Lisa comes to help!

Like an angel arriving from heaven, Lisa came up this weekend to help out. Needless to say we weren't shy with work. Saturday, we worked about eleven hours straight! Had dinner at about 9 pm. Lisa and Debbie "foamed" the outlets with insulation foam in prep for our wall texturing/plastering. Don framed out the big picture windows and then lisa and debbie cut tar paper that needs to go on the wood... then mark will put on the lath (screen) and get underway. Once again we have way more work to do than we thought per the windows.... Many of them will need to be framed out with half inch plywood, and then tar papered. Its not easy work but just gott do it and move on.

Bottom line - we are so grateful to have friends like Lisa (and Dick). To come up here and work all day, then sunday morning do it again, is just unbelieveable. Then she went over to Margarets apartment and had lunch with her, and cheered her up! Not only is the labor really helpful, the cheerful and positive attitude pumps us up. And, she loves the house. We love her! Enjoy the pics!

He's Back!

The Stucco King is back. Mark is back at it. In two days, he and Morgan have finished the west side of the house, the east side loft area, both the screened porch and loft porch walls, and even patched a couple of our "mishaps" to boot. Everything looks great.

And, it's not over. Mark and Morgan will be leading the effort for the interior wall texturing which will happen in concert with our sheet rock man, Tom Mundt - another really nice man. Mark and Morgan have agreed to teach Debbie and I how to apply texture to our interior walls. It is a no lose situation. We do as much as we can to help getting the walls and windows ready, learn a new skill, and save some money. If we can't get the hang of it, we turn it over entirely to Mark and Morgan.....M&M!

Sheetrock gang is going gangbusters on the taping too. Walls just keep looking better.

So it goes. And, last but not least, another milestone was completed today. Mark let us use the high lift he rented to get to the east loft wall safely. So, sure enough, Don went way up high and finished staining the soffits on the north wall. What a relief it is for all the soffits to be done. We were worried how we were going to finish it, and now we have it done and we did it ourselves.

Does anyone "get" Don's little bit of weird humor on the center pick...? Look close.

Ah! We move closer again.

Sheet rocking complete - taping and plastering next

Just a quick update. Pics tell it all. Sunlight on stone heater is really cool looking... ignore all the crap around it. Thrilled to have all sheetrock hung. Totally different feel to the house.... And, stucco on west side is done! Its warming up and sunsets just won't quit lately. All for now..........

Whoa, a Big Day!

Major kind of day today.... had a lot of crews doing a lot of work. Steve, Pete, Leanne, Brian, Mark, Morgan, Josh and Dylan had a big day. We will let the photos tell the story..... sheetrock, doors framed, and stucco work. All very well done by some very nice folks.... And, last but not least, Hank (and Tim) came down, along with a great sunset to boot! Enjoy!

Easter

It's Easter! It's raining, cloudy, and below average temps.... about 50 degrees. But, it has been a great day. We picked up Margaret this morning and took her to Church and then came back to the apartment for a late lunch - yummy fruit, scrambled eggs, sausage, and Deb's home-made scones. Now we are just kinda relaxing/napping. It is AMAZING. It is Sunday, and we are NOT working at the house. This has to be a first, as far as we can recall. Yep, been over a year! Last year on this day, the foundation forms were just being built. Wow.
The clever little pic was taken last night.... Don was being a bit silly, and drew a face on his big toe... and then the "toe" snuck up on Deb on the couch.... you can guess the rest...
The beautiful Easter Table was done by Deb. Margaret loved it. So did Don. Margaret got an Easter Lily, Easter Basket, and Easter card. Overall a really nice day and its only 330 in the afternoon....
Upcoming week should be a big one.... Deb travels for work on Tues, back Thurs....
Happy Easter!

Sunlight

Almost the end of another week. Sheet rock continues to move ahead. Looks like all the sheetrock will be in place by Monday. I think they may start the taping and mudding tomorrow? Josh came over today and helped us out by setting the bathtub on a frame. Don was going to do it but it was a bit more than he wanted to attempt - especially when he didn't know what to do...:) So, its in. We're glad. And, our interior doors are in so we have to pick them up and install this weekend... Great fun.

Overall, its hard to get a good shot of the sheetrocking in the basement, so we'll have a photo of the living room ceiling once it gets done. Meanwhile, lots of odds and ends to do.

