Raise the Roof!

So much has happened in the last 10 weeks. It feels as if time has slowed to a crawl. Most of that is because we are all on lockdown due to the Covid-19 virus. But before all of that craziness started, we accomplished quite a lot on the build. I am going to break this down into a few blog posts. This one is dedicated to the the roof and a bit of the framing.

When last we spoke, the exterior frame was just about complete. I don't think we had taken the aerial shot yet. I wanted to share that because it looks pretty cool...and huge!...from up there.

We finally had a building. Well, at least the frame of one anyway. That was at the end of January.

The first thing they did was to put up the frame of the wall that divides the house from the shop.The closest door goes into the bedroom. The farther door leads to the kitchen. It will make unloading groceries so easy. Oh, how I long for a full-size refrigerator and a range that I can fit more than a 7x11 cookie sheet in! Cooking and baking are my love languages. It won't be long now!

Then they started to put up the roof. We chose charcoal as the color. The metal is Central States thanks to Simpson Culvert in Pleasant View. The quality is the top of the line option to avoid fading from the sun.

It took a lot of people and a few days. Walker and Son Construction showed up with the entire family. We had father, son, son-in-law, wives, and grandchildren plus a few other faithful crew members working hard. We happily fed them lunch nearly every day that they came to work. We appreciate their attention to detail and amazing work ethic. The sheets of metal are huge to avoid seams as much as possible. Here is a shot of the first piece going on.

One by one they put them up as we stood on the sidelines cheering them on. David is still unable to work, which is something he was really hoping to be able to do. God had other plans. Thankfully he is able to be a great cheerleader and runner when they needed materials.

And just like that one side was up, covering the living area of the building. Here is a before and after of the sunroom. It is strange how just a little metal and framing can make things feel so much larger.

And on to the other side...

Once the roof was up, the ridge cap went on to cover the seam down the middle. Gotta keep the inside dry!

Here is the inside with the roof almost complete.

Next up is the siding and interior framing. Happy days!

Come Alive!

“People, he thought, were as hungry for a sight of joy as he had always been--for a moment's relief from that gray load of suffering which seemed so inexplicable and unnecessary.”

― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

This week was a great one. It was a welcome relief after quite a few quiet weeks due to rain.

Monday morning Walker & Son Construction was here and ready to start working.

It took some time, but they were able to get all of the trusses completed. See them all stacked up there in that fireplace opening?

Next, they started putting up some of the exterior walls. It was exciting to see the doorways between the sunroom and our living room and bedroom go up. This is the exterior wall of the “building,” but since we are fully enclosing the lean-to into a sunroom, it ends up being an interior wall. But a strong one! J

That day they also got the exterior garage wall started.  Most of the photos I have taken have been from the same corner of the building. This one is obviously not from that same spot. In this one you are looking at the exterior garage wall through the house with the fireplace on the far side. The trusses are all stacked up in front of the fireplace opening. Trust me, it's there. 

On Tuesday the trusses started going up.

By the end of the day, all but the front and back trusses were completely up.

The next day the front and back walls were up and the trusses in place. It took some time to get the roof line plumb, but they took their time and got it just right. Isn't she pretty??

We have had our first inspection by the bank in order to release some funds. That whole process is stressful and confusing. I think it is all straightened out.

On Friday the sunroom supports went up. They had to spend a good deal of time on the fireplace area with its additional support.

In addition to seeing things installed, we have also had to take some things away from our plans. Sadly, we are deciding to give up the view of the trusses in the house and opting for flat ceilings instead. There are a lot of reasons for this, and it just makes more sense in the long run. I can just walk out to the garage if I want to see those pretty trusses. J  With that decision also came the loss of the skylights in the kitchen and bathroom. I have been promised that the lighting in the bathroom will keep it from feeling dark.

Saturday saw the installation of the tractor shed, the only open lean-to on the building. It has two large openings on the side wall as well as the two ends to aid in moving tractors and equipment in and out.

We also ordered our exterior doors and hardware. That was exciting and expensive. Yeesh!

The structure for the building is up and almost at a 100%. Hopefully no later than Tuesday, it will be ready for metal. They still need to finish some hat channel, which is what they will attach the metal siding and roof to, and frame out the window openings. 

We have been very pleased with VersaTube and the ease in putting up this structure. It has not been without its challenges, however. There is definitely a learning curve. But the structure is sturdy and strong. Their customer support has been helpful. We are happy customers.

