Walls! And a Ceiling (Kind Of)! And a Baby Boy!

Would you believe it's actually starting to look like a house? Or at least like an addition to a house. Okay, I'll start from the beginning. We started the framing odyssey with the south wall and decided to build it in the lot next door, which ended up being a big mistake, 'cause those things are HEAVY! We had to recruit some fantastic neighborhood help to lift and carry it to the slab (thank you Pat and Jon and Cody!), and then made the decision to build the rest of the walls right on the slab, which Cody was again the hero for taking over for the pregnant, unskilled wife on. That decision was a really good one. Here's the wall in motion:

And here it is being joined by its friends, the east, west and north walls:

Then, while I was off gallivanting at a wedding in California (congrats, Eric and Kelly!!)...

...Sean started sheeting (attaching plywood to) the first floor walls and hanging the second floor floor joists (here's the part where it's really starting to look like a house):

Our trees are finally greening up, which makes it a much cheerier jobsite!

And... the other new addition is coming along very nicely as well. The big news around here is that it's a BOY!!! Here are a couple of his first pictures - may be tough to decipher for those of you not familiar with ultrasound pictures - in the first one, he's in profile. And in the second one, he's also in profile, but his mouth is actually open, ready for the hand and thumb that are just in the background. He did eventually make contact and sucked his thumb while we were watching - we melted.

And he's not the only one of us growing! I believe there is actually something to see in the growing belly department (and in the ham-husband department as well). Here we are at 21 weeks along (almost 5 months for those of you not familiar with the strange weeks/months measurements of pregnancy):

This weekend: a second floor, and maybe even some roof rafters. And brain development.