SLOW GOING

Rain, rain, go AWAY! Ugh! Our construction site is a bog. The mud is three feet deep in some areas with more rain forecasted. I wish our roof was on. Right now it's about half-way done. If we can get the house completely sheathed, then maybe I won't have to keep vacuuming out the pond that keeps forming in our basement. The windows arrive tomorrow, so I'm hoping the roof and wall sheathing will get done and wrapped so the windows can be installed this week. But we'll see.

Here's where the house was at on Tuesday. More of the back roof sheathing has been done since this shot was taken as well as the interior stairs from the main level to the upper level. I'm constantly surprised at how much things cost. When did everything get so ridiculously expensive? See this large piece of equipment? It's called a Grade-All and rents for $360 per day. Isn't that crazy? I'm just really hoping we won't need it again.

Thanksgiving was delicious, but relatively quiet. I think we needed a quiet day. Thank you Diane for sending the recipe for your fantastic artichoke dip. It was delicious. We were humbled to reflect on the bounteous blessings the Lord has given us. We are grateful to have such wonderful friends and family who so greatly enrich our lives.

Mud, guts, and more

Here's where the house was as of Friday. It was really muddy (yes, we had more rain) so sorry about the bad camera angle. Cute port-a-potty, huh? We had to brace it because the wind kept knocking it over. Anyhow, the roof should be sheathed before Thanksgiving and once the Tyvek and roof felt are on, the plumber, HVAC installers, woodburning stove, and electrician can all come in. The roofer will start on Friday if the weather holds. So far, we've been blessed with fairly good fall weather and I'm still hoping to get dried in before the snow flies. Here's a shot of the back of the house taken on Tuesday before the garage trusses arrived. Life has been busy - like always - and filled with unexpected complications. Like that fact that our septic outlet line was accidentally crushed and now has to be replaced and we've been taking turns being sick. My turn came yesterday and today. I haven't gotten enough sleep lately, so I guess it was inevitable, but I'm anxious to get my energy back and for my headache to go away.


Jeff and Trevor went hunting last week and the friend they went with shot a buck. Jeff and Trevor are going back to try for one of their own. It's too bad they didn't buy an elk tag. We discovered a large swath of hoofprints not 200 yards from our new house. Jeff waited around yesterday to find out what animal made them and found himself being stared down by about twenty elk. They were all female, but the males can't be that far away.




Lindsey and I saw Twilight on Friday. She didn't like it nearly as much as the book. I thought the book was better, but liked the movie too. The casting was excellent. I just wish they had cut some of the cheesy dialog.

Vader and Yoda (aka Jasper and Edward)

Meet the newest members of our family. Yes, they're adorable and so funny. They wrestle and chase each other and generally act like the boys that they are. What to call them though. Hmmm. That's been an issue. You see, Lindsey is all Twilight crazed and counting down to the movie release. So to her, the black one is Jasper and the tabby is Edward (I suggested Emmett, but no one agreed with me). However, since we live in a testosterone saturated house and are outnumbered three to one, Lindsey and I lost the name vote. So the black cat is Vader and the tabby is Yoda, but Lindsey and I never call them by those names. The really weird thing is that Jeff and Trevor actually like them (although they won't admit it). The kittens were cuddled in Jeff's lap when I snapped the pic.


Construction is going slow, but it is going. If only it would STOP RAINING! Ugh. Two solid weeks of the wet stuff with temperatures hovering within ten degrees above freezing. I think I need to give our framers a Christmas bonus. The joists should be up this week and the roof arrives on Friday. Of course, plans may change if the mud slick that is our construction site becomes a swamp.

October Run

I can hardly believe it's November already - where did the days go? I guess that's what happens when I'm running to keep up with everything, and not quite making it (Run Jen, run!). Things like dates and calendars and a sense of balance fly out the window. Unbalanced though my life may be right now, it is never boring. And I am keeping up, albeit, but the tips of my fingernails.

Home construction is coming along without any major blips except the rain today. So we slogged through the mud to 'clean up' our construction site, tracking great clods of goo as we went. We collected and sorted cans, cardboard, stray nails and a variety of other things into piles and put the cases of unopened nails, caulk, and lumber under tarps. Now, even if it rains all weekend long, nothing should get damaged. I'm just hoping the wind doesn't kick up, or we could be tracking those tarps all the way to Montana. We also have a huge pile of stubby little pieces of lumber that we'll burn for a bonfire as soon as it dries out again. We don't have much light pollution here and at night, it's an amazing fresh air planetarium. I think it will be a lot of fun to roast marshmallows around a bonfire and get the kids excited about living there and then bank the fire and watch for meteorites. Right now, they just complain about the work (although not too loudly). But honestly, all in all, everything is going rather well. All the sub-contractors I've hired so far have been excellent. Our framers did a fantastic job on the basement and took extra pains to level the walls since the concrete slab wasn't. The next level should go up much more quickly.

Trevor threw his first official party last night. He has a really sharp group of friends and they came and hung out in the basement for five hours playing games and watching Nacho Libre and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They apparently find these movies hilarious, but I think they're beyond stupid. Maybe the combined effects of exhaustion and sugar alter teenage boy brains.

The other kids thought Halloween was a bit lame, but mostly because of the rain. They carved pumpkins and we put lightsticks in them so they glowed in different colors. Lindsey's owl pumpkin turned our really well. They all dressed up and we wen't to church for a one hour trunk or treat. It was cold. It was wet. Thank goodness it was short. Then those of us not included in the teenage boy party cave, sat in the living room and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Monster House scared Nathan too much). I thought the light sticks were a wonderful idea, no flame, no fire risk, cool colors. But they have a downside too. Nathan bit one and suffered chemical burns in his mouth. So I'm thinking my wonderful idea will have to wait until my kids stop taste testing every brightly colored thing thinking it's candy.