TIME AWAY

WEEK NINE: This has been a short week because of Thanksgiving.

On Monday Tim (brother) and Maggie (sister-in-law) from California, and Phyllis (sister) from Greensburg, PA, came to check on our progress with the house. Frank had an appointment to meet his new doctor.

Tuesday was rainy. We checked the basement and found much more water had leaked in. We by-passed the urge to give the deck another coat of paint, and put plastic over it instead. I also moved my outside plants from Tonya's back porch and heeled them in beside the house.

The same PODS man was back to pick up the unit that brought it. He wished he had his rifle, because he had seen deer on his way up the drive. He had a trainee with him. This guy wasn't too swift. Before leaving the regular was glad he didn't have his gun--felt he might have used it on the trainee.

Wednesday we traveled to Ohio for Thanksgiving. We went a "new" back way, enjoying the scenery. We had an adventure on the way. Only Wava (sister), Tom (brother-in-law), and Mom were there when we arrived. Phyllis had scratched her cornea, and Tim & Maggie had taken her to the eye doctor. Leland (nephew) and family were out shopping. Visiting went on non-stop for the next day and a half. On Thanksgiving Day there were over forty of us eating together. We were able to take pictures with Mom and all five siblings, and all of us with our spouses. Tim does not come in often, so we are seldom all together.

We returned on Friday to find the back part of the basement (where our furniture is stashed) dry, but the front part still leaking because the plastic had blown loose. We stretched it out and fastened it again.

Saturday Frank made a skid, and we moved the shed over to our area.

In the evening, he started working on leveling it's final resting place.

The weather looks either wet or cold for the next week or two. We will have to wait and see what we can accomplish in December.

SYNOPSIS

WEEK EIGHT: This will be a quickie. I had a post almost ready to post on Sunday, and it disappeared! I want to get something on before we leave for Ohio for Thanksgiving.


Vangie gave the deck a second coat of paint.






Frank made two temporary windows.






















Then he made a window well for the big window in the basement.


Vangie cleaned and applied Extend, a product that stops rust, on our four metal shelving units. Frank emptied the Gypsy Wagon onto the first one. Here are the other three after we filled them.

Collier returned to do the back filling around the house.

Frank and I worked on emptying the PODS unit and we basically moved into our house. After one Gypsy wagon load, plus what we had already taken out, it looked like this.

Perhaps seven loads later, plus some tractor runs, and a couple big trailer runs, it looked like

this.

And our basement looked like this. See? There's still plenty of room!

Surprise! Guess who came this week!!

The deck was leaking, so we put sealant on all the seams of the sub floor.

Have a pleasant and thankful Thanksgiving.

FAIR WEATHER, FAMILY, & FLOORS

WEEK SEVEN We have been blessed with mostly good weather this week. Therefore, we have been working hard.


I started helping Frank with the first floor joists. He soon decided that he could do them himself, and gave me the job of doing the bridging. Let's see. Just for the top joist installation there are 6 nails for each joist. Five rows of bridging across the house. I don't know how many joists, but that's a lot of nails to pound! I was absent for one of the rows of bridging, but still, I think I'm developing muscles in my right arm! I'll have to find something to do to exercise my left arm. Tonya suggested hammering every other nail with my left hand. I don't think that would work. I'm not sure how many fingers would be operable on my right hand!


Another job he gave me was installing hurricane ties. That's 10 nails per joist around the perimeter of the house. Again, a sizable number of nails!



Besides joists, Frank has been working on building the walls for the mechanical room in the basement. He has two walls up, plus the chimney chase.




Another project this week has been the electrical conduit and trench. Craig dug the trench last week. Frank put the conduit in. The inspector came and okayed what was done, but said his men couldn't come until the trench was filled in. Frank bought and installed another conduit before he filled the trench. Both were fitted with ropes to pull the wires through. The telephone sent a man to install the wires. When he saw no trench, he decided that he was early. Frank told him about the conduit. He simply left a roll of wire for Frank to pull through, and told him how much to leave on both ends. He said he would be back to pick up the extra wire! Of course the wire does us no good as they have to expand service before we will be able to get a land line. We have no idea when that will be. Also, we have not seen hide nor hair of the electric company, so are still using a generator every time we need electricity.



Wednesday evening Frank's sister and brother-in-law, Richard and Rosella Schrock from Missouri, stopped by on their way to Florida by way of Lancaster County to visit with Mom and Dad King. They stayed on Thursday to help us with the first floor deck. We had over half of it done by Thursday afternoon, when we had to stop for want of daylight. Thanks Richard and Rosella!!







Friday, I did the last of the bridging, and we put down another two or three rows of sub floor.


Thursday was also my birthday. Now I am officially old enough to retire! (Someone said they think we're working harder than ever!) Tonya fixed a wonderful supper for all of us, plus a very yummy and gooey chocolate cake. I also went to meet my new doctor on Thursday, which was why I missed one row of bridging.


