Snow beauty

As most Saturdays lately, Jesse and I woke up and planned to work on the house all day.  After spending the morning shoveling off the house and piles of lumber, plowing a path to the house, and getting the van AND tractor stuck, it continued to snow and we decided that nothing else was going to get done that day.   

 We were frustrated with the snow,

but who could deny the beauty that was before us...



A wall!

I got an email at work with this picture attached:

Jesse sure knows how to make me smile!

Snow, snow, go away

come again... maybe next year.

We couldn't start the framing this week or pour the concrete on the master suite floor, due to the snow, sleet and ice that we've had.  Between flurries, Jesse was able to put down the radiant tubing in the master suite... and he and Karl are working today (Saturday), in the blistering cold, to finish the bracing for the master suite and begin the process of laying things out for framing.

This week the weather doesn't look to promising either...

 http://www.noaa.gov/  shows snow from Monday night through Wednesday night. Yesterday someone told me that they heard we are going to get hit with about a foot.
I hope she's wrong.



Another day's work

First things first...

The plumbing passed! wahoo!!

Jesse's parents came to help re-stack the lumber this morning, which was awesome!

Then Jesse and I got to work raking the stones in the master suite to level things out.

We unrolled plastic over the whole floor... check.

 Then worked on laying the concrete/syrofoam insulation slabs on top... check.

We used more recycled/salvaged foam like we did in the basement.

After that we put down the wire meshing that the radiant tubing will be connected to... sorry no pictures, but I promise it was done... check.

This week we are hoping for some warm and dry weather to pour the concrete on the master suite floor, however the forecast doesn't look too hopeful.

Jesse is also hoping to begin the framing of the house this week, if we're lucky. yay! So excited for this stage in the process to see this house get out of the ground.

P.S.  Sorry for the lousy pictures, they were taken on Jesse's phone.

Dun...Dun...Dun...

Today the lumber was dropped off for the framing.

 Lots of work still ahead of us.  See the stack on the left?

 Yeah, that one.

He had a mind of his own.

Looks like tomorrow I will be spending most my day re-stacking wood so that it doesn't warp.  Mr. trucker had some difficulty in the snow. Could have been worse, I guess!

Old pictures

My sister shared a few pictures with me that she took a few months ago.  We were still screwing down the subfloor at that point and it's amazing how different the house and surroundings look then.

 

Oh, how I long to see green again...

 



Master Pumbers

Yesterday was a freezing, productive day for us. 
Jesse and I plumbed the master suite! 

It snowed the entire day, with only breaks for a few minutes at a time. 

 Cedar was a huge help in keeping me warm.  Whenever I would take a break, he would run over and sit on my lap to keep me warm... or maybe it was to keep himself warm...

I spent most of the day digging holes and trenches for the pipe to lay in.

 Master plumber himself.

 I fought with these squirrely water supply tubes for what felt like an hour.  We insulated them with the black foam that you can see, however the white tubing was just a tad too wide and coiled to make the insulation slide on easily.

When I look at this picture above, it looks like we didn't do much, but I have proof...



Half of what we did is buried under the stone and comes out of this hole that we pounded through the cement block.  The electrical tubes, phone wire tubes and a copper wire for the electical system are all buried under the stone.  The water supply lines are partially under the stone and we will eventually bury all the PVC also.

We were very pleased with how things went with the plumbing.  Now we wait and get a review from the true master plumber, this week, and cross our fingers that the system will pass the pressure test!!   

Snow isn't going to stop us...

Today Karl and Kelly were gracious enough to spent their Friday afternoon with us.  Kelly and I built muscles as we dug a trench in the stone for the electrical and plumbing lines to go in.  Jesse and Karl finished making the forms for the concrete and worked on the plumbing layout. 



Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.  I can hardly believe that it is 2011 already! Jesse and I spent lots of time with family and friends celebrating the birth of our Savior and ringing in the new year.

 Now that it is 2011, we are making attempts to have more time to work on the house.  So to kick off on a good foot, Jesse spent a few hours on New Years day working on the house with his Dad and brother, Nathaniel.  They started the forms on the master suite for the concrete floors to be poured.

Imagine how different this space will look on New Years day 2012!!

Pretty crazy to think about.