Thankfully, Walker & Sons Construction has been up to the challenge of this new build and has been a phenomenal crew. We have been more than happy with their level of hard work and commitment to building us our dream home. It is solid, strong, and safe. We even fed them hot lunches on a few occasions. This week they got homemade chili and corn muffins, red curry chicken soup, and some loaded potato soup. Gotta keep 'em warm and happy so they work hard!

Due to David's injury, he has not been able to help in the way he was planning. He has had to heal over the last couple of months. This week he got a steroid epidural, which hopefully will do the trick and get him back to work - both here and at the fire hall. 

I plan to blog weekly as long as there is progress and pictures to share. 

Stay tuned!
Lizabeth

Take Courage My Heart, Stay Steadfast My Soul

So much has happened in the last few months, including a whole lot of waiting.

In my last blog post, the footers were poured. A few days after that post, it rained. It rained and rained. We had to do some redesigning of drainage for the driveway. And we waited for the ground to dry.

It was another month, the end of November before they could start building the block wall. Our building will sit on 28 inches of concrete block. It was exciting to see the footprint beginning to take shape. Our block layer, Bert, and his sweet wife worked so hard and did a fantastic job.

Two weeks later in mid-December several more loads of gravel were delivered to fill in the footprint in preparation for the concrete slab. We had a nice break from the rain so that some work could once again be accomplished. Our GC Robbie Walker worked to lay the plumbing pipe for sinks, toilet, and shower. Another inspection was conducted and passed.

December 17 was an exciting day as the building was delivered to the property. They unloaded the pallets in our front field. It is hard to believe that the contents of those few pallets will one day be the form for our new house. Then the pallets sat for a month...waiting.

The next step before pouring the slab was to install the pex pipe for the in floor heating system. It started with sheets of rigid foam insulation on the gravel. Then the pipe was stapled to the insulation. It will be nice to have toasty toes in mid-winter. I have heard from several people with in floor heat that they don't use as much fuel heating the house in the winter since the warm floors help regulate the heat in the house. It is our hope that the warm floors and our big fireplace will reduce the amount of electricity needed for heat.

A couple of days after laying the pipe, the concrete trucks arrived again. It was in the 40s that day, so the concrete guys, led once again by Bert, were still here working long after we went to bed. In the interest of full disclosure, we are "early to bed and early to rise" folks, so that means after 9pm. I think David told me it was after 11pm before they finally finished for the day. It took a few extra days to cure because of the cold weather. Bert had to come back to finish a bit more after a few days. So more waiting. However, it looks so pretty!

Once the house is finished, Bert will be coming back to polish and seal the floors. I am so excited about the finished product.

Then came some more waiting...three weeks. During that time we had a lovely Christmas holiday. Our precious oldest daughter came in from Oregon. Since we are living in a very tiny RV and she was headed to Indiana to spend Christmas day with her girlfriend's family, we had an early celebration with dinner at a favorite restaurant and stockings and presents at our son and daughter-in-law's. It was a wonderful day. It went by way too fast.

The new year arrived, and on January 4 we decided to venture into Nashville to a home show. It was not what we expected as most of the vendors were geared to home improvement and not new construction. However, all was not lost. David fell in love with a hot tub, something he has been wanting for a long time. So we took the plunge and bought a portable tub that we have made great use of already. When the house is built and the rest of the concrete is poured, we will move it to the back side of the house. For now, it sits behind our RV and gets used nearly every day.

Cabin fever started raging. I am thankful, however, for friends who offered prayers and words of encouragement. I know it will be worth it all in the end. It is not about the destination, but the journey. And oh, what a journey!

It has been both a blessing and a curse to be living on the property with the building site right outside our RV door. It is a blessing to be able to keep an eye on things, but it has been a curse when weeks go by with nothing being done. Needless to say, between mid-December and mid-January, I struggled with the waiting.

On January 14, just three days ago, my heart began to sing again. The building was moved from the front field back to the job site. It was a very happy day. Just a small baby step was all I needed.

The next day they started to sort through all of the pieces in preparation to begin construction. More joy!

Yesterday and today they laid the 4" solid capstone along the block wall. The building will bolt to this stone. They have also started constructing the pieces, including the trusses to support the roof. They even had a little toast to the fact that the building is square!

It's looking as if we will have a structure going up next week.

