Busy little Beehive

As a warning, there will be no pictures in this post!  I have decided to wait and surprise you all with the finished product of our house in about a week when we get our certificate of occupancy from the county (hopefully). Then I will take pictures of everything.  However, I don't want to have to write about everything  in one post so I will update on what has been happening, just no pictures :)

Sheet rock arrived on September 9.  They sheet rocked  the bonus room and then called it a day.  I was hoping they would get more accomplished but, whatever.  The next day they arrived bright and early and rocked again.  They had everything done except the kitchen, pretty much.  The house looks different with the rooms rocked. Some rooms seem bigger while others seem smaller.  It was fun to really see the house take shape.  My mom and Courtney came up on Thursday evening.  They were here for Markell and Andre's sealing but came early to try to pick cucumbers to make pickles.  We went to Carver Farm's on Friday morning and picked cucumbers and strawberries.  We got plenty of each.  Kay and I made freezer jam that night after we came home and Leonard finished up electrical stuff at the house. 

I should also mention that Leonard shot an elk with his bow on Thursday.  He spent the day packing it out.  It was a 5 point bull, for those that care, and he was pretty excited.  I made him promise that we would send it to the butcher this year and he agreed.  We do not have time to cut up and elk!

Friday night we had mom, Courtney, Markell, and Andre out for dinner and then I took the kids to town to swim at the hotel pool.  We met up with Paul, Scott, and Dad at the motel.  It was good to see everyone.  Grandpa Parry also made it to town on Friday and was able to come see our new house before he headed to Spokane to see his cousin. It was so good to show him around our home. 

Saturday morning we spent at the temple with Markell and Andre.  We are so proud of them for making the effort and choosing to be sealed in the temple.  It is always so good to be there with family.  After the ceremony we went to lunch and then back to the house.  The sheet rockers had finished what they could until they ran out of sheet rock.  We helped them clean up and then later found out that we didn't need to do that. Oh well, thanks for the help anyway family! :)
Through the weekend my mom came to realize what a scary place a construction site can be to a two-year-old.  I think that was the big motivation for her offering to take Miranda home with her.  At first it was a little joke, but then it turned into something that might work. In the end, we sent Miranda home with my mom and Courtney to spend two weeks.  I am traveling to Boise this Friday and my parents will meet me there so I can bring Miranda back home with me.  We have missed her greatly but have been able to get so much done!
Here's a run down of the week:

Monday - sheet rockers finished rocking and then a separate crew came to clean followed by another crew to start taping/mudding the walls.   I worked on some electrical connections with Ron Lowe (our electrical consultant!) to get the meter ready outside.  I went to the flooring place and made final arrangements for flooring, changed a few things and also brought home some counter top samples for us to look at.

Tuesday - Mudding continued along with texture on the walls.  Leonard and I drove around town paying bills/deposits for rock for the fireplace, flooring, and picked out all the hardware for the doors/kitchen/bathrooms. We also finalized the plumbing fixtures and picked out the counter top. Leonard helped our neighbor, Jim Geren, tentatively set forms for the garage concrete which will be poured this Tuesday (I think)

Wednesday -  Crazy day.  Insulation for the fireplace came early in the morning. The sheet rockers were there finishing up and cleaning up.  The guys that are setting stone for our fireplace and chimney were there - I think there were about 10 of them. Some were sorting rock, some were prepping the work surface, some were setting the rock, some were shaving off parts of the rock, and there was Jim, the boss, who held his coffee mug and commanded all of them, telling them what to do.  It was actually impressive and they worked like a well oiled machine.  We also had the guys that installed the fireplace there to finish the chase.  And Cale came back to finish some carpentry stuff.  Oh, and we started painting the walls with primer.  We decided to roll it on instead of spray it because there were so many log walls we would have had to cover.  We spent the entire afternoon and got everything primed and ready to paint.  We finished about 10:00 that night.

Thursday - Took Kaydra and Kanyon to the dentist and then to school.  Picked up more paint. Went home and met Jennie Reynolds, a friend from church, who agreed to help paint for a couple hours.  We painted the bonus room and the kids rooms upstairs while Leonard painted the loft and down the stairs.  Leonard's friend, Kurt, from work came and helped us paint as well. He stayed most of the afternoon.  We were so grateful for both of their help.  We finished two coats over the entire house except for part of the wall going downstairs.  We were painting until 10:00 that night too. Seems like a pattern is developing here!

