November 30, 2006

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!!!!

November 29, 2006

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??????)

November 28, 2006

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.......

November 27, 2006

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!

November 26, 2006

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!

November 21, 2006

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.

November 20, 2006

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!

November 19, 2006

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!

November 17, 2006

Days FIVE and SIX of the house setup:

Sorry, I missed posting yesterday! I will try to catch up.
The house is taking shape!
Day Five was spent putting up siding and trying to keep the roof coverings in place!
(Actually, the crew would have preferred to get right to work on the shingles... but are waiting for the materials coming inside the smaller house sections!)

Here, siding is installed on the house ends.

more siding work...

The two sections arrived on Day SIX!
The crew worked to get everything ready to move the two small sections onto the foundation. All the timbers, beams, blocks, pallets, and tools had to be moved from one side of the foundation to the opposite side.
It was a bit cool this morning.... notice the foreman's breath!

Here the sections, are going through Havre!

We were on business in town, and made a point of watching for the trucks! I was driving in the opposite lane, but had to take a few photos!

I arrived home just before dark, and it was so exciting to see one tag was already in place above the foundation!

The heating guys came at dark, and worked in the cold and dark to get the furnace hooked up.
The set up boss wanted the furnace on this weekend to warm up the house for the inside prep crew.

So, next week, serious work will begin on the inside!
Soon, I will take you all on a tour of the interior!

November 15, 2006

Day FOUR of the house setup:

Today, the crew made the roof a priority. With all the high wind warnings for this area, it seemed to be a wise decision.

No, I am still not going to show any photos of the inside yet....
well, just this one!
I thought you might find it interesting.
A 'marriage line' is where two sections come together.
As there are three sections to this 'triple-wide', there are two marriage lines.
When the two little sections become part of the house, there will be four marriage lines.

The two 'tags' are due to arrive tomorrow... wind permitting.
*** I have been very happy with the set up crew!
When they arrived, the boss said: "We try to set your home up in the way that we would want our home." And I will say they seem to be trying their best to do exactly that!
It is so nice to finally relax and let someone else take care of the worrying!

November 14, 2006

Day THREE of the house setup:

Section Three was moved into place today.
Other work intruded on my duty to 'watch', but I did take a few photos. :)
Here, the third section is halfway onto the foundation.

Even MORE PLASTIC to remove:
(And the wind rages on!)

The most exciting part was work began inside!
Here, a temporary bracing wall is removed!

All three long sections are together! It begins to look like a house!

The final two small sections are due to arrive Thursday... if the high winds die down! Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana have had rain, snow, and wind for the past week... I hope it is time to have a bit more nice weather before winter really sets in to stay!
The weatherman says the sun is coming again... if we, and the crew, can hold out for another day or two!

November 13, 2006

Day TWO of the house setup:

Section Two is raised to a level above the foudnation.
This photo shows the wheels and axles along the house frame...
here they are shown dropped.

From now on the sections will be placed up against each other, so all the plastic protecting the interior of the house must be removed! It was quite a task... taking an unbelievably long time!

The center section is now moved across the foundation... and even more plastic is removed!

The crew spent half their time reaching up as high as they could
and the rest of the time with their head hanging over the edge of the roof!

A view under the sections:
The braces, winches, jacks and blocking will be used to level the sections...
From now on, there will be many adjustments: one side up, one side down... one end higher, and one corner lower... etc.

My mom, brother and sisterinlaw came down to watch for a few hours.
I cooked a turkey and we had a simple picnic outside, watching the house pieces go together.
Plus, the local coop brought the propane tank and put in a line to the house... so things are coming along!
About midday, John moved the third section into place.

The crew jacked up the last section... BUT the wind came up... VERY STRONG!
And believe it or not, the crew left!
I guess the house was safer jacked up high ALONGSIDE the foundation
than up on rollers NOT tied down...?
Tomorrow should be even more fun!