My Hubby's Job

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's been one of those weeks (months) that it seems like your always doing something, but nothing ever gets done. So I thought I'd show you what my husband does for a living. He is a residential general contractor, and alot of his work is setting modular homes. I took these pictures on Monday, Sept. 29 for him, because he likes to have pictures of his big jobs. But then I figured why not share with all of you, because most people probably haven't had the opportunity to see something like this in real life. So let's start off right. Here is my hubby Sam on the left with his worker Charlie. Ready to get to work.

Now for a small lesson in Modular homes. They are stick built homes that are put together in a factory, then set on trailers and moved to the job site where they are hoisted up by a crane and set on the foundation that has been built ahead of time. There is alot of prep work involved, and setting the house can make a day quite stressful. When I arrived on the scene, they already had the first half of the house set. Here is what that looks like. Notice the roof is not up to the pitch houses have? The roof is laid down flat for traveling, and then hoisted up after the 2 halves are put together.

Now, not all modulars are this high off the ground. These people live on an island and wanted to be able to park their boat underneath the house. That's why it's so far off the ground.


Sorry about this picture. I have a bad habit of not turning my pictures before I upload, and then it's too late. So any way, the crane picks up the other half of the house.......

and slowly moves it over the foundation.....


There are guide lines tied on the ends of the house so it can be pulled to the left or right, but you can't really see it in the pictures.


Then when it's all lined up, the house is set down on the foundation. Then it is pulled the last couple of inches together with wenches (is that right?) that are on the sides. The roof of the house is laid down flat while it's being moved, so one it's set, the crane is hooked up to the roof and hoists it up into place to be secured. I don't know how that's done, that's why this is my hubby's job and not mine. Here you can see the ropes from the crane on the roof, and that of couse is Sam up there disconnectin the ropes from the roof.


Then on the ends of the house, plywood has to be put up to fill in the gaps that are left between where the roof was laid down and then picked up. Does that make any sense? So because this house is 14 ft high, he uses a manlift to put up the plywood, and then put all the siding on the ends of the house. Then of couse, the roof must be finished and shingled, and inside has some trim work to be done. Last of all, porches are built and water, electricity and all that good stuff is hooked up. After painting and all on the inside, the new homeowners are ready to move in.

Our house is a modular also, so watching this job brought back alot of memories of watching my own house be picked up with a crane. Ours is also about 8 feet off the ground, because being so close the the coast, we can't have a basement, so we have an above ground basement under the house.

Well, I guess that's enough construction talk for one day, and soon I should get back the the regularly scheduled stamp stuff. That's all for now!