Fireplace & Drywall

December 8, 2014
    The past few weeks have continued to be busy.  The TV cable is run through out the house.  We have been setting the kitchen can lights, running more electrical, and getting the fireplace up and running.   We are using the fireplace this week to make sure it works before we finish the wall framing and put up the stone facing.
    The kitchen wall next to the refrigerator had to be built out 8 inches so the cabinets are even with the refrigerator casing.  Customizing that took a little time, but it looks great.
     We have a little Christmas tree in the back room.  The tree really brightens up the house with holiday spirit.
      The heat and AC ducting is all in.  I finally finished stapling the attic air vent panels.
     Joe ordered the ceiling drywall and part of the drywall for the addition walls.  We'll put up the ceiling drywall first.  Once the ceiling is drywalled, the house should be so much warmer.  We have spent the last several nights bundled up in insulated overhauls , down jackets, boots, and fur hunting hats trying to stay warm enough to watch National Finals Rodeo on our big screen TVA in the addition.  Without drywall or insulation in the addition,  the fireplace has not been able to keep the room over 40 degrees.  Thank goodness the drywall goes up Thursday, so we might get a few nights of being warmer watching rodeo.
     The big event for me will be temporarily hanging the kitchen chandelier to see how it will look and see if 3 pendant lights will be too much over the sink area.
      Day temperatures this week will start in the low 40's but up to 60 over the weekend.  Great weather to get things done

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

     Big day at Leslie's house.  She is having Joe's 3 family members over, Bill's family, us, and a few drop-ins over for Thanksgiving.  I think the last head count was up to 22 people. We are taking a ham, pumpkin pies, green beans, rolls, and pistachio and ambrosia salads.  We bought a turkey roaster so Leslie could cook both turkeys at her house.  The roaster will come in handy for big get togethers.
     HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Girls and the mini horses

    I finally got the picture of when the girls came to dinner a few months ago.  Joe cooked chicken on the grill and we ate out on the patio.  So much fun listening to the girls talk and visiting with them.  Before dinner the girls were out loving on the minis.  They took some great pictures of each other.
   We are looking forward to all the Grandkids visiting and spending time here!

The new roof!

November 13, 2014.                     Just need to finish the roof trim!!

                               

Red Wattle Sow

October 25

     We bought a heritage breed of hog! The heritage breeds are rare and we wanted a pig that does well foraging for most of its food as opposed to one that is penned up and fed just commercial feeds.
We chose a Red Wattle sow named Rosie. (probably because she is red).  She is friendly but quite large so not quite what I would call a pet.  No, we aren't going to eat her.  Rosie is two years old and has been bred to a Red Wattle boar.  There should be about a dozen little piglets born around the first part of January.  Rosie will be kept in part of the barn and one of the cattle pens this winter so we can keep an eye on her and keep the piglets warm with a heat lamp.
    A Red Wattle pig has two wattles hanging from its neck.  The wattles don't do anything, sort of like our appendix.  They are just distinguishing breed traits.

Oct 30 - Nov 12 Roof on

Who knew there was so much involved with getting a new roof?  Not me, that's for sure.
      After removing the red metal and two layers of shingles and tar paper, there were hundreds of nails that had to be popped up.  Again, thank goodness for the proper tools and strong able bodied people.  Then some new bracing and sheeting was cut and installed.  The sheets of under liner went down and then the metal was put on the addition first so the metal would not have to be hauled across a finished roof.  Joe and Wayne had a few challenges with the 20 foot panels in the blowing wind, but they did great and got the job done.  Then the process started again on the old roof.  I don't know how the guys have been able to work on the roof as the temperatures are running about 25 degrees below normal.  This weeks high was about 31 degrees and low around 22 at night.
We now have a beautiful green metal roof ! The trim is on all sides except the high end of the house.  That will get put on next week when we have a tractor with a lift on it so the guys can reach the peak.
     Joe also put in the last two French doors.  What a difference they make in the way the patio side of the house looks.
     This week I have had a cold and have not been any help.  The cats and my Yorkie, Muffin, have loved snuggling in bed while I slept the week away.  I have basketball tournament week and homecoming.   Callie and Emilee borrowed Papa Joe's flatbed trailer and decorated it for the homecoming parade today.  He was out in the dark last night hooking up the trailer for them.  They didn't call until about 7 pm.
      Rosie, our Red Wattle pig has settled in nicely.  I have let her out to graze, but she seems to always wind up in the yard by us.  Very sociable.  She knows her name and comes when called, especially if she thinks food might be involved.  I added another strand of electric fence tape so that should keep her out in the pasture.  She has a house made from straw bales in one side of the barn.  She seems warm hunkered in her straw bed in her house.
    Joe's mom, sister and brother in law finally arrived from California.  They bought a beautiful place on acreage just across town.  It will be wonderful having more family back here!

