Muscle & 1st Layer of Skin

The muscle=insulation. We have the traditional, but in the background is the latest (and cheaper) version--blown in. It was up in less than one day.









From skeleton to actual walls...amazing. In some ways the house seemed smaller as your visual perception was reduced. Yet to walk around an actual room was cool. Furniture is easier to see in place and you can start imagining colored walls. Sheetrock=1st of many layers of skin!

Hair, Mouth & Limbs

Continuing our human analogy, we have the hair=roof. We weren't sure if we could get the dark gray (it being more likely to make a hotter house), but after a convincing argument & new techniques we did!!

Every house should have a fireplace=mouth. The best part is we got the hearth & gas fireplace for a steal!

There is something progressive in building a house when you get the cement poured. Now there are places to walk and the encouraging thought that someday we can access our home by different routes--a front porch with steps and no mud tracks through the garage. In a way, these paths are the arms and legs of our structure.

Blood & Guts

Yes, that's BLOOD. My dad shot himself with a nail gun. Now the kids pray for his safety everyday!






Plumbing=Guts
















Heating=Lungs
















Electrical=Blood

Framing--The Skeleton

So framing is like creating the skeleton of the body. Our kids have understood the process better when we related it to us. Almost within days we had the walls framed inside and a sense of what the rooms will look like (of course privacy is lacking:)




Meet our builder--my dad and the best all-around guy out there--Jim Davenport. He's not only a great contractor, but he also puts up with my requests and questions.

Check out the doors--got to love them. We found the style in Mesa during a home show and fell in love.

Dad even gave us his personal touch--an under-the-stair playhouse!