South Side Again

Just another look at the south side of the house.

South Side

South side of the house.... lower window is shop window (in basement). The opening above is the doorway to the guest bedroom balcony....

East Side

This is where the front door will be. Fear not, we will be filling in up to the top of the dark grey line.... can’t do till things dry out a bit more.

Northwest Corner

The somewhat large opening on the second floor is the opening for our french doors that will open out to a small balcony off the bedroom. The line of bolts are where the balcony will jut out.

Recent Weather Brings Hope

Hello everyone. The weather has finally seemed to have changed for the better... and, with this change, we are beginning to move along at an improved rate. No time to elaborate but here are a few recent pics.... First floor is in, and now we are moving on up with the second floor walls. If all goes well we may have the second floor in place by early next week..... that would be fantastic. All for now. LY D2

North Side View

Even though our tarp is not a work of art... then again, someone could argue it looks quite futuristic, the house is moving up. Of course now that the tarp has been redone, it won’t rain - which is fine with us!

Sub-floor #1 Installed!

Done. We are ready for the second floor. It sure is fun to stand on this and see the view from the bedroom level.

Sophie

Taylor’s dog Sophie - what a beautiful dog! She loves Debbie!

Mark The Demo Man!

Mark drills into the concrete to install some bolts for our balcony

Andy (Johnny!)

Andy puts on the finishing touch to the wall just prior to a pour.

Don The Cutter

Cutting the big beams - measure twice, cut once! - especially when these beams are so so expensive!

Our Neighbor Tod

Tod came over to help weld rebar to our first steel beam.

Kevin

Kevin, our neighbor, and “Mr. Everything”, does it all and does it perfectly. Dick is inspecting the work while Deb is setting nails into the wall.... ho ho!

Floor Joists

Floor joists were set - ready to have the sub-floor installed on top!

Taylor

Taylor leads the crew for the main concrete pour around the first floor perimeter.

“South Block Wall”

South wall ready for rebar and concrete!

Dick The Grinder!

Our good friend Dick grinds off some bolts to make our plates level!

Deb The Cutter

Cutting #4 re-bar!

Garage Doors Are Framed In!

Holy Cow!

Well, things are really rolling now - can not believe how much work we have been doing.... therefore we only have time to add a few pics with little text - so, here goes!

News Flash!

As of June 2, 2008 our new AAC block has begun to arrive at our property! This is a very good sign. We should be back to building the house starting today! Our contractors said things will really be moving fast from now on! Stay tuned. Photos to come......

The First Two Raised Beds

Finally have two beds to grow some tomatoes, lettuce, and a few herbs... Gotta keep the bunnies and deer out!

Our Raised Bed Garden

While things are on “hold” with our AAC block, we have been busy trying to get our raised bed garden started. We are planning about 18 beds total which will be a ton of work but well worth it to have organic berries and vegetables. We love the natural entryway.

Under The Big Top

It’s dry as a bone underneath the tarp. Deb and I worked all day Sunday finishing the tarp - whew! Lots of work for sure. And, we worked in the dark until 10 pm on saturday night with Phil and his family. It will all be worth it....:)

Much Improved!

We now have a 60’ x 60’ tarp that is suspended about 45 ft up from the basement. At the level you see here we can easily build up the third floor. Then, we will just add some external supports (like 2x 4s) attached at an angle to the AAC walls to boost up the sides another 12-15ft to complete the job. You should see it when we have a slight wind! The tarp billows up and the front is about 50-55 ft high on the west end. It looks very cool!

Phil Climbing Way Up! Hard To See Him But He Is Up There!

Our friend Phil and his family came out to help us raise our tarp in anticipation of the replacement block that is due to arrive late May/early June

Light At The End Of The Tunnel...?

Well, it’s May 19th - and we’ve lived through two weeks of no house- building activity, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Our new (correct) block should be here in the next couple of weeks. To keep us busy and our mind off of the situation, we began work on our garden. We smoothed the terraces out, and built 2 raised beds. Soon we will be planting our garden - after shoveling LOTS of dirt! We’ll have 13 raised beds to fill! But it will be worth it!

First Course!

The first row of AAC block is on the house! It’s incredibly exciting!

Steel Supports

Don is painting one of the steel beams with rustoleum - sounds like a good idea! Our friend, Troy, did a great job welding the rebar and plate to this 4” X 4” beam that runs up through the house.

Whoa Horse!

What house construction project doesn’t have some sort of delay....
well, ours does right now. Recall seeing all the aac block that was delivered. Well, the block is slightly different than what was ordered.... So, the county needs to check things out and we’ll go from there. Should know what the decision is on proceeding with the block we have or get the other kind. Hope to get back to it sometime week of May 20. In the meantime, here is a shot of a sunset - on may 5 and 6 of each year the sun sets right between orcas and lummi island.....right down the strait of georgia. If you are concerned about all the little branches in the view, realize they will be trimmed in the near future....:) Hopefully, more progress to come soon. Meanwhile we are trying to keep positive and have begun working on our raised bed garden - something we did not think we would get to this year. So, there is a few positives with this delay. We remain with our eye on our dream - sometimes it’s just not that easy.