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| going up! |
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| overview of site before garage |
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| breakfast room walls |
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| back of house with view of shop |
My apologies for not updating sooner. Let's see, I never really got over the "crud" I had at Thanksgiving and now have a whopper of a head cold. Also spent a week in Denver. So now I have a lot to tell you. Things are really moving along. The shop is up and roofed and the outside walls are wrapped. Progress has slowed on the shop and we've turned our attention to the house. After the trenches were dug around the perimeter (allowing the house to be built on a crawl space), cement was poured and cinder blocks laid for the foundation. Next came the floor joists and floor. I'm beginning to get a sense of the space... Outside walls went up next which meant we had to make some decisions about windows and doors. After all, they have to be built into the walls. Tried to standardize the windows at either 3 ft X 4 ft. or 3 ft X 5 ft. and all the outside doors are 3 ft wide to accommodate a wheelchair, if necessary. Other things come into play too - like the minimum size window for a bedroom. It must be of a size that, when open, will accommodate a fireman in full gear (i.e. 5.7 sq. ft.). Plus, I wanted the windows placed where they will not interfere with the furniture in the room. Have to think ahead about bed placement. etc. That accomplished, we tackled two large beams that support the span across the open living/dining/kitchen area and cathedral ceiling. Very heavy. We've been lucky to have the help of a framing crew (3 guys) who are experts at all of this. Cement truck returned to pour the front porch and garage, then the outside walls went up on the garage. The inside walls of the house were framed up next and then the ceiling joists. Last Fri. a boom truck came to lift the massive beam that spans the garage - meaning no support poles inside the 28' X 26' garage. Rafters have been started on the garage area - but then the rains came. The last two days (Sat. and Sun) have been pretty much non-productive. In a way, it's good to have a chance to catch our breath. Tommy's muscles are sore! He's over at the work site every day by 8am and stays until dark. Todd is a hard worker too putting in more hours than Tommy. On Fridays, Tommy gets to be the paymaster and claims to be the boss. Every other day he's just one of the workers. One guy out there is 67 years old and has been building houses for 35 years. He knows his stuff! I check in every day or two to keep everything smooth (yeah - more like riled up!) I try not to second-guess our decisions and make changes...but poor Todd has had to move the master bedroom toilet 3 times already. I think I'm finally happy with the arrangement but now wavering about the guest bath tub/shower. Todd will have to remove part of a wall to get the pre-formed acrylic tub into the room. I should have made that decisions sooner. He says I need to go on vacation again so they can make decisions and move ahead without me changing my mind! Oh yeah, on Fri. we also drilled a well. Technically, "we" didn't, the pros did but they found water at 195 ft - which was 100 ft less than they expected. So that's good news - hopefully, lack of water will never be an issue for us. We've picked out the windows, outside doors, bricks, vinyl siding and roof tile. But it's only just begun. It seems like we've made huge progress but everyone assures me that once we get to the inside (plumbing, wiring, etc.) visible progress will slow down. I'm not living by any schedule and know it will be many months yet before another moving day. My goal this week is to get Christmas up and running (and over with), including a visit from Jamie. The tree is a little cramped in the apartment but it's up and Jacely is pleased.
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