We'll Start with French Toast...

...and follow that up with some frozen pipes. Nothing like waking up with a hot breakfast on your mind and spending some time with space heaters and a dryer so you can get water..and it is only November. I ripped out the kitchen floor to access the crawlspace for the new plumbing. Unfortunately I had to pour a new footing and prep the wall where the new back door will go. Maranda got the privilege of hair dryer duty while I worked on the new concrete form. There was some mold and dry rot under the floor from 30 years of poor venting and neglect. We will get a vapor barrier down and insulate when we build it back.

Global Warming

Whoever believes in "global warming" needs to turn off the news and go outside. We finally got the plumbers to start on the back porch and sure enough the weather got nasty. It snowed about 6 inches at the house and the wind was very strong. Nevertheless, they were able to almost wrap up the downstairs bath and laundry and will be back Monday to get back at it. The pups and I got to take a couple good walks in the blizzard...they loved it. It is so nice to have Stoagie the grandpa here.

11.19.08

Spent the last few days preparing the back porch for the plumbers to come. They will be here tomorrow so I had to get a few things done so that ordeal will rum smoothly. I filled in a portion of the old spring box with concrete and raised a new floor over it. This created a pad foe the new hot water heater and laundry machines. I had to do the same thing on the other side of the room in order to get the plumbing to work properly. I went ahead and insulated the parts that will be covered up when the rough in will be done. We are sneaking up on getting a rough inspection which means maybe a little insulation for Christmas.

Last Room Down

Got the soffit, facia, and siding finished on the back porch this afternoon. We only had the interior wall space for two small windows but they are efficient and tight so better that than fight the draft. I am ready now for all the plumbing to be roughed in so we can think about an inspection and insulation. I threw the fire screen on the stove and I should have been able to guess what would happen. We are lucky to have Chewy's dad Stoagie staying with us for the week. We got some snow last night and expect more on Tuesday and Thursday.

HEAT...Enough Said

I think everyone gets the significance of this entry. I had to throw in the one picture of the sun first thing in the morning. We are Blessed.

Back For Hire

As if the old back was not shot enough...start with two full work days on the roof, move onto a morning of helping at a sawmill, winch a 400 pound wood stove up some stairs into a truck, and top it off with 6 hours in the Dodge. I was able to score some 24" cherry logs which are worth quite a bit and have them sawed up down the road. I slabbed up the big one for a dining room table and bar top for the house. It only cost me $35 and a back to do it so well worth the lumber. Maranda and I drove down to Waynesville, NC to pick up or new stove for the house. The guys asked right away if either of were engineers. It was quite a feat winching up 30 stairs on a homemade sled. All the effort was worth the score of a 1983 Fisher Grandma Bear 3 that looked like it had only been used 5 times in 25 years. I could not be more excited...and so is she. We hit Sam's on the way home because nothing hits the spot more on a long day than a 15 pound bag of M & M's.

One More Hat for the House

The house got one more new hat for the rack on Friday. Wade and I finished the demo on Thursday and started the framing. Jeff and Mike helped out most of the day Friday, and Maranda hung in there until the paper was on the roof. We got rid of the big windows in exchange for smaller more efficient ones and also added a hip to the roof system when we raised the pitch. This greatly added some much needed headroom in the future bath and laundry rooms.