N3Bruce's Journal: Today was set day on the house

As I hinted in my last entry, today was the big day building my modular house. At 6 AM the builder was waiting for the set crew, and they showed up just as the sky started to brighten. For my part, I turned my truck's tailgate into a coffee bar for the guys. They went through about 4 pots by lunch, along with a whole box of donuts. A 60 ton crane showed up at about 7:15, by 8:30 they had the back of the house in place, by 10:00 the front. By lunchtime they had the roof raised, and the gable ends of the house installed. Shortly after lunch they installed a gable end porch roof, and finished off the day shingling off the roof. It all went together slicker than the thawing mud surrounding the house.

I got a quick peek inside the house at lunch, and a bit longer walkthrough with the builder as things were winding down for the day. The kitchen was complete, except for appliances, the floors and countertops, closets had shelves in, doors were usually hung and often trimmed, and carpet/floorcoverings installed in about 90 percent of the house.

I couldn't resist taking some pictures, and I took a bunch with my low resolution digital camera, and a roll with my old, but trusty Pentax. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I decided to set up a couple of photo albums that have about 45,000 words worth of storytelling. I will get the film processed tonight or tomorrow, and will add the better shots to the albums.

It is still a little dicey getting in and out of the house because of the mud, and a couple of doors lead nowhere but down, but I hope to be able to get in there and get appliances in there soon. There is also a pole building to put up, and utilities to connect, but I was suprised how complete things are.