After a weekend of hard work in the sun the house is 1/2 way shingled! Looks professional ;) Thanks Tom, Joe, Jason, Nate and those of you I'm forgetting for all the help...we owe you lots and lots of beer ;)

Couple Additions...

Couple pictures of the crane lifting and setting the trusses on the house. The builder guys finished yesterday...so it looks like a 1/2 closed in house! I believe the shingling is still on for the weekend - thank you so much to those who are coming! The last picture is all the work Beau's done siding the shed...almost done and ready for our trim to be stored!

I can see it now!

Again - completely amazed by the work that Lee and crew can do. Each time I come out here the house is SO much further than it was the day before. Had a long weekend out there. Thanks to Brian and Jamie for making the trip from MI. Jason, Brian and Tom helped Beau sheet the roof of the shed and set the facia (sp?). Jamie and I spent the day out there on Sat. Jamie and Tom - first picture is for you. It was taken on Tuesday and look - NO WATER! I think it was completely due to the trenches. Shed looks great - and even has a little siding and trim on it now. First set of windows were too big so haveing to get new ones...hopefully they fit!

Here are a couple pictures of the house with all the trusses up. There was a crane out there and helping to put them in place. All that is left is to sheet the whole house...well not all...but all for this phase (I think). It's been really exciting seeing this from start to finish in about 2 weeks time. Thanks guys for working in the sun and heat! Shingle party this weekend - come one and all ;)

Up on the Roof Roof

Beau and I managed to get 6 sheets (I think) up on the roof of the shed. Slow work with Jackson on the belly and Beau the only one on the roof - but got a little done:) Lee told me to take the second picture - I'll let you draw your own conclusions!

Here is the second floor finished. In the front is the storage room that I lobbied for...have to have space to put the stuff we don't use! Can't get rid of it - that would make too much sense! Adde is here upstairs too picking out her bedroom. She picked the one with the biggest closet - without any coaching I might add...good girl :)

Let the 2nd begin

So the first floor is all closed in now. What's so amazing to me is that this all happened in a matter of 2 no rain days. Man Lee - you are quick! You can see him standing on the top. When we got there today he told Adde that he was standing in her bedroom. Then she wanted to go up and get into her bed there. Nap time. Easy to see that this is the front view with our garage to the right and door/den over to the left of the picture.




Here is our huge front porch - bigger than I thought it would be but love it and huge picture window! Sorry Dad - I think someone already claimed your spot with a chair AND cooler. Might be there awhile.

Here again is the view from closer to the garage. They got all the floor trusses in in one day. And the Stairs. And the sheets to cover the floor trusses. And ordered the second floor materials. You'd think they were machines! While we were there Lee would call down to Jeff who was working with the saw. He would say something like I need a 38 inch. Then Jeff would cut somethind and hand him a board. How he knew what to hand him? Not sure - I know Beau wished I could work on this with that little instruction - I'd have probably about 22 more questions to ask.

Finally here is the view from the big picture window in the den. Beau went out last night and said the first floor is all closed up and the stairs are in- that you can walk on the second floor! THis picture was taken at 12 that day and Beau got out there at about 5. Hard to tell with the cross boards but it does look like a house! Promise! On track to roof next weekend - any volunteers ;)

Closing up

So as far as I can tell things are where they were supposed to be on the drawings! In picture one your looking at the support beam that will be beautifully decorated in front our kitchen. Behind it is the den area and to the left is the pantry and bathroom.








Picture 2 - this is our bedroom. I asked Adde when we got there if she wanted to go in our room - and she said no she wanted her room. She walked through and picked out our bathroom/closet for "her room" and wouldn't let any of us walk in that area. Hmmm. Attitude?









Picture 3 - a picture of the whole house from behind the roof trusses...not to be confused with the floor trusses apparently. Always wondered how the second floor stayed up! I have to say that the house looks much different with the siding up on it. It's looking more and more livable - although I'm seeing more and more work as it goes! As for my kid - Adde did not like the mud today AT ALL. However she did find a 2x4 in a big puddle and sat on it. Wanted Beau to push her in her "boat."

Lee says....

"did you know that June is statistically the rainiest month?" Yeah Lee...this year. Despite the downpour that we've experienced - ok maybe just some steady, daily rain...Lee et all have put in some long hours and been there early to keep things moving - and they are moving fast! They are doing amazing work and I have no idea how. Couple views here...

Picture one is from the corner of the dining area. You are looking straight at the garage and off to the right of the picture is the kitchen - to the left the living room.

Picture 2 - is looking from the kitchen area towards our bedroom and bathroom. Lots of little white pipes sticking out - and ALL IN THE RIGHT PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy cow as Mimi, Adde and Joe would say.

Picture 3 - just a view of the whole house from the driveway. - Dad there is your porch with the huge window. I think you can start picking out your spot.

Picture 4 - is the shed and the soffit (spelling?) that Beau has been trying to get up during the few hours at night that he has. I think he's been to distracted by the mud to really focus on it though!

Finally - Picture 5. I just thought I would include this because oh man. I have NEVER seen an egg this big! Papa - what are you feeding those chickens and did this one survive this? THanks for the narrative too....;)

Darn Rain

The first floor walls are finally up. Lee was able to wok about a total of 1.5 days the last week and a half.....darn rain.
As you can see from the photo, we have plenty of mud to deal with.
Hopefully we'll be able to stay on track over the next week....we are hoping to shingle the roof next weekend.

build me a wall

So things at the house have been at a little slower pace these past few days due to weather. As you can see - a muddy situation out there! Ron the concrete guy came back for the final time on Monday to finish the garage and porch. Then Lee the builder was supposed to come on Tuesday and start framing - but he let a little rain get in his way and didn't start till Wed. (ok- so it was pouring all day Tuesday) Either way I think they kicked some butt and got so many of the walls put together. I'm continually amazed at these guys and how they can make a house out of a pile of wood. So impressed. So here you are looking at the view from a couple different angles with the walls layed out on the ground. The third picture is my big window looking out the front of the house - onto the front porch! Loving the way this window is looking to start. I may have a lot of trees blocking the sun but I'm getting all my windows to let as much of it through as possible! Lee and crew were supposed to come back today and set the walls up so it should look VERY different - however - again weather was not looking out for us and it rained most of the day...so to be honest...if I was him I would have gone home! We'll see! Looking more and more like a house everyday!

So these last few pictures - I had said there was a lot of rain and it was pretty muddy. Was admiring my big picture window and turned around to find Adde putting "covering her owies" ... in mud. It went from there to finding the mud puddle and jumping "like a frog in it." Beau told her to just have fun - so she did! She threw the rocks in the puddle and Sami took them out. She kept asking Beau and I to come in and play with her because "it's really pun." (has a hard time with her F's) The last picture is how she...and Jackson...ended up. She felt that she needed to wash her hair and then Jackson needed to be washed as well. They both went in the tub

immediately upon returning home.

cemented in...1/2 way

Ron the cement guy braved the muddy roads and rain to pour the cement slab for our house yesterday afternoon. Covered up my beautiful pink foam. A little bitter about that ;) Still have the garage and porch left to do...but 1/2 way there. Lee our magic builder is set to start Tuesday I think!