One of our clients kept a day-by-day diary of the process he went through building his house. Below is his "daily diary" of how the build went along with pictures of the progress.

It started on the 1st of October. They dug the hole where my new house would sit. Of course we were very excited. We've made a point of stopping by the site as often as possible to watch what is going on. This is my picture Diary on the progess of 8 Pelly Court.

After the hole was dug for the foundation, the next step was to put in the footings. We were very excited to see the footings go in but we also thought that maybe a mistake had been made because the size of the footings looked REALLY small. We've been told that this is normal though so I guess we'll have to wait and see when the house is done ;)

There they are! The foundation forms went up on October 8 and the cement was poured that day as well. The foundation still looked small. My Wife and I were looking at it wondering how they were going to fit all the rooms in to that little amount of space. I can't wait to see the final product!

And there they are! Once the forms were off, we had a foundation. I've not yet been in the foundation, I've only walked around the outside of the house. One of these days I'll make a point of getting inside... of course soon I'll be able to walk around the first floor!

Here is where we stand right now. They've just framed in the rest of the foundation. The section that is shown in this picture right here is going to be my office. I haven't been by the site in a day or two so I imagine there is more done than this now. I'll be stopping by today to check the progress...

The floor has now been added to the main level of the house. This basically closes in the foundation. I was down in the foundation today for the first time. It's pretty cool to be able to walk around in the structure with it somewhat closed in. They'll probably start the walls for the main level tomorrow which is going to be very exciting!

We have WALLS! We went to the house after work today to find the outside walls of the main floor were standing up. At this point, the house is starting to look a little bigger. If you stand in one corner and look to the diagonal corner it actually looks somewhat big. Still not as big as I would think though. I've compared our house with others and our rooms are the same size as their's so the house should look a LOT bigger once it's done.

The inside walls went up today. It's very cool to be able to walk around in the house and see the floorplan that we've been looking at on paper for so long. And the rooms look bigger now as well. I was standing in the spot that is going to be our kitchen trying to picture it completed. Our biggest complaint about our current house is the size of the kitchen / dining area... we certainly won't have that complaint with the new house! We found our first problem with the floorplan though... there's a complete circuit around the downstairs which our kids are going to use as a race track! This picture shows my middle child already running the circuit and the house isn't even built yet! :)

The roof is on the main floor! We went to the house today to find the garage walls up, and the roof on the main floor (that would be the floor of the second level) so that means the second level will be coming up soon. We've been told that they should be finished framing up the house by the end of next week and then it's time for plumbing and electrical.

The second floor, outside walls are now on the house. It's definately starting to take shape and I can almost picture it done! Watch the ladder though because it's kind of steep!

We have a roof! I was a little surprised to stop by tonight and see that the roof was mostly done, but that the walls aren't in upstairs. Apparently this is normal though. I figured the walls would have to be built in order to support the roof but apparently not. Just the roof left to go over the garage, and then the framing of the walls for the upstairs. I had better chase down my plumbing because they're going to need it this week!

It's starting to get hard to take pictures of the house because it's getting to the point where it is almost dark when I get home from work. Here's a picture of the house today. They got the roof put on the garage which also forms the closet for the master bedroom. They also had to adjust the windows in the master bedroom because of the way one of the roof lines went. Still no walls upstairs but it's coming. We're moving the tubs in on Friday so they can finish framing up the house.

The house is pretty much closed in now. They got all of the roof put on, and moved the window in the Master Bedroom to allow for the roof line along the side of the house. The walls upstairs have been started, and I'm told that the house will be completely framed up by end of day tomorrow. We're meeting Friday morning with the electrician to discuss where lights, switches, and plugs are going. I've got to mention getting the house networked too because I want that done now so I don't have to run wires later. They're pretty much ready to start finishing the inside now so that'll be exciting!

We're down to the wire now. Three weeks until move in day. Everyone is still confident that we are going to get in on time, and from the progress the last little while, I believe it too. Today saw the start of the electrical and plumbing inside the house, and they started drilling the well also. And you can see, the shingles are being put down on the roof. Lots of different stuff on the go now!

It's closed in! The windows and doors are now in, the staircase is built to the second level and the roof is completely shingled now as well. I really like the oval window over the garage! The showers have been installed. (They have to go in earlier than the rest of the plumbing because of the sheersize of them so they were put in before the staircase was built.

It's all starting to come together now. We met with the electrician a couple of days ago to determine where we wanted to put lights, switches, phone jacks, and cable boxes. We're also having the house built with a computer network installed so we had to determine where to put the jacks for that. Plumbing and electrical are pretty much finished so the gyprocking can start soon!

We can finally get to the basement without using a ladder. The basement floor and garage floor have now been poured so they were able to put in the stairs that lead to the basement. The basement will soon be framed in. We're having a closet put under the stairs, and have one room being built in the basement. We'll probably finish the basement eventually so that we have a guest room.

The gyprock has started. I don't envy the guys having to Gyprock that section of 18' ceiling.. yes, I said 18' ceiling! Our great room is truely going to be GREAT! :) Most of the upstairs has now been Gyprocked, and they've started on the main floor. I was told that it took the better part of the morning just to lug the Gyprock in to the house. I can imagine because there is some pile of it going in.

Gyprock is pretty much done throughout, and the crack-fillers have started. They're working on putting in the doors, and putting on the trim which I thought was a little wierd. I figured they would paint before they did the trim but apparently not. It's really coming together now. You can walk around in the house and it feels like a real house now that the walls are gyprocked.

More outside work is getting done! Since I took this picture, they've finished this side of the house, the other side of the house, and part of the front and back. They certainly work quickly. The garage door is in place as well. There was a tractor on site yesterday when I was there so I assume that is to start leveling out the yard some once the siding guys are done. Crack-filling is pretty much done on the main level and is done upstairs so the painters will be in soon to start. Less than one week until move in!

The inside is just about completed with the rooms being painted, cushion flooring going down, kitchen cabinets half way installed, and tomorrow they are supposed to come and do the hardwood. We've had a small problem with the carpet not showing up even though it was ordered 6 weeks ago. We've been told that it is in Saint John, it just hasn't arrived at our house yet. That could delay the move in if it doesn't show up in time.

MOVE IN DAY! Oviously I was a little too busy moving to get a chance to take a picture. The day was chaotic to say the least. We had to be out of our old house by Nov 22 so we had to move in to the new one by that date as well. We did it though just barely. We ended up moving a lot of our stuff in to the house very late in the day as there were a lot of things being finished up on the house. We had electricians, plumbers, siders, painters, flooring people, you name it and they were there. On top of the people helping us move, there had to have been another 20-25 people there working away on the house. The carpet was put down the morning of the move, just hours before we moved in, but the important thing was that it was put down.

In the days that followed move-in, there were still contractors lingering around finishing things up like putting the eaves trough up and leveling out the yard. Upon inspecting the house we found a few little "glitches" such as a broken lamp and little things like that which were taken care of right away by Darling Construction so the house was perfect.

All-in-all, building a house was MUCH less complicated than most people had told me, and let me tell you, I have friend's who have built with other contractors and we didn't face ANY of the nightmarish things that they went through. I would definately recommend DARLING CONSTRUCTION to anyone I knew who was in the market to build a house.

- Mike & Angela Carpenter