And the roofing continues

Wonderful fall weather in Lead Hill.  The hillsides are becoming dotted with the changing colors of fall.  It is so beautiful here.

   October 29, 2014
   Work continues on the roof.  Stripping the metal, then the two layers of shingles.  Once the shingles were off we realized there were many places there the roof boards had to be replaced.  I am so glad Joe wanted to strip the old layers of the roof off or we might not have seen all the places that really needed to be replaced.   We had had help getting the shingles off as it was just too much work for us to get done.  We had finally gotten the roof stripped when rain that was supposed to go north of us was heading our way.  We hurried to Home Depot and bought a 20' by 100'  roll of heavy plastic. Joe and I were on the roof until 2:40 in the morning rolling out sheets of heavy plastic and stapling them down.  Thank goodness the rain didn't start until about 3 AM.
   The next day our worker, Wayne, came to help Joe hang the 16 foot sections of facia trim.  Today we had to go to Bentonville , so Wayne finished replacing any bad wood on the backside of the  roof.  He also cut out any bad wood on the front side.  They will be able to replace the sections in the morning and then finish the facia trim on the front.  I can't believe how different the house looks with the new white facia all across the back side of the entire house.
   The roof should be fixed and the roof liner put down this week.   I am so thrilled that the new hunter green roof goes on soon!!!
    All the hard work and frustrations are so worth it to get to have a new house on our beautiful property!  Yeah!



 

Oct. 18 roof

Sunday, October 18

      Saturday night was the coldest so far this fall.  It dropped to 41 degrees.  I looked outside this morning and the fog is so heavy I can barely see across the yard.  High temps today should reach into the upper 60's.  This is good weather to continue stripping the layers of old roof off.
      Have I mentioned that we would be in a house by now if we had just bulldozed the old house down?  Building is SO much faster than removing almost the whole house and now the old roofs.  Yes, that was roof with a plural S at the end.  Joe and I removed the old red metal roof and are going to reuse it on the shop or barn.  We got about 1/4 of the next layer up and I called
Tiffany's boyfriend and got his brother and cousin to work on removing most of the other layers on the front side of the roof.  Thank goodness, they are coming back to finish that side after church today.
      After looking at umpteen roof/ house color combinations, we have switched from a brown roof to a hunter green.  Brown on brown would have just been too dark.  Besides, 50 million US Forestry brown cabins with green roofs can't be wrong.  I think we will be much happier with the dark green metal roof.
      The cows were up by Francis' barn so we were able to get our calf ear tagged so we know which one to keep at our place.  She is weaned, but still hung out by momma when several were penned, so we could identify her to tag her.  Charolais are cream to white colored so it can be very difficult to tell  them apart.  Momma cow, Heidi, is part something else and a reddish brown with a distance white markings.  We didn't tag her because she is very easy to ID.
     Granddaughter Tiffany was able to get three of her cows tagged and identified her bull calf.  It was impossible to tell which calves belonged to which cows so she will get her two calves marked when we see them with the tagged moms.  I am so proud of her for buying a small herd of 5 head of cattle last year.  She will sell the bull calf this coming week.  Two of her cows now have babies and a third should calf this winter.  I know it is hard for her not to buy new clothes, or get material things young people want today,  but she has such good sense and is making such a good investment with cattle.  When the other kids things wear out, Tiffany's cows will be continuing to multiply and increase her savings.  You can sell cattle on any Wednesday and Thursday back here at the sale barn if you need immediate cash.
      If this fog ever lifts I need to get the rest of the facia board painted so Joe can get them up.  I think they go up before some channel for the roof goes on.  I was hoping to have Thanksgiving at our place, but may be lucky if we are in by Christmas.  There is only so much Joe can do in a day, and thank goodness we aren't paying me by the hour!  It takes me 20 minutes just to get a tea and my tools together before I can think of actually doing something. The interior is where my work really kicks in.  I can paint, trim, tile and put in outlets and bulbs.  I am going to learn to help put down laminate flooring and hang drywall.
     The 4 baby chicks are starting to get feathers and little combs.  I am pretty sure two are roosters so I need to sell them soon.  All 11 baby Guinea keets are growing and starting to get feathers.  Their little necks are starting to get longer.  They look like long necked quail right now.
      Enough rambling for today.

