Beginning OUR Work on the House

Week four. (Delayed while waiting for pictures)

On Sunday, we will have been here a month. It seems impossible. I think we have settled in well. It is so good to be with our Granddaughters, and see first hand how they are doing and growing. Jenna is preparing for her graduation from her first violin book. This requires her to be able to play each piece in her book well and with piano accompaniment. It's fun to hear her perfecting her pieces. I am amazed at how well she reads. When she is motivated, she can sound out words very well. It won't be long before I will not be able to spell words out when I don't want her to know what I am saying to Tonya.

And Lauren is a little love bug. She is very affectionate. Multiple times daily she will say that she loves us, (and everyone else in the house, including Daisy Dog.) She loves books, and often has a pile beside her on the floor.

I hope that John and Tonya are as happy with our sojourn here as we are. Frank has accomplished many projects for them. Me? I try to help out with meals, and laundry, and dishes, and cleaning, and the like. I don't have a nice list of things accomplished to show my gratitude. I do watch the girls while Tonya works, but that's only for a couple hours one day a week. Ahh, the life of a housewife.

The weather became nicer starting Sunday afternoon. The sun peeked out during Jenna's soccer game--only a peek. Each day was nicer than the previous one. Tuesday or Wednesday was warm with no clouds in the sky, before it started clouding up again. Today it has been raining. I am hoping that it washes my car! It badly needs it.

Wednesday was another big day. People were over at the house early setting everything up just so for the cement to come.

The machine they used to make sure the excavation was level, and again the gravel for the French drains and foundation for the walls, was again set up. The cement was brought in by a motorized wheel barrow and dumped. Three or four men began to work on it right away. Two had trowels; they began at the edge to level it with the board that was put up

around the perimeter for that purpose. Two others used rakes to get it roughly level. Next they flattened and leveled with what looked like a two by four with something gray on the top. Every now and then, they brought in a pole with something on it that interacted with the machine. They held it just at the top of the concrete, and when it was the correct height, one light would shine and the machine made a noise.

We have two drains in the basement floor. The small one someone stood on when the cement was poured near it. When the floor was fairly flat near the drain, they used a shorter two by four, going around in a circle with the drain in the middle, to make the floor slant down to the drain.

The crew used a long pole with a paddle on it to go over the cement. they tipped it forward when they pushed it away from them, and tipped the back down when they pulled it toward them. This brought wet cement to the top to cover any gravel showing and to make the floor smoother.

It took two truck loads of cement to do the job. Frank had them dump the extra cement in front of the garage door. Now we have a nice pad there that should help keep stones and the like out of the garage. They left for a while. Later someone came and ran the mechanical floater to finish it off.

In the afternoon, someone came back and did a little back-filling. The rest is to wait until the roof is on the house.

Meanwhile, the landscape people returned to work on Johnya's lawn. They ran a "lawn rake" that raked up the roots and stones. These they hauled to the tree line.

Thursday, Craig and Ben came. They used the LULL to carry our house bundles up the lane to our house site. I stayed down by the road to tell them what Frank needed next. Frank stayed at the house site to put down skids and plastic to keep the bundles dry and off the ground, and also to tell them where he wanted each bundle. Their last load was the laminated beam to support the upper floors. It was over 33 feet long. Frank had them place it up on top of the walls. Before supper we calculated the exact spot where it should be placed, cut it to fit, and set it in place. Frank was ecstatic! We had added the first thing to our house!

Craig commented that not a lot of a log house is logs.

Also on Thursday, the landscape people were back. They broadcast grass seed. Then chopped hay and blew it on the lawn.

Today Frank acquainted himself with each bundle, and what was in it. When it started raining, he worked in the garage, getting acquainted with what all was in the two skids stored there.

And here is the whole house, together at last.

Come visit and help us put it together!