I titled this post "Take Courage" since it is the title of a worship song by Bethel Music that I sing often to myself and very loudly in the car. It's all about waiting on God and His perfect timing. Here are the lyrics:

Slow down, take time
"Breathe in," He said
He'd reveal what's to come
The thoughts in His mind
Always higher than mine
He'll reveal all to come

So take courage my heart
Stay steadfast my soul
He's in the waiting
He's in the waiting
And hold onto your hope
As your triumph unfolds
He's never failing
He's never failing

Sing praise my soul
Find strength in joy
Let His words lead you on
Do not forget
His great faithfulness
He'll finish all He's begun

So take courage my heart
Stay steadfast my soul
He's in the waiting
He's in the waiting
And hold onto your hope
As your triumph unfolds
He's never failing
He's never failing
So take courage my heart
Stay steadfast my soul
He's in the waiting
He's in the waiting
And hold onto your hope
As your triumph unfolds
He's never failing
He's never failing

And You who hold the stars
Who call them each by name
Will surely keep Your promise to me
That I will rise in Your victory
And You who hold the stars
Who call them each by name
Will surely keep Your promise to me
That I will rise in Your victory!


Good things are happening. Find joy. It's in the waiting. He's never failing.

Lizabeth

Major Steps and Making It Work

This will be more photo spread than blog post as I attempt to get you caught up on the last ten months.

As of yesterday evening, we have officially been living on the property for four weeks. Four weeks in about 200 square feet. We did want to go tiny, right? Don't laugh. In truth, it has been a very easy transition. We have all of our basic needs and then some...and as a note of interest, a new toilet! But more on that later.

I hope to be able to post often from here on out. The building process is finally underway. However, I do realize this is construction and often that means that you take a step and wait, take a step and wait, take a step and wait...you get the picture. Speaking of pictures...

Since last I posted, much as been accomplished.

January: David was able to install two culverts. One is in the wet-weather creek, so we can drive across from the street side to the building site...kind of a necessity. The other is helping with the rain runoff down the driveway and into the wet-weather creek.

It took the rental of another piece of equipment to make this happen as the driveway still has a lot of trees and rocks.

That's one big culvert!

This is a pano-shot looking down the driveway at the gulley.

The gulley with culvert installed

In January we also bought Ruthie, our 29-foot fifth wheel, which is now our home until we build the shop house. She has two slide-outs for extra living space and room to move around in the bedroom. There is more storage that I know what to do with. We did some minor remodeling. We removed the sleeper sofa and the built in dining table and benches, replacing them with a leather futon and a small table and chairs from IKEA. While the old dining benches did have some extra storage, they were very 80s and had been around a while, so out they went. We also removed all of the window valences and the fabric headboard. YUCK! Old fabrics hold old smells. We cleaned the carpets and made her quite homey!



The plan was to get the house on the market by February 1, so that was what we worked toward during the month of January. We had already cleared most of the stuff out if you will remember from the last blog post about letting go.

February came, and the house on Highpoint was listed. In short, it sat with literally no showings (okay, there were 2) for 3 months before we decided to take it off the market and try again later. More on that when I get to June. At the end of February, we took Ruthie out on her maiden voyage and headed to sunny Florida. We had secured a campsite at the Gulf Islands National Seashore across the bay from Pensacola. It was beautiful. We rested, visited Ft. Pickens and the Pensacola Naval Air Station, had lunch with my second cousin who lives close by, and ate lots and lots fresh fish. Living easily in Ruthie for a week, we both decided that we could handle living in her during the building process.

In March David began the process of clearing the building site of all trees and their stumps. It honestly looked like a minefield.

The driveway was pitched for drainage. Occasionally I would hike up the hill and help him out. Most of the time I sat on the front of the tractor and drove it forward a few feet while he sat on the back and dug...and dug and dug and dug...

AH! The elusive PushMe-PullYou!

In May he went to work on the septic tank and drain field. He had saved the biggest stump for last, which provided a great spot for the septic tank. That was one giant tree stump! It took some digging and pushing around. Eventually I went up to the site, and with both tractors we managed to get it out of the hole.

That is some stump!

Also in May, he bought a land plane and after removing all of the remaining stumps, settled the clearing so it was nice and smooth and level...or so we thought.

