Last exterior wall comes down.

Wed, April 7th

Last weekend was General Conference weekend and we didn't do a single thing! It was such a nice break for the WHOLE family! 

On Tuesday night Kory learned that we could get cement again Wed afternoon. We didn't have much of a warning but Kory wanted to try. This is our last exterior wall that needs to come down. This is what it looks like from the outside. The white you see is left over pieces of melamine that Kory screwed to the inside walls to keep the outside elements out of the house. 

This is what it looks like from the inside. After I got the kids to school Kylie and I pushed everything away from the wall so that hopefully nothing would get damaged when the wall comes down. 

 Soon Kory got home and started up the skid steer.

He tied one end of a chain around one of the j-pegs that was sticking out of the top of the wall and the other end around the bucket. 

Then very gently he rolled back and the whole wall came down, which was exactly what we were hoping for!

WooHoo! 

Using the skid steer he was able to pick up/push the rubble into a nice pile in the back yard. 

There were a few pieces we had to pick up by hand.

 Kylie was a big help! 

We finally had it all cleaned up with the top brick (foundation) popped off so the cement will roll into to the bottom making our foundation more strong. 

From the inside. So weird!

We soon got word that the cement wasn't going to be coming until the following day. Oh well.... We had the frame built and ready. Went ahead and hung a few tarps so our family would have some privacy from the neighbors and cars driving up and down our street. Feels like we're camping!

This is what it looks like when we pour the cement in. It fills up the bottom brick and right up to the top of the floor slab. It still a little crazy to me that 2 layers of brick was the foundation of the house. 

Thursday afternoon the cement came and filled up those holes while I was at work. Thursday's are my long day. I work from 9am till closing which can be anywhere from 7-9pm.  So I missed it!

Saturday April 7th

Today we spent the day framing up the wall and sheeting it. 

It always take some time to frame in the windows and doorways.  There are 2 windows in the family room and one in the office. 

We also had to continue the wall that we did 2 weeks ago. We couldn't do it then because of the adjacent brick wall that was still in place.  Notice the dark clouds coming in. Ya, we didn't!

The little short wall we finished has the exterior garage door leading outside. 

Once we got the exterior door framed we were able to begin sheeting the 50 foot wall we had just framed.

All of a sudden a dark cloud rolled over us, we saw lightening and heard thunder. The heaven's opened and the rain came down! 

We continued to work for a few minutes. We were getting pretty wet but thought we could handle it. Then after a loud clap of thunder it started to pour down! We quickly brought the tools in and took cover! We ate some dinner while we were waiting for the rain to let up. 

After about an hour the rain let up enough that we could finish. We only had about 5 sheets left and we really wanted to get it done before dark which thankfully doesn't happen until about 9 pm right now. 

We got her done! It was about 8pm but we did it! 

For the lower picture I am standing at our back door. What you see is going to be the exterior wall of my future office. 

From the outside this is our 50 foot wall. When we get our windows (hopefully this week) we can hang them and then it won't look like this long weird wall. 

What an awesome feeling! All the exterior brick walls are gone and have been replaced (for the front part of the house. When the front is 100% done Kory and I will move to the front room and then we will start on the back portion of the house but for now we're good.) We need to build our master closet wall and then we can lower the roof. Then we've got a few interior brick walls we need to remove so we can frame up the kids bedrooms but it is coming, slowly but surely! It's going to be great to start building our house back instead of always tearing down and making huge messes.