We started the "paper" part of building in April and broke ground in June 1998.  God provided people every step of the way:  A contractor friend in our church who set us up with all of our "contractors price" purchasing, a construction teacher from our church that worked with me all summer, a 'retired' builder from our church who helped me finish the housed once school started again for me (I'm a teacher), and countless volunteers who painted, cleaned, pounded and cut....  I have never built anything bigger than a children's playset before!  But on November 30, 1998 our house was COMPLETED, and we moved in on December 2nd.

Isa. 43:18-21    "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.  ...I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen,   the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

Praise God!

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Here is a backwards chronology of our house raising.

Outside is all painted thanks to Ben Deweese (from our church).

  Sheetrock is going up!

Garage view & master bedroom bay.

The front is sided as is about half of the other three sides. The roof is all done. Today is Friday.... school starts Tuesday (for us teachers only)... from here on out it's evenings & saturdays.

Siding is slow. This first bay is done (Elisa & Brianna's room).

The dormers are up.

This is the skylight view from the living room - provided by the dormers.

Time to call for inspection (nailing) & then its windows, siding, and roofing.My brother, Daniel, has come up to help!

The trusses are braced, the porch poured(cement), the porch beam is up, and we've begun to sheet the roof. It's slow going & HOT (today was 103 -- tomorrow will be 109). We're consoled by the thought that we're 'creating shade' for future work.

Trusses are up! This is a side view showing the garage side & the master bedroom. No, we don't have a flat roof. The trusses were too big to be transported in one piece! You can barely see above the time stamp on the picure a stack of little trusses, called "hats". They'll go on later as we sheet the roof-- the same goes for the trusses that will carry the peak line above the garage back to the main roof section. Can you find Dave in this picture?

This was quite an exciting day. Dad, George (Rebecca' s hubby), and Dan Pearson(teen from church) joined me, Dave and Jeff to make a really good truss standing crew. We'll stand the rest tomorrow.

The trusses are here! Bundles of trusses are laid out onto the roof. These trusses were made at Systems Plus in Anderson, CA.

This is a side view of the house all wraped in "pink". This serves as a vapor barrier. In the foreground, Di & my sister, Rebecca work at painting trim boards. We're 'expecting' the trusses tomorrow.

Bracedwall paneling. This ties the bottom & top plates together, and keeps the walls 'straight'.

Four and a half days to complete the framing. On Monday we'll "straighten" the whole house (plumb line) & build some "cat-walks" in preparation for the trusses that will hopefully arrive this coming week.

After third day of framing. All that remains to be framed is the garage, the kitchen pantry & part of a closet.

After second day of framing.

Looking into the kid's bath & the girls' closet.

Here you see Mel Copenhaver, Nancy Rottenberg, Dave Rottenberg, Jeff Rottenberg, & me tilting our first wall.

The floor is done, and Dev & Elisa stand in their "rooms". It's starting to get HOT, and the sun glares against the flooring. Time to go vertical! Let's put up those walls!

Devin loves to help.

Without Dave Rottenberg I wouldn't have a clue of what to do. He's working with me daily. Here we've just had the floor insulation put it & we're starting to lay down (glue & "ring shank" nail) the OSB flooring. Dave attends our church & teaches construction at RBUHS.

Lowell Remund (retired carpenter/plumber/electrician/handyman, & member of our church) helped me & Dave with the plumbing ( or we helped him!). It took us about 3+ days.

6/20/98 TGI's are down! Time for plumbing. (pic taken from right-front garage)
 

6/20/98 Steve Baker. This man is super! He's organizing our whole project. (Getting bids, ordering lumber, getting church crews, details, details, details!.......)

6/20/98 The first big "work day". Organized by Steve Baker (local contractor and Promise Keeper leader in our church), Ron Thayer, Dave&Jeff Rottenberg, & Pastor Paul Wright. This pic is me with Pastor Paul.
 

6/19/98 Dev & Elisa play on the beams. (picture taken from right-front )
6/17/98 Pouring the garage.

6/16/98 Pouring the foundation. Leroy & his son-in-law Brian.

6/15/98 Leroy Johnson (our foundation contractor) praising the Lord for the sunshine!

6/15/98 Back at it.... the forms are up! (picture taken from left-back)

6/10/98 An inch plus rain drenched the trenches & set us back nearly a week (picture taken from left-front )
 

6/9/98 "The sign" at the road

6/9/98 Kev & Dad dropped the pump in the well &

6/8/98 "Break grounding"

This is the magazine pic that gave us 'the idea' for our home design. It will look 'somewhat' like this.

This is a really rough rendition of our floor plan. The living space is 2226 sq.ft.and the garage is 432 sq. ft. The diminisions are approx 63' by 44'.
 

Living room: 21x21.5
M. Bedroom: 17x23
Elisa/Brianna: 14x10.5
Devin: 11.5x12
Den: 14.5x12
Dining: 10.5x13.5
Garage:20x21