DAY 150: The Garage Gets a Roof!

Happy Leap Year!

Today the garage trusses were placed!  This time we were able to watch work happen (except this morning when I went over to shovel snow out of our kitchen, dining room, laundry, front room, bedroom...you get the picture).  It's another one of those days when I said to myself "now it feels real".  It's looking more and more like a house!

Trusses were lifted up at 9:00 am:

 Trusses from the back (picture taken from the church parking lot):

 Kidlettes came for a visit after school:

 By 3:00 pm the framers were already placing the particle board on the roof.  The garage is all stick-built (cheaper).

 Note for my local friends: This is the church on 540 west.  Our lot/house is directly behind the volleyball courts. 

Tomorrow the trusses go up on the house--I can't wait!

DAY 149: Proof That it is Winter!

This is the only proof I have that it is actually winter.  Today it snowed.  I didn't have to shovel our driveway but I will need to shovel at the new house.  We don't have a roof yet.

DAY 145: Garage Cement and Porch Pour!

We have more concrete!  We love concrete!  Today was a day to watch the work happen.  First they placed bracing under the suspended part of the garage. Rick told Brent that the bracing needs to stay in place for 20 days--that's how long it takes the concrete to cure. 

 

 The porch was prepped for the pour:

And then lots of finishing work:

 This is the porch you will stand on when you come to visit our concrete home:

DAY 143: Cole is Legal!

It's official!  Cole can now legally run house errands for us on his own! I'm sure he will love making the trip to Lowes while we are all still working.  Congrats Cole!

Day 140: 3 Shots From the Same Corner

It's Sunday!  We went to church and are now just enjoying our family and some down time.  Just for fun, here are three shots from the same corner.  All photos take this week:

Day 139: Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Everywhere!

We make messes and then we clean up messes!  That was our Saturday work day today!  Here's a quick summary:

DAY 139: Just Cleaning Up

We make messes, then we clean-up messes.  Today was no exception.  Since it's Saturday, it's work day.  The kids are used to working every Saturday for long periods of time.  We got at the house around 10 and just now came home, it's 7:30pm.  We had a happy visit from Grandpa and Grandma who then treated us to lunch at China Isle.  It was such a good break and gave us all energy to keep going! 

 Estee was happy to go to lunch in Grandpa and Grandmas car:

Today was "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere! Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!" 

DAY 139: Clean-up After Cement Pour

It's Saturday!  That means it's "work day" at our house!  We arrived around 9:30 am and left a little after 7:00 pm.  Yup, the kidlettes (our crew) were with us the entire time.  Here are a few highlights.
We took down window bracing:

 Estee gathered styrofoam bits and threw them away.  We're getting closer to the end of styrofoam (yay!).

 Maya moved lumber from upstairs to downstairs:

 Estee helped me sweep out the basement and clean-up more styrofoam:

 

This was by far the most coveted job: cutting the styrofoam.  The teeth of the styrofoam stood approximately 1-2 inches above the floor boards.  It had to be cut off to match the level of the floor.  The kidlettes loved the cutting saw and all wanted a turn.

 

 Our other big job today was to sweep and vacuum the entire main level.  We then sealed the floor to protect it from rain and snow until we get a roof over our heads.  It took longer than we expected, but it's done!  The other night Brent and I were over working late at night.  The sky was clear and I could see many stars including the big dipper.  I took a deep breath, took a mental picture and told myself  "I want to remember this forever".  It would be fantastic to have a glass roof at night.  The sky is spectacular. 

 Cole's friend Christian came over and helped us all day.

 Sierra worked in the garage for a while.  Brent and I had zip tied the wire sheets to the rebar and pex tubing.  Sierra went through and cut all the zip ties.  On Friday the garage was inspected and we are ready to pour the garage slab!  Yay! 

This picture shows the wire mesh sheet.  The black flooring is made particularly to hold the pex tubing.  The silver floor is the B Decking for our suspended portion of the garage. 

