The last two verses in the chapter give us three time markers. They are the time of the laying of the temple's foundation, the time of the completion of the building project, and the total elapsed time from beginning to completion, seven years.
We are not obligated to believe that these seven years were years of continuous work on the temple. In this same time period, Solomon had other building projects to engage his attention and the labour of his workforce. Yet it is only with regard to the construction of the temple that the writer of 1 Kings gives so complete a record of the building project.
37 In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid, in the month of Ziv.