Thursday, May 16, 2019

Upstairs Floor

Thursday May 16th

On Saturday April 27th my kitchen sink became our outdoor sink. It had running water but my counter no longer had working electric plugs. They were torn out on accident when the rest of the house was torn down. Meaning no dishwasher and no garbage disposal. 

Being my sink and counter was outside and it is ALWAYS windy here my sink was always dirty and full of dirt. I would have to clean it everytime I needed to do dishes. With a family of 7 I feel like the dishes never ended sometimes. We kept a tarp over it when it rained or at night (just in case it decided to rain) but the tarp wasn't new either. It was dirty from the get go and let's just say it got old real quick. Both the dirt and washing dishes by hand. 

Last weekend, May 4th, we had to move my kitchen sink and drawers so that we could break up the old slab. I lost my running water! We'd plug the sink, fill a 5 gallon bucket with hot water, dump it in both sides of the sink and then wash and rinse. If kids were home we'd dry and put them away. If not I'd put them in the dishwasher to dry. I could then drain the sink but remember we're not hooked up to plumbing! So everything went into a 5 gallon bucket!

I would then take that bucket and go water our fruit trees with it. It was hard, water is heavy and  I hated every second of it. It really made me appreciate those woman who use to fill their water jugs in the river and carry them home. We are spoiled! 


A few days during the week my Mom became my angel. She'd come collect my dirty dishes and take them home with her. A few hours later she would show back up with all my clean dishes. It was so helpful! I will forever appreciate those days! 

Kory came home from lunch on Monday the 13th to see my mom delivering my basket of clean dishes. He decided that 9 days without running water had been enough and he and I moved our sink and counter back over to the water hook ups. It is so, so nice to have running water again! He also re connected the electrical wiring so that I can have a dishwasher and garbage disposal. The things we take for granted!



Monday, May 13th after work while I was doing the dishes Kory and the kids started to lay down the flooring of the upstairs. I hate, hate, hate being up high! I can not find the words for the anxiety it causes me. Just know that I hate it. The anxiety gets worse when I hear my kids running up there. Eeeeek!
So to make sure no one accidently runs off I dragged my tushy up there and helped. My heart raced the enitre time I was up there. So glad my kids don't feel the same way. 

Miss Kylie started out by making sure the ones of us with drills had screws. 


Brayden got pretty good drilling the screws in. 
He was doing awesome!

Emily helped screw the sheets down too. 


Only having 2 drills we had to take turns. 
So Brayden volunteered to draw the lines for all of us to follow while Kylie took a turn at running the drill. 

This has been a busy week with the end of school fastly approaching. Starting this past Monday we've had a school event almost every night this week. So it's mostly been Kory, my Dad and Hunter if the school event wasn't for him and then of course the 2 littles. By Wednesday the entire floor was layed and screwed off. Yippee! This Friday and Saturday we hope to get the upstairs framed. This is so exciting! It is so awesome to see it coming together. 

Floor Trusses

Saturday, May 11

Being it was our Father n' Sons weekend we got a little bit of a late start this morning. Kory and the boys didn't get home till a little after 10. But once they got home we jumped right in on finishing up the framing. We had this last exterior wall to build. It really was nightmare! One wrong thing after the next kept happening and it seriously took us hours to get the one wall up! But it did eventually get up! 


My Dad and brother Jonathan came up to see if they could help for a little while. Having some extra hands was great help! Together we got the entire exterior walls sheeted.



It's looking so good!

Next came the floor trusses. No one from our group has ever hung floor trusses but they ended up being so easy! A little time consuming only because at each truss Kory had to cut the old sheeting away from the front part of the house for the trusses to fit.  

It went pretty fast! 

My brother had to leave so we called a neighbor asking if he could come help me lift them to my Dad and Kory. He made those suckers look so light. 


By about 7:30pm all the trusses except the very last one was complete. Kory needs to make an adjustment to the front part of the house before we could put that one down but we are so, so close! It's been a long, long week. Besides working on the house every single day this week I've also gone on 2 field trips this week with my younger kids and had a few projects to complete for our upcoming Girls Camp. I am in charge of their journals and I needed them done by this Tuesday.  I'm exhausted! I am so looking forward to tomorrow, Sunday! 
Our day of rest!

Framing The Main Floor

Friday, May 10th

Kory tries to work 4 10's during the week so that they all have Friday's off. It's super nice when it comes to working on the house. Including Saturday's we've got 2 full days that we work our little hearts out!

