graphic tractor
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Under #Construction–The Beauty of Building and Art

It’s Labor Day Weekend in the US, with Monday being the official holiday.

“Brick by brick, stone by stone, every great thing was built by those who believed they could.” — Tom “The Mason” Mitchell

Labor Day, observed as a national holiday on the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. This US holiday traditionally marks the end of summer as schools and universities begin, and autumn is in the air (supposedly).

yellow safety vests

“I saw two construction workers laughing together today. I know what they were really building … friendship.” ~ Unknown

In honor of Labor Day this week, we’re exploring things that are currently under construction or those that have been recently constructed. Use your imagination as I did here with this spider constructing its web.

Spider web

Road Construction

“Safety should never be a priority. It should be a precondition” — Paul O’Neill

In the Northern Hemisphere, it seems that most highways and roads are under some kind of construction. It makes sense for roads in the north due to snow and icy conditions that create potholes, huge cracks, and other road hazards that are particularly hard on autos, trucks, and RVs during summer travel. For that future benefit, one must have extra patience when traveling.

street construction
Road Construction, Dillon, Montana

This view of the Seattle Shipyards suggests that there is always something under construction in a big city.

Seattle Shipyard
Seattle Shipyard

Creating Art Out and About

One never knows what kinds of creative construction projects you’ll see when exploring outdoors. A few years ago, I watched a local mural artist finalize his murals on the Spokane House here in Nine Mile Falls.

Spokane House Mural Artist Shaun Deller
Spokane House Mural Artist Shaun Deller

On a popular trail in San Diego, we watched an artist carving a figure into a tree stump.

Carving a tree stump

At Home

“Measure twice, cut once, swear silently.” — Tim “Level” Johnson

We’ve done countless construction projects on our current home during the four-and-a-half years we’ve lived here.

Barn construction

In 2021, shortly after we moved into our home, hubby added a third floor for storage to the pole barn. Amazingly, he can do all of this himself! Pole buildings, also known as pole barns or shops, are “rural-speak” for detached garages. He’s done much more, but I’ll share some of it later.

“In construction, we don’t just work with concrete and steel, but with hope and dreams.” — Jackie “The Jackhammer” Jackson

Our latest project involved adding a porch with a gable to the front of the house. These images show a bit of the progression.

porch construction
framing in porch
roofline completed

Our contractor is excellent. He added a gabled roof to the house without compromising the original look of the roof line. Looks like it’s always been there! Next project is to add the porch deck…

Final construction done

Former Sacramento Home

When we lived in Sacramento, we decided to add 300 square feet to the house to create a larger main bedroom and bathroom, an office, and a walk-in closet.

small kubota backhoe
Framed-Room
Framed room

We enjoyed the results of the construction for five years before we decided to move to Eastern Washington.

We believe the home sold for a much better price when we added the space. It was hard to leave this beautiful room, but we chose wisely,

main bedroom

“We don’t just construct buildings; we create homes, shape cities and build futures.” — Rosa “The Roofer” Ramirez

Sharing for Brian’s Last on the Card, Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday, and Lens-Artists: Scavenger Hunt.

sunflower sunset
Sunflower Under Construction: last on the card
gray swatch

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently from mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link to a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

If you are participating in the photo challenge, I look forward to seeing how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme.

I’ll be taking a short break to visit Yellowstone National Park. The Sunday Stills Challenge will take a pause from September 7 to 12. The next theme is the monthly color challenge for September, highlighting shades of yellow and burnt orange, which will be published on September 14.

Please visit my Sunday Stills page for September themes and updated information.

Until Next time,

Bitmoji signature DIY

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106 comments

  2. We’re always under construction too, Terri. “Measure twice, cut once, swear silently.” — Tim “Level” Johnson. That cracked me up – that’s me just a couple of days ago. And I loved your broader interpretation of construction to include nature’s handiwork and artistic projects. A fun post.

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  3. Loved reading this! All the construction projects and creativity are so inspiring, I especially enjoyed the part about the porch with the gabled roof; it looks amazing. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here waiting for my carpet cleaners to finish and dreaming about all the home projects I could be doing if I wasn’t stuck waiting. Maybe this is the sign I needed to finally tackle something! 😊

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  4. Terri,

    Great choice for Labor Day. I’m impressed with Hans construction skills, especially the ability to build alone…Wow! Surely you do some of the heavy lifting. I built homes for twenty years and then left it behind. My favorite project was the home I built for Helen and me on a lovely stretch of the Tennessee River. I cried when we moved. Here’s a fuzzy pic near the end of the project:

    P.S. Loved the wood carver in action. Those guys are amazing.

