As best as I can tell, we’re approximately halfway through building my home. (I like to say “we’re.” I’m not doing anything other than being the annoying lady who shows up every day with a Labrador who tries to eat all the lumber.)
But we’re getting to the fun stuff now, like choosing faucets and which way doors should open—things I’ve literally never considered. Here are some random things I think are semi-interesting that I’ve learned so far in home building:
- One of the most unexpectedly fun things is seeing the view from each new room built. I built my house with views in mind, but I’ve found that every new window is exciting—regardless of the view. It’s something about being able to really imagine yourself in the room looking at that view that makes it real.
- Staircases are often built outside of the home and have the actual hardwoods on them. So, they don’t go in until there’s a roof and guaranteed dryness. The rest of the house is built without them. Weird, right?
- White mortar for bricks costs more because it’s made with fancy white sand, I guess?
- You can change more as you go than I realized. A wall went up and I said “Nope, I don’t want a wall there.” So my builder took it down. So now that’s actually happened several times.
- Building a house means you become a veritable meteorologist. At any given time, I can tell you the forecast for the next week because if it’s raining, progress stops. Apparently, the second half of building is less weather dependent, so I should be able to return to normal levels of weather knowledge soon.
Anyway, those are my revelations so far. I’ll post soon about more thrilling things. Like those faucets.
Sarah Crosland 