Kory started building our 1st wall early Friday morning. We got that first wall up before I had to run the little kids to school. 

After a few hours we had the entire 49 ft length of the house framed. 


Then we began to work on some of the interior walls. We needed to get the walls tied together before a gust storm hit us and knocked everything down. It seems like it gets super windy every single afternoon lately! It can be quite miserable. 



Friday is an early out for the kiddo's so soon everyone was home again ready to help us frame some more!


Besides the 49 ft wall we also got 2 of the 3 interior walls done before we had to call it a night. It was our Father n' Son's weekend and the boys were anxious to get out there with their friends. Although we didn't get all the walls up I was pretty pleased with the amount we did get done. After all it was mostly just Kory and I for a few hours. Then I was gone a good hour that afternoon running around picking everyone up from school. We did good!

Rainy Day

Thursday, May 9th

Today was a rainy day!
It has rained several days over the past few weeks we had our house torn apart. But this morning we woke up to water inside. 
Uggghhhh!

Didn't know we had water inside until I got out of bed and my floor was wet!

Coming in from under our insulation back door. 


And in the corner of our temporary kitchen. 
It looked worse than it was. I was really worried about the sheetrock but it barely touched it.
We've had so much rain this season. I know we need it, really I do. But seriosuly I'm so done with the mud and that it stops us from working on our house. 


Several times throughout the day Kory and I would take our big shop broom outside and sweep the water off the slab. It helped the water from seeping inside the house. 


Being I was stuck inside all day I tried by best at organizing all our food storage we had to bring inside the previos weekend. I seriously don't know how we fit all that we do! 


I saved the one and only metal shelf that was in the cellar that wasn't bent all to pieces to store a lot of our canned goods. The rest had to go under kids beds. 


Our 5 gallon buckets of flour, sugar, wheat, etc and of course the water bottles have a new home in our hallway leading to the bedrooms. There just isn't any other spot for it all. So we're making it work. 

 Some days are hard. I feel like my house is closing in on me. We've got wall to wall of furniture and now food all over the place. But this too will pass. Hopefully sooner than later!

Cement

Wednesday, May 8th

It finally came! Was only an hour in a half late but it did come!
Let the fun begin....


Kory took a few more hours off of work again to help get it poured. 




We ran out of cement. While waiting on the truck to come back Kory decided now would be a good time to pour more cement where the bottom of the stairs is going to go. We're going to have a heavy beam right there and want to make sure it has a good foundation to sit on. So we moved the kitchen table and cut a big square out of the existing cement. 


When the truck go back they shoveled and swept the cement in. 


I will have a nice little mess when everything dries! 


It's done!!!
It needs to sit for a day or two and then we can start framing!


Outside Water Line.

Tuesday May 7th

At the moment we have no outside water source which is real pain. So, Kory rented a mini ex for the night. He dug a nice trench from the water meter around the house and back to the chicken coop. I had to go to YW's that night so wasn't around much. Before I left Brayden had to show me that his Dad had "taught" him how to drive the mini ex. He was so excited! 


Then he taught his little sister!


By the time I got back from YW's he was covering up the trench. Now all he has to do is install the water spicket. It will be awesome to fill the chickens water by hose instead of 5 gallon buckets out of my kitchen faucet. 

So excited to use it!

He also dug a line from the house to the shed so that eventually we can put electricity out there.
That will also be an AWESOME day!


Getting Ready for Concrete

Monday, May 6th

Kory ended up taking most of the day off. It is so nice to have awesome employees who can manage without him for a few hours at a time! We are suppose to be getting rain later this week. So we are shooting for Wednesday. We've got to level everything, install the under ground plumbing and the electrical so we can have lights down in the cellar and eventually out to the shed. 

We bought some new brick to replace most of the broken top layer of brick in the cellar. We want it to be strong to hold the ceiling and not crumble on us. 

Then our AWESOME cement guy set up beams to help hold up the roof till the cement dries. 


We covered the cellar with some supe thick steel, very durable. It will be perfect for our ceiling and easy to clean.


After school Kylie spent her day attached at her Dad's hip. She can put that PVC glue on like no other! So glad she likes to help "work" on the house in her own way. 


Then comes the rebar!


and more rebar. Our cement is going to be strong, thick and last the life of this house!


We worked and worked and worked. But we eventually ready for cement before going to bed that night! 

Master Shower

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