October 5 pictures 2

 Joe bush hogging waist high weeds

 

 

              Fireplace corner.   French door openings.                   Beside the kitchen area

October 5 house pictures

Latest updates.

 

Back to the Blog Oct 5

Finally back to the blog.
   The  roof sheeting and roof liner are up.  We have finally decided to go with a slate brown for the metal roof color.  We have vacillated between dark green or brown.  Green would look like a forest cabin, brown will blend in.  Who thought making a color decision would be so difficult????  We have also decided to take off the layers of old roofing on the original part of the house.  We can do this ourselves with one worker to do heavy lifting and haul the trash to the dumpster.  We will put down new lining.  We are having workers put the metal roof on as I do NOT want either of us up on the addition roof since it is so tall.
   With the help of our son- in- law and his backhoe and another worker, Joe got one of the double French doors in the family room and the fireplace at least in the room.  All the windows are in the whole house now.  We are going to have some beautiful views!  One of my favorite views is of a beautiful wall of the quarry in the distance jutting above the tree tops. Once we get the drywall delivered next week, Joe can frame in the outside den wall and set the French doors there.  That leaves one Double French door left to put in the family room.  We will need Bill, his backhoe, and a worker to get that door up into the wall which is about 5 feet off the ground. (The decking is going up  before the siding , so it seems like we are off on another part of the plan).
   Joe and I were able to get all of the kitchen in for temporary placement for electrical and water.  Good thing we did a trial run, as Joe has to frame an 8 inch wall out behind all the cabinets next to the refrigerator.  The fridge cabinet totally encloses the sides if the fridge so the other cabinets are made to be even with that cabinet front.  This will be a rather simple framing for those cabinets.  The other wall of  cabinets don't need any adjustments.  The kitchen is going to be quite large and homey!  I can't wait for us to install them once the drywall is in!
   The AC/heat unit and ducting are close to being completed! Then we finish our wiring, and finally the drywall goes in! Think we will hire pros to texture the walls.
   Joe and I have tried to get in some outside time and have almost reclaimed another pasture by just bush hogging (mowing) it with the tractor.
   Today, Joe has some finish work to do around the AC /heater unit inside.  Then, we will try out the biscuit joiner to make some window trim and get it nailed on.
   MY goal is to be in by Thanksgiving!  I need to try to have patience and remember the two of us are doing a lot of the work, which means Joe is doing most of the work, but I am learning.  I can run Romax for electrical, I have put up the hurricane ties on the rafters and learned to use the handiest tool - a palm nailer, which works off the compressor.  A palm nailer is the best tool I have ever used.  No hammering. Insert nail, barely push, nail is in!
   I will have to keep up better with my blog.  I have even having some pain issues and CAT scan revealed gall stones.  Also pulled an abdominal muscle.  I will see the surgeon Oct. 20 and find out his recommendations.  I have too much to do and want to be able to ride Bo in this beautiful weather.
Joe has been having some knee pain but his main problem has been literally hundreds of probably chigger bites from his ankles to his waist, he got about a month ago when he went into the woods without bug spray.  The itching has been terrible.  I personally am keeping the Deep Woods Off company going.



 

Welcome September

Tuesday, September 2

     I am home and rested after a fun and busy week watching the Grandkids while Doug and Misti got away for some R&R.  The nanny was there during the day which was a tremendous help to me.
     We are finally getting a much needed rain, but it is not helping get the roofing up.  With the lack of rain, we were getting worried about the pastures and lawns drying up.  I was particularly concerned about the  huge older trees in the yard loXosing so many leaves  so I did water them during our few week dry spell.
     Since my last post,  the addition  has most of the exterior sheeting up, the roof trusses are in place and some of the roof sheeting has gone on, but but we are on hold with the rain.
     The air conditioner installer is working for a few hours tonight setting the room vents and intake vents.  When he finishes getting the AC system installed, we can start the drywall!  Yahoo!

