The Final Push to Finish the House!

We are nearing the end!

March 2009-Aug.6, 2010

I haven't updated the BLOG for quite some time so to let you know we haven't died or broke a leg or otherwise given up on our little project. To say the least I will spare you all the details of what we have been up to but needless to say we have not done much but work day and night since December to finish up hundreds of projects. Rue and I have been working virtually alone to do everything but the plumbing (I installed all of the fixtures) Rue did all of the tile work and painting (she doesn't trust me with a brush)! we hired out the carpet install upstairs but I did the hardwood floor by myself, we hired out the siding as I decided after climbing up about 20 feet and painting soffits in preparation for the siding that I was way to OLD and FRAGILE to take a chance at falling off of the ladder. So we contracted out the siding and seamless gutters for $2,100. We still don't have the siding complete since we ran out and are waiting on the delivery of one box from back east somewhere! Supposed to be here this week but we haven't heard if it showed up and it hasn't been delivered. We've been waiting 3 weeks now. Less than one box needed to finish. I have finished every room except for some minor trim

in the office and on the back porch and one dead bolt lock hole in the door between the sewing room and the store room. We finished installing the brick patio pavers last night and that is a big relief as it took quite a while to get it in. My knees got tired and I nearly wore out my knee pads. I must have wore out 6 or 7 pairs of gloves and still had plenty of splinters, cuts, bruises, and blisters!

Our goal was to finish everything before winter set in, get our winter wood supply in for the stove and my shop (lucked out when we had 80 mph winds in town and my neighbors 60 foot spruce blew down and I cut it up for wood without leaving town and hauling it home in a wheel barrow, nearly two cords!), go fishing and camping, and go to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons! Well we are nearly complete but two things I have failed at since I felt guilty if I wasn't working on some project so the fishing suffered with only one attempt and I blown off the lake with Chris, Caylee and Aiden and we haven't been camping even once! We had a 4 day trip planned for the 4th of July but I wound up spending 3 days in Chris's basement helping him with his rough in electrical, plumbing and installing a shower. Spent time at John's at Stevens baptism. He was sure excited! We had a good time at Chris's and Johns so all was not lost! So what follows are some of the highlights of the last several months! We are now ready to leave for Yellowstone to meet up with Matt and April and kids this Saturday for two weeks away from home!!!!

I will try and get better photo's when we return from Yellowstone! It was good to hear from Matthew today as he informed us that he just got a new job with a promotion and bust in pay today. He was pretty excited as much as Matt shows excitement!

Novembers progress and our trip to New York City.

This is part 2 of my update. I'm trying to keep things in order and it appears that there is a limit to the number of photo's that can be added to a blog at any one time.

No one can say I don't have an education even Rue says going to Harvard (even for a couple of hours) made my head swell! The following photo's are of our day trip to Boston where we continued our visit to the original Harvard Campus. As you can see it was raining while there but we had a good time and really enjoyed the history!

Here Rue is rubbing the left foot of a statue John Harvard the founder of Harvard. The purpose of rubbing the foot is for good luck and you can see that under Rue's hand the foot is very shining. It has been rubbed by many students and visitors alike!
The photo's below are of Boston Common's with all of the 300 year old or older buildings still in use. We were moving so fast with our guide and never were able to get a good map of the area that we aren't sure which building is which. Rue and I both decided that we are going to come back when we have time to really look and walk around.

The building below is the capital of Massachusetts. It is across form the large church at left. I haven't learned to rotate my photo's prior to importing them so several are are sideways.

This is a statue of Benjamin Franklin and below is the Old State House where the Declaration of Independence was read to the citizens of Boston who were standing in the commons front of the balcony below. The commons is now and intersection with a traffic light.

Below is a picture of the USS Constitution the oldest ship of the line in the US Fleet. It is in for

a major overhaul to replace rotten timbers. The USS Constitution was launched on October 21, 1797. The ship is 212 years old!

The large monument to the left of the flag pole below is the Bunker Hill Memorial where one of the first major battles of the American Revolution took place. This is just above the Navel Ship Yard where the USS Constitution is berthed.

We left New York the next morning and returned to Denver where we were able to visit over night with Chris and Heather and kids. Below are Sawyer and Caylee.

Caylee is a sick girl in this picture and doesn't look very happy!

Well we are back to working on the house which is a never ending project. We are making progress! Rue has claimed her pantry and below is doing finishing touches on the molding.

The laundry room is nearly finished at least enough to pass the occupancy inspection. Rue has set the tile on the counter top, she will grout it this week while I am in Denver.

I spent today putting case trim and molding around the down stairs windows today. I nearly finished them but rain out of steam!. Only need to put the top molding return ends in place. They are cut out but need to be glued and nailed in place.

When I get back Rue and I will start laying the wood flooring. When that is done I can install the last door downstairs and start putting up the door casement and trim. After that we will be mostly done with the downstairs and can apply for an temporary occupancy permit and move in our furniture and finally clean out Rue's garage so she can park her car inside for the first time since March.

We are looking forward to getting this room done, even though there are cabinets and closets to build but I will work on those after the big stuff is done.

We are looking forward the upcoming holidays as we will travel to New Mexico to see my mom and brothers and sister. Then we will go to Chris and Heathers on the 27th of December to pick up Caylee, Aiden, and Sawyer for a week to give mom a rest since Heather is due on the 23rd of December with a little girl. We will then travel back to take the kids home the following weekend. A lot of road time so here is praying that the weather will cooperate!

