The biggest project I've ever taken on, is building the home we plan to live in until we die.

Luckily, Rhett and I have done everything together, so this house has kind of become another member of our family.

"We're building our own home" can mean a lot of things.

On one end, there are those who literally build everything themselves, nail every 2x4, and in the end they're home is completely constructed from their themselves, friends and family.  

We are not that talented.

We are cheap and trying to save money.

We are in the middle.

We are hiring all the structural subs and plan to do a lot  of the finish work ourselves once it has sheetrock.

I've learned a lot about construction so far and have been grateful for a lot of verbal abuse as a teenager dancing intense ballet that gave me thick skin.  Construction is a stressful business and I've found each sub wants to do his individual part his way, not thinking ahead for the other subs who will follow behind.  But I have the whole house in mind, down to every inch and so there were some arguments and I felt really manly disagreeing about how to cure concrete on the job site.

But so far most things are how we wanted/ designed/ envisioned.

And I realize we are a horrible client to build for.

We designed the house and have been planning every inch for almost 2 years, so we notice when a wall is 4" out of place, or I have a plan for this space so no you can't frame it flush with the other wall for your convenience.

I guess that is why we decided to be our own General Contractor.  

We're too invested and care too much about lots of details I guess.

Previous Posts:

Footings and Stained Glass part 1

Going To Build

Things are moving along, faster than I expected.  

Our goal was to dry in or have it waterproof before snow, and move in before Christmas.

Not sure if moving in will be reality, but I guess it's a nice goal.

SO...the concrete work.

Rhett really wanted to pour 9' basement walls.

I thought it would be nice to have a taller basement, but it wasn't a deal breaker for me.

It wasn't that much more to pour the extra foot of wall, so we went with it.

Watching the crew do the concrete work made me impressed anyone does this on their own.

One of my favorite spaces (in my head) will be a patio off the basement. 

 RJ found bare wood peg people and wanted to paint  Link....from the Legend of Zelda.

He was Link last year for Halloween.

So now he is bigger, and wanted to do it himself, I helped by penciling in the features, and he painted a Link doll and a Zelda.

Here is peg Link! 

It's a simple project, but a fun way for kids to create their own toys.

This little doll is pocket size which is nice for little boys. 

Today I'll be sharing the tailor's method for constructing a vest. It's incredibly fast, it doesn't require any hand sewing (unless you count buttons), and the best part of all is that it can be altered in about 35 seconds if needed. (For this tutorial I used a self-drafted pattern).

If the vest requires alteration in the future, all you need to do is open the back seam of the lining and pull the side seam straight out. Since everything is attached, you just stitch down each side seam once instead of having to adjust the lining and outer separately.