wonderful news!

we got the appraisal back, and all our worries and fears were for nothing. it came in well above where we needed it to! plenty of room to spare, which is a great feeling. we now feel confident that we can move ahead and know that this is a great investment, a lot of fun, and a wonderful learning experience! thanks for all those toes and fingers you had crossed... it paid off!!!

this week we'll be finishing up with framing the walls and the roof. stay tuned...

it's hip to be square

we framed today, and that was the theme of the day. it was a battle at times, but the moment we lifted (and almost all crumpled under the weight of) the big part of the back wall, i knew it was worth it.

today would not have been possible without KC, Hannah, Ryan, and Meghan. you guys ROCK! we are so grateful for our amazing supportive friends who spend their saturdays (and evenings) helping us. we feel so lucky... THANK YOU everyone.

to catch up on photos, we'll start with tuesday night with robby and andrew working their butts off in the dark:

the finished floor system:

then i got busy working and didn't get any photos of the subfloor process (perhaps because that was last night in the dark with lots of cursing) so here is the first wall up:

then we had a cookout. our dear friends bethany and jeremy are in town from boston so we had to take a little break for everyone (helping or not) to visit...

robby manning the grill

back to work. our neighbor henry was a huge help today... here he is telling KC and robby how to get it done right.

part of the big back wall up! this was a beast... but we survived. i am loving the little slot window... you get this amazing slice of the tree in the back yard. worked out nicely.

hannah stayed until the bitter end...

so did KC and henry

construction art

end of the day clean up time...

even at the end of a very long hard day, robby still looks good... not fair.

hopefully we can get the rest of the walls up and the roof this week... but tomorrow, we are RESTING! no work. visiting with the boston gang and laying low.

super thursday

at 8:30 in the morning i am meeting the appraiser at the house for the big showdown. everyone please keep your fingers and toes crossed that we come in where we need to.... and LOST comes back on tomorrow night, so there will be that, too.

robby and andrew worked super hard last night (until 10 or 10:30 in the rain) to finish getting the floor joists up. at the very end there was a big realization... the foundation is 1.5" off square. robby figured out that the masons pulled their corner mark out and then set their board on the wrong side of their mark (hence the precise 1.5" it is off). we'll live with it and hide it in the wall on the inside... but it sort of sucks knowing it's there. we could have the masons come back out and redo it, but that takes time... and time is something we don't have. but hopefully as of tomorrow (or friday), we will know how much money we'll have!

i'll post pics of the muddy boys working in the dark last night later... thanks again andrew! one night we'll eat something other than pizza... i promise.

one bite at a time

how do you eat an elephant?, my mom asks. i have no idea. robby is scratching his head... so she says, "one bite at a time." our house is the elephant. a big huge elephant. we bit off a lot this weekend...

the masons were there friday and i came home to a beautiful foundation... it really made my day. they did such a great job... they were extremely fast and very good. (notice the bubble perfectly centered on the level). these were actually taken after robby had already waterproofed the foundation... but you can still see how great it looks.

so the plan this weekend was to get the floor system in. but when we woke up saturday morning i got us all off track. i have been so distracted by the conditions of the yard, that i began thinking out loud about getting some of that taken care of while mom was here to help. the next thing i knew we were at home depot renting a tiller and going to logan's to buy plants that will cover up the ugly fences and fill in the front of the house. this whole task was extremely exhausting... and we didn't get anywhere near finishing, but we did get a good start. especially on the front. the pictures will show that... take a look back at the original posts to see the before. SO much better.

so while mom and i were trying to work on that, robby waterproofed the foundation wall, added the foundation drain, and graded around the foundation so water will run away from it. (and brought us several wheelbarrows full of dirt, tilled up the yard to make plant beds for us, and corrected us when we put plants in the wrong places... according to him).

i was so busy working, i really didn't get too many photos, but here are a few:

front of the house:

the plants we bought at logan's that will grow big and fast to cover the fence... love the color combination:

before of one corner: (really, before there were tiny little maple trees everywhere!)

after:

my mom is amazing. she showed up, cleaned our kitchen, sewed on buttons, and did a TON of work in the yard... and wasn't even tired today. i hope when i am her age i can be a super hero mom like she is.

self portrait time... we were so gross.

so today we woke up.... thought about not getting out of bed, and realized we had an elephant to tend to. i assisted robby by measuring where the anchor bolts were in the foundation and helping him drill holes in the sill. we got that done and moved on to the rim joist. that was mostly robby, but i helped when i could. that was about it before the storms rolled in. we got one floor joist in, just to say we did, but i didn't get a photo of that.

robby working hard today...

detail of the sill with the anchor bolts....

cool photo of work in progress... and the patterns it leaves behind.

rim joist finished:

the storm clouds looming...

self portrait from this afternoon just before the storms sent us home. (thank goodness. i can barely move.)

overall progress...

so we did get some good new today in regards to the loan... basically, the bank will give us as much as possible based on the appraisal. it may not be what we've asked for, but it should be enough to get a lot done. and what will be left we will scrimp and save and do as we can. we know some really respectable people who have lived with OSB countertops for a while... if they can do it, we can too. our frustrations with trying to do this in the midst of a spiralling economy have not gone away... but we ultimately have faith that modesty in our budget now will hopefully pay off in a few years when we do want to sell this house in a hopefully healthier economy!

so progress continued at the house today... the concrete arrived and the footings are poured. i hadn't posted photos from the weekend yet... i was too depressed to do it last night. so here goes... friday to today:

BOBCAT!!

robby dug out for the crawlspace

have i mentioned that we're having a great time doing this together?

so, i have used a standard nail gun a thousand times.... but a framing nailer is a whole other beast. it weighs a lot and has a powerful recoil blast... so robby made me practice. it was scary...

sunday morning: dunkin' donuts! and ryan (hero #2) there to help...

the boys digging out for the footings...

shirts off... for the boys at least.

i did my share... or all that i could handle. (i could barely move on monday)

footing central...

i got tired after that and didn't get any more photos sunday. robby and i got rebar and got it set in and tied together, and covered everything up for the rain that came monday. we were exhausted.

but it was worth it... we passed our footing inspection!!

today at 4:00 the concrete truck arrived...

i was oh, so helpful today...

i had to at least play a little...

and we made our mark. it will get covered by the brick on friday, but we will always know it's there.

self portaits along the way... we really are loving this.