Countertops

My two elves showed up again today.  What a fun treat.  We all worked hard all day and got all the laminate on the tops of all the kitchen cupboards and island.  It looks so good!  We were quite impressed with ourselves.  The glue was pretty stinky and so we were all a bit off, but we all had fun and enjoyed working together.  These two guys have been a huge blessing and joy to have around and working on this project.  The time spent has been fun.  Cris and I have done a lot of the finish work ourselves.  Well truly, he has done the work and I have been his little elf, and go-fer,  but we have enjoyed the time working with them both.  It is fun to work with someone who knows so well what they are doing.  Watching Crispin build is like watching an artist paint, skilled and creative. 

Merry Christmas

This is my first Christmas without my Dad.  It has been such a long and interesting and challenging year.  It is odd to think that just last year at this time we were beginning the roller coaster we have been on and we all have survived.  It is interesting to continue through this process of grief and figuring out what our new "normal" for life is.  And the things that continue to ambush us as we go through life.  Like at our new house the other day as I was cleaning the floors and just about was crying to know how much I was missing my Dad and the things I missed talking to him about.  How much  he would love my new house and how excited he would be to be a part of it.  He would love to have taken my son and gone traipsing up through the rocks hunting fossils and gold or cool rocks and cougars.  But we have plans for a Merry Christmas although he isn't here.  I wonder how they celebrate Christmas in Heaven?

Gaining Ground

Laying Carpet

 We have been busy, busy this last few weeks but have made huge progress.  It is funny to think that 3 weeks ago, I had no sheet rock.  Just insulation.  Now I have sheet rock and paint.  We finished trimming the windows and doors last week and they look beautiful!  Used Alder wood for all the casings as I found it on a really good deal as door casings.  We had to rip them down to size but they are so pretty.  I didn't realize what a good deal I had gotten on them at 50 cents a food until we went to get some wider pieces for our window sills.  These were $50 for a 10 foot stick in Alder.  WOW!  We went with Cedar as it is much cheaper.  It looks just fine at about 1/4 the cost.

The carpet guy came on Tuesday and successfully put carpet down in all appropriate places.  It looks perfect.  Totally matches my paint and trim is a good fit.  Then we set all our kitchen cabinets and started on the bathroom and laundry and other cabinet locations as well.  We have been putting in long days, but it has been fun as well.  Especially to be able to know we are almost done.  Appliances arrived this week as well and we got them all set in place.  The big excitement for the week thou was turning on the lights!  The solar guys finally finished and we had power.  The batteries were not all charged up so it only worked for a while but it was so nice to turn on the lights. 

Staging area for trim

 Crispin was able to come back a couple days this week as well and we got a lot done.  We put
cabinets up and we started on the resilient flooring downstairs.  It looked so good with our carpet and trim and everything is tying together so well!  The floor is a bit darker than I had pictured but it really does look like old barn wood.  The darkness of it really is making the knots in my Alder trim stand out and it is beautiful.  We used the chop saw and rip saw for cutting it instead of the Utility knife recommended in the directions and it worked well.  Again I was getting my workout running up and down the stairs.  But it was fun.  Then Cris and Nick came one day that they knew I wasn't going to be there and quite surprised me by getting the whole upstairs flooring completely finished.  They had to have been flying!   

The Crews

 We have been BUSY this last few weeks.  The other day I counted 11 different vehicles at our place working on various things.  Yesterday we had the Solar guys there, and the electricians, and the well pump setter as well as my A team one man and his "elf" crew.  I am the elf.  We were putting up trim.  The basement is done.  All the doors in the house are hung.  They look so good.  We are ripping Alder 1x6's and using them for the trim.  It is beautiful!  The doors are Alder as well and the effect when finished is stunning!  We are planning to finish up the trim today and then hopefully set cabinets this evening.  So that should be fun.  I am at this point seriously not expecting to be in by Christmas, but we are sure giving this project a good shot. 

We have laughed and found annoying or interesting many parts of this project.  We have found that there are various levels of competency of subcontractors.  We had a crew come build our shed and they did a fine job, but I wouldn't have wanted them to build my house.  The electricians can put up lights faster than I could get the box open.  The solar guys are taking longer than I thought possible to get stuff done.  Cris can give me measurements to cut trim faster than I can think and cut with the chop saw.  We have been having a lot of fun though.  It is starting to look like a real house and that is exciting.  I think we are all ready to be done with the project and moved in.  I am having fun learning how to use and become somewhat profficient with all these power tools!

Decking. . . Sheetrock. . . Paint. . . Doors

Our deck is done.  It is huge and beautiful and took FOREVER to screw on, but now it is finally done!  We were waiting for the sheet rock guy and so we hired a friend to help us on our deck.  He came and knew what he was doing and had fun building our deck.  I helped him a lot.  I was the go-for elf.  I got to use the new cordless 18V drills and really liked them.  We had a lot of fun working together and got a lot done at the same time.  I  would do school and then come over and work on the deck with him.  Dustin was working on water lines.

This last week we finally got the sheet rock and mudding, taping and texture done at our house.  Today, we painted and hung doors.  Things are really moving along although it seems like forever but really it isn't.  I don't have inside pictures of the paint because it was quite dark and I was quite white by the time we were done.  But we had fun and we got it done. 

No more walking thru walls!

 Sheetrock arrived this week and was installed! Cant walk thru the walls any more at the house.   Now am waiting on another inspection - a sheet rock one before I can mud, tape and textures. But it will get done this week.  I hope to have a painted interior with doors hanging by the end of the week.  Will see if that happens or not.  :)  The porch roof arrived finally this week as well so that side of the house is finally almost done now.  That should finish up the exterior.  Will be great.  We worked on the water lines getting them buried and glued together and everything this week.  That has been a project and the rain is actually not helping.  Though it is very muddy now.  All that dust in the summer has officially turned to muddy mud. 
 Sticky muddy mud.  Fun for little boys though.  Our friend

who came over today brought his son and our two boys played all day!  They had a ball.  The weather was not too cold and so they wandered all over the hills, rocks, pastures, explored forts and just had a ton of fun.  Dustin worked on the water lines and Cris and I worked on the deck.  We got about 1/3 of the way done and had a good rhythm going.  I also cleaned up a bunch of sheet rock dust.  I am not trying to do a really great cleaning job as the next job is mudding - which just sounds dirty!  But I was at least cleaning next to the walls.  I think I will have to finish that tomorrow though.  Am also planning to put down the tiles for our hearth pad and work on the deck.  Should be fun!