We're Building a House! (Week 14)

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We're Building a House!

Ed & Shirley Prevatte · outside Raleigh, North Carolina
PLAN: 2-STORY / 3 BR / 2½ BA / FRONT PORCH / APPROX. 1,680 SQ. FT.

THIS WEEK: Week 14 · DRYWALL!
The drywall is up, and for the first time it looks like ROOMS instead of a pile of two-by-fours. We walked through Saturday evening and Shirley stood in the kitchen and cried a little. Ed says he got sawdust in his eye. Read all about it in the week by week below.

Hi, and thanks for stopping by! We're Ed and Shirley. Ed is 34 and works in purchasing for a hospital supply company, and Shirley is 32 and teaches second grade. We've been in the same two-bedroom apartment in Raleigh for six years, saving and saving, and this spring we finally did it: we bought a lot in a new subdivision about twenty minutes south of town and signed with a small builder to put up our very first house.

Our builder, Greg, builds four or five houses a year and still swings a hammer himself. He has been patient with us, which is more than we can say for ourselves. Every Sunday night we sit down and write up what happened that week, so our families in Fayetteville and Kinston can follow along, and so we'll remember all of it someday when we're sitting on that front porch.

PICTURES COMING SOON!
We've taken a roll of film every single week, fourteen rolls in a shoebox so far. As soon as we get a scanner, every week gets its picture.

CHANGE ORDERS SO FAR: $1,615
Our limit was $1,500. We'd like to talk about something else now.

Week by Week

WEEK	WHAT HAPPENED
Week 14 Sun., Aug. 17	Drywall! The drywall truck came Monday and the crew hung the whole house in four days. Now we can see where the rooms really are. The master bedroom is bigger than we thought, and the second bathroom is smaller than we thought, so it all evens out. The finishers start taping and mudding next week. Greg added a light in the hall closet we forgot about: $45. Change orders: $1,615
Week 13 Sun., Aug. 10	Insulation. Pink, itchy and everywhere. Greg talked us into thicker insulation in the attic, since we'll be paying the power bill and not him. The inspector passed it Friday. $220. Change orders: $1,570
Week 12 Sun., Aug. 3	Framing inspection passed, and THE SHUTTERS. The vinyl siding is going on (a light gray), and Greg needs our shutter color by Friday. Shirley wants black. Ed wants dark green. We have discussed this in the car, at supper, at church and in our sleep. See the Shutter Vote below. No charge for arguing. Change orders: $1,350
Week 11 Sun., July 27	The electrician walk-through. We walked every room with the electrician and a can of marking paint and showed him where every outlet, switch, phone jack and cable TV jack goes. We added an outlet on the front porch, boxes for two ceiling fans, and a phone jack in the spare room so the computer doesn't have to live in the kitchen next to the phone. $310. Worth every penny, Ed says. We'll see. Change orders: $1,350
Week 10 Sun., July 20	Heating and air. The ductwork is in, and the pad is poured out back for the heat pump. Thunderstorm every afternoon this week. We have learned more than we ever wanted to about red clay, and how it never comes out of white sneakers. Change orders: $1,040
Week 9 Sun., July 13	The plumber. All the pipes are roughed in, and the tubs were set before the walls close up. Shirley upgraded the master bath to a garden tub. Ed found out about it from the change order. $450. Change orders: $1,040
Week 8 Sun., July 6	Windows and doors. Slow week because of the Fourth, but the windows are in, and the front door, which we changed to the one with the glass panels on each side so the hall won't be so dark. $340. We watched the fireworks on Friday from the tailgate of Ed's truck, parked in our own driveway. Well, our own gravel. Change orders: $590
Week 7 Sun., June 29	The roof. Plywood, then the black felt paper, then shingles. We picked a gray-brown called Weathered Wood out of a book of about two hundred. Greg says the house is "in the dry" now, which means the rain can't get in, which is good, because it rains every day at four o'clock. Change orders: $250
Week 6 Sun., June 22	Second floor and roof trusses. The trusses came on a flatbed truck and went up in one day. From the road you can finally see the shape of the whole thing. We added pull-down stairs to the attic. $165. Change orders: $250
Week 5 Sun., June 15	Walls! The first floor walls are framed and standing. Ed spent Father's Day walking through the doorways that don't have doors yet. We moved the kitchen window over a foot and a half so it's centered over the sink. $85. Our first change order. We were so proud of ourselves for only having one. Change orders: $85
Week 4 Sun., June 8	The floor. Sill plates, floor joists, and plywood. We stood on our own floor for the first time and had a picnic supper on it, on a quilt from Ed's mother, with the mosquitoes. Change orders: $0
Week 3 Sun., June 1	The foundation. The block masons laid the whole foundation in three days. It's a crawl space, like most houses around here, with vents all the way around. It looked so small from the street. Greg says they always do. Change orders: $0
Week 2 Sun., May 25	Footings. The trenches were dug, the inspector came out, and the concrete truck poured the footings on Thursday. Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and we're spending it out there picking up rocks. Change orders: $0
Week 1 Sun., May 18	The lot. Cleared and staked! The surveyor put little wooden stakes with pink ribbons at all four corners, and we walked around the outline of our house in our sneakers. The lot still had two pines down from Hurricane Fran last September, and Greg's crew hauled them off the first morning. Our very own red clay. Change orders: $0

The Shutter Vote

Light gray siding, white trim, and a red front door (that one we agree on). Black shutters or dark green? E-mail us your vote and we'll post the results here next week.

BLACK	Shirley, her mother, and her whole second grade class
GREEN	Ed, and Ed's brother, who would vote for anything Ed did

Things We've Learned So Far

Go by the house every day, even when nothing is happening. Especially when nothing is happening.
Write every change down and both of you sign it. Then read the price twice.
A cooler of cold drinks for the crew on a Friday afternoon in July goes a long way.
Measure your furniture before the walls go up, not after.
Whatever you think it's going to cost, it's going to cost a little more. We knew this. We knew this!

MOVING DAY! · COMING SOON!
Next come the painters, the kitchen cabinets, the counters, the carpet, and the final inspection. Greg says if the weather holds and the carpet shows up on time, we can close at the beginning of October. Moving Day gets its own page, with pictures, and you're all invited to help carry boxes. There will be pizza.

Notes From Visitors

Want to leave us a note? E-mail us and we'll put it up.

April 19, 1998 · Cousin Diane in Wilmington
Shirley, I just found this page again in my bookmarks. Did y'all ever move in?? Aunt Sue says you did and that the shutters are black. I want to see pictures! Call me.

August 18, 1997 · Robert (Ed's brother)
Green. Tell Shirley I'm sorry. Looks great, little brother.

Visitors since May 1997:

E-mail Ed & Shirley: [email protected]
Last updated Sunday, August 17, 1997