No Rest For The Weary

Friday May 3, 2019

This past week we had to make a rather big decesion. Upon knocking down the house we quickly discovered that the cement slab was not up to par! Code say slabs must be 3.5-4 inches thick. In the corner we were lucky to have 2.5. Knowing we were building a 2 story and this corner would have a lot of weight we thought we may need to take out all the cement and re-pour. We had 3 different contractor friends come take a look and they all agreed! This was NOT on our to do list!

Kory was able to rent a jack hammer that attaches to our skid steer Friday morning. He spent the day drilling holes that cracked the cement.  

Walking from our front room to the current kitchen there was a step up. That was the only part of the house that we had this weird step. Kory was able to talk to someone who lived in the house as a child. He told us that our current kitchen use to be a family room. The previous owner had several steps down kind of creating a theater seating. The new owners didn't like it so filled it with cement. Wow!

Kory was able to get the cement broken up on Friday. We also hauled off 3 trailers full of cement! Those were some heavy loads!

In the end we had 4 different slabs of concrete we removed!

May 4th, Saturday morning, all we had left was the cement slab over the cellar. 

Beneath the cement were old, 2x8's that were rotted and termite eaten. These 2x8's were the only thing holding up the ceiling down there. 

Linking a chain around the slab Kory was able to pull the cement off those old boards. 

This left us a bunch of rubble stuck to those old boards to take out. Every time we scooped up a shovel full we had too much debri falling into our fully stocked cellar.  

So the kids and I stopped and emptied it. 

We were kind of in a hurry to get all that cleaned up so we just stock piled everything on our kitchen table and surrounding area. 

My kitchen was sitting on that cement. We had to move it to the other side. There's no water hookups over here. This room will be our future office. I will be without a kitchen sink with running water for hopefully no more than a week. My plan is to wash dishes in the bathroom!

 Hunter was able to spend quite a bit of time on the skid steer this weekend! He has been so helpful in all of this mahem!

Brayden and Dad, taking a sledge hammer to the part the skid steer couldn't reach. 

It took a while but we finally got everything cleaned out!

We are so, so tired. cement is so heavy! At the same time we're excited! Hopefully we'll pour the new cement next week and then soon after we can start framing!

Settling In

For the past few day's I have been trying my hardest to find all of our belongings a new home! 90% of our stuff got moved this past weekend.  I seriously feel like I just moved into a new house and trying to find a new home for everything. With out having a real kitchen, dining room and finished rooms it has been a little daunting. But I think we're about there. 

Standing in front of my front door. I've got 2 pantry shelfs (can't see them in this picture), 2 refrigeraters and a freezer on the left. To my right we've got 49 boxes of mudd to tape and texture the house with (can't see them in this picture). From here you can see my make shift door leading out to what use to be my kitchen. 

A little closer to that back door. If I keep the table up against the wall when its not being used we have plenty of room to walk around it. To the right is our family room/office. 

Look at that! No more bins, ladders or tools sitting in the middle of the floor. 

We've definetley got wall to wall furniture going on.  

We have enough room to sit on the couch and visit with each other. 

My oven is still in the family room but at least I still have one. 

I'm standing in front of the make shift door leading out to my old kitchen. 

Girls room. 

We were able to get all 3 beds plus a desk to fit. 

WooHoo! 

Our bathroom is NOT completely done but is going to have to be like this for another few days. Kory's currently out of town at the moment. When he gets back he's going to build me a cabinet that will hang above the toilet for us to keep the towels in. At the moment everyones bath stuff is in those 6 drawers and cleaning supplies are under the sink. At least it's clean and tidy. One day our tile guy will come back and will gout around the toilet and the floor. 

Our laundry room has it the worse! I've got bins of stuff. Picture frames and decor that are too large to allow the lid to be put on. I really don't want this stuff outside where bugs can get into it. And so it's going to have to be here for a while. Many weeks ago Kory finished all the electrical outlets in here. So instead of the counter holding laundry baskets full of folded clothes it now holds my microwave, toaster, vitamix, crockpot and rice cooker. The only other working outlet is behind my couch in the family room. I used it on Sunday but what a pain. My couch was half way into the middle of the room while everything cooked on the floor. So annoying! This new set up has been great the past 2 days. 

My 3 burner stove is set up once again outside. I took pictures while I was making dinner tonight. Hence the pots on the stove.  

It has been raining here the past 3 days off and on. We're trying to protect the new sheetrock in the bathroom and laundry room. The back of those rooms is exposed and is what is behind my kitchen sink.  So we screwed the top of a tarp as high as we could to protect it. The tarp is big enough that it covers my counter and drawers.  It was a real pain to keep putting it up and down several times a day. This afternoon I was able to roll it up and keep it up with bungee cables. When it begans to rain again I was able to quickly unroll it and cover it again.

