Merry Christmas from the Wiggy House

I should be baking cookies, finishing up gifts I'm making, and wrapping gifts, but instead I'm sitting here in front of my computer and updating my blog to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We were hoping to open gifts on Christmas morning out in the new house, but it just isn't going to work out. We do have a wreath on the front door and the new Christmas tree set up with lights on it, but that is it. That is all of the decorating I have done for Christmas this year. But next year.......I'm anxiously awaiting to get in the new house and decorate it for Christmas next year! I'm hoping to have greenery and bows on the banisters of the porch and the stairs inside, I'll have a mantle to decorate and hang stockings on, the Christmas tree will be in the living room window with more than just lights on it, my dining room table will be all decked out in my Longaberger dishes and holly-print linens, and everything will just be very festive. Hey, a girl can dream, can't she? Anyways, have a very Merry Christmas and remember to keep Christ the focus of your holiday!

Anybody want to come scrap with me?

My scrapbook room is starting to take shape, so who wants to scrap with me? You'll probably need to bring your scrapbook supplies, a chair, and maybe a jacket or just dress warmly. But I do have some drywall up!

1. Standing in the 'doorway' looking toward the northwest corner where my desk will be going under the window.

2. Standing in the northwest corner looking back toward the 'doorway.'

3. Standing in the northeast corner (with the drywall behind me) looking to where my closet will be going. You can partially see the furnace - it will be in behind my closet.

4. Standing where my closet will be looking toward the northeast corner. You can see that I do actually have some drywall up!

In the rest of the house, we have most of the west side insulated (living room, kitchen, dining room, etc.) and all of the duct runs are in on the north end. We still have lots of insulating and wiring to do on the east side and the ducts have to be finished for the back of the house. There is also some drywall up on the west side of the stairway, along with a sheet upstairs on the half wall along the staircase. We are waiting for a couple of pieces for the main trunk line before Michel can finish it and run the rest of the ductwork. It doesn't look like we will be setting up a tree and opening gifts out in the new house. I really don't want insulation in the background of my pictures and I would be shocked if we had drywall up in the living room within two weeks. But I do have a lighted wreath on the front door and it look really good. Gives the house a very 'welcoming' feel.

Insulation, insulation, and more insulation...

Just a few interior pix so you can get an idea of how slowly the interior is going.
1. Front Bedroom (Darian's room)
2. Dining Room
3. Living Room

The latest look!

Here's the most recent picture that I've taken. The brick is on, the soffit and flashing are up and the doors are stained. The interior is going slow though. We are just trying to tackle one room at a time and get wiring and insulation done before moving to the next one.

Happy Birthday, Dillon!

Today Dillon got a new birthday to celebrate! He became a new member within the family of God when he accepted Jesus and was born again.

Just in time for the cold spell..........

The exterior brick is done!!! If they would've waited any longer to start our brick, it wouldn't have gotten done until Spring due to having to use an anti-freeze mortar and it being a different color than the mortar that has already been used. The only bricking left to do is in the interior around the fireplace.

The fireplace is also installed! Michel will probably want to test that out while working out there tonight.

I've also added in a better picture of my front door too!

The other doors

The other doors were also installed today, but I didn't get a chance to get pictures and post them before I went to work this morning. Plus, I wanted to get pictures with the brick done around the doors. Unfortunately, the front door was covered up and I don't want to take the plastic down and put it back up tomorrow. The brick on the front above the porch is all that needs to be finished.

Images I have posted are of the back door and deck, the side porch and Dining Room door, and then just a picture showing from the northwest corner showing how much brick is done.

I have a front door!!!

We've anxiously been awaiting the arrival of our doors, but even more so, our front door. Its a Craftsman style door that we both fell in love with a couple of years ago when we were going to remodel, but we had to rule it out because of the price Lowe's had on it. We decided to bite the bullet and price it at Stoll Brother's Lumberyard in Odon when we were picking out our other doors and windows. We were given a ball park figure of the cost of the door being around half of what Lowe's had told us a couple of years previously. Once the door was actually ordered, the price was only about a third of the ball park price, or about 1/6 of what Lowe's had quoted us two years ago. I love my door! Its gorgeous now, but it will be even better when it gets stained!

Brick is going up!

The scaffolding was put up on Friday afternoon, and the bricklayers arrived bright and early yesterday morning. They still have some to finish, but are about at a standstill until the doors are installed. It looks AWESOME though!!!!

Windows are in!

Well, most of the windows are in, at least. The window for the master bathroom was forgotten on the order so it won't be here for a little while yet. (The ironic thing is is that Jason and the guy at the lumberyard had talked about that specific window at least three different times before the window order was placed, because we changed it from a picture window to a double-hung.) Anyways, here are some pictures of the house as it is now (and the windows in the living room are now closed, but I didn't notice that they were open when I had taken the pictures).

