Weekend seven....continued

We finished the walls today. The back wall of the storage room is up and braced. The next job was plumbing the walls to make sure they are straight and getting the studs level.

This is the slow tedious part. Dad started the top plate so we could start putting the siding on the house.
This part is going to take alot of time. The nails that we need to use for the siding are spiral nails. All they do is bounce until they are finally into a stud.

Weekend seven

We started our day today like every other: wake up, make sandwiches/do chores, get dressed, pile in the van to work on the house. Only this time, when we got there the kids didn't get out of the van. They leaned the back rest down and all three of them cuddled up on the back seat and continued sleeping.

Mom and Dad and I worked on finishing up that back wall. All we had to do was cut and put in the studs under the windows for the girls rooms. We got that finished and then stood up the lighter part of that wall. Once we had that up and braced we woke the kids to help us stand up the rest of that wall. That was one heavy wall, but we got it in all by ourselves.

We then went to work making our remaining wall for the main part of the house. Mom and the girls worked on getting the studs nailed to the header and bottom plate.

Tanner even helped by putting the studs where they went. He even pushed them all the way across the floor to do it. He is such a good little worker. I worked on framing the last window (yea!!! *jumps for joy*), while Dad worked on building one of the last two short walls for the storage room.

We finished that main wall and got it up and braced.

Then we tried to decide if we wanted to work more, or quit for the day. It was hot and we were tired, but we were so close to being done. So we decided to go for it and try.

Almost immediately we all got really tired. We got one of those two walls up and then decided to call it a day.

Weekend six...continued

We decided to stand the wall up in 2 pieces today. Since we don't have extra people to help, it seemed the safest choice. We did the heavy part first. This side has the dining room window and the kitchen window (headers are so heavy).After getting the wall up we worked on the other big wall at the back of the house. This wall has the windows for the girls rooms and the door from the kitchen to the storage room. Remember how much I love to do window framing? Yep, that was my job again, I guess no one else likes it either.


There wasn't a whole lot for the kids to do today. Tanner decided to take up his favorite seat, in Morgan's lap.We got the whole wall almost finished. We were so hot and tired and exhausted.... and did I mention tired? We decided to use our remaining energy to put the tools away and finish the wall on Friday.

Weekend six

Here is it Friday again already. And you are wondering what Eric is doing helping us on a Friday. Well he actually got a day off since July 4th is on a Saturday.

We started the day by building walls. We all worked really well together and got the first big wall up fairly quickly. This is the front wall and it has a big window frame, a door frame and a smaller window frame. If you have never built a window or door frame then you haven't lived yet. Ok, maybe that is a bit much.


After building most of these frame for this house I can honestly say....I never want to do another one for the rest of my life! You guessed it, it was awful. It involves two very heavy pieces of 2x12 lumber. They must be nailed to 2 studs and be flush on all sides. Every time I got close to the nail, something slipped (I am going to blame this on the fact that I don't have big enough hands). There is much more to the building of these monsters, but I wont bore you with the details. Long story short, this is by far my least favorite part so far.

Luckily our helpers were here again to help us lift up that really heavy wall.

After standing the wall up we had to hold it there while Dad got it to the right spot to nail it in. Then we needed to continue holding so he could get the wall level and brace it.

Here you can see the window frame.

The front of the house.

We actually got the next wall finished but decided not to take the time to stand it up, so it was laying on the floor ready for Saturday.

Admiring a days work.

Weekend five....continued

We had such a great day today. Most of our helpers came back and we also had Morgan and Eric for the morning. Once again too many hands, not enough hammers, but we made it work to our advantage.

I have come to 'not hate' my extremely early mornings. I know when my alarm goes off that I don't want to get up, but then I think about how hot it will be by 11 am and how awful it will be by 1pm and I am up and making sandwiches and getting kids up to do chores (yes, chores before breakfast!).

So once again we are ready for work at 6:30, Eric can only work until the sun comes out (an antibiotic for his incredibly infected ingrown toenail caused this), so we want to get as much finished as early as we can.

Since Dad and I had all of the other squaring and straightening work finished we were able to help with the flooring. We started one sheet and as soon as it was nailed in place on the corners we got started with the next one (while the rest with the hammers nailed in that first sheet). At one point I think we had 3 sheets going at the same time, but those nailers were quick and they didn't let us get too far ahead of them.
Tanner was having fun today. He decided to make designs with the hammers when they weren't being used.

We had finished half of the main house flooring on friday (16 1/2 sheets) and we had already done that much by 11 am today (amazing what a little experience can do). It was hotter today and the sun came out earlier, so we drank alot more water and gatorade (thanks Mom!) and Tanner was a lot grumpier (he even took a nap after lunch).

I think the neatest part of the day (other than everyone worked so well together) was when the kids started having a water fight with our drinking water (it was cold and refreshing, and we were almost finished...thankfully).

We also got the temporary electric pole in today, finally. Dad and Morgan dug the hole early when the sun wasn't out. Then 4 of us carry it to the hole and put it in. It really doesn't look like it should be that heavy, but man was that difficult.

