Framed to the Upper Floor

Life is sometimes about perspective. When Ray was anticipating building our new home I believe he was wondering how on earth he would have time to build our house, plus work fulltime to keep his family's bills paid.

I reminded him that last time we built our house he had done just that. There had been gaps and he was able to do the foundation and frame it up in days and evenings interspersed throughout his other jobs. So we could do it again.

But this time the house was that much bigger and it seemed a little overwhelming!

We have been blessed by time. When Colt told us he was coming home for four months - from July through October, we knew we could get so much done with his help. That was a miracle right off! Then somehow there have been the gaps I mentioned. Just enough time for Ray to do the foundation when one of his other jobs was waiting on a trade and he couldn't go in for a number of days.

More recently, Ray had two weeks off work when the job he was working on decided to put in a security system and do some other things that would stop Ray from working. Instead of beginning another job Ray took that opportunity to jump headfirst into our house. So in the last three weeks, since I wrote about the progress last, they have brought themselves to the point of being ready for trusses on Monday!

Trusses are the prefabricated wood pieces that the roofing material is built onto. This house had a complicated roof and it was another example of a miracle. When we took the plans to the city to be approved, they sent them to the truss company. They are American plans and therefore, things aren't exactly as they are in Canada. So they had to be sure it was all acceptable. The first thing they discovered was that the measurements were different. This caused the truss company to be totally baffled as to how to change things to match. It wasn't a simple equation. It really was confusing. They tried a number of times and had our plans for a couple or more weeks. Finally, Ray told me the guy was going to try one more thing and then he was going to hand the plans back to Ray. Bad news!

But I had faith. God has made it abundantly clear that it is He that has put us on this land. Therefore, all bumps and problems along the way will be cleared - in His time.

Ray took the plans from the guy when he said he just couldn't do it. He was pretty sure that he could solve the problem himself. I had faith in Ray's confidence, and I just hoped it wasn't misplaced confidence!

Sure enough, my brilliant husband, worked the plans and did the calculations and then sent it back to the truss company, and they okayed the specs. The plans were then sent through the city and the permits were issued. Yeah!

And then work began. The guys were working all day at paid jobs and then spending the evenings on our house. They have done remarkably and the house looks fabulous. The plan is a gorgeous layout! It has things that I never would have designed into a house, since I haven't seen enough floorplans to choose from.


The basement is framed and this is the main floor. This shows from the area you drive in. The upstairs is less than half the size of the main floor, so it should frame up quite quickly.

The weather was very precarious and you can see the storm clouds rolling in. The colour was beautiful, but we knew rain was coming. Isn't that the most beautiful view?! That is the view that the girls will have from their bedroom window. My large front verandah also overlooks this beautiful meadow. The road running down the centre will be allowed to grow back in and will become part of the meadow again. It was never supposed to be there, but was broken in by the logging trucks at one time.

Cassidy is holding up the window wall in the boys' room.

How many guys does it take to raise a wall? Actually, I have no clue what they are doing!

Dane and Cassidy framing up a wall on the schoolroom.

This is my office. Can you imagine? I have never had anywhere to set up sewing, scrapbooking, painting or crafts. I am the Queen of Creativity and I have had it shelved for about 18 years. I am always doing something creative, but to have one of *my own* projects on the go is a thing that I have not been able to do for a long time. The last time I worked on my scrapbooking in a big way was when I was expecting Cooper - that is over 8 years ago!

I have wanted to go back to my primitive art painting, since I gave it up when Colt was born. And sewing is something I would love to introduce my children to.

I am so excited to have somewhere to be creative again!!

This was when the rain hit a few minutes later. I made a mad dash out of there to go pick up the children who were playing in the meadow.


They created themselves a place to hide in the middle of the meadow with all the toys. Here they are crawling out from undercover.

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The following day I went back to the jobsite and this is what was happening now.

Directly ahead of you is a bedroom. There is a walkway that looks like a catwalk right now, and that is the upstairs landing/hallway that leads from the children's wing to the other upstairs bedroom and staircase down. If you were to stand at the guard rail and look to the right, you would see down into the foyer. The guardrail will be an railing, so it will be quite open from below.

The Foyer Down Below

This is looking down from the guard rail.

Cooper asked if he could stop and help a little on the job, so he got the job of piling up the 2x4's that his brother passed up to him. Later on in the day, I had the little ones all work with me and we picked up all the scraps of wood and cleaned up the site.

