Floored!!

We have a floor!! And just in the nick of time - this morning we had snow, pretty wet fluffy snow. It's half melted already after an hour or so, but still - I know it's time for it, but I'm not super keen. Or maybe it's just that I'm still super tired. We worked like banshees to get ready for the pour - originally we thought it was happening today, but then Wednesday Jim said Thursday was the day, so we set the interior posts quick like on Wednesday. Matt, Dad and I did three in the morning before Matt had to get to work, then some of Jim's crew showed up to save our behinds and set four more before they got called away to a Menards emergency. Dan and Dad and I did the last one and then Dan and I worked like crazy to put down the vapor barrier and insulation for under the floor. We put Jim's generator through its paces for lighting since it gets dark so early now and wore down Mom's bread knife some cutting insulation(serated blades work better for some reason). The generator gave up the ghost right about when I did at nine, but then we got up at 5:30 to finish up the last dregs of insulation. Sixteen sides is a lot of corners and wierd angles - we chose it because it gives you the most enclosed space short of being completely round, but boy was it a chore!! Like a make your own puzzle piece game, only in the dark and cold. Then yesterday we got it all squared away in time for Jim's crew, but the generator's starter button had died, so we were in a quandary about power, but Dad came to the rescue. He had a temporary electrical box all wired up for us that he hadn't installed yet, so we quick slapped that on the post and hooked it up lickety split, and after a minor moment of heart stopping nothing before we reset the ground-fault button, we had juice!! Then the concrete truck showed up an hour early (after being nearly two hours late for the first footing pour two weeks ago), but Jim's crew was ready inside of ten minutes and the mud started!! It all turned out lovely, false starts and all. They say Providence protects sailors, children and fools - I think we've got fools and sailors tied up in a bow. This project probably looks like a ship of fools and somedays it feels like it for sure, but then with a lot of help from family and the Man Upstairs it all comes out !!

Gales of November

The wind is definitely frisky out there today!! The weekend was great - productive, but as usual some roadblocks occurred. Our posts won't be here till later this week, so the pouring this week is probably not going to happen, although as it stands the weather might actually improve a little late this weekend/early next week. I'm crossing my fingers. As you can see from the pics from yesterday, we have the exterior insulation up on the footings and have evened out the pad. Now it just needs to quit blowing for a bit so I can put down the vapor barrier and insulation! And power - perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday we will have usable power at the site. Deb and Matt both came out this weekend and helped immensely. Dan I think was relieved to go back to work after having last week off - he didn't get too much of a vacation!! Even Lauren helped, pulling nails out of the concrete forms so we could clean up the site.

Months of Progress

We've had so much progress to work on we've had no time to blog about it!! You'll have to forgive me for the backwards photo display - next time I'll know to go in reverse order. So...the plumbers came and laid pipes galore into our well compacted pad, then we spent what felt like weeks threading rebar for the footing forms, and then finally we got to the concrete!! Dan's Uncle Jim has a great crew that helped us make our plans work and refrained from telling us we are completely crazy!! As of Nov. 2, we have the footings poured and the big exterior uprights in place. Dunn County Electric gave us a new transformer on Wednesday that will serve both Mom and Dad's house, their outbuildings, the farmhouse and our spread. Next week we'll pour the floor inside after we even out the pad and install insulation galore. The interior posts will then go up and the masonry heater will come to fruition, and we can slap a roof on this baby!! The plan is to do temporary fill between the posts with straw bales so we can work inside for the winter. Depending on how that works we may be able to lay cordwood wall by wall as the temperature allows - we'll have to see how a portable heater works/break in the masonry heater. All in all, even when you're beat, all you can do is move forward!!