Florida

We have turned the corner on our home construction in several ways. One is that our general attitude and patience level has moved from “Isn’t this all very fun and entertaining” to “When will this be over?” Another is that we actually know it will be over soon! We finally have a mostly-complete, mostly-functional house … Read more

A single family house is perhaps one of the most artisanal products most Americans will ever own. Despite the use of tilt-up, pre-fab, and even 3D printing in larger commercial applications, with single family homes it seems that just about every component is custom made by hand. And when you are anxiously awaiting completion, all … Read more

It’s been a while since our last construction update, but that is not because of a lack of progress. The house has been a veritable beehive of activity inside and out. Major accomplishments over the last few months include finishing the HVAC work, having all our insulation blown in, and getting the exterior siding and … Read more

I recently mused to friend and fellow travel blogger Laurel that no one wants to read a blog post about picking out bathroom faucets. She disagreed, so here goes nothing.* In my first construction post about our new home, I mentioned all the choices we encountered when working with our architect on the house plans. … Read more

As we learned during our four weeks of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in Colorado last summer, framing is the most rewarding part of house building. In just a few weeks a bare foundation and a pile of lumber take on the shape of a house — albeit the stick-figure outline of a house drawn … Read more