The guy from the electric company was also here to stake the line for the electric today, and to give us the bad news how much it will cost us. He tried to take the line over the field to save us some footage (and money), but the span was too great and he couldn't put a pole in the field. So it has to come all the way down the street and up the driveway. At least we will finally have electric and we can use the nail gun (for all of those hard to reach places, like the bracers under the floor). Now all we have to do is cut down a tree and wait for them to put up the poles and lines.

Weekend five

Well, we started our day at 5am. Getting lunches ready, packing up tools, etc. I had to leave the house a bit early and pick up our extra help today.

Since we were ready to start the flooring (and Dad shouldn't be lifting) I decided to get some muscular help for the day. So a few boys from church and a sister to one of them came over to help us get our floor down.

I wasn't sure at first how it would go. I had 2 more bodies than we had originally thought we would need. I didn't want anyone standing around being bored.

After a slow start (it takes time to get everything out) we finally had them putting the floor sheeting down. I stood there and made sure it was going in alright (since I had no hammer to work with myself). I realized after the second piece of sheeting that they had it all worked out. One took charge and did the gluing, the rest had it worked out where they each would nail. It was interesting watching 4 teens (and Madison, she even has her own hammer) all work at nailing a 4x8 piece of subfloor. Jonah manned the glue gun.

Jonah and Jack worked at getting the sheeting in place.
Dakota and his sister Sharron carried all the sheeting over.

Tanner held the glue gun until it was needed again.

Shannon, Dakota, Jack and Madison nailed the sheeting to the joists.
Everyone worked really hard.......and enjoyed their breaks.

It was a great day, we all got alot of work done. The kids got half of the floor done while Dad and I finished getting the rest of the joists at the right place and straight (lots of twists). So I have to send out a BIG Thank you to Jonah, Jack, Dakota and Sharron, you all did a wonderful job!!!


After we were home and showered Eric and Tanner decided to watch a movie on the computer. It didn't take long until they were both asleep. They work hard, and they sleep hard.

Weekend four

We start early..... The sun is barely up, but who am I kidding, I am barely up. Since it gets so hot now and we are exhausted and sweaty long before lunch we have decided to start at the crack of dawn. I think each day we decide to start earlier.


This was my view Friday morning as I went back home for the gas can at 7am. Sometimes the beauty of this earth amazes me!


Tanner has been having a blast building our house. He was so excited to go, he wanted to make sure I didn't leave him behind. Sometimes when we start really early I leave him home with Morgan until they are up and animal chores are finished and then I pick them up. He just gets so upset when he wakes up and we have gone to work on the house and he didn't get to go.

His #1 job is to collect all of the scrap wood and haul it in the wagon to the scrap pile. Some days he takes it very seriously, other days...his neck hurts. That is a story for another day, but that is what he says when he doesn't want to do any work (he also sometimes uses that line at home when asked to pick up his toys and books).



He was so excited when Papa let him stand in his room on the lumber.









Here is our restful set-up, well as restful as it gets in the 95 degree heat with no breeze. We have a canopy, a few chairs, a 5 gallon thermos of water and a few sheets to keep the sun at bay.


On Friday we continued working on the floor joists. We got alot done on Friday with only about 200 square feet to finish on Saturday. Mom and I continued to saw the boards while Dad worked on aligning the joists and nailing them in (a much harder job, I admit).

Eric mentioned the other day that everyone has a picture on here except me, well... here is me working on the bracers (metal bridging) for the joists. Not sure how he expects me to get a picture of myself when I am the one taking the pictures though. This was a rather precarious job. Mom decided after getting up there that this wasn't the job for her.

We had a few of the remaining joists laid across the joists and I had to scoot along that board and nail in the bracers. Obviously once up there I didn't want to come down until I was finished. Unfortunately it was extremely hot by the time we got to this point and the board was very, very hot. I would not recommend this as a weight loss regimen, but I think I melted off all fat on my tooshie (Tanner's word) from scooting down that boards for 45 minutes in the blazing sun.



Eric spend his time working with Dad and putting in the final nails along the front of the house to attach the joists to the sill plate. Isn't it great that I know all of these technical terms? I almost sound like I know what I am doing...not to be confused with I take direction well and have a decent memory.



I have to take some time to give some kudos to my parents. Without their help we would never be able to get this done. Mom takes care of alot of the normal every day stuff that I would get to eventually, like toilet paper, paper towels, plates, etc. She also makes sure we always have water and Gatorade (or Gladorgade, as Tanner likes to say) available. This is another one of those thankless jobs, but extremely necessary, and I am very thankful that she does it so willingly. I know to her it seems like she sits around alot (when we are not sawing constantly), but she is always there to do whatever is needed (especially bringing drinks).

Dad will tell you he doesn't know what he is doing, but don't let him fool you. He spends most of his time doing the leveling, aligning, squaring stuff...you know, all the stuff seems like it that takes forever to accomplish. I don't envy him is job, but he is good at it, no matter what he says. So here is to you Mom and Dad, thanks for everything you do.

