Blurry Week

This week has gone by in such a blur I can't tell you what happened which day, both in our personal life and at the house! There was a lot accomplished on the house and yard this week. The septic tank and cistern were installed this week, the septic field was developed and the rafters were started. Oh, I almost forgot, the interior walls were completed too. The rafters are a bit tricky so it may take a bit to finish them! The garage ground work was also started on this week. The ground where the garage is going was so wet it's just now dry enough to work with. We are at Nathan's final soccer tournament this weekend (it started tonight) and with the busy week we've had I don't have too many detailed pictures of the house but I will post what I have.

Larissa's giving her "two thumbs up"

This is the kids' bedrooms and main bathroom. It just looks like a bunch of sticks standing, too bad I can't do a 3d image to show how it all fits together.

I just liked the way the trusses looked from this angle

There's the house with the main rafters up. There are connecting rafters to join the two different directions of the roof line. Dormers above the great room windows need to be built too.

Most of the sheeting was done above the kids' bedrooms today. I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have pictures of that or the work that was done on the garage. I'm only guessing but I think the main focus next week will be the garage and finish the sheeting/rafters on the roof.

Bethany finished preschool this week, they celebrated with a party at the Kiddie Park in town. Nathan and Larissa are finishing up this coming week. Nathan drew a sad face in his day planner on his last day of school. :(  Larissa has loved Kindergarten but is really looking forward to grade 1 when she can go to school every day, we'll see how she feels next year! Bethany will be very happy to have her siblings around all the time so she won't have just boring, old mom to hang around with all day every other day!

I did this post in a hurry and a little distracted so I apologize if I'm not too clear on some details but I'm now off to bed so that I can keep up with Nathan's soccer games tomorrow!

Walls

The exterior walls are up! This has been an exciting week, despite the rain that has delayed things. I was gone all day Thursday with Larissa's class on their field trip and when we got back most of the exterior walls were up and the rest were raised on Friday. This stage has now made it feel real. I'm not sure why it's taken so long but now that I can see the exact shape and get a good sense of space it now feels real. A few interior walls are up too so we get a good sense of how big (or small) certain rooms feel. I am amazed as to how many times we've gone through the "this feels huge" or "this feels way too small" stages. Now it's starting to feel "just right". I know in my head that it's a good-sized house and I don't think we'll regret too many decisions we've made but seeing the rooms laid out in with a chalk line sure made everything feel small. Now that a few interior walls are up and the bases of all the walls are in place it gives a much better sense of space. Okay, no more writing, I'll post the pics!!

Front view. It looks like the back wall isn't up but it is, it will become obvious why in a few pictures.

Eastside view. The closest jut-out is the dining room.

Great room. This is the back wall, the big hole is for the picture window. The bottom sill (footer? I don't know the correct term for this) still needs to be added, it will be about a foot off the floor. The small hole is where the garden doors are going.

This is the interior view of the dining room, taken before all the walls were up.

The start of the interior walls. This is the master bedroom/ensuite/walk-in closet.

As long as it doesn't rain tomorrow Ron thinks the interior walls could be finished. The truss package is also supposed to be delivered tomorrow so I guess that's the next project. Our forecast is for rain the next couple of days, surprise, surprise, but hopefully the forecast of sunshine for the end of the week holds true and the house can be enclosed so the rain won't be as big a factor anymore. Am I wishful thinking? Probably!!

Family Life

We were at a soccer tournament today, the kids had a blast! Nathan scored his first goal in two seasons and his teammates celebrated as much as he did, it was great to see. Nathan is more of an assist-ant, he's not the quickest or strongest kid on the team but he thinks and looks and makes things happen. At age 8, however, that's not what's important, scoring the goals is, so this was a big day for him. We do not pressure him to score goals and often tell him that goals can't be scored without assists so he's just as important as the guy who puts the ball in the net. Larissa's mini soccer team played today too. I love that age, they are so cute with everyone running after the ball like bees swarming the hive.

Yup, the one in the blue shirt is Nathan.

#13 fighting for the ball

The bees swarming! Larissa is the girl with the pigtails flying

Soccer ends in three weeks but I'll try not to post too many more pics up here. Bethany's a cheerleader....when she's not playing with her friends or the umbrella!

We were at a 30th birthday party over the weekend where we were encouraged to dress up in one of the decades that the birthday girl has lived in, the 80's were chosen of course, and Bethany wanted to dress up too. Not sure if the blue eye shadow shows up but she thought that was the prettiest colour for the eyes that she had ever seen. I crimped my hair, the bangs were standing off my head, the blue eye shadow was visible even in the dark and dressed up in 80's garb (no, I'm not posting a picture!). The girls thought I was very pretty and should look that way when going to church! I have some work ahead of me when it comes to teaching the girls some fashion sense. I did notice when shopping the other day, however, that a lot of those 80's styles are back, ahhhh!!!

