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!!!