Oh, and the chimney got framed up today too!

Other additions this week

Other things that the Amish have accomplished on our house this week are:
shingles, moving the bathroom doorj over, putting in the doorway and wall for Dillon's closet under the steps, putting in a doorway for my pantry, and expanding the opening for the fireplace, plus making the platform for the fireplace and harth.

They are at a standstill until next week when the doors and windows arrive. Once the windows are in, we will be waiting for the bricklayers to get here and put up the brick so that they Amish can put the soffit in. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we will have all of that done. Then it will be a slow-going project since most of the work will be internal and will be what we are doing in the evenings.

7 Years, 362 days......

Will he get it finished before then? Many of you are aware of the joke about the length of time it took Michel to do the deck on the front of the doublewide, that was never actually finished. After eight years and four months or so of an unfinished deck, we ripped it apart to do a remodeling project that never happened. The lumber from that deck then became the deck for our swing. So keeping that in mind, I've been teasing him about getting this new deck at the back door of our new house done within eight years. I think he has a good chance of finishing it even before the end of this week. I took the picture this afternoon and then this evening we finished the top and bottom rails for the railing on the front and the kickplates on the steps. The only things we need to do to finish the deck are adding in more spindles and a small section of railing between the top of the steps and the side of the house.

And my brothers and father will be so proud of me! I can put the following skills on my resume':
use of a power drill to drill holes, use of a power drill to put in screws, and I can cut with a miter saw! :D I'm not very 'comfy' using power tools so this is a big deal for me. I always felt that they 'got away from me' and I couldn't really control them. But I think I've about got the drill mastered! Yippee!!! The only downside is that Michel will now expect me to use it more often. Bummer!

Finally an update for the week!

First order of business I need to take care of is to tell my father "Happy Birthday!!!!!"

I've been slow about updating this week, not because a lot of work hasn't been done, but because I've been sick. What you all have missed hearing about on a daily basis is that:
-Started putting decking on the roof Monday, finished it Tuesday.
-Constructed the framework of the porch and put the front porch trusses on on Tuesday.
-On Wednesday, they got the ends of the gables enclosed, tar paper on the roofs on the west side, and started to construct the staircase inside.

They took today (Thursday) off to finish up another job, but should be back tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have some shingles on and a finished staircase by quitting time tomorrow.

Trusses!!!

Gosh, those Amish guys work quick! The trusses and the crane truck arrived shortly after 1:00 this afternoon and they got all of the trusses on (except for the front porch and one truss that ties the roof over the dining room into the main roof) by the time I got home from work at 3:15. That's a lot of work to get accomplished in two hours!

I was not able to watch them actually put the trusses on, but my wonderful mother-in-law got several pictures for me. Unfortunately, she forgot the cord to her camera so I'll have to get them posted later.

The ones I'm posting now are: 1. Front 2. NW corner 3. East side (drive side) 4. back

Oh, and do ya see the brick along the porch area? That was done on Monday so it is ready to start constructing the porch. Besides brick and trusses the only other things that have gone on this week (today) are the Amish cutting out the opening for my bathroom window and my fireplace. When they cut out the bathroom window opening, they cut it out offset from the door. I had assumed it would be in-line with the door, so I'm re-designing that bathroom again. (It got a re-design last Friday when we had to widen the hallway, but I gained a window in that re-design. Today's re-design downgraded me to a linen cabinet instead of a linen closet. Bummer!)

Award Winning Photographer!!!!

We had traveled to Spring Mill State Park back in July to take pictures to enter into an amateur photo contest that the park was hosting in August. Michel took some pictures, I took some pictures, and Darian took some pictures. We all entered pictures into the "Nature" category and I had a picture entered into the "Family Fun" and the "Pioneer Village" categories. After collecting entries during the month of August, they had all the entries displayed in a room at the inn today and let the public choose a photo for the "People's Choice" award.

The first place winners in each category (family fun, pioneer village, and nature) plus the winner of the People's Choice award don't get much of a prize except to have their photos framed and displayed in the lobby of the Spring Mill Inn, a ribbon, and maybe published in some promotional materials. We were all broken-hearted to not have won first place, but we were thrilled when the "People's Choice" winner was announced. Darian won!!!!!!!! He had 7 people vote for his picture. The runner-up only had 4 votes.

So if you are near the vicinity of Spring Mill State Park in the near future, until the end of the year, stop in at the Inn and see Darian's picture on display!

P.S. I spoke with one of the professional photographers that was a judge for the contest before the winners were announced. He was very complimentary of Darian's picture and talked about what a wonderful job Darian had done on it!

