The beginning of wiring the house.

Saturday May 26, 2018

We started our wiring! Kory spent a few hours this morning and earlier this week at the shop creating this contraption.  The wire spool is incredibly heavy! We didn't want to have to drag it around. Plus it really makes "pulling wire" easier. 

We started in the kids room aka our future family room.

We only have the one wall ready so it really didn't take us to long. 

Then we moved out to the "old girls room". Hunter and Brayden drilled holes and Kory and I started pulling more wire. 

We were able to install all the electrical boxes with its wire. 

And the light switches!

Although we didn't have a full day to work I felt like we accomplished a lot!

Two new walls

Saturday, May 19

This weeks project was to build the wall that separates our current master bath from our master bedroom. Trying to build a floor to ceiling wall when the roof, sheet rock and insulation is already on is NOT an easy project. If this was a new house, new construction with no roof pretty sure this little 10 ft wall would have been up in just a short 30 min. But it's not a new house and we do have a crap load of stuff working against us. We started by laying the green board, then Kory hung the top plate. Then with lots of hammering and pushing and hitting the boards from frustration Kory brought out the jacks again and we lifted the roof so we could get the dang studs in.  Because without the roof lifted the dang studs just didn't want to go where they were needed. It was just too tight. 

Brayden and Hunter helped! 

Once framed we sheeted the wall.  

This is what it looks from our bedroom side. 

This is the view from the bathroom. 

It will be nice to have privacy in our bathroom again. For several weeks now without that old brick wall the toilet and shower has been in our bedroom. This specific wall only took about 5 hours to get done. Ughhhhh! 

After our room, Kory wanted to add one more stud to the wall that separates our current front room from our future front room, aka (the kids room right now). This wall will actually one day meet up with the wall that we built earlier in our room. But to do that some of the old sheet rock had to be cut away, old insulation came falling down along with dirt and debris. 

All that nasty stuff not just fell on the floor but on top of the girls clothes, my freshly cleaned counters and my pile of clean dishes I had just laid on the counter to dry.  Times like this just make me so happy. NOT!!! 

Although it was 7 o' clock dinner was not ready. The girls and I had spent the last few hours following behind the men cleaning up after them. Whether it was putting tools away or rinsing my dishes off to dry again. So while the girls and I were getting dinner on Kory decided that he and Hunter would build one more wall. This wall, about 14 ft., went up in probably an hour. I was quite surprised. But then this area of the house is way more open than in our bedroom. All there is above our heads out here are the trusses and roof. We removed the insulation and sheet rock many weeks ago. So there really wasn't much in the way. 

Although things seem to be going so slowly and living in the house it really does feel this way, things are getting done. I am pretty thankful for this blog of mine. When life gets to be "to much" and I need a reminder for how far we've really come I hop on the blog to remind myself of our progress. People keep asking when we think we'll be done. I honestly have no idea! I tell them I "hope" by the end of the year. But I really don't know. This week is the last week of school. I'm really hoping that the kids and I can get some things done during the day while Kory is working. I know we won't be as fast as him and probably not as precise but we will do our best. When Madelyn is asked how our house is coming, her usual response is, "Well, we've got 7 people living in a 2 bedroom apartment".  Our family is so busy during the week with school and extra curricular activities that I hardly notice the way we live any more. The weekends are a little different, every ones usually home. By Monday morning I think we are all tired of living on top of everyone else and look forward to having somewhere to go. I'm really hoping we can have a good summer with our family of 7 living in a 2 bedroom apartment. Hahahaha 

Electrical Panel and a HVAC

I think Summer has officially come!

When it's 82 degrees in my bedroom and it's only one o' clock in the afternoon it can make life a little hard.  What's worse is that the front room/kitchen is usually 7-10 degrees higher. I seriously have a hard time functioning in that kind of warm weather. I have no desire to do anything. Sweeping the floor is enough energy to cause sweat to roll down my forehead or back. It's crazy! For months during the winter I was trying to use my oven every single day to help warm up the house. Whether it is fresh baked cookies or dinner in the oven. Now that its getting warmer outside the oven is off limits! We barbeque, have taco salad and use the crock pot.   

Kory finally decided that it was time to set up our swamp cooler. We had to find a different window this year since the one we used last year is no longer here.  It has been so nice to be able to cool down the house again. We are all a little bit more happier now. 

Saturday, May 12th

 Kory wanted to hang up our new electrical box. But first we had to put the wrap on for the future stucco.  

Kory and Hunter marking where the box will be placed. 

 I love our future bedroom windows! Can't wait to move into our new bedroom (not for a while yet).

And it's in. 

Once the box was up we ran the wire through the conduit. Kory and Hunter was pushing it in on one side while I standing on a 8ft ladder pulling it out the other side. After lots of pushing and pulling we finally got it through. Now we just need the city to come hook it up! 

This week our HVAC guys came and unloaded a huge trailer full of stuff! 

So excited to see this all here. Over the next couple of days we are going to have our air conditioner/ heater installed. 

Not that we can use it yet since so much of our house is not sealed in. But it's awesome knowing we are going to have it again. This coming winter we are not going to have to rely only our wood burner stove! It's going to be awesome not eating breakfast in our coats because the house is 58 degrees.  

Odd's n' End's

Saturday May 5th

Last night was the Father n' Sons. The boys had a great time and didn't get home today until about 11. By the time the truck was unloaded, camping stuff put away and everyone had eaten lunch half our day was gone.

Our good friend, Cody Goodfellow brought over his backhoe and dug a large trench for us. Currently our electrical line is ran through the air to our house. Our goal is to have our future lines under ground. 

Before he could dig the trench he took out our tree stump and an old power line that hasn't been used for a few decades. 

So fun to watch!

 Once the stump and power pole was out of the way the trench was dug!

And then it was too hot to work outside so we moved inside. 

Kory had a client to had to go meet up with so Hunter and I finished putting up the insulation in our future front room. While Hunter hung it I applied the spray foam. 

Later that evening when it cooled down a bit Kory and Hunter hung our windows. 

Woo Hoo! 

These are the windows to our front room where the kids have been sleeping. It is going to be so nice to have some natural light in that room again. 

After the 2 family room windows , they hung both garage windows. It's already nice having those 4 windows out of my current family room. 

Although we didn't have a long day to work I do think we got quite a bit a done. 

Yippee!

The garage is dried in.

Saturday, April 28th 

It seems like the roof was never going to get tied in. We've been working on this part of the house for 3 weeks now. It's been such a slow process! But I am excited to say that today it was finished!!

It is done, done! There is no more natural sky light in our garage. Next time it rains....... our garage should be wet free as it is finally completely dried in. Woo Hoo!!!

Oh my goodness that was a lot of work! 

Tying in the roof MORE....

Saturday, April 21

Another Saturday spent outside. Kory really wanted to finish tying in the garage to the house. We needed to finish framing in the roof that goes over the exterior door from the garage to the back yard. 

The ladders weren't quite tall enough so Kory used the skid steer.

 Inside the garage looking up.

We didn't get as much done as we thought we would but we tried. We at least finished the sheeting of the attic. It's starting to get a little warm and we are hoping now that the attic is fully enclosed it won't heat up quite so quick.