Fifties make me anxious!

All this talk of warm weather this week in the 40/50/60's in January gives me the itch to want to plant something, and to make matters worse, my seeds from Baker's Creek arrived yesterday! I can't wait to get the garden up and going and for my berry plants to start fruiting! We will need to order a few replacement berry bushes due to damage during construction and it being so dry, but we are well on our way to FARMING! I have chicks ordered for delivery about April 4 or 5th, and Katie and Robbie brought their new home last night (stock tank).

Sunday night update...

Chimney is in so we now have a stainless steel spire sticking up. In the future we should be able to get good cell phone reception if we touch the fireplace. Will need to build a custom curb for the chimney because rubber boots don’t work on a 16:12 roof. Roofing has started finally - took about 2 hours to get the first piece set and trimmed out with all of the architectural cleats, standoffs, rivets, roll tape, etc. Only takes about 10 minutes to set a panel so it will start to go faster. Cedar soffits are complete at the NW end of the house. Varposhield is up at the basement area now.

Update on the house...

Made a trip last weekend on Sunday to Ikea in Chicago with Logan, Emma and Wendy to get vanities for the bathrooms and look at light fixtures. Picked up some AWESOME pieces and I think I have a new favorite store. Good thing its 5 hrs away! Also got some dressers for us and the kiddos and a bedroom set for our room and a bunk bed for Emma's room.

From Jason -House needs a little a little more plywood sheeting on the backside of the East end and we’ll put on the fascia board, soffit and siding with a lift after the windows are in. Cedar soffit started on the West end. Tried to start roofing but came to a stop as soon as I found that the eave trim was not made long enough so we’ll get started on that next weekend.

final inspection on barn completed...

The barn had its final inspection between Christmas and New Years. This barn & retaining wall were built completely by Jason and Ian with Robbie coming in to help with dirt work. St. Charles County required fencing for the retaining wall so we got part of the fence completed so it would pass. Jason and Ian did not do to bad for having never built horse fence before. :) We used the No-Climb horse fence and wooden posts, eventually need to put a top rail on. One project down...

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!