Our Concrete Home

 Brent picked up the last of our retaining wall blocks from Redi Rock.  They are now all here and accounted for! Cole worked on holes for wiring in the garage...  Brent put in the side door for the garage...  I mixed QuickCrete and stuffed it in a grout bag.  Basically a frosting bag but industrial sized/strength and rubbermatized inside...  I piped the delicious QuickCrete under the stair thresholds...  Made some delicious concrete decorations..... Then smoothed it all out for a pretty finish under the threshold.  Now I only have four more doors left.  But now that I know what I'm doing it will hopefully go a bit quicker!  I took a break at 6 pm to listen to the LDS General Relief Society Broadcast http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/general-relief-society-meeting/2012/09?lang=eng .  Feeling excited to learn from these wonderful women for the next few years.  I LOVED Elder Eyring's talk.  I can do...

 Just in case you wondered if I like everything we do....I do not like putting up retaining walls.  Sometimes we just have to do things we don't like to do.  We spent our Saturday placing eight base blocks for the retaining walls.  Eight base blocks in eleven hours.  It was a frustrating process that included lots of gravel (a couple of tons), a skidster, shovels, levels, string, 2x4s, ramming pole, more wood, lots of dirt, concrete drill, chains, straps, chisels, a hoe, a compressor, drain pipe and eight 1700 pound blocks.  Ugh.  I wasn't able to take action photos since it took all of us, me, Brent and Cole to do the work.  But now we have a base (yay) and placing the top blocks should be (?) much easier.  Eeerrrgggghhh. My Mom and Dad came over while we were placing the (obnoxious) third block.  We didn't have a chance to chat but my Mom had cooked us dinner for tonight--INSPIRED and it made me so happy.  My girli...

Yesterday the sheetrock was inspected and we move along to mudding and taping.  The workers were unbelievably fast putting up the sheetrock.  There was a bit of a learning curve for them when attaching it to the foam/concrete exterior walls.  Every six inches on the exterior of the foam is the marking "BB".  That's where there is a large plastic joint for screwing and attaching stuff. Each of those plastic black webs inside are connected to a strip of 1-2 inch plastic in the center of the foam.  This pattern occurs every six inches on the wall.    Once they figured out the pattern it was relatively smooth sailing.  At first many of the screws we put into the foam only and of course the sheetrock pulled away from the wall. It's fun to see the walls closed in--I can imagine us actually living here now! Kitchen/dining room view Dining room facing the stair case  Downstairs family room  Our master bedroom...

Another Saturday "Work Day" at our house.  It started with Maya attending the temple for the first time!  Happy Birthday Missie!  Last night she had a friend party.  After a big swimming party we came home for a crepe bar.  The girls went through more than 60 crepes.  Burp.   This morning we picked up and unloaded 8 blocks for our retaining wall.  Each block weighs around 1700 pounds so it's not a simple task.  The first load crashed through Brent's trailer after the weight shifted (can you see the broken plywood on the front of the trailer?).  Brent and Cole were able to fully secure subsequent loads and from there it got easier.  All said and done, it took about 5 hours to do the four loads.  The Little-Red-Car-That-Could pulls a block to the edge.  Notice how our brand new car has become the new "truck" in our family.....  After the final load Cole picked up his flowers for homecoming... ...

Arrived at the house this morning and sheet rock has started! Sierra's room is covered:  (the snow is actually the sheet rock dust reflecting the light of the flash...)  Cole's room is covered:  Here's the beginning of the bathroom.  These guys are like CrAzY fast.  It was fascinating to watch them.  You can tell that they do this for a living.  It's fun to see the rooms take shape.   The downstairs bathroom is all covered!  And that pesky gas line is continuing to vex us.  Brent was certain he found the joint, replaced it, pressurized the whole thing (again), and it still leaked.  He found a spot on a pipe where it had been welded (by the manufacturer) and it was oozing air.  Grrrrr.  We'll get it, we'll get it.  I told Cole I would post this picture regardless of face he pulled and even if he was wearing my sunglasses.  This morning he worked on putting Bondo into the holes in the doo...

Yesterday I took the kids up to the Brigham City LDS Temple Open House.  The temple was beautiful, peaceful and inspiring.  I especially loved the running motif of peach blossoms throughout the temple.  We all had fun discovering the blossoms in wallpaper, in tile inlays, in windows, in carpets, in paintings, on chairs.  I loved spending the afternoon with the kidlettes in the temple.  If you live in Utah I highly recommend visiting the Temple during the open house!  http://www.lds.org/church/events/brigham-city-utah-temple-open-house-and-dedication-dates-announced?lang=eng Oh, and our Black Widow count is up to four spiders in two days!  We found one where we live and THREE in the window wells at the house we are building.

Sheet Rock starts on Friday!  In honor of that great moment here are 4 views from the same corner.  When I do this same post again you will only be able to see one room--YAY!!!  (This corner will be the laundry room).  Today we were informed by our favorite 4 year old neighbor that a "big truck came and delivered lots of boards".  Sure enough, when we visited the house was filled with sheet rock and compound paste.   On Saturday Brent rented a backhoe and did a bit of excavating by the garage.  We need to get the retaining wall up ASAP so that we can pour the porch posts at the same time.   And just so you know....this is not us moving in.  Two houses on our street have started, completed, and moved in within six months.  Ugh.  Soon that truck will be for us though!  Whoopie!