Framing Progress of Our Small Fixer Upper with Wonderful Contractors

The framing progress of our small fixer upper with the help of wonderful contractors was a delightful experience!

Nate and I checked out the house to see how much progress was made since some of the framing work was completed. Despite how much work was left to do, we were excited about the progress so far!

It still didn’t quite look like a house yet, but Nate assured me that it’s finally coming together! Yea, that’s reassuring. Just check out the photo and you’ll see what I’m talking about! But, this is our home no matter what the condition.

I know that we may seem a bit crazy to be taking on such a task like this with really no building experience. However, purchasing the smallest fixer upper in the best location we could find in our area was one of the most practical things we could do. Remember, we are all about freedom and adventure and this was one of the ways we intended to achieve just that!

Simple living in small spaces has its challenges, but the end goal is always freedom! Freedom to be debt free, to travel, and to live a more simple life instead of running in that rat race. 

WALKTHROUGH TO CHECK OUT THE FRAMING PROGRESS

We checked out the framing progress of our fixer upper and saw what the wonderful contractors accomplished in such a short time. Nate showed off the framing work that was done with me and it was so cool to finally see new frames all over the house!

We hired out this task as we do not have the experience to frame a house. Plus, it’s a lot of work to tackle such a huge task, especially for only one person. Hey now, don’t forget, I’m the one who was working a full time job while Nate took some time off from work to focus on the house full time for about a year.

FRAMING WORK BY WONDERFUL CONTRACTORS

It’s exciting to see the framing progress of our fixer upper and the wonderful contractors we hired are our heroes!

Nate shared with me that several new floorboards were put in. Then he told me about the awesome carpenters we have working on the framing for the house. Our contractors repaired the framing underneath the flooring, which the previous foundation contractor did not work on. 

The flooring is more level because this work was done well! Nate says it’s 100% better than it was before. That’s great news! 

The contractor also framed in the bathroom, mostly with all new wood. So now we have brand new walls in there! Almost all of the walls in the entire house have been removed so the house can be reframed. It just looked like we had an open concept feel throughout the whole house! Like one great big studio or something. But, that was just temporary at the time!

FRAMING A LARGER BATHROOM

Now we started to see the larger bathroom come to life! For a while we talked about knocking down the closet to expand the bathroom and also tried to figure out if certain pipes and walls could actually be removed and still be within our permit codes. 

Since the bathroom framing started, it was amazing to see the progress and potential of a much larger bathroom. I remember how you could only go into the bathroom from the master bedroom. Now we have a bathroom door opening outside of the bedroom. Thank goodness! How awkward, right?

The contractors even mentioned to Nate how large our bathroom was compared to maybe other regular sized bathrooms. They wondered how we would eventually design the layout of it since it’s so big now. 

The highlight of all the framing so far was definitely our larger bathroom. We doubled it in size and now we have a tiny house with a big bathroom! I love it because we’ve also been talking about getting an old cast iron clawfoot tub in there and I really want to make the space a spa like experience where we’re able to refresh and recharge!

MORE EXCAVATION UNDER THE FLOOR FRAMES

Nate shows me the backyard where he excavated more dirt from under the foundation frames and placed it all over the yard. He dug out a lot more dirt again! 

The soil looked really good and was getting me so excited to finally have a garden!

Although Nate was trying to share with me more of the excavation work that he did as well as how he drained all the water out of the foundation with the sump pump, I for some reason was drawn to the dirt. It just looked like really good soil even though we are known for having clay soil around here. This dirt just looked so delicious and luscious for the garden that I have been dreaming of for so long. 

It has been a dream of mine to have a garden and start composting once we finally were able to buy a house. We never had the opportunity to do something like this before so this was really exciting for me personally!

WALKTHROUGH AFTER MORE FRAMING WORK

When I tried to walk into the “kitchen” there was a framing board going across it, which prevented me from just walking through. So, I had to duck and go under it. 

Nate and I both shared the same excitement and love for this old fixer upper house we purchased. Don’t call our baby ugly now! The foundation made Nate so happy and I was just ready to move in even in this unfinished condition! I know, call us crazy! Or just call us striving toward financial freedom!

In the “kitchen” we start to make plans for where we could place furniture and appliances. Here is another sketch as we continue to figure out our plans. 

Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic home mostly on our own. Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead!

You can also watch a video about this here.

To see more adventures of our tiny fixer upper journey, click on the links below.

BOUGHT AN ANTIQUE CAST IRON SINK AND NEW HOUSE FRAMING

SALVAGING OLD ORIGINAL WOOD AND ORGANIZING THE GARAGE