5.31.2010

May 29 and 30, 2010






Had a one day dry spell with the internet. Well, we made what felt like significant progress on the house. We did have a friend come over and help Jason with nailing on the joists. I was thankful as this allowed time for me to cook moose burgers over the fire and watch the guys steadily work. Another friend dropped by and handed out popsicles. It has been HOT, like 70 to 80 degrees. Although some of you may laugh at the numbers, keep in mind it is still May, anyways, the popsicles were much appreciated. We got all 11 joists nailed to the plates and managed to finish the insulation on the floor as well. Yesterday, Charlie and his gang also gave a HUGE helping hand. Along with their handy heavy equipment, 4 guys and Jason moved the materials to our lot. The housewarming party keeps growing with all the people that are pitching in, wonderful! It really is a thrill to be putting in hours toward our home. Jason and I do pray a prayer of thankfulness each day before or shortly after we start work. It is after midnight, although we're tired, we're going to bed with feeling content over a hard day's work.

5.29.2010

May 28th, 2010






Today...wow, today. It is 12:30 and the day is finally ending so to speak. The progress on the lot was fulfilling. After dealing with the foundation for a few weeks, working with actual dimensional lumber was easy. I mean, even if a 2X10 is 16 ft long, one person can maneuver it. We nailed sill logs on, brought a load from Old Town to New town, unloaded that wood, cut the wood to proper size, and began making the floor joists. In between, we took a lunch break and had ground moose sloppy joe and cheddar cheese. Each night, I prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next day, there is no such thing as slowing down to cook that day in building season. Tonight I made spaghetti goulash for tomorrow's lunch and have pizza calzones as dinner. It is just the way life goes right now, busy, but we do take time to eat well. It is a bit of carbo food, I'll have to balance that out as we go along. Tonight was a story in itself. Here we were, coming home from a long day at the lot and the next barge had arrived. Usually that doesn't effect us, but, oh, our building materials are still in the way. Um, Jason learned how to drive Roger's forklift on the spot. I mean, he was learning the ropes of the levers in a matter of seconds and moving our precious cargo. All in all, it all moved fine, just a few pieces were broken. And Jason did wonderful under the circumstances, I couldn't ask for anything better, even if a few pieces split. The reason why they split is because there wasn't anything placed under a couple of 3000 lb loads and so he had to pick them off the ground. Anyways, that is the day in a nutshell. I told Jay that tomorrow we SUCK IT UP, I'm getting him up at 7:30 and we're out at 8:30...we're finishing up the floor joists and, Lord willing, moving the entire 14 pieces of heavy materials to our lot. Glad you checked in with us and our hectic adventure.

5.28.2010

May 27, 2010


I've decided to try and do an entry a day of the hectic building process. After all, in about a week, I'll have a hard time remembering what we did each day. So, this morning, like most mornings in the summer, started with sourdough pancakes. Usually Jay and I are up earlier than Romay. We eat breakfast and drink coffee as Romay snoozes. She'll roll out of bed around 10 and fry her own hot cakes, hot off the pan without any time to spare on a plate waiting, the life span of a hot cake isn't long in our household. We reached a worthwhile goal in building today. Jason had placed 8 sill logs on top of pilings. They sit on top of a plate with 4 pre-drilled holes. Jason leveled the pilings, made an imaginary sill plate (using string and nails) and got all 8 logs to 'agree' with each other. I mean, it is mentally taxing to get each piece right where it needs to go, otherwise, we'll be moving 1 step forward and 3 steps back...hahaha, flashback from the 80s! So anyways, this enabled us to bolt the sill logs onto the plate. If you do the math, that is 24 bolts. A friend stopped by and remarked about how we needed an impact wrench. Ha! But he didn't realize that Jay and I tag team, I drill a hole and Jay uses a ratchet set and gets the screw in. Meanwhile, we talk about how the mosquitoes are getting worse, or the fact that we would be in class at this time IF school were going on. Time flies and as if 7 years of marriage didn't afford more time for bonding. People, other married couples in Galena, have told Jay and I that we spend a lot of time together. Its true, we're always together. And of course we prefer it that way. Anyways, speaking of mosquitoes. We're working on that problem and the problem of too many mosquitoes can put a damper on anyone's goals outdoors. So, here we have the mosquito trap, labeled, "The patriot." I went to see how many mosquitoes were trapped one night and was surprised that they weren't able to fly off with the machine in a huge effort. Good thing they are not that organized. Anyways, I brought the container full of buzzing mosquitos home, placed it in the freezer, 20 minutes later, the container held what looked like some guys hair after visiting the barber. I said my goodbyes with a little too much eagerness. Anyways, we're placing the sill plates on tomorrow...will post pictures. Goodnight.

5.27.2010

House Update






Since we last posted, a lot of small steps have transpired. Housing wise, we're almost finished with a task that, thankfully, is almost finished, the foundation. 12 pilings, are placed accordingly for the house in the midst of the birch and pine trees. A friend came over to cut the pilings with a plasma cutter. Jason welded the top plates on. And we're in the process of getting the sill logs leveled, squared and bolted to the sill plates. Jason was tired of coming home with sloshed damp feet from the water that saturated the ground while drilling pilings. But, we keep reminding ourselves that we're putting hours toward our house, that seems to make the mundane jobs bearable. AND, our materials have arrived! All 15 pieces were placed on the first barge. They are sitting nicely in their packaging, it will be Christmas in May soon. The next time I post, there should be flooring pictures!

5.11.2010

Pile-a-ri-fic






It is 11:30 at night, Jay hit the pillow snoring. What a satisfying day. We went to work, Jay went off to swimming practice and I rushed home to finish off dinner. I met Romay and Jason, with their dinner, we were then off to pick up the rest of the supplies for drilling in our foundational pilings. 3 hours later, after help from Mr. W, we were pleased to say that our first piling was drilled. Of course the icing on the cake was that the driveway is in, it is a bit narrow, but works for now. We'll have to clear a few more trees to widen it. Wow, it is late, I should write more, but school is out in 9 days and we'll put more thought into writing. Tomorrow, same thing: go to work, eat a quick dinner, drill, go home, eat dessert (gotta squeeze that in!), go to bed, repeat..

5.06.2010

What is Leisure?






Jason and I have been asking ourselves that question, leisure is the coffee break in between classes and the break between carrying 300 pound (yeah, total guess there) pilings. So Jason purchased a new welder, I told him not to expect a birthday present as he was already putting it to use tonight. I gotta admit, it is pretty cool, welding that is. It is pushing 11:30 and we have work tomorrow, the pictures will serve justice as they pretty much summarize our romantic evening of breaking in the new toy.