Building a House in Pictures
This is the sequence to how we build a house. The pictures are taken from several trips.
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Prayer (2006) - The most important thing we do in preparation is to spend time in prayer. -
Foundation (2000) - Here is the ground ready for cement. Unfortunately, the cement doesn't crawl into the form. -
Pouring Foundation (2000) - We have to manually pour the cement, but at least the mixer is gas powered. -
Finished Foundation (2000) - It should cure for about a week, but we have to get the house done in a week. It's still standing. -
Loading Materials (2005) - More often than not, the site is unsecured, so we have to load up the supplies and take them to the house. -
Unloading (2006) - Of course, what you load, you have to unload. -
Starting (2004) - Most of the time we don't have to pour a foundation and we can get started. -
Framing (2000) - Everyone puts nails in the frames. That means no VBS on Monday. VBS starts Tuesday. -
Finished Frame (1999) - Here's a wall frame. For those who wonder, we use 2' centers. -
Wall (1999) - The plywood is put on the frames when they are on the ground. Sometimes the door is cut, too. -
Walls Up (1999) - The wall are lifted into place. -
Wall Support (2006) - The first two walls have to be moved and held into place. -
Attaching Walls (2005) - The walls are nailed together. -
Walls All Up (2005) - We work really hard to finish the walls on Monday. A group works on the rafters while the walls are built. -
Building Trusses (1999) - The first truss is carefully assembled and used as the pattern for the remaining ones. -
Finisheing Trussing (2006) - Here are the finished trusses stacked in place. We have reached the end of Monday. -
Installing Trusses (2003) - On Tuesday, we start installing the trusses.They are pivoted up into place. -
Trusses Going Up (2003) - The trusses go up one by one. -
Painting (2003) - On Tuesday, painting begins as soon as the walls are up and while the trusses are being installed. -
Painting (2002) - Sometimes there's not much room on the side to put in the nails. That can be a challenge. -
Cutting Trim (2004) - We have to cut a lot of trim - 4" wide. The trim sealsl the seams between the plywood. -
Painting Trim (2005) - All the trim gets painted on both sides to seal the house. -
Roofing (2001) - We were using plywood as the roofing. Now we use OSB to help keep out the water. -
Roofing Sheets (2006) - All the sheeting has been attached. This uses the OSB. -
Shingle Paper (2004) - Shingles go over the tar paper. Trust me, it works better in this order. -
Fininshing Shingles (2004) - The ends of the tar paper and shingling need trim to hold them in place and protect them from the high winds in Tecate. -
Windows (2008) - The windows are put in as almost the last thing. We haven't broken a window - yet. -
Door (2002) - I am chiseling out the places for the door hinges. The families decide where they want the door and the windows. -
Finished House (2006) - On Thursday morning, we hope to have house finished so we can have the dedicaiton early in the afternoon. -
Inside (2004) - Just studs and rafters - no insulation, drywall, electrical or plumbing. To the family, it's a castle. -
Keys (2005) - The project ends when we give the keys to the family. Tears of joy come to the family and our group. -
Ooops (2006) - Hammer to fit. Paint to match. The window was cut too big and we patched it (the extra trim under the window). -
Paint to Match (2014) - After putting up the big piece of trim, we painting the part by the window to match the house. -
Hammer to Fit (2014) - The window fit exactly between the studs so the trim didn't cover the seam.We put a bigger piece of trim up on the right side.
Building a House Video
Over Thanksgiving in 2012, Michael, Sam, Michael Harris and I went to Tecate to build a house. We brought our nailers and other power equipment and we managed to build a house in two days. We didn't finish it, though, because not all the supplies arrived. This video shows the house being built. I took pictures about every 5 minutes, but missed a few, because we were pretty busy.
We didn't get it painted, the windows installed or the roofing done.
We didn't get it painted, the windows installed or the roofing done.