On the main floor there was a master bedroom and ensuite. I chose this plan because I was planning to put us upstairs in the extra bedroom, and have the ensuite as my play room for little ones and the masterbedroom as my school room. Ray had other ideas. So we compromised.

The Schoolroom

The ensuite went in where it was supposed to. The master bedroom became my schoolroom - for now. The master bedroom went upstairs where the extra bedroom is.The one that is at the other end from the children's wing. I call it a 'wing' because, honestly, the only thing upstairs is the two bedrooms for the children, which takes up the entire north end of the upstairs, the hallway leading away from it, and the extra bedroom on the south end. Children's Wing just sounds 'rahther grand'. So you will have to excuse me. It sounds like something out of a historical novel. lol.

So the plan is this. We will use the master ensuite as our bathroom and closet, and we will sleep upstairs in the extra bedroom. The school room will be downstairs for now, and when we decide that we want to we will move the schoolroom upstairs to the extra bedroom, and move our bedroom down to the mainfloor. So we have something exciting to look forward to. In the meantime, I don't like my children being so far from me, so I am very happy to be up in the not so grand room. *grin*

This busy worker is building walls around the extra bedroom. So the area that Dane is working in right now will be the bedroom, plus what is supposed to be a private bathroom, and then a walk-in closet. We have altered this plan, and we will not have a bathroom, as it is an expense we just don't need.

Instead, we have opened up the plan, so that the room runs down the side of the bedroom, but yet joins it, so we can leave it as a sitting room for a chaise lounge. Then I can read at night without obviously disturbing Ray in my own little section. Later, this room will become more like a library and sitting area. So there are great plans ahead.

This is the view from the other side of the extra bedroom. Here you are standing by the double window and looking back into the room and over to the door. That odd shaped sort of room on the left is what is supposed to be the bathroom. Instead, that is where I will have a chaise lounger that looks into the room. Not in the room and not really out of the room.

This is a picture looking into the boys room. I love this plan because it is more than I would have thought to put in. Right ahead is a window with a window seat. To the left is a walkin closet. My boys have never had big closets. Actually, in the first house we built we put in the closets and then never added the doors. Why? Because the room was so small - 9x9 - and we had to put two children in there. It made more sense to build beds into the closet, so we did. Ray built these cute little bunk beds that fit right between the studs and hung out a little into the room. This meant they still had a playing area of 9x8 to play in.

The next house (the one we are in now) they got the closets because the rooms were a nice size, but they were still your typical 3' closets. This plan gives everyone a walk-in closet! Very spoiled!

So in the picture above, right after the walk-in closet, on the left wall there is an alcove. This is a built in desk area. The girls have one on their side too! Then after the desk area they have a door to a private sink area. This leads to a shared toilet and tub area. Then you enter the girls side of the wing.

I feel incredibly blessed that this is the plan we were able to end up with. If I did not have a family of house builders and if God had not blessed us then this would not be possible. But God is the God of the Impossible and He keeps opening doors for us. One day I am going to write a book about God's goodness in our lives.

This is the view through my living room windows.

This is my kitchen. The pantry is on the back left corner. The breakfast nook is to the right, but you can't see it in this picture.

This is the breakfast nook. There is a door on the left leading out to the screen porch. On the right there is a door leading out on to the sundeck. They both meet in the middle outside the breakfast room. We have a real season of mosquitos, no-see-ums, and black flies, so it will be a real treat to have a deck that we can sit on and enjoy the weather but not be eaten alive!


This is the view we get from upstairs in the extra bedroom. The boys will have a similar view from their bedroom window. It is quite beautiful! It might be worthwhile knocking down a tree or two to get a better view of the lake. It is this same lake where the swans come to.

I love watching Ray teach the boys the trade. Here he is explaining his personal methods for squaring up a frame.

Applying the OSB to the Outside Wall

Beginning the Garage Wall

Raising One Garage Wall

Before I could leave for the day we had to raise the walls on the garage. We have trusses coming on Monday, so there was much to be done before that could happen.


We have seen all kinds of wildlife on our land: herons, beer, moose, deer, marmots, eagles, ducks, geese, and hawks. The other day we had the wonderful opportunity to see an owl. It flew right past me, landed in a tree and sat there as I drove up and parked under it. It then flew down and past me into the forest on the other side of my car. So cool!


One day we found some bulls and a herd of cows in our property, so now we have to be sure to shut the gates on the way out!
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