So now we are up to June. The house has sat unmoving for several months. We decided to take it off the market at the end of April and just let it sit for a few weeks. I ran into a former co-worker at Golly G's one day who had just this year acquired her real estate license and was part of an amazing team which is led by her mother and father. She asked how the sale of our house was going, and I told her is was off the market for now. She called me that afternoon and told me that her mother wanted to sell my house. That Sunday they came by and we made a plan to do some remodeling to freshen it up. The bathrooms got new floors, countertops, and our bathroom got a tile shower. Everything was painted including a few ceilings, and the kitchen got new countertops and a tile backsplash. Long story short, we re-listed it at the end of June and 8 weeks later we had a contract. The sale closed on October 1. I couldn't be more thankful!

July came and brought with it a promotion for David at NFD. He was promoted to fire engineer. That was an exciting day.

In August he was back to work on installing the septic tank. We waiting until we had a solid offer on the house to do a whole lot of infrastructure. Now things really started moving.

The septic tank hole was dug, the septic tank placed in the hole...and then it rained.

Think of that massive plastic septic tank as a giant empty milk jug thrown into the ocean. They both float. We had to borrow a pump, pump out the water, re-insert and level the tank, and fill the tank with water so it would stay in the ground. Any by "we" I mean David.

At the beginning of September, he also dug the trenches from the top of the driveway all the way back through the woods to the building site for the electricity and water. He rented a smaller trackhoe that could move through the woods easier than the tractor. He even had some occasional help from friends and a friendly new neighbor. I was able to help a few times. Water pipe and electrical conduit was laid. Did I mention that we had the hottest August and September on record? Nearly every day was in the 90s. He worked hard, drank lots of water and Gatorade, and got it done. What a guy!

























In September before we headed to Myrtle Beach where David was the featured speaker at a conference for firefighters, we started the process of laying gravel on the driveway.

Look how pretty this driveway is!

Then while we were gone, our not-quite-level building site was graded by the professionals. Let's just say that there was a 3-foot difference from one side of the site to the other. The slope was so gradual, we didn't even realize it was there. We also applied for, paid for, and received our permits for the building, the power, the water, and the septic tank/drain field. Inspections were made, lines were pulled, and everything was hooked up and running.

When we got home from the beach, we had about a week to finish packing the house and getting everything ready to close on the sale. Boxes were packed, box truck was loaded, RVs hooked up, floors and cabinets cleaned, and off went our worldly possessions.

Shelters in place

October 1 brought the closing of the sale of the Highpoint house. David installed our new mailbox to make it official. While he was digging the trench for the electricity, he dug up a rock that looks quite a bit like the state of Tennessee. Eventually we hope to get the house numbers on that rock, possibly backlit for night time. Either way, it looks pretty cool there by the mailbox, doesn't it?

Less than a week into the stay, and it rained. That might be an understatement. It actually poured. We were thankful for the rain because it brought an end to the very hot month of September and needed water to the area that was in a drought situation. The other positive note was that we were able to see where we had drainage problems on the driveway. So back to the PushMe-PullYou stance we went to re-dig drainage along the driveway to solve (fingers crossed) the problem. So far, with a couple of other minor adjustments, things seem to be holding.

So here we are, settled into our cozy RV. Our youngest daughter bought her own bumper-pull trailer and has painstakingly remodeled it as her own tiny house. Quite literally, she has replaced almost every surface, removed or rebuilt things, and folks, it is totally her. Adorable, soft, and a very adult space. She is renting land from us, and we are so proud of her for taking this step of "home ownership" and not paying someone else's mortgage.

We also installed a solar-powered electric gate for security out here in the woods. It works like a charm!

Next, to get us officially on the road to building a house and meeting the codes requirements, we rented a porta-potty. Go ahead, make your jokes. We have heard them all!

Now it was time to start breaking ground. In a matter of two days, they had dug the footers, had them inspected, and we had three cement trucks pour the footers so that they could cure before block is laid.

Laying rebar for the footers.

And then it rained again...

But that's okay because we have to wait for the block and a crew to lay it. So far we are learning quickly that you often take a step forward and then have to wait on someone else. So we wait for block to be delivered next week, and then we wait for a crew to install it.

In the meantime, the toilet decided to start leaking, so that had to be replaced...in basically a closet that is about 9 square feet. But it works like a charm, and I am not forced to use that porta-potty we rented.

We are loving life here in the woods. It is as peaceful and pleasant as we imagined it would be. As soon as the next step is completed, I will let you know.