It's most definetly uncoventional. It's weird to be outside cooking dinner with my kids jumping on the trampoline right behind me, seeing the neighbor kids playing next door or riding their bikes up an down their long driveway. I feel like we're camping and I'm outside getting dinner ready. But I imagine like everything else these past 14 months that I will get accustomed to it pretty quickly. This will become my new normal. I'm not feeling quite so overwhelmed now that my house feels clean, tidy and orderly. Well as orderly as it's going to be for now. Hahahaha 

I almost feel like I can make cookies, scrapbook or just sit and relax again. 

Productive Week

Six weeks ago Maddie and I came home from one of her last volleyball tournaments to find the kids bathroom sheetrocked. We had installed the bathtub and moved the toilet about 2 weeks prior. During these past 6 weeks not much on the house has been done. We've been waiting on one guy to come tape and texture the house and another guy to come lay the tile in the bathroom. The weather is changing, it's getting warmer and warmer. I swear Hurricane Ut skips spring. We go straight from winter to summer. 2 weeks ago it was raining, windy and cold. Our heater is set at 67 and it kicked on quite often during the night and day. The highs were under 70 degrees. Fast forward 2 weeks and we've hit 84 for the past 3-4 days. It sunny and hot in the afternoons. Knowing this is only going to get worse we decided we couldn't wait any longer on our help and we'd have to keep on with the house. Our break is officically over! 

Saturday April 20th we decided to install the cabinets into Brayden's future bedroom but will be the 3 girls for now. Emily was a great help vacuming all the dust out. The boys had taken the quads out that morning and Kory and I were going to the temple that evening with friends so the install part is all that we got done on Saturday.  This week our goal is to get the kids into their rooms. Then we need to move everything from the back of the house to the front of the house. Kory has made arrangements to borrow a giant machine to take down the back part of the house. Everything in the attic, master bedroom/closet and kitchen needs to be moved. Eeek!

Monday April 22 while the kiddo's were at school I cleaned the 2nd bedroom to get it ready for the girls. I had to move 6 buckets of primer and paint, boxes of electrial materials, extension cords, tools, and other construction stuff we have used and thrown into that bedroom. I then swept and vacumned up all the dust on the floor. Before moving the girls things in I went through every drawer, article of clothing and toys. I had a nice little pile to donate to D.I. Then came the fun part! Moving all of their stuff into the closet. 

  

As I was getting ready to move beds Kory came home and reminded me that this bedroom and closet is a little bit smaller than the other one. Being we've got 3 girls in one and 2 boys in the other he thought I should probably swap bedrooms for them. Why hadn't I thought of this beforehand??

So that afternoon I spent going through Brayden and Hunter's things. With their help we got rid of clothes that don't fit and toys that aren't played with anymore. We cleaned their room from top to bottom getting it ready to move the girls in!

Tuesday the 23rd 

Was our 1st of many "moving day". I spent it moving all the boy's belongings into their new bedroom and all the girls belongings into the girls new room. The items that they don't need right away we boxed up to make room for other things. It's tight but we've got this!

Wednesday the 24th

I spent my day cleaning the current master bedroom and closet. It seems like our room has become the "don't know where to put it? Throw it on mom's bed!" We've got tools, piles of craft and sewing stuff that has been pulled out or bought and have never found a home for. I went to Costco that morning and came home with more bins to re-pack stuff into. Now that the kids beds are out of our future master bedroom it's about time we move in. 

Thursday the 25th

I got a surprise visitor this morning. Our tape and texture guy showed up. 

Woo Hoo! 

While he was busy taping I was now going through my kitchen. Putting items that had been pulled out back into their rightful bins. Going through my dishes and getting rid of things we just don't use anymore. Tomorrow is another moving day and I needed everything to be organized and packed up to move. 

Using our own little back hoe Kory began taking down the outside panelling. The kids and I would then pick everything up and throw it in the back of the trailer. We've got a huge mess coming our way!

Friday, April 26th

I moved our master bedroom and closet into our new room. When I first moved our bed I loved how spacious our room felt. I couldn't believe that in just a few months (I hope) that this is what our bedroom would feel like. It got me all excited! But then I had to move everything else in too. 

Wall to wall furniture and stuff but we can do this! It took me all day to finish packing up and going through everything and then moving it all and setting everything back up. But I got it done before dinner.

My tape and texture guy came back to to put the 2nd coat on. When he left my tile guy showed up!

Wow!

We had to remove our one and only toilet!

We ended up going almost 48 hours without it. 

Was not a fan but I managed! Throughout the day I'd drive down to Kory's shop to use the toilet. On Saturday the girls and I made that trip a few times while the boys found a corner in the back yard to use. And I'll admit that night when we finally quit working it was after 11:30pm and I too went out and found a bush! I was beyond tired!

Friday night after Kory got home from work we had to move the kitchen! We had 2 refrigeraters, 1 freezer, 4 food panty shelfs, the cupboard that we keep our plates, bowls and glasses in. Plus we had Maddies desk, our 24 hr kits and more bins of stuff! We worked and worked and worked! We got to bed super late but it's ready for tomorrow.

Saturday, April 27th, was our big day! The back part of the house was completly empty! 

Our big machine that we borrowed from a friend was delivered and Kory was ready to start taking it all down!