Friday - Started cleaning and taking tape off the wall from painting.  Took forever because it was the same tape the sheet rockers put up before they started texturing, so it was hard to get off.  All the logs needed cleaned to get them ready for chinking.  Kay came over in the morning and cleaned most of the day to get them all ready.  We started chinking about noon and realized that it was going to take some practice. It took us 6 hours just to do our master bathroom!  By the end of the day we had the master bathroom done and about half of the master bedroom. We worked until about 11:00 pm.  I had no idea how slow a process it was going to be.  But we started getting better at it and by the end of the day we were moving a little quicker.  The rock guys finished the fireplace inside -- it looks amazing -- and we got doors installed all around the house.  The trim guys arrived and started trimming the windows inside and also the doors with some pine.  I LOVE how they look as well.

Saturday - more chinking - all day in fact.  We are much better at it now.  Not quite professionals but not too bad either.  Leonard pipes chinking on the wall and I start tooling it into place.  He is faster at piping than I am at tooling so after he pipes a bunch then he sets the hose down and tools with me.  Then we keep going.  We keep saying to ourselves --$2 per foot -- that's how much it would have cost to have someone else do it.  We are saving a lot of money by doing it ourselves, but it takes lots of time. 
We still have chinking that will have to be finished Monday morning but we are moving along.  It looks great and I am glad that we decided to do it inside -- it really makes it a log house.  Leonard was the one that insisted on it being done inside so I give him credit for that.

We miss Miranda but I have no idea how we would have gotten all that done with her here.  I am very grateful to my mom and dad for taking her in.  I know she is being watched and cared for.  We have another week of craziness and the final inspection is supposed to happen this Friday.  We'll see.  I hope we can get everything done. I will be amazed and impressed.  It is getting so close to being finished!  It is turning out beautiful and we are so excited to see the end product.  Thanks again to everyone who has helped and to everyone who has prayed for us.  We have seen some awesome things happen here. I can hardly wait so show you the final results!

First Day of School and Insulation

The kids started school this week!  I was really excited for this as they have seemed to be extremely bored the last few weeks.  I was excited until I realized that I would now be responsible to entertain Miranda!  Thank goodness for Grandpa.  He and Miranda are buddies after Grandpa has watched her so much this summer.  I don’t know what I would have done without him.  We have been able to work on the house much more because of him. 

So the kids started school.  I took them the first day because they had so much stuff.  Plus I wanted to meet their teachers. 

Kanyon has Mrs. Kemp.  She has been teaching for over thirty years and LOVES first graders.  Kanyon came home the first day and told me that Mrs. Kemp is a good teacher – because she’s nice and she does fun things!  He seemed really happy.

Kaydra has Mrs. Conigliaro, or Mrs. C for short.  She also seems nice and Kaydra came home quite happy as well.

They were so happy to have something to do!  My poor kids have been ignored a lot this summer because of the house.  I keep telling them things will get better but it sure seems like we have been working on that house for a long time.

They really like their school and are excited for a new year. 

 

In house news, the insulators came on Tuesday and finished insulating the bonus room. 

It sounds funny in there, very quiet now.  It almost feels pressurized with all that insulation exposed.  Len says it will be better when the sheet rock is in.  The house seems much warmer with the insulation in place.  Not as much breeze blowing through now that the room is covered. 

The sheet rock guys got mixed up on the date. They were supposed to be here today but instead are coming tomorrow.  We have been sanding and sanding and sanding.  I think it’s safe to say that we are just over half way done with the outside of the house.  If we work hard we might finish by the weekend.  We’ll see.

So tired of sanding!!!!

Time for more updates

Time seems to go so slow and so fast all at the same time.  It seems like I just updated the blog and then I look and it has been more than two weeks!  How did that happen?  Well, it means there will be lots of pictures for this post!

We passed the electrical inspection of the roof so the insulation people came and insulated.  It took them one long day but they got it all done.  Cale was working right behind them getting the OSB on top of it so it would be ready to shingle.  I am really glad I don’t do that for a living!