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  6. A great selection of pictures, Terri! I’m late commenting as I was hoping to find something under construction to share! But then I realized I mostly crop out such interferences from my photos, so I’m hard-pressed to find any! Enjoy your time in Yellowstone!

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  10. First, I love your first quote best, “I saw two construction workers laughing together today. I know what they were really building … friendship.” ~ Unknown“

    Wow, if Hans were in business for himself, you could make him a fortune. Wow!

    I’m smiling as I scroll down. I was there when he was standing in his man-barn on the sturdy storage area he was building. You are both amazing people with so many talents, and they compliment each other so well. And we have built so many solid memories through our years of blogging friendship. What treasures are all of this construction the four of us have done.

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  11. Having had a new en-suite bathroom fitted in the spring, and some painting and decorating done, I’m always pleased when the work is done, Terri. On the last day, when the builders leave, I have a big sigh of relief that I got my home back. But the results are always amazing.

    I admire all the tradespeople out there. They seem to be in high demand and are always busy. The plumber who did our new bathroom was booked up for two years!

    I’d love to operate some of the construction vehicles, especially the ones that are used to knock down buildings.

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  22. Hi Terri
    Thanks for showing your pictures. We are always fascinated by framed rooms. We just had one constructed and started with the walls right now.
    We like and hate do-it-yourself.
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  26. I hope youhave fun at yellow stone – and your post was fun – to see your new home and former house – and that huge added on room probably did help the sale of that house!
    Also, loved the closing sunflower photo – getting ready to open a bit – such a. good shot.

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      • Oh how fun to have a lot of sunflowers. I have not grown any in years! But I am glad to have rose of sharon and a second blooming of hydrangea (which are not a top flower for me, but they came with the house!) I might need to plant some sunflowers next year.

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  28. Construction is a pain, that’s for sure Terri. Here, they suspended as much construction as possible for Labor Day as they do for all other long holiday weekends which is nice. I don’t usually go for a longer drive until Sunday of a three-day holiday, less congestion as most everyone is at their destination already.

    That’s great that Hans is so handy and can do so much remodeling himself. When we moved to this house in 1966, my parents did extensive remodeling and it seemed to me that we were always living around some contractor and his paraphernalia and they all took too long to get the job done IMHO. I have not had anything done inside as I don’t want to go through the hassle again. My mom and I had some work done too – all pokey and messy. I am having some landscaping done outside, but it’s just repairing last year’s landscaping fiasco and I told the guy it can be done any time – he was/is behind due to all the rain we had in July especially.

    My post is very long today, but I did have a lot of fun compiling it. I had to proofread it again today when I added this post link to it as I did it three weeks ago.

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    • When we added the main bedroom in Sacramento, it was perfect timing that my daughter was our of state for her college internship. We had to put a lot in storage and sleep in her room for 2 months. It was worth it in the end. As much as I hated to leave the remodeled bedroom, bathroom, etc, our kitchen was tiny and the house was just too small. No regrets–we enjoyed it for 5 years and someone else now does, Linda. Look forward to your post!

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  32. Terri, you and your husband have lived through a lot of construction in your homes! I admire you for living through that! We’ve had several remodeling projects over the years. After we finished having our guest bathroom gutted and rebuilt and a few other changes to our home we decided we were too old to go through any more remodeling! Great topic for Labor Day weekend!

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    • Thank you, Beth! The remodel of the Sacramento house happened during our mid 50s, and a contractor did the work. Hans is such a perfectionist with building, he came home from work all day and fixed the contractor’s work 😲 Now we have a wonderful local contractor. Most of the DIY is out in the pole barn. But we may be redoing our guest bath shower in the near future. I feel the pinch of O.L.D. too these days. 😂

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  36. As I am reading your post, I can hear to sounds of my husband’s hammering upstairs. A new roof, solar, and now A/C installation has kept him (and me, if I can’t hide quickly enough) very busy the last several weeks. I love having a handy man as a husband but it can mean that the house is seldom 100% buttoned up. 😊

    I’m curious where your picture of the man carving the stump was taken. Obviously by the water, but which trail?

    Great theme for a Labor Day challenge, Terri!

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  41. A really timely topic for this Labour Day weekend. Thank you Terri. Thank you also for the wonderful photos. I love that sunflower! Your new porch is beautiful; its seems like it was always part of your home… Outsanding.

    Love the view of the containers which widens out to a great city view. Inspiring quotes. The first quote resonated especially…”building friendship”… I feel there is no greater labor or construction in any relationship than building friendship..

    Happy Sunday!

    Here is my link:

    https://suzetteb.home.blog/2025/08/31/builds-sundaystills/

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