The Final Day was TODAY!

Today was the final 'walkthrough'...
where the service manager made notes of anything that needed 'tweaking'.

And they fixed what things they could in this cold weather, like our door knob.

Several things must wait until warmer weather in the spring, such as replacing this window with an unusual scratch on the outside:

Here John hands the final payment to the service manager.

We have the keys!
:)

The Final Days!

Over the past several days, a crew returned to work on the roof and siding.


I think we are in the FINAL DAYS!

We have Water In and Water Out!

They worked late... until after dark,
but the new house is almost ready to have water in and water out!

We are waiting for a 'house crew' to return...
There are quite a few of shingles that blew off... and some siding work, and a few other small 'loose ends'.
But MAYBE SOMEDAY it will be completed!

Another hole in the ground...

The cistern is in and that hole filled in...
Now, there is a huge hole on the other side of the house!

After today, we should have water in and water out!!!
Things are starting to look up!
The plumbing in the old house is acting up again: the inlet water line began a second leak, and all our drains suddenly became very, very slow....!!!
Maybe a bathroom in the new house would be much better than an old fashioned outhouse!
Today is our anniversary! We spent it working on the house and moving cattle!

We ALMOST have water!

At least we have the tank in the ground, and it will be ready for water by tomorrow morning!

Hopefully, tomorrow will see both the septic and cistern completed!

Day Five of the Inside Work:

The carpet layers came today!

Notice the blurring hammers!
Even with flash and a fast shutter speed, these guys could swing their hammers too fast for my camera!

First, laying down tack strips, around the edges of all carpet areas:

Next came the pad, then the carpet was spread out:

'Taping' the seams:

Nearly done:

Day Four of the Inside Work:

The walls are nearly done!
Some touch up work:

It took alot of paint:

Left to right: Nancy, Jeff, and Becky

Waiting to see what tomorrow brings!!!!

Day Three of Inside Work:

The sun came out today... and work continues on the house.
Spraying the putty:

Then smoothing it out for the final texture:

The whole family at work:

I'll bet she could tell me how many cupboards there are!!!!

The sun came out to light up the house interior!

A housefull of materials and tools:

The house is progressing.... at least inside!
(Still no septic guy! Maybe we should have a pool on when he will show up...
will it be this winter, or next spring??????)

Day Two of the Inside Work:

Lots of work... with something being done in every room of the house! The husband-wife-daughter team seem to have their individual tasks under control!
Below, each area of work is carefully taped off, many also with plastic.

Spackling is applied.

As the cracks fill up, it begins to look more like a 'real house'.
Here, the 'marriage line' will soon be concealed.

Outside, the wind rages... combining with low temps to create HORRIBLE WINDCHILL TEMPS!!! This morning, my brother's weather station listed a windchill of -64 degrees F.
Burr! John and Grant are thawing out cattle waterers....
and would love to trade jobs with the perfa-tapers!
AND---- I think the septic system guy is avoiding my phone calls!
If he had came as planned last week, he would have avoided working in these cold temps.
Today is the day for another phone call to him!
Postscript: Yes, I am being 'stingy' with photos of the interior! Hee, hee!
If you look carefully at the photos over the next several days, you may catch a few glimpses of how the inside looks.......

Work has begun again!

Th lights are on!
The perfa-tapers began work this afternoon!
Soon every light in the house was on!

Inside photos tomorrow!
Yippee!

Getting Colder...

Waiting....
Winter arrived with a vengence... night time temps have dipped to -15 to -18 with daily highs just above zero. BURRR!!!
The house sits... waiting and getting colder!

But, after two days with the furnace off, a few ounces of ice tea in a milk jug was not frozen solid!
And there was snow blowing in around the two outside doors!
So I think we will be happy with the insulation quality in this home!
PostScript:
This afternoon, we did get the furnace started... finally!
So the house is warming up!

Have you ever looked at SHOES???

This photo got me to looking closer at the set up crew's shoes!
And, no, he isn't standing on the window grid!
Hee, hee!
:)

Some shoes were 'experienced'!

Some had a bit of attitude!

All of them have lots of mileage, on this job alone!

This was lots of fun!

Can you match up each crew member with his shoes?
(hint: look at the group photo)
So, what type of shoes do YOU wear?
:)
Me? Sometimes I wear manure-splattered tennis shoes and sometimes I wear cowboy boots!
P.S. Still no septic or cistern crew!!! ??? Hummm!

Day TEN of the house setup:

Now we have power!
Mike, the local 'power man', came this morning and now all the smoke detectors in the house are beeping! Hee, hee! Music to my ears!

Day Ten was spent in hooking up the waste water lines, etc.
... and even more siding!

Dueling Hammers!

Here is the set up crew!
SPECIAL THANKS to Art and the gang for all their work!

If anyone wants photos....

If anyone is interested in a certain photo or photos, just ask! The photos on this site are in a very small size, so there isn't a long wait for the photos to load on the page. But, I will gladly send a photo/s by email, or as a print by 'snail mail'. Just send an email to stoutdebbie @ hotmail.com. Please note that I added a space on each side of the @ to prevent automatic spam.

Day NINE of the house setup:

Still more roofing and siding work on Day NINE!

We almost have electricity!

OOPS!
Yes, there was a problem... and we could have heped make it a small one!
I was cooking this morning... and John came in saying the septic line looked different than we had talked about...???
I THOUGHT he meant 'different than the contractor's original ideas', and I said it was okay.
BUT what it really meant was the crew spent all day setting up the sewer lines to exit the house on the south instead of the north!
Near the end of the day, John spoke up again.. and this time we all listened to him, finally. The permit stated the septic was to be north, so it will have to be redone.
John made a flying trip to town to get more materials before the plumbing shop closed at 3:00.
Below, a lot of rethinking:

Maybe, just a bit maybe, the crew won't think too harshly of me...
for missing that 'big' detail! I hope not!
I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for the crew, as my way of saying 'THANKS'...
and there was one more fun meal on the picnic table!
(I am very thankful for all the nice weather we have had... allowing the many fun picnics outside watching the house!)

Eating....

The house is coming along! But we are still waiting for some things.
The septic guy didn't show up yesterday.... and everytime I called his shop to see where he was, I got only the answering machine. I thought we had scheduled him to come today!
He couldn't come earlier, as the cistern access box was in the area the set up crew needed to set on the two little tag pieces.
We will see what happens tomorrow!

Days SEVEN and EIGHT of the house setup:

The crew spent Days Seven and Eight working on the roof and siding... and setting down the two small tags.
They alternated between climbing UP to the roof
or DOWN into the crawlspace!
Lots of shingles:

Below, one small section is set down(middle). The outer section(left) is ready to be set.
The three longer sections are to the right.

I am waiting for the garbage truck to get full, but they keep throwing things in!

The last section is moving into position!!!!!

Since the first day, there has been LOTS of work done under the house sections, but it is hard to get photos of this area!
Here, I am laying on the floor inside the small section already set down ... looking under the floor of the outside section.
Jacks are used to raise the section off the roller and beam upon which the piece moved onto the foundation. The house will rest on the bean you can see in the middle of the photo.

At the top left of the photo below, is the beam that the section rolled on.
After the section is against the previous piece, a support is added under the frame.
The roller and beam will be removed, and the house lowered into proper place.

At the end of Day Eight, all five sections are set down!!!!

Lots of work planned for tomorrow!
.... And a bit of fun!