After that day, the roof was insulated and Cale had one side completely covered.  

Cale also managed to frame in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. 

 

This was not in the plans but the county is making us put in a door because the basement isn’t finished.  I am not sure if we are going to leave it there or not once the basement is finished.   I kinda like the idea that we could shut the door to keep the noise down but I also like that it would be more open.  We’ll have to wait and see!

The fireplace people arrived and installed our fireplace on the main floor and ran pipe to the basement where we will put a wood stove. 

Fancy, huh!  We aren’t sure when we will put the wood stove in but it will be ready when we are. 

The next day we took some time off to celebrate Kaydra’s birthday.

I can’t believe my baby girl is 9!  She wanted to go to the fair for her birthday.  It was a beautiful day.  Leonard helped Cale get the rest of the roof on in the morning and we went to the fair in the afternoon.  I surprised the kids by buying them ride passes even though I said I wasn’t going to. 

They had a great time.  Even Miranda went on several rides.  She  was really happy.  We ate some great food and visited the animals.  After about 5 hours we’d had our fill so we went back home to let Kaydra blow out candles and open presents. 

Cale managed to work on the fireplace a little more that week and got it all framed in.  It is going to have rock on it before we are finished but he designed the shape – with our input of course. 

I think it turned out great and we really like the little hearth to the side of the fireplace.  It will be the perfect place to store the wood!

Our contractor set up a guy to come and roof our house.  He and his wife showed up and they worked all day and got the paper on so it was ready to roof.

It took him two days to get all the shingles on.  He said he was impressed with how square the house was.  Usually they have to make extra cuts as it gets to the edge because the house isn’t perfectly square.  He said he didn’t have to do that with our house.  Nice to know that everything is where it should be!

Roof all finished!!

The windows arrived.

They have all been put in so we are almost considered dried-in.  We just need the doors.  They will be here soon.  Cale hung all the windows except the four big ones in the front.  Leonard helped with that – it was pretty tough and I am truly impressed that they didn’t break any.

  After they were installed, Cale put on all the trim.  We have cedar trim around all the windows on the outside.

This was also Cale’s idea and I love how they turned out.  Very nice.

The past few days have been crazy.  Cale is almost finished with everything we contracted him to do.  He worked this week to finish up all the framing inside, framed in my bathtub deck :), and secured the framing for the deck.  He had Danny come help him one day to get the logs ready for sheet rock.  This meant getting the chain saw out again and making a cut along the edge of every framed wall.

It’s still a little scary to see that chainsaw come out!  It’s kinda hard to see but if you look close you will see the cut right along the 2x4.  Every framed wall needed one of those on both sides so the sheetrock will slide inside.  This will allow the logs to settle without putting stress on the sheet rock. 

Some friends from church, Cathy and Bob Wilson, and Cathy’s brother George came out on Friday to help us get ready to stain.  They swept, vacuumed, taped up windows, hammered in some nails for the deck, and even sanded outside!  It was a crazy house that day with lots of people – Cale also brought his three kids to play – but we got a lot done.  We also found out we passed the rough electrical inspection!!!!!!  We celebrated with a Pizza Hut lunch and then worked some more. 

After Cale left for the day, we finished up cleaning and vacuuming everything.  This morning we taped up a few more windows and covered the doorway to help prevent dust and then we clear coated the interior.  I say we, but I really mean Leonard.  I was there to catch the drips with a paint brush and offer moral support.  :) 

It looks a little different in there – a little darker than I thought it would be – but the grain of the wood is beautiful.  We rubbed the logs with a rough pad in between coats of sealant.  Then we sprayed the whole house again.  All in one day.  I have never painted a whole house in one day before.  Those spray things are really nice – as long as you don’t have any furniture, cabinets, or any flooring, of course!

It works out great because Monday is Labor Day and so we won’t have any workers until Tuesday and the coats should be very dry by then and the logs well protected. Now they will finish insulating on Tuesday and then sheet rock on Wednesday.  Then tape and texture probably through the weekend.  I thought we might be able to paint on Saturday but Justin (our contractor) doesn’t think they will be finished.  :(  We’ll just have to wait and see!  Things are starting to move pretty fast – we hope to close on the new mortgage at the end of the month!