The highlight of the day was a visit from my Mom and Dad!  They like to see the progress of the house.  We asked if they wanted to go to lunch at Arbys and they said "How about China Isle?"  We couldn't say "no" even though we looked filthy.  At least I was wearing matching clothes today. They spoiled us with Kung Pao Chicken, Lo Mein Pork Noodles, Orange Peel Beef, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Wantons, Egg Rolls, BBQ Pork with Snowpeas (my Dad LOVES snowpeas),  and Walnut Shrimp.  Burp!  It was a feast and it was delicious!  We all felt very spoiled and appreciated the wonderful break with good company! Thanks Mom and Dad!

 Estee was happy to ride in Grandpa and Grandma's car.

 

Day 138: A Reflection

A lot of people say "I can't believe that you are building your house." Build-building our house is what we are doing.  It's what I married into.  It's one of the things that was amazing to me about Brent--I could not believe everything he could do.  The first night I met him I learned that he had three sewing machines and that he had reupholstered his boat.  One night he cooked me lasagne.  He had canned tomatoes and I asked if his mom was a canner.  "Oh, I grew these tomatoes and canned them myself" was his response.  He knew everything there was to know about fixing cars.

I started thinking about this again because I came across my favorite wedding photo of us in one of my photo files:

It was the most perfect day ever!  Sealed in the Manti Temple (http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/manti/) followed later by a beautiful reception in the Springville Art Museum.  We were standing in line and word quickly spread that Brent had made his own bow tie and cummerbund to go under his

white dinner jacket (tux).  True story.  As I remember, someone came through the line and asked if he had made his shoes.  Now, Brent has made a lot of things, but shoes are not on that list (yet).  Brent is the ultimate DIY guy.

DAY 137: Framing Begins on Main Floor

It is exciting to see the shape of the rooms.  This house has been on paper for so long that it's a thrill to actually touch it, walk through it, and feel like I'm in OUR house.

Kodiak builders has done our framing and I have been pleased with the work.  The framers are all great to work with and listen carefully to me.  They do not act rushed or annoyed when I ask a lot of (probably annoying) questions.  I recommend!

I have to admit, it was enjoyable to watch someone else work on our house for a little bit.  It was fun to come to the house and see the work magically appear.

I spent the majority of the day here:

Preparing for this: http://www.lds.org/church/events/2012-meeting-invites-young-women-to-arise-and-shine-forth?lang=eng  Three Stakes in our area are singing for this broadcast.  It was a remarkable, moving experience and I can't wait for the next rehearsal.  I LOVE serving in my church!

DAY 136: Now you see it, now you don't (Bracing comes down)

On Valentine's day Brent and I discovered that the framers were planning to work on the main floor of the house the next day.  Problem: the entire floor was covered with bracing.  Now you see it:

 Now you don't:

 The picture above represents my Wednesday.  It took me about 9 hours to get it down.  Brent was able to come after work.  We had no choice:  it was me or the framing didn't get done the next day.

I am really going to miss not having a roof.  I hear and see the greatest things when I'm out working.  My favorite part of the day is always when a flock of birds flies overhead.  It's peaceful, calming, and beautiful.  It makes me wish I could fly. 

I've pretty much decided that building a house is a very messy adventure.  If we're not making something, we're always cleaning up.  All of our windows look like this:

Each window sill has a 5 inch hole.  The concrete is poured into that hole to fill below the window. After watching the process I don't believe there is a "slow" setting on the concrete pump.  Wow, messy, messy, messy.  I scooped a lot of wet concrete and the next day I scrapped a lot of dry concrete.  The dribbles come off with a little abrasive scrubbing.

I brought Maya over for a little bit.  She wasn't too excited about working "again" but when I said that she was going to knock concrete out of the planks she was excited.  The concrete fell out in fun smooth shapes from the planks.  She would laugh after some of the pieces fell out.

 And of course when I'm not looking it's self portrait time...

 The garage is plugging along.  Brent is going to LOVE his shop in the back and below.