd still say framing was the hardest part of building, but finish work was more monotonous.
Next is paint! After we paint, subs will install our cabinets so we can work on flooring. There's not much left now! We are so excited.
Thanks for reading! See more on my Instagram.
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