In a rare moment of actually looking around and enjoying the house as it is, we are noticing something very very neat..... "Sunlight!" Yes, over the past few months we have been noticing how the sunlight that comes in to the house, continually changes the mood and what it actually shines on. Sure, our house is no different than any other (well, we think it is), but the point here is that it is all new to us. Some of it is a complete surprise and other times it was what we were hoping for. So, here are couple shots that sort of surprised us on how the sunlight (at this time of the year and at "that particular hour/minute" looks when it shines in the house.... We love it!

Oh Chute!

Another weekend of work on the house ends. Knocking things out for sure. Today we started bright and early and finished around 630 pm. Actually got the laundry chute built and set in place - it even works. Some funny parts during this effort that got us laughing pretty good for a sunday morning.... too much to tell it all. Also, did some gravel hauling for our trail, removed the cheap hardware for the pocket doors and replaced with better, installed the garage door trim, did some window insulation, built a fire...nice, etc. Lunch on the deck watching the squirrels... "Buzzy." Wow, quite a day. Tomorrow sheet rockers resume and we work jobs, and need to take Mom to doctor appt. and call other doctor to hopefully arrange for a different test. Deb will be doing laundry tomorrow night too. Can not wait till we do not have to go to a laundromat.... you have no idea what a pain that has been.... among other things. There you have it. Really nice weather! 65 and sunny. Tomorrow, 67 and sunny. G'night!

Happy Birthday!

Yep, another Birthday for Debbie. After what happened last Aug. 7, 2008, her fall and breaking her back, we truly celebrated another year of life. Things could have been so much worse. Deb had a pretty nasty cold on her Birthday, so we had a couple of mini-celebrations after the main day. On Friday, we both worked a full day, then picked up a pizza and took the birthday cake and some ice cream over the Margaret's apartment. It was great. We had pizza, cake and ice cream and then watched "Marley and Me-" the movie about the naughty yellow labrador retriever. Lots of fun.

Today was really busy. Went to Bellingham. Visited Deb's co-worker Gayle at the hospital, who had neck surgery yesterday. She was doing really well. Then, picked out and bought 12 interior doors, looked at faucets, tile, sinks, and vanities. Then bought some pocket door hardware, rubber gloves, muriatic acid, 12 " galvanized venting material (to build a home-made laundry chute), a few 2x4s, and then headed home to unload all the crap. Ate leftover pizza and cake, went to John and Carol Penny's (who are so so nice) to pick up some dry firewood, took that to house and hauled it all up stairs (no dumbwaiter yet), then shoveled and hauled gravel for our trail, then we in the house and went upstairs. Deb cleaned off the masonry heater, and Don split some wood. Then we built a fire, watched the sunset, watched the fire burn down, came back to the apartment, showered, and collapsed. Tomorrow, we install new pocket door hardware, frame out a few things, install trim on garage doors, build the laundry chute, and maybe wrap the masonry heater with plastic so it won't get all messed up when they start sheetrocking the ceilings in the living room. Great fun. Weather is supposed to be really nice for the next few days! G'night!

Shhhhhhheeeeet, its sheet rock time!

Right on the tail of finishing the insulation, we had sheetrock delivered today and the installation has begun! Pretty wild to watch this event. They hoisted up a whole bunch of sheets and brought them in the third story window- then stashed them against the walls until they are ready. Did the same on the bedroom floor and the basement. Two guys doing the work and in about 5 hours they did the master and guest bedroom ceilings, and the office ceiling. Then did guest bedroom wall, Then headed home. Before it is all over they will be in the house for about 2-3 weeks. We will also be having the outside stucco finished and then Mark will start on the inside of the exterior walls. We plan to help to minimize costs.... mostly masking windows and nailing screening to the window wells etc... we may even get a chance to do some plastering... great fun for sure! So, there you have it. Overall it seems sheet rock photos are not going to be that exciting but we'll see what happens. We are excited to see the insulation get covered up and will be pretty jazzed when the big picture windows get the finishing touch on the inside. We think this will be a good time to pick out some faucets, sinks, doors, colors etc. so we can be ready when sheet rock is finished. All for now....