Memphis, Tennessee

August 20
   I may not be posting for a few days as I am babysitting with the Grandkids just outside of Memphis.  Jack is two and a half, Evan turned one year old last week, and big sister, Melani is seventeen.  The boys' nanny is with us during the day and she is a tremendous help to me.  Melani can help in the evenings if I need her to. So great to get to spend time with the kids and get to know little Evan better.
  Joe is home holding down the fort and making good progress getting the outside sheeting up on two walls.

August 12

I had a great birthday yesterday.  I got flowers and a cake from the Grandkids.  I heard from my kids and sisters and other family and friends. Joe and I went to Branson to see the Dixie Stampede show..
Before we left for Branson! the hours trusses arrived.

Living at Duck Lane

Sunday, August 3

    Callie and all the family are back from Florida.  So glad to have Callie back home.  All of her team has come down with Guardia(spelling?) - flu like symptoms that hopefully antibiotics will fix.
The family took a week vacation in Florida after picking Callie up from her mission to Africa.
    Joe and I have moved everything out of Leslie's house so they have a few days to get ready for their foreign exchange student from Africa.  She will be staying in our room.  We have been living at our place in the horse trailer for awhile and going to Leslie's to stay in our room to watch TV or occasionally spend the night.
    After visiting with the returned travelers, Joe and I went home and worked on the house until 11 PM.  It felt good to make progress with the electrical and bracing in the walls for  handrails and towel bars that will meet ADA standards.  The temperature tonight is 73 degrees which made working in the house quite comfortable .

August 2, 2014

Note to self:
   As the old Indian in a Dustin Hoffmin movie (can't remember the name) said, "We must endeavor to persevere."
    Seems like some days the work is going very slowly but we are making progress.  It is just Joe and me working right now.  He is framing, running the heavy electrical wire and fitting plumbing under the house.  I am running the Romax from the powered switch and outlet in each room back to the main box.  That is slow because I can only get the Romax a few feet then I have to get off the ladder, move it a few feet, climb up and push the wire a few more feet then start the process again until I am at the main panel.  Not complaining, it is just slow work.  At least we aren't paying wages for something we can do ourselves.

Plumbing

Friday, July
   Plumbing for the master bathroom goes in today!  Bill is bringing his backhoe to dig the septic leach lines.  We can bury the lines and  septic tank and have some plumbing in the house.  The  toilet and shower walls went up yesterday.  All the internal framing is finished!
  Joe's friend, Ken, flew in from CA to visit and help with construction before he and his wife leave for TWO years in Russia.  Great guy and a big help to us.  The guys got the very heavy outside breaker box mounted  yesterday.  I am plodding along with  my part of the electrical and love being able to at least run the Romax to the boxes, switches, lights and fans.  Nice to be part of building our house.
    I returned the tub to Home Depot when I found a slipper tub on Craigslist.   Tub should be plumbed today .  Picture is from the tub ad.

Joe and Ken discussing the house

July 18

July 18

     Absolutely beautiful weather this week with highs in the upper 70's and mid to low 60's at night. I haven't noticed any humidity this week which is really nice.
     Joe framed in part of our first addition wall and it is up! He will finish the other half of the wall tomorrow.  It is wonderful to finally see an addition wall go up!  We are having to decide where to put the three large front room windows since they were to look out over the pasture .  Now they might be in the dining room to keep the view.  Decisions, decisions.  This isn't like picking a paint color where you can just repaint if you need to.  Once the doors and windows go in, that's it.
   Tiffany's boyfriend, Coy, has been cutting down some small trees crowding the driveway.  He has also cleared a bunch of small underbrush and we can actually see the trunks of two huge trees along the drive.  Now we will be able to see more of the upper property from the yard with some of the underbrush gone.

   

New wall.                                                                 Cut tree

 

Cuttings blocking the road.                                   Joe clearing the road

25 th Anniversary kayaking

 July 15
    Joe and I had so much fun on our 25 th anniversary. I feel so refreshed after our 9 mile kayak trip down part of the Buffalo River.  Only took us 4 hours to float and paddle.  We are hooked on kayaking.  We wound up at Rush, which is supposedly the only ghost town between the Mississippi River and the Rockies.  We drove through Rush and there are several old buildings from the mining days when 5000 people lived in Rush.  The mines sent the zinc out on the Buffalo River to the White River and on down the Mississippi.  Very hard to imagine 5000 people that far out in the boonies.