We've got the power....electricity that is

The floor joists are finished, the floor is on and we have electricity at the site! It may not be a long list of things accomplished but it is a very satisfying list. The kids were thrilled to be able to run around on the floor and go into each room. They all laid down on their beds, we sat at the dining room table, played computer games at the desk, took drinks out of the fridge...I think you get the idea. A few pretend walls were bumped into and a few minor heart attacks happened watching Bethany get a little close to the edge of the staircase. I asked Ron if we could put a banister around the entire staircase hole so I don't have to freak out every time she gets within 5 feet of it! I don't think we'll take her back to walk on the house until it's a bit safer.

This picture is taken from one of the back corners of the house. Talk about open concept! The kids think the "outdoor plumbing" toilet could just be moved inside when the walls are built and that would be the easiest room in the house to complete.



Sitting at our dining room table

The kids took the only opportunity they will get to jump on our bed!

The wall package is supposed to be delivered tomorrow morning, however, rain is being forecasted for 4 out of 5 days this week so we'll see what can be accomplished. I am really tired of the rain and feel bad for Josiah and his crew because it not only delays our house but any other projects that they have lined up for the summer, which are usually outdoor projects because the weather is supposed to be warm and sunny. Those days will come I guess, we just need to be patient. After the rain we got on Tuesday (2 inches) it was a very beautiful week which lifted everyone's spirits and we could almost forget about all the rain that came earlier.

Yet Another Rainy Day

It has been one wet, rainy spring, there's no doubt about it. It is raining here yet again today. We had maybe 3/10 last night but it looks like it could have been 3 inches with all the puddles that appear instantly due to the ground being so saturated. It has been raining off and on all day so there's nothing going on at the house. The guys were there working like crazy yesterday trying to get things done before the rain today. The floor joists are finished and the gravel base for around the house was done yesterday too, it looked like a good day in my opinion. There may have been other things accomplished too but when I stopped by there yesterday afternoon to drop off muffins for the guys they were so busy I didn't want to bother them with my questions!The forecast looks like it has cleared up for the rest of the week, let's hope they're right this time.

Now I'll go into a bunch of family life stories for those who are interested! I have a bunch of pictures below and I'll just explain them as I go.

We were looking at the progress of the house last Wednesday, it was a beautiful day, when Bethany decides she wants to climb a dirt pile. I warned her that it was mucky, "I don't care" was the reply. Well, needless to say, she got stuck! Ron rescued her flip flops from one spot then rescued her from another. She was not happy with how muddy her feet were. The top of the ground looked dry but with as much rain as we've had I knew it would be rather sticky underneath. She cares now!

Larissa lost her first two teeth! With the first one she was rather calm, the second one however, was a bit more of an ordeal. She had been brushing her teeth when the second tooth started bleeding, so she started crying and Ron pulled it out, which produced more tears. By the time she went to bed and was reminded that the tooth fairy would visit she was all (toothless) smiles!

Nathan is our soccer guy. This was the only picture I managed to take last night, I'm hoping I can snap more tomorrow. He's the guy in the black pinnie. He played in net for the second half of the game last night and made some pretty fantastic saves, if I do say so myself!

This is "Krahn Lake", the low spot between our house and Ron's brother's house. It had been pumped out in early May but with all the rain we've had there hasn't been a chance to pump it out again and the grass somehow manages to still grow. In spring while it's thawing the kids canoe in it, it's maybe two feet deep, but it has lost it's appeal. The longer it sticks around the more tired the kids get of it, they now know it means that we'll have a great crop of mosquitoes this year!

Bethany is obsessed with the umbrella, she was out first thing this morning in her raincoat and rubber boots just so she could use the umbrella. She uses it on sunny days too to block the sun!

This is getting to be a really long post so I will sign off for now. The rest of our week looks like it's life as usual and with the sun coming out and possibly sticking around hopefully things can dry out. I will try to update on the weekend.

Indoor Pool

Not that the pool was planned, it just happened that way after the 2 1/2 inches of rain that fell Monday night to Tuesday evening. I think we had about 3 inches of rain in total from the end of last week. Some areas were hit pretty hard on Saturday, an inch of rain and hail in about 30 minutes I think. Thankfully our yard was spared but three miles west of us our fields got hit with a good dump of rain, couldn't see any hail damage the next day so we don't know if any fell on our fields. I don't have pictures of the fields but the basement pictures should give a good indication on the rainfall amount. These two pictures were taken through the basement window. I wasn't brave enough to climb onto the basement walls to get an "aerial" view!

I took these pictures at about 4:00 pm so the water had dropped a bit from the day before.

The floor joists were started on yesterday. The extended areas are for the cantilevers where the bay windows will be.

Yesterday was sunny, hot and had only a slight breeze, we were outside a good portion of the day. Today, however, is cloudy, rainy and it's thundering so I'm guessing this may be as far as the house gets this week. As I'm typing this I hear thunder, see the rain AND the lawn mower is going. Trying to catch up on things that need to get done on this rainy day I guess!