More rafters and trenching the conduit for the electric

Robbie came out and rode the giant trencher for us to get the conduit in for the electric, Mark came to help too. Cole took a swim in the creek on Saturday...

Raising the Roof...

Roof rafters on the 8:12 pitch are ready for plywood.š Those were a warm up for the 16:12 rafters next weekend.

First Weekend in December...

This is the upstairs, E&L's bedroom area, one the one below is the hallway from the stairs.

The single story picture is the office/laundry/community bathroom area, which is off the living room, where the woodstove will be. I am anxious for the woodstove as it is COLD already!

Jason's notes: Most all of the interior walls are framed now.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2011

Even through a holiday weekend we made progress. Jason and I even got to go out for our 11th Anniversary to the boat for crablegs! Andi & Mark watched E&L for us for the night.

Jasons notes: 2nd floor subfloor complete and some of the 2nd floor walls are now up. The holes below the windows are for hopper style drawers to make use of the dead space in the overframed area.

Up come the walls!!!

Dale and a few other carpenters spent Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday before a rain delay, putting up walls. Its really amazing to see if start to take form. I can stand in our living room and the view that we worked so hard to create is there, I am amazed at the progress!

Jasons brief notes: Made some good progress even though we could only get in 3 hours on Sunday due to rain. I like this Zip sheathing stuff – just tape up the joints and you’re done. Kept us from having to make tyvek kites on Saturday when the wind was blowing 20-30 mph all day. Floor sealer seems to be doing well so far. Bracing the walls was a lot easier than I expected also.

Pouring the concrete floors on 11.12.11

Jason hired some concrete finishers to come and work the poured concrete and they brought a machine to make it all smooth. After the concrete was finished on 11.12.11 Jason got a MUCH NEEDED day off on 11.13.11 for he and Wendy to go DUCK HUNTING! Wendy was a good girl. This is where my work day came in, I spent the afternoon out washing concrete and vaccuuming concrete to get it ready for the sealer.

Nearly ready for the concrete on the first floor!!!

Jason and Ian and a few white pants (can't remember their names) and Dale spent this last weekend getting the subfloor finished up on the first floor of the house and the edges framed in for the concrete pouring that is scheduled for this Saturday. We have been testing sealants and finishes to decide what we like for the concrete. I want to make sure that is is VERY stain resistant! :) The barn is finished except for the gutters, the fence posts go in tommorrow so that when they back fill there will not be any need to dig for them later.

We have a person contracted to do the HVAC work, and the septic field and boxes were all laid in by Niederer Trenching last week while the weather was still dry... Moving Right Along!

The boys at work...

A few updated pics of Ian, Ryan, and Jason at work. Jason went out to the farm on Friday evening and saw 3 deer as well right outside the living room, apparently they are unphased by our construction!

Moving right along!

Things are really getting going now. Ian and his brother in law Ryan came out yesterday to work on the barn siding AGAIN, I believe this is the barn that WILL NEVER END! I am thankful that Ryan was able to come out and free Jason up to finish getting the prep work done for today. There will be two carpenters that J knows from work and Ian, Jason and Ryan working today to get the basement wall and first floor framed and subfloor on for the first level. We are working against the clock now to get the concrete for the floors on the first floor poured and sealed before it gets too cold and temps are freezing. Praying it all goes well today and they get this accomplished so we can pour the floors.
I am excited that Jason said we need to meet with the window company to order windows and go to the plumbing supply to look at fixtures! It's getting VERY exciting!

Set in concrete! - A site visit by Emma

Jason was able to be there Friday for the concrete pour. Emma got to stop by because she had a half day and Noni came and got her from school. It definately smells of concrete out there right now. :)

Saturday and Sunday Jason and Ian and Johnathan worked on the barn getting the roof finished up and siding on.

The forms have arrived...

The forms have arrived and Jim, the concrete contractor, started setting forms for the walls today. Ian and Jason did the footings for the walls last week. The weather is FABULOUS for pouring concrete and the forecast for the next week is just as good. If all goes well Jim will be done and outta there and we will have WALLS by Monday. Next will be the framing.

Thursday the siding for the barn is supposed to be in at McElroy in Valley Park, so I am going to make a quick road trip down with Wendy to pick it up Friday morning. Hopefully Ian and Jason will be able to get the siding on on Saturday and that will pretty much wrap up the barn except for putting in the remaining fill of screenings/minus around the building and wall. I still have not figured out what I am going to plant in the GIANT retaining wall. Part of me thinks strawberries maybe? I have read that retaining walls are a GREAT place for strawberry plants to climb but we need water before I can plant anything in it for sure.

Things are FINALLY starting to come together and take shape. So excited for everything falling into place.

View from the front porch...

And so we begin...

On Friday Sept 16 the hole was dug for the foundation. Sterling came back out to re-survey before they dug and marked the easement and also marked the corners for the foundation. Loving the view from my "kitchen" and "bedroom".

The digger has arrived!!!!

The digger has arrived and tommorrow is the big day! Sterling came and marked the foundation walls and where to dig, and Jason is on his way to get the dump truck to haul off all the dirt that comes from the big dig. The building is coming along as well, the roof is nearly on and if the weather cooperates we will have some siding soon too.

Won't be long til we have a roof and some siding!

Progress!

Jason worked VERY hard this weekend getting the rest of the columns up on the storage barn and even started putting up the rafters. :) It's so awesome the see the building taking shape. I can't believe how much storage space we will have in this monster when its all done, but I am sure I will still be going crazy looking at all the decoys and duck hunting supplies that are stored in the building... Maybe I can convince him to hide them all in one of the shipping container bays???

Still waiting on the bank to redo the loan on the construction of the house, hopefully the feds don't change the rules again between now and when we get approval!

Barn Raising!

The first column is up on the shed and its finally starting to look like something. There will be storage space on top of the containers in the shed too. The "great wall" is nearly complete (still needs the top row). The house is being delayed because of new federal rules for loans, but hopefully we will still be on schedule to get the foundation in this August. we were lucky enough to get Robbie to come down and place the containers on the concrete piers and move all the rock around with the Bobcat. Logan was so excited about Robbie being there with the Bobcat that we had to go home and find his miniature Bobcat so he could be the digger too! I need to figure out what kind of "foliage" or greenery is going to go in all those cells on the wall. Thinking about filling them all with dirt and plants makes me tired already. I think we will need to wait until we have water to keep them all alive though anyway. How exciting that things are starting to come together!