Interior Walls

First picture is taken standing outside the 'front' door at ground level.

Second picture is taken from standing inside the back door frame.

Walls, walls, and more walls!

I actually got to get a picture of them setting up a wall this morning before I left for work. I was hoping to catch the first one go up yesterday, but I didn't.

When I left this morning they had all the exterior walls up, except the ones on the north end. I came home from work less than 4 hours later and all the exterior walls are up, along with the interior walls.

I don't want to go out and get in their way just to take pictures, so I'll have to post interior pictures later. Hope you are satisfied with just the 'wall raising' picture until then. ;)

Oh, and I've already made them tear up some of their work. Jason asked me this morning about re-doing the linen closet, the closet in Darian's room, and the bathroom. As it was drawn on the blueprints, the doorway to Darian's room was only going to be about 25" wide and that hallway was only going to be that wide. So the linen closet is not longer in the hallway outside the bathroom, but inside the bathroom. Darian's closet went from being about 3'5" x 5 to being about 2' x 7'. This gave me an extra 16-18 inches in the bathroom, so I was able to move my tub around to the north wall from the east wall and add a small window in. This was my original plan, but I didn't think it would work. The only additional cost for doing this was the price of the window. But since I added the window after they had the east exterior wall up, they have to cut a whole in and frame it up. All I have to say in my defense is that it was Jason's fault. It was his idea to move the tub around. LOL!

Walls!

When I left for work this morning, they had started to frame up the walls for the east and west sides, but didn't think they would be able to set them up since it had started to rain. Apparently they decided to wait out the rain some, because they put the plywood and house wrap on the walls then set them up. When I got home I was kind of surprised to see the walls up.

As I was waiting for the boys to arrive home, I was walking around in my new house. It was kind of neat to see the chalk lines on the floor for the walls, so I could see how large or small a room would be. Hopefully it will dry off and they will return tomorrow to finish the other two walls. Trusses will arrive next week.

I'm Floored!!!

When I left for work, they had a few of the I-Beam/floor joist on. When I came home..........

the floor was on!!!

Oh, and what did I say the other day about the rain? When I got out of my van, I heard thunder. After the boys got home from school and we walked around the floor for a few, and checked out the crawlspace, it started sprinkling. Looking at radar, it looks like we might get a shower here soon. At least J&G got the floor done and had quit for the day before the clouds rolled in.

I've been boarded in!

Lumber and the I-Beams arrived for the floor just before 9:00 this morning. They unloaded it into our driveway. I'm glad I decided to park in the neighbors drive so I could get out to go to work. ;) The second picture is the support beams running across on the pillars.

Don't forget to check out the webcam to see the latest! www.hoosierweather.com

Do you hear what I hear?

A nail, a nail, pounded into a board....

Okay, they aren't hammering away nails yet, but they are hammering down the sill plates. The floor of my house is starting to be put together!!!!!!!!

The J&G crew arrived at 7:30 am and had two of the plates on by 8:00. Its been 10 minutes since I last looked, but they probably have another two or three on by now!

The appraiser is also coming by this morning too. He's suppose to be here at 9:00 and I have to work at the restaurant today. Its a busy morning, but an exciting morning!!!

Work it, Baby!

One of the things we needed to do before J&G came out to start framing was to pour a concrete pad and lay a few blocks for the storage room in the crawlspace. Michel took off half a day on Friday to be here when the concrete truck arrived and to smooth out the concrete. His dad came out to help too. Then on Saturday and Sunday, Michel laid the blocks for the other two walls of the storage room.

J&G told us last Monday night that they should be here the middle of this week to start framing. I figure that our best chance for rain will be the middle of this week - not because of the hurricanes in the Gulf, but because we really don't want it to rain so the house can be framed up.

I'll post pictures of the progress next week, or you can keep an eye on the progress via the webcam at Michel's website: www.hoosierweather.com.

Choices, Choices, Choices

We spent this morning making lots of choices. From windows to doors to shingles to brick, we've picked out everything we could think of to finish the exterior. I can't wait to see how it all looks when its put together! We thought we'd still have a few more weeks until we'd start framing, but everything is falling into place and we could start by next weekend or no later than the week of Labor Day! Even financing is not going to be a hold up. I'll be surprised if we aren't under roof by the end of September!
The pictures posted are of the shingles/brick/ and color of the decking we picked out and the brick sample next to our 'window.' This gives you a really good idea of how our house will look.

We have BLUEPRINTS!!!!

Wow! I'm so excited just to have blueprints in our hands! We also finally got the estimate for framing it up. That price was very reasonable and we might be getting that started within a couple of weeks. I can't wait to see walls going up!!! I've posted some pictures that I took of our blueprints. :D