Rue and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

The House Work Continues to Progress Slowly but Surely!

27 October, 2009

We have started working on finishing rooms and I have tried to show several things that have occupied our time over the last month or so! Rue is starting to set the cultured stone for our wood stove. Our tape and texture crew was a week behind in their work so it put us in a bind and we had to have the wall finished by Thursday morning so the stove installers could get their work completed. So Rue and I started after work on Wed. at %Pm and worked until 2:50 am to get the wall stone installed. Rue had to go to work but I stayed home as the plumbers we in that day as well to replace the hot water boiler system piping from the boiler into the original part of the house which had developed a leak since we started working on the house.

New corner finished at 2:50 am Thursday morning!

Stove pipe installation

New sewer lines! A far cry from what was there for 609 or 70 years!

The new heating lines are the two PEC's lines that can be seen seen next

to sewer pipes.

The crawl space below the addition allows you to

move around with ease. The main house you are

on your back with only inches to spare.

Laundry room cabinets.

Laundry room with garage access. Old access was

outside. Now we have an attached garage with indoor

access! New door and trim still need to be installed.

Stove installed and in full use. Heats the entire down

stairs!

New floor in pantry

New walls glued to the brick in pantry and Rue sanding Patches this morning getting ready to paint prior to putting up wall paper. Will finish electric in this room and laundry room tonight and computer room tomorrow. We have the flooring for the downstairs and within two weeks we will be laying it down if all goes well. Still need to paint the family room before the flooring goes in. We started this project 7 months ago and have made a lot of progress. We have gotten this far with a total cost of $45 per square foot with Rue and I doing everything we can ourselves and help from friends. I expect to finish everything we will be at about $55/square foot when we are done. We have purchsed furniture but not bathroom fixtures to date. Will update our progress soon!

Sept. 17, 2010

It has been nearly two months since I have updated this blog. We are still working on the house and I believe we will for the next year or more! We finally got a roof on with over 20 days of rain and only minimal damage to the sub-floor. We hired a plumber to come in and the rough plumbing since it was beyond my limited plumbing skill and way beyond my limited patience! We failed our first rough plumbing inspection and pasted it a few days later after fixing the problem. I then started concentrating on the wiring. In this addition there is more wire than in the entire rest of the house. I started out by buying 750 feed of 12-2 wire and soon bought more and more! I now have strung over 1200 feet. A friend form church helped me wire the breaker box and we passed the electrical inspection with only a few minor corrections last Friday. We passed the inspection at 11:30 on Friday and Rue called to set up a Framing Inspection for Monday but he couldn't come because he was going on vacation. Well he said he could come around 2 PM if we were ready. He came and spent about 15 minutes looking and made a few comments and passed us. That days was really crazing since the sprinkler contractor came at the same time to look at repairing our damaged system. He left and a couple of scout friends came by and loaded up our old left over metal roofing and lumber we salvaged from the demolition of part of the house. They are using it to roof a building at the new High Adventure Base we are building an hour from here, the lumber will be used for a deck at the rifle and archery range. Yesterday the foaming crew came and started insulating the walls and ceiling and they returned today and finished it. The sprinkler crew came today as well and started working on the sprinkler system. Rue and I were at work but came home before lunch to check on things! People and vehicles were parked every where. The insulation is done except where Rue and I will be hanging it as sound proofing between rooms. We will get this done this weekend since the drywall crew is coming on Tuesday morning! Things seemed to be going slow for so long and no all of a sudden we are in high gear! I have to rent a cement mixer tomorrow to try and finish my side walks which I started pour two weeks ago. The mixer I had borrowed broke down and we fixed the carburetor but it still doesn't start. I have to get at least to more sections poured this weekend, three if my back holds up! No kids here to help!. John came and helped one day and I got the missionaries to help another day. I also have a load of sheet rock being delivered tomorrow. Hopefully I can get it unloaded close to the house and then I will tarp it until the drywallers arrive! We following are pictures of the addition from where I left off last time.

Sunday June 21, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

View of mountains above Creede, Colorado

Looking over the Creede Caldera an extinct volcano's crater.

Mine ruins above Creede.

Rue harvesting her rhubarb out of the "garden" only two

plants that have survived the construction.

Monte and Gerald tying the roof joist together.

Chris and Aidean standing in the door to the garage.

The only door that makes Chris feel tall!

The trusses in the upstairs are nearing completion.

The door to the back bedroom.

Door into upstairs store room and Rues sewing room.

The web of all of the trusses going together. we are now taking off the original roof on the house in places in order to get the new roof tied in! Only two or three days before we can get the roof closed in and the rain out! (If all goes well)

Rue cleaning up after a day of construction. We try to get this done every day to make the job site safer. We have hauled about 17 tons of debris to the land fill. This is even after giving away or storing 2 tons of brick for future patio projects. Looking forward to the time when we are getting things livable!

This weekend I worked on plumbing all day Saturday and will take a couple more days off this week to work on the house with Monte and Gerald. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be installing windows. We still need the house wrap and stairs then I will be pretty much on my own to get things finished. Am hoping to get the Elders Quorum to help put dry wall on the second floor before we close off the opening in the second floor bedroom. That's all for now.