This is What "Done" Looks Like

Several months back I decided that I could blog the process of building our home (the original plan) or I could spend the time actually working on the house and do one massive post once everything was complete.  Obviously, I chose the second option.  I suppose I could go back with all the pictures I took and document the entire process.  I think I prefer to just show pictures of the completed house and share the documentation part for making our new house into our new home.  So here are a few pictures of the FINISHED house, courtesy of our building supervisor's Google album:

Kitchen and great room

Great room (living and dining until we finish the basement, dining on the other side of the bar)

Entry and hallway, taken from formal living room

Kitchen

Master bedroom with bathroom and closet

Finished exterior

It's surreal to be finished with this project.  We started coming to the work site on June 18, 2011.  That was the day we came for safety and tool training.  Most of the nine couples in our group were highly unfamiliar with the tools in the trailer.  Palm nailer?  Framing gun?  Hole hawg?  What are those?  Times have certainly changed.  Nail guns and circular saws were once kind of scary sounding to me.  Now I go to tool departments and drool.  I actually asked my husband for a circular saw for Christmas.  He got me makeup brushes instead.  I thought it was pretty funny.

Real work began June 20, 2011 when we started training on basement walls.  That means it was just under seven months from when we started to when all nine home passed inspection on January 17, 2012.  All of us in the group take ownership of our homes on January 26th, immediately after the open house.  Most families are moving in that evening.  We'll be moving the first weekend in February so that we can personalize our wall colors before moving in.  Exciting?  You have no idea!  Unless you've also done it.

I'm so proud of our group.  We've all worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get this done.  Our accomplishment is pretty impressive, especially when one considers our complete lack of prior experience and the very high quality of the end result.  We can thank our supervisor for that.  In the end it was all worth it.  I feel like I can take on any project out there (and I definitely have plans!) with great results.  Nothing is impossible.  Congratulations, Group 33; we've earned it!