It was fun to watch. At the end of the arm was like a hand. He could litterally grab the trusses, pull them off the house and dump it into our trailer. 

It was amazing to stand there and watch. 

Soon the top roof and trusses were gone. Then he started in on the original flat roof and those trusses that have been burried for many, many years!

It was crazy to stand in front of my front door and see out the back!

It's amazing to think of the hours, the weeks and the months it takes to build a house. And then in just one day it's gone!

We took one load to the dump, filled the trailer again and tarped it so it's ready to go first thing Monday morning. 

The trailer was full! I bet we've got another 4-5 loads to haul away!

So, so happy to know that the brick is gone! No more hiding mice, no more hanta virus scare. It's all going away!

The excitement to see everything torn down and the knowledge of we're getting closer and closer was real. However the overwhelming feeling of being a mother to my brood of 5 plus the hubby quickly set in. I lost my kitchen! My sink, dishwasher, vita mix, microwave and 3 burner camp stove is all outside. On accident Kory ripped out the electrical wiring meaning my outletS and dishwasher are not currently working. How am I going to fulfill my motherly duties like this? 

While Kory was ripping everything down I was inside trying to to find a home for everything that got moved. Our family of 7 is now living in a 3 bedroom ( 2 bedrooms have no ceiling light or outlets), 1 bath (no outlets, no ceiling light, no sink, no toilet), 1 family room house. No dining room, no kitchen. Eeek! Before dark we hung several sheets of insulation over the openings from inside the house to the great outdoors to keep stray animals from entering. This is just temporary till Monday. Then we'll have to do something different so we don't have to walk all away around the house to get to our kitchen sink. Rain is in the forecast! We have no landscpaing so when it rains all we get is mud. I seriously can NOT handle to mud on top of everthing else right now!

Saturday night we were able to move the bathroom vanity out of my entryway into the bathroom. Kory tried plumbing the sink but our pea trap kit was missing a part. We ran into St. George to Lowes (the only place that had the part) but got there at 10:03, just 3 minutes after closing. Ughhhh. So needing running water inside the house he went ahead and got water to the sink and then we put a 5 gallon bucket under the cabinet to collect the waste water. Hopefully Monday we can get that fixed and working properly. 

Sunday morning April 28th,  we got up, despite our tiredness from one of our longest weeks ever, to get ready for church. We quickly discovered  the only working outlets had the computer/tv and refigeraters/freezer was plugged in to them. And so despite it being Sunday morning with the tape and texture in the bathroom finished Kory installed our lights and electrial outlets! Our family was able to get ready for chuch in our bathroom! We had light to see, water to brush our teeth (no more kitchen sink) and outlets that we used to blowdry and straighten our hair. No more getting ready in the kitchen or entry way or in the dark. 

The things we take for granted! It brough tears of joy to my eyes! 

Tomorrow and probably several days after  I will be organinzing our front room/kitchen and bathroom so that it is more functional. We've got piles of tools all over the place! Being able to move that bathroom vanity opened up our entryway to hold something new and hopefully give us more room. Our family's motto is "I can do hard things". Tomorrow is going to be rough. Heck this whole week getting use to our new surroundings is going to be a bit rough.  The overwhelmed feeling is not going to go away overnight. But I can do hard things. I can make this work! 

Kids Bathroom

We have been down to one bathroom for some time. And even that wasn't a complete bathroom. We haven't had a bathroom sink in what feels like for ages. But the day has finally come that we could replace the old shower with the new and move the toilet over. Oh how I have disliked the old shower. It's stained a permanent light brown and always looks nasty! The corners are rusty, the drain is rusty and has never drained real well. There is a lip as  you step into the shower and underneath that lip seems to collect everything and in a week turns black. It's crazy!!!   The shower curtain was here when we moved in. Before we showered I threw that sucker in the washer 2x before we used it. We have now used it for 2.5 years and who only knows how long it was used before that. There were a few rips and tears and the stains oh my! If I would have known that we were going to use it for as long as we did I would have replaced it immediately. Oh well! Back to the shower, the sides of the shower would wiggle when pressed on. I've just been waiting for someone to lean against it and hear them scream that the entire side fell down. Luckily that never happened.   

The last of the interior brick on the front part of the house is gone!

WooHoo!

Kory, Hunter and I each took turns with the sledge hammer trying to get the cement block up that the shower had sat on. It did NOT want to come out. Seriously it took hours to get it all up. 

Then came the toilet. Had to move it since that's where the new tub/shower is going to sit. 

Brayden was our happy helper for the day. 

Of course the plumbing we did for the tub/shower months ago wasn't quite were we needed it. So we got to cut into the cement and extend the plumbing for it.

What a mess!

It's always a good feeling and an overwhelming feeling when we do these bigger projects!

The mess it makes can be so overwhelming. 

But with a smile we do our best!

This project only took about 10 hours!

Sunday morning we were able to use our shower for the first time!

It was absolutely marvelous. The kids love having a bathtub again and thinks it's huge compared to what we had. I love that it's so white and shiny and clean looking! The water heater is much closer and we've got hot water almost immediately! 

So, so awesome!