We’ve been framed!

Progress on the house has been coming along nicely.  Scott and Neil have been working hard, Arden has been doing the more skilled labor, the engineering and generally keeping everything on track and Lorraine has logistics under control.

All of the windows are in, demolition is complete and the walls have all been framed.  These two upstairs bedroom had paneling that was just glued on to the walls.

The bedrooms are now framed and ready for the electrical, insulation, and drywall.

 

The basement is now all framed with all the windows in.  We should hopefully get most of the electrical done this week, and maybe all of the plumbing (keep your fingers crossed!)

The window wells outside turned out really nicely.  Scott did a great job grading the soil so it slopes away from the house. 

We have a new outside yard hydrant that hooks up to the main water line.  Our plants are still doing OK, despite not being able to water them every day. 

 

Yeah for fresh grown tomatoes!

Road closed

We’ve found many revealing things about our house by trying to renovate a couple of rooms (more than we ever wanted to know, to tell the truth.)  Even though we didn’t plan on doing all this stuff, it’s good to get things taken care of. 

Here we have the road closed off just for us so they can put in a new sewer line.  The old one was made of clay and had several breaks in it and it it was partly disconnected out in the street.  

 

That hole by our house is over 7 feet deep.  Here’s one of the backhoes they used to dig up the street.

  

Here’s the dumpster that has become a permanent fixture in our driveway.  They’ve already dumped it 3 times.  Ian has the quite the formidable crowbar skills.

 

Here is our gutted basement family room.  Arden pulled off an amazing bit of engineering to raise the height of the downstairs entrance.

One of the surprises after we pulled down all the ceiling tiles were the 6 structurally unsound joists.  Here’s 2 that they had notched to put in some lights.  Here’s one they cut into for a heating duct that has started to split.

Here is one of 2 joists that someone inexplicably cut straight up into, and then decided they better patch them with some 2x4’s.

  

We are glad to have them fixed before our floor caves in.  What a relief!

Sunday at Grandma’s

Mom, Dad, Ruth and the twins are visiting from Alaska so we go together to have a family get-together.  We had fresh red salmon and grilled halibut with mango salsa.  The halibut with salsa was crazy delicious!

We ate under the awning and on the back porch.

  

Leonard and Kit came to visit (pictured with Brent) and I snuck a picture of my Grandma when she wasn’t looking.  Melanie and Heidi (not pictured) were able to come, too.

Saffron and Makenna had fun on the trampoline, and the boys enjoyed the swing set.

Hope and Elizabeth. 

 

It was pretty hot, but it cooled off quite nicely later in the day and we had fun hanging out on the trampoline.  I even got Zak to smile!

 

Here’s Ben.  Saffy tries valiantly to push Ben and his car through the grass.  We all had a fun time.  All of my parent’s grandkids were there together; fifteen cute kids!

Harry Potter and the Out-of Control Remodel

Tuesday we were all enthused about the next cinematic installment of the Boy-Who-Lived chronicles.  Connie bought a big section of seats for the midnight premier, and Melinda, Lisette and Miles were excited to go.  I however got bragging rights because Ian and I got to go see it at 9:00 because a software vendor with too much money on their hands invited me to go (customer appreciation.)  It was really cool to just stroll past the people camped out waiting for the midnight showing.  Plus, they had an open snack bar which was way cool.

The movie was fun and exciting movie and it had quite a few funny scenes in it as well: it didn’t disappoint.  However, I had the sneaky feeling that watching movies in the morning was not quite as fun as in the evening. Though, I had to admit it was better than being at work.

Looks like besides the replacing all of the plumbing, electrical, upstairs heating and cooling, we will also be replacing the main wastewater line out to the sewer.  It has several small breaks and one big one. We thought we were just making a small snowball, but somehow it has rolled down the mountain and turned into a veritable avalanche.

But we’ve made great progress and things are moving along very well.  Our pile of refuse was reaching epic proportions (if you notice it literally has everything AND the kitchen sink). Melinda loaded it all into the dumpster with a little help from Saffy.

Digging.  Filling.

Carrying.  Dumpling.

   

Scott and I got the window wells installled.

Arden and Kevin raised the threshold at the bottom of the stairs so I don’t have to duck anymore.  In case anyone wonders, sawzall saws do cut through galvanized pipes.  Ian took all these pictures in case you couldn’t tell.

Our formerly finished basement is unfinished again, but we are taking some space out of the furnace room to expand the living room.  Here is the installation of one of the windows. 

 

Arden and Scott have worked really hard this week getting these projects done, and I just try to keep up.  Kevin helped us one night and Lorraine cooked us yummy food, too.  Thank goodness for families!

This is the Place

A few weeks ago I took the day off and we all went to This is the Place Monument.  Here is one of Brigham Young’s homes and a view of the grass field, apple orchard and the Wasatch mountains.

We enjoyed the printing press demonstration.

   

Ian was talking in the class room and had to be reprimanded.  Nose to the wall and holding books behind him.  At least he didn’t have to wear the dunce cap like the other boy in class.

Miles learned how to card wool in preparation for it to be spun into thread

  

Ian scrubbed clothes on a washboard and then hung them out to dry.  The weather wasn’t too hot, but we were all ready for a break.

We were hungry so we headed to the Chilean Deli.  We had baked empanadas, fried cheese empanadas, a lomo palta sandwich (pork and avocado) and alfajores (pastries with dulce de leche).  ¡Qué rico!  Very delicious!