 



             Joe by the bluffs

 

 

Last old wall is down!

July 17

  Big progress on the house today.  The last old wall came down and the new 10 foot wall for the addition will go up in its place.  All the light fixtures are in, one side of the house is wired and insulated, and the flex pipe for the water lines arrived this week.  The house is taking shape and I see light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. Open rooms show master closet on the left, hall, and guest room on the right.  Addition will be open kitchen, dining, and family room.

 
 

Addition Subfloor

Sunday, July 12

       Yeah!  The subfloor for the addition is laid.  Lumber for the addition walls was delivered Friday
and is stacked on the floor.  We are watching the weather and hoping for two days without rain to get the walls framed.  We seem to be getting rain every few days so we work around it.
       Joe has started on the plumbing and I finished the insulation on the front exterior wall.  Because of the uneven spacing of the studs on the one wall, I have had to special cut each piece of insulation so this one wall has been time consuming.  The other walls have studs that are pretty much the same spacing so the insulation should go in much quicker.
       It seems like there are several projects going on simultaneously .  Thank goodness Joe is so organized.
      

  

4th of July weekend

Hope everyone had a great Fourth.  We enjoyed the holiday and didn't work on the house.  We watched the Diamond City fireworks from our pontoon boat with family and friends.  Most of the weekend was spent at the park in Lead Hill enjoying 3 days of festivities.  Friday and Saturday evenings, I took my miniature horse to the park for a few hours to be part of the petting zoo.  Tempest   behaved nicely for her first outings and seemed to love all the  petting and attention.  I took a brush and lots of the kids wanted to brush her.

Leslie had a booth and cooked succotash over an open fire.  We hung out at her booth when we weren't wandering around looking at other booths.

 

July 3

Wednesday, July 3
     The lumber arrived today for the floor joists and the subfloor.  Suddenly a house is taking form.
Today was such a beautiful day with the temperature being down and little humidity.  It was enjoyable to work outside in the garden and I harvested out first yellow squash today.  There is one little watermelon growing and about golf ball size.  I am so looking forward to having homegrown watermelons and vegetables.
    We have heard from the team leader from Kilimanjaro .  She said the kids are all well and hiking to villages to do their mission work and put on puppet shows about Jesus .  They seem to be surviving the primitive conditions and hardships and probably enjoying it.
    The Fourth of July fireworks are tomorrow night at the lake .  Other fireworks will be the next two nights in surrounding areas.  We are taking the pontoon boat out on the lake with Leslie's family to watch the Diamond City fireworks.

Footings

    Foundation on the footings

July 1, 2014

       I didn't get much done at home today.  I spent most of the day in the computer lab at the school working on online courses for the final requirement for my AR teaching credential.  Only one more course to take!  The streaming videos that are part of each course take too long to stream at home.  I sure appreciate the school letting me into their lab during the summer!
      Joe  got quite a bit done today.   He had the well man out and now I have water out to the barn.  That will sure make watering the minis easier. No more carrying gallons of water to the minis.
      Joe has the floor beams ready to install .  He also got the roof ridge caps put up along the roof top.

   

Laminate flooring

Monday, June 30
   A big relief to have the laminate flooring bought.  While at Home Depot in Branson, we couldn't help but notice a pallet of flooring in the middle of the paint aisle.  Low and behold, the very type of flooring we have been thinking about buying was on sale for HALF PRICE. This is one shade darker than one we had thought about, but we love the color and the hand hewn look, and the price.  We called Home Depot in Harrison and they had 52 cases. We bought the two pallets of 24 cases in Branson and paid for the others over the phone. After picking up the 52 other cases,  we are only two or three cases short of flooring the entire house minus two bathrooms which we will tile.  The color is endenbury hickory.  We just are not carpet people.  I love carpet, but carpet and farm life just don't mix.  We can throw down area rugs and hope they add some ambience and warmth to the rooms.

The well man  made the final connection on the well and we are ready to lay plumbing pipes soon .  We do have running water at the barn and at the back of the house.