This is the beautiful picture of the bracers that I nailed in. You might not be able to see it so well, but it is such a nice straight line, I do so love straight lines.





So that is what we got done this week, until next time, be happy and healthy and stay in the shade.

Weekend three

We spent all week cleaning the shed so we could have it moved on Thursday. Three loads to the dump took all Thursday morning. The barn mover called at 11am to tell me he was between 1 and 2 hours away (and we hadn't moved anything out so far). We finally finished getting everything out and the ramp off when he arrived. It was at precisely that time that the sky opened and poured for about 10 minutes.

After the rain stopped he got the shed on his trailer no problem. We drove over to the farm and got it to the area that we wanted it. That is when I began to worry. With the recent rain (and our soft ground) he was having a hard time getting the trailer to the right spot without it slipping. Finally he got it there and now we have a building at the farm.

We decided to start early on Friday (since it is cooler). But with all the rain we got on Thursday night we weren't sure we would be able to get anything done. So we decided to check it out before we packed up all the tools and stuff. This is what we found.....a moat.

We decided to work anyway (in muck boots), so we got it all together and were working at 9am. FYI, I can't wear muck boots with capris because I get a a blister on my shin where the boot rubs. So I had to wear jeans. I HATE wearing jeans on hot weather, I am miserable....and I was, all day.

We got a good amount of work done and then the generator died. We only had it for 2 weeks and it was dead. So I packed it up and drove all over Athens to find a repair shop, and one after another said "I won't touch a COLEMAN, they went bankrupt and I can't get parts". So I had to buy a new generator.

Saturday we started early and got to work right away. We worked on floor joists all day. Eric and Madison brought the lumber over to the saw and Mom assisted while I sawed them to the correct length. While we did this Dad was putting them in place and attaching them. After we had alot cut, Eric went to help Dad put them in place. We got almost 2/3 of the joists in.

We got lucky that we had a partly cloudy day, it made it so much easier since we had periods when the sun wasn't baking us (but we still drank all 3 gallons of water that we brought, and almost all of the gatorade)

When Madison wasn't working (or bringing us water) she was playing with Tanner. He was having such a great time 'working'. He piled all of the pieces of wood in the wagon and pulled them over to the trash pile (he did this twice). When he wasn't doing this he was moving dirt. He is such a good little boy and he does a great job of staying out of the dangerous stuff and listening when we tell him something.

We just finished our second weekend of working on the house. We have a generator and a saw now, so it was alot easier to get things done.

Friday we spend the morning getting the new tools set up and put together and the rest of the day we finished the beam across the back of the house. Saturday Eric and Dad spent the morning working on the main beam while Mom and I mowed some grass. We had a cookout planned so we had to quit early, but we wanted to get as much done as we could. Finally the beam is finished and next weekend we can start putting the floor joists in.

We are still waiting to hear about the septic. The excavator is waiting to hear from the inspector that the meeting with the soil scientist is scheduled. We just did this all a few weeks ago, but after the grass was mowed the lay of the land can be seen more clearly and he feels that alot of what they are asking us to do is unnecessary, especially since we will be using a composting toilet and wont really be using the septic.

So, we decided to take out all of the stakes in the clearing so we can play baseball after our cookout. I trimmed the grass down really low and spray painted the hole so I could put them all back in before their meeting. Hopefully they will have that meeting sooner rather then later.

The First Day!

We started working on the house last weekend. We still didn't have electric so there was only so much we could do. First was to move dirt into the trench around the inside of the foundation. This would have been done by the excavator but he isn't coming back until he can dig the septic and we don't want to wait for that. So after ?? loads of mud (yes, it was mud), we had the whole trench filled.

While Mom, Eric and I (and Tanner) worked on that Dad was making the sill plate and planning and preparing to make the beam. Madison was Dad's "go for" and she had a great time. We got alot accomplished until we realized that the pillars weren't all the same height.

We did realize that we needed to get some type of electric, sawing wood by hand is just too tiring, and I was just watching Dad.

Breaking ground

While I was at the farm monday morning working on the fences the excavator came to start working on the footers. We are so excited, we have waited so long it was getting to the point where it seemed like a dream and it would never get started.

First they needed to cut down the big hickory tree. It was huge and they had a really hard time getting down. I was actually standing there waiting to get video of it falling and my battery died while I waited, so all I have is the before and after pictures. Yes, that huge tree is the one cut down. We hated to do it, but it was too close to the house site.

Here is the tree all piled up at the end of the lower clearing (I am not looking forward to getting that all cut up and stacked).

It is really strange to see that area without the tree now, it looks completely different. We left the stump as a reminder of the tree and as a place to chop wood later for the wood stove (although we will have to level the cut).







Finally, the footers for the house are dug. Today the concrete was poured and if it doesn't rain, the blocks will be laid for the foundation on Friday. It is really weird how sometimes it seems like you will sit and wait forever for something to happen, but once it starts it is like opening a floodgate. At least now things are happening.