Oh yeah, yesterday was Debbie's birthday!!! And, one year ago on April 1, 2008 we broke ground! Goodnight!

Shhhhhhh...........we have insulation!

One day and it was over. We are dumbfounded. The entire house was insulated in one day. It would have taken us a month.... We went whole hog. Had just about everything insulated that can be insulated. Comparatively, it is so much cheaper and faster than what we could have done. We went green too. All insulation was formaldahyde free. And, we had extra installed in the ceilings. Our ceilings are R49. And, maybe the biggest shock is how quiet it is in the house. Before we had "echoes" especially once we installed the concrete on the floors. But now it is really feeling/sounding like the AAC block house we had hoped for. Can't imagine how quiet it will be once we have sheetrock and carpeting. Guess that is about it. We are like kids with a new toy. Later, D2

Got Wire?

Final preparations are underway this weekend to get ready for the insulation. Wow, it is a lot of work. Today (Sat.) we worked eleven hours straight! Tomorrow we hit it again. Overall we had two projects - final stereo/tv wiring, and cleaning up the basement level. Good grief! We hauled countless amounts of scrap wood and plywood and stacked it carefully outside of the house and covered it with tarps. We sorted it all out so we can find and use it as needed later on. But, overall, we really won't be needing that much more wood. After that we swept out everything....what a mess. Tons of dust. Then we took all the power tools, hand tools, nails, bolts, etc upstairs to the screened porch and stashed everything there. Since the screened porch ceiling and walls will not be insulated, we thought this was the best place to keep things out of the way, yet have them on-hand since we use them so much.

Next, we finished the wiring.... Holy Cow! When you wire a house that is three or four stories tall, we can guarantee you that we got plenty of stair and ladder exercise. Must have done thousands of steps. Drilling holes to thread the wire is also part of the deal. The photo gives you an idea just how much wire we used. Jon and Fred gave us our instructions on how to do the job and we took it from there... we hope we did it correctly. We used the entire 1000 ft. roll of wire and then our neighbor Tim, gave us another roll he had left over from his house. So, we guess we used about 1300 ft. This does not count the actual speaker wire. There was another 800 ft of that! Needless to say we are beat. Next update we will tell you about our little discovery at the end of the day that demanded we work another hour!

Got Concrete?

OK, after two tries we now have lightweight concrete over our radiant heating tubes! Looks very cool. Of course there is a short story to go with it. On Wed. they started the work but after getting 2/3 of the living space floor, the chain broke on their pumper and they had to shut down for the day. Quote: "I have been doing this for 25 years and this is the first time I have ever had a chain break!" I said, yes, but you haven't ever worked here....:) Regardless, they came out with a new chain on the pumper and finished the job yesterday. Insulation is next and we have a good bit of work this weekend to prep for their arrival. We are ordering our interior doors too. Great fun.

Front Door Awning

Another milestone just about complete. Our front door awning is roughed in. Just need metal roof, some staining, and some stonework. Gutters will come later for the whole house. Tomorrow we pour the radiant heat concrete. Feels great to see something else done. We love the look. Funny, we recall about four years ago when we were designing our home, how we used the 3D computer software to see how things would look at this stage. We are both amazed and happy that our house looks just like we thought it would. That means a lot. A whole lot!

Front Door Awning

Special blog update. Yes, two days in a row of some progress. Josh and Dylan (carpenters) made some major progress on the front door awning. We are really excited about this and think it looks great. Can't wait till we pour the concrete pad which will welcome everyone at the front door. Tomorrow will finish the rest unless we run out of facia or plywood. Bedroom level radiant is complete. Inspection on Monday. Concrete pour on Wed. Insulation starts following Monday. Then sheetrock. Meanwhile we have plenty to do. Finish installing speaker wire is just one task and lots of final checks before things get covered up....

Also just finished filling in the big hole we dug to install permanent electric line. Notice the two brackets that Troy made are bolted in place - ready for the master bedroom balcony. That will come a bit later... we are focused on getting in! We took care of our framing correction which was to install seismic straps on the east and west walls. You can see the strap (metal) and the blocking between the two bays (between the floor joists) Deb and I did it in about 4-5 hours of work which wasn't too bad. Got kinda hard when all the wires and such were in the way but we prevailed. All for now... Hi to everyone!