Memorial Day...

We did not forget today about those who have served and those who are still serving our country. If not for their sacrifice we would not be where we are today. Many have even given the ultimate sacrifice and died for our freedom. Freedom is not free. Thank you!

I was able to help out at our house today for a little while, since I had the day off. No, I didn’t help build anything, it would be wrong for sure, but I did get some pictures and helped cleanup. All of the wood scraps and nails just lay there and not just in the house, but on the perimeter as well. So, I took it upon myself to cleanup in and around the house and it looks much better! All of the garbage as of today, is gone!

The best part about being down there was watching Ryan and his dad work together. They laugh and joke and make hard work more enjoyable for each other. It was just fun! Ryan sure does love his dad! They are quite the team! They got the gables in the back built...

 

as well as the North sidewall framed upstairs with the little wood they had left. It is a good thing the lumber store will be open tomorrow!

Ryan is telling everyone,"she is so excited, she can hardly stand herself"...he couldn't be more RIGHT!  

Lucky…

Ryan is a very lucky boy (ok, I am lucky too)…he has two brothers and a dad (my dad is out of town or I am sure he would have been down there too) that are still more than willing to work on our house while Ryan is working. They helped out a ton! Thanks boys!

Ryan was originally suppose to have Saturday off, but ended up having to work. He was not a happy camper about that, but you do what ya’ gotta do. The trade off for help on Saturday while Ryan was working was I had to baby-sit Grace…she was great and we had fun! They definitely worked harder than I did…

The whole roof on the back was sheeted on Friday...

Can I just tell you how much I dislike our stairs right now...ladders are just scary!

Then on Saturday, they sheeted the front and built the front gables...

It looks great! The boys made a "change order" on the gables. At first the windows were supposed to be 3 ft. x 3 ft. and that is how they built one of them. They went out to the street and looked at the gable window and decided that it was too short and needed to be taller. So, now our gable windows are going to be 3 ft. x 4 ft. I would say that's a great move! See, they even know what looks good!

By the time Ryan got off work the boys were done for the day and pretty much out of lumber anyway. We went down there after Ryan got off work on Saturday and checked out what they had finished. We then just sat there on a front windowsill for about a half an hour talking and taking all the hard work in. I just love it! I am so grateful for a family that is so willing to help out even when Ryan is not able to be there!

The Crane Arrived...

As I was driving down the road to our house in the distance I could see this…

I couldn’t help, but be so very excited! Before our house could never be seen through the fields, but now it can! The only one who really cares about this is me...I love knowing that I am almost home. Although, it is not even close to being done yet, I am falling more in love with our house everyday. Not that it matters at all, but we officially have the tallest house/building on the block, other than the church down the street.

Although the trusses are not completely finished yet, they are installed and the floor is sheeted with plywood. We still need to get the tops of the trusses put up(what will make them come to a point), sheet the roof with plywood, build the dormers, etc. For now though, this is what we have finished...

The trusses look even bigger on the house. Each truss measures 47 ft. long, 15 ft. tall from bottom of the truss to the peak. The upstairs room measures 36 ft. x 19 ft. x 8 ft. in the middle and 5 ft. 6 inches on both sides. I will never hit my head! :)
If the boards were not in the way horizontally you would have a pretty good idea of the view that we have upstairs looking towards the East mountains. We have a wonderful view of the West mountains as well. With our picture perfect views in both directions we are now contemplating the idea of having our Master bedroom upstairs. The decision continues...

Starting To Look Like A House…

All four walls are standing, along with the weight-baring wall in the middle of the house.

 I just love the size of the windows Ryan picked out. They are so big! Oh, how I love natural light!

After all the walls were up, they started working on the trusses. We are hoping to get a crane tomorrow. The two end pieces are done and sheeted on the outside with plywood…they are just waiting to be put up. Right now on the back of the house I have a porch I can walk onto through my window. They attached two of the the trusses that will have a gable window to the house so they could put it together. When the crane arrives it is ready to be installed. I thought that was a little strange, but that is how they do it!

(Look at those buff muscles!)

And of course mom and I had to come check out all the hard work and take a few pictures...

      (My mom is in black...yes, I dyed my hair!)

Weather Like This...

Yep, Rain and SNOW sure can make it hard to get any building accomplished. After awful weather all day, I wasn’t really expecting to go down to our house after work (around 9:00PM) and see this…

One wall up...

and another wall getting pretty close to standing up…
The boys took complete advantage of a break in the weather. By about 10:00 PM both walls were up and braced for the night, ready for tomorrows work...

I just love how big my windows are in my family room! It's so fun to see how the walls look in real life, instead of just on sheets of graph paper. Ryan's hard work is coming to life and I am LOVING it! More walls to come tomorrow!!!
I went this morning 5/25/10 and took pictures of how it looked when we left the house last night...it was just a little too dark to take a picture last night.

Surprise...

 Just yesterday Ryan and I were discussing our house and what the next few steps were. I knew that they were going to start framing and the wood for the outside walls should have been delivered on Friday or would be delivered on Monday. He told me that he was pretty sure that we wouldn’t have trusses this week at all. He thought that they would be another week for sure.

Anyway, I decided today to take a little drive to our house for the heck of it. I knew that nothing new would be done on it, since Ryan was at work, but it was something to do. When I arrived I was so excited and so surprised when I saw TRUSSES! I couldn’t help, but check them out. I even hopped inside of them and lay down on the ground to see how tall the room is that is built inside of the trusses. I can’t believe how BIG they are! I couldn’t wait to tell Ryan the great news.

As soon as Ryan got home from work, we hit the road and went down to our house. He wanted to measure the trusses to make sure they were correct…and they were! He has definitely got his work cut out for him this week (if the weather cooperates, that is)! Not only should we have walls, but a roof too! He told me a few times that,"only you would be that excited to see trusses. I would be that excited if you would set them and install them". Yep, I will get right on that! :)

One More Check...

off the list. The sub floor is complete...and completely covered in plastic due to another nice storm in the forecast for this weekend. Ugh! Where is Spring? Oh well, it works out nicely because the rest of the wood will be delivered sometime today or first thing next week. Not to mention, Ryan is working until Monday so we are at a stopping point for now anyway. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will have walls next week! Yay!

Progress...

There is nothing like going down to our house and seeing something new completed! It makes me so happy! Yesterday was a complete washout, literally! Come on Mother Nature, don’t you realize that Ryan has to work on the weekends and needs Monday thru Thursday to get stuff done!?! However, today was a different story, the weather cooperated a bit, and now all of the floor joists are installed!

There were even a few extra little hands to help out…

 For saying we don't have kids we have stuff for them to do…even if it is not all that safe! Hey, they were having fun! :)