The House–From the Beginning…

This is the beginning of the house building. 
We finally decided to build this new home in the end of Summer 2011, and we were pouring concrete the day before Thanksgiving. 
Now if you’d seen the Montana winter we had in 2010-2011, then thinking that we could build a home in the winter in MT would have been nuts.  But this winter was 180 degree difference from the previous year. 
These first three were from late October 2011, when we did the dirt work for the foundation. 

Next came the footings and foundation, that were poured in November 2011. 

It wasn’t long after that the foundation walls and the floor joists were put up.  I snapped this photo of D and R standing near the future garage area,. 

And just as quickly, the walls went up.  I love this photo of the kids in their future bedrooms.  (December 2011)

Also, in December, we dug a well.  It was interesting to watch that happen. 

By Christmas, all of the stem walls were up. 

However, the week between Christmas and New Years was warm, but windy.  Very windy!!  Two of the walls blew  down. 

And the wind pushed these braces through the wall. 

That was quickly repaired, and it was all tied together. 

I remember the day we drove out and it looked like this.  A house.  AWESOME!!

It didn’t take much longer for the inside walls to pop up either!  Seeing the skeleton of the house was fun!!

Soon, we started seeing more, as the windows and doors went in and the siding went up. I don’t think too many people are able to put siding on a house in February in Montana.