Friday, Tonya and the girls took me to Sisters 4 Tea for lunch. Four sisters started a tea house. They have hundreds of tea cups and saucers. You choose your own cup. I think Tonya and I drank two pots of peach tea, and the girls had a pot of a different kind. There are many crafts for sale there, also. It was a nice treat, and an interesting place. Thank you, Tonya.


Our garage door was to come next week, but Danny called Thursday, and said they would be out to install it Friday. So we have a garage door! Frank plans to make a temporary door for the "people" door, so we can make the basement critter proof, and unload the PODS into there. The biggest problem is that it keeps getting darker inside, and we have no lights!



We finished up the sub floor on Saturday morning. I went all over the entire floor, checking to be sure that all required nails were in, and pounded in far enough, plus removing extra glue. I blew it off twice. Then we painted it with all sorts of returned paint that we could get. We had to buy several more gallons to finish it. So now, it looks like this--red, white, and blue. Patriotic?



Saturday, Frank made a "people" door. Now we can lock up the basement. If we only had windows.....



We're getting close to laying logs! We need to finish the bridging on the bottom of the joists. That will be Frank's task while I paint a second coat on the first floor deck to make it water proof. Some of you wanted to help stack logs. It won't be long now! Make your plans to come.

SUNSHINE!!!

WEEK SIX After a week of what felt like "putzzing" around, we turned a corner and got to a place where it feels like things are moving faster. We began with putting up the perimeter box. This was four by ten (inch) lumber that sits on the sill plate, and goes around the perimeter of the house. This made our house almost 10 inches higher all at once.

Most mornings, the first thing Frank does is blow leaves out of the basement. He pulls out and opens up the Gypsy Wagon to access the tools we will need that day. The Gypsy Wagon has worked well.

Craig made the trench for our electric service. Frank put in the conduit, and ran a rope through. Now we can do nothing more on this front than wait for the power company to come and hook up our service. It certainly would be handier than starting the generator each time we use a power tool. Also, the basement is getting darker as we add more floor joists. We need to seal up the basement so we can unload the PODS unit.

There followed a couple days of rain and/or cold wind. However, we didn't get any of the white stuff they were forecasting. Frank said that it was "raining little balls of ice." The inside days I filled with working on the games I'm making for Lauren, mending and sewing, and shopping. I hadn't been in to town for over two weeks! I wasn't able to find everything I wanted to, but it was enough. I was glad to come home again. This was my first foray out on my own. I was able to find all the places I wanted to go, and get myself home again without getting lost. And it was even dark by the time I left town! (For those of you who don't know, I think I can get lost simply driving around the barn!)

Now it is sunny and warm. We are working hard while the weather holds. As soon as we had fastened several floor joists, Frank said, "Look! I'm walking on our main floor! The first third of the joists had a lot of detail work with measuring for and reinforcing around the stairway up from the basement.

The next third was mostly attaching the joists across the center of the house. We had to only work around the chimney, and cut a couple shorter joists at the very edges by the walls.

While Frank set joists, Vangie practiced her hammering skills. She put up the hurricane ties, and added the bridging to the joists.

Long days of work in the fresh air bring on yawns in the evening--plus a few sore muscles. It's all very much worth it as we see our dream taking shape and becoming more and more substantial. It's also good to see some of those many bundles of materials getting smaller and even disappearing!!

Rain Delays

Week Five.

This has been a disappointing week. Since the basement floor is poured, and all the bundles of supplies are at the site, we would like to put in some work on the house. The weather, however, has not cooperated most of the week. One wet day, Frank tried to dig a trench for the electric. He used the tractor, and that didn't work. Then he either rented or borrowed another implement, but couldn't get the trench deep enough. Craig had promised to come today and dig it for us, but never showed.

Frank did get the meter box ready to go. We have no idea when the electric company will come to connect us. We do know that the work order is in and the bill is paid.






One sunny day, gravel arrived for the main lane--getting it ready for winter. It's a good time, because we should not have any more heavy equipment coming for our house. We will have another truck deliver our windows and doors plus other supplies, but that should not be as heavy as the others. The same sunny day we also received a load of gravel. Now our lower driveway looks like this.






We had visitors this week, and they weren't trick-or-treaters. They were bovines of the longhorn variety. They visited two nights in a row, and they left more than these prints! They visited both houses and messed up some of Johnya's newly sown lawn. Frank also chased them today--just before an ATV came looking for them. I think they've been moved to a new pasture, and the fence isn't doing what it should.





Our two little trick-or treaters were out last night. John and Tonya take them to a friend's house in a smaller town, and they go out a little there, as well as have a party. It was so cute yesterday. The girls were down in their room, singing, "I love Halloween!"

We were able to get a couple things done this week, in spite of the rain. We ordered a garage door. We finished laying the sill plate.



We also managed to place the permanent posts.


Little by little, our supplies are diminishing, but there are still many bundles to go. Our invitation remains open. If you want to help out, come on over. We'll find a hammer, and we still have plenty of nails!