Whew.....It's been a long summer, and the coolness that fall is bringing is much welcomed. The last few weeks, a month almost really, have been insanely busy at the farm. The last 4 weeks have seen us rushing against all the rain that we have gotten to get walls and a roof on the additions. My poor house was literally plastic wrapped with tarps and plastic sheeting to try and keep the water at bay. We were mostly successful, but there was more than one occasion where the sound of a stream of water upstairs has us scaling a ladder to the second story and fixing whatever piece of plastic had become dislodged by the wind.
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| Wrapped in plastic, it's fantastic (sorry....that has been stuck in my head all summer looking at this place and it just had to come out!!) |
Then picture a group of people with bare minimum construction experience building second floor walls, putting sheeting on second story walls, and putting sheeting on a second story roof. Oh yeah, and then putting in windows in the second story. As a voice of reason quipped up, for a bunch of people who have no business doing what we're doing, we're doing a pretty good job (and it's not very often I call Troy a voice of reason!) The days are getting noticeably shorter and it has rained basically every weekend since early August (remember the weekend of the tornado....it has rained almost every weekend since.)
But, we have finally gotten ourselves mostly closed in to the elements. The roof will be done on Wednesday! The siding has been ordered and should be here late this week or early next week. The furnace and duct work installation is starting a week from today. These are all HUGE steps!! Oh yeah and there should be a new stair case in by the end of the week as well. Once we get insulation in 2 weeks, it's dry wall, paint and flooring. It doesn't seem possible. We never would have gotten here without so much help from family, and for that I am so incredibly grateful! I owe countless hours and weekends to siblings and cousins and new found friends. And when this place is all finished, one really big feast, not cooked in a barn on the grill!!
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| We rented a lift to reach way up high! |
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| We found the original cedar clapboards. They unfortunately had to come down :( |
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| We do a little bit of everything! |
So, phase 2 will be a final button up before the weather really changes, then we can rock and roll on the finish work. The house has never had a furnace, so obviously, there is no duct work either. To get that installed next week, the ceiling over my"bedroom" has to be removed to supply the upstairs with heat. So this little update is brought to you during my break from moving my room from the living room, to what has been called the "cat room". I am going to share the small back "bedroom" with my kitties, their food bowls and of course the litter boxes. My hope and prayer is that we stay on track with phase 2 and I am only in here until the insulation is completed and I can move into my real bedroom!!
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| There are still 3 more window to go across the second story, but they are currently installed elsewhere in the house, so once we take those out and put in the replacements, the upstairs will look a bit more complete! (Then we cut out a front door and add a porch!) |
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| The new upstairs. You are looking through the bathroom and into my loft! |
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| Old "bedroom' |
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| New "bedroom" -thank goodness it's only temporary, right? |
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| If last post's lesson was that barn doors swing, this post's lesson is a reminder that ladders tip over if you reach to far, saws with automatic shut offs are good, two trips to the ER in as many weeks are bad, and dogs are man's best friend! (oh yeah, and he was a bit sore, but thankfully ok!) |
