Main Floor Framing

We're nearly there!  It's been an almost non-stop adventure during the holidays, but we've just about completed the framing of the main floor of our house.  Here's how things looked, glowing in a glorious Idaho sunset:

May I just say how blessed we've been in our weather?  We'd never have accomplished all this in two weeks without the weather cooperating.  Even the one storm we had didn't cause any lasting problems.

During the week after Christmas, we framed the exterior walls.  It was just Mr. Pickup and I with our older children helping occasionally to lift those heavy 2x6 walls.  (Sorry, I kept forgetting my camera to take photos).  We met our goal of getting all the exterior walls up by New Year's Eve!  Starting bright and early Monday January 2, and with help from a brother, we got the main garage walls up.

We'd put some of the interior walls up to help support the exteriors, but there were still a lot to do.  Friday I'd cut most of the top and bottom plates, just in time for a storm to roll through.  Thankfully we didn't lose any walls!

Tuesday was spent putting up the remaining interior walls.

Here are some more fun photos for you perusal:

Yesterday with my father-in-law's help, we put up the second top plates which tie all the walls together and finished the framing on the garage.

We just need to put in the stairs, door headers, and a few short walls that won't affect truss placement, and we're ready for a roof.  Thankfully, our contractor is taking care of that!  We'll now go back and finish framing the remaining basement walls.  Once the roof is on, we'll be ready to start roughing in the electrical and have the HVAC folks and plumber do their stuff.  Here's a parting look at our amazing view from the front window.

Thank you for all your encouragement.  It's so nice to have cheerleaders!

You can see a round up of our house building adventure HERE.