Trusses Arrive

Ray and Colt were at the land bright and early. The rest of us arrived about 7:45 am to see the trusses arrive.

Truck With Boom Attached

The truck was too big to enter our driveway and the driver wanted Ray to take down the fence. But instead of that Ray put the planks across the edge of our culvert so that it was not destroyed under the weight of the truck.

Ray got a call last night saying they would be ready first thing today. He was working on another job, but as has been the practice up to now, he was able to take the day off and came back to our house to work there for the day. We have been very fortunate in that he has been able to work back and forth between jobs and our house and take care of our finances, while building our house.

So first thing this morning we all arrived at the land to see the trusses. We all get so excited when anything new happens!! After watching from the van for a few minutes I decided to get closer and take some pictures.

Unstrapping the Trusses

Livingroom Trusses

I had never really take note of when Ray said that trusses were coming that day - what it actually meant! I knew it would be a day of putting the roof on, but that was as far as it went in my mind. I had no idea of the danger!

The first thing I saw was that Ray was on the upper floor exterior wall (nothing around him but empty space) - and he is standing on a 6" wide board! He has nothing to hold on to.

Here it Comes!

Notice that if the boom operator is not paying attention he could accident swing it a bit to the left or right and knock Ray off the wall.

Guiding It Down

He just waits there and then supports and guides the truss as it is lowered to lay across the outer upstairs wall. At any moment the truss could knock him off the upper wall - down 18 feet.

Well!! I saw enough of *that* so I thought I would go upstairs and get some good shots of the truss coming down on the roof.

Truss Down - Boom Swinging

First Truss Down

Ray bending over to avoid being hit by the metal boom that is swinging around over his head!

Two Stories Up - Air Space All Around!

Not a good ideas! That was when I saw what my son has to do!! *laugh* His job is just as scary! Talk about making a mother's heart beat faster! We already pray for safety on the jobsite, but this will put new meaning into that!!

Boy's Bedroom Trusses Up

After the trusses were delivered the guys started putting them up. This shows the games room trusses that are on Austin and Cassidy's room. I had a disappointment when they arrived!! The opening in the room was supposed to be 16 x 16 feet, but I guess the making of the trusses changed things a bit and we ended up with only a 12 x 16 opening.


Believe me I will be using the edges of the rooms where the walls have the bracing. I will have Ray drywall between the braces. This way we can create shelving right in the walls. This will make up for some of the lost space. You can see what I am talking about down the sides of the room.

There will be a nice big window that sits low in the wall, at the other end of the room.

Here is Austin having a peek at his new room. He is very excited to see it coming together, as all the other boys already have their rooms built.

Where's the Floor?

Swimming Lessons

BIG DAY AT THE LAKE

Learning to Swim With Big Brother.

We took a break from working at the land today and went down to the lake. The kids had a wonderful time playing in the water and having water fights.

One little guy decided to go for a swim when he can't swim and his big brother fished him out.

Big Brother Saves the Day!

Well, the funny thing was he was quite happy to get his face wet and there began his swimming lessons. He was dunking and dipping and slurping up water and just kept on going!

Back Float

I Can Do This!

It was a hoot cause all of our kids seem to not learn to swim til they are over 7. They just don't want to get their faces wet. Not this little guy! If you click on some of the pictures you will see how expressive his wet little face is! *grin*

Mum, I survived!

Ooooh!! I'm cold!

Train Them Young

Never too Little to Help!

Whenever he found my gloves this little helper was quick to put them on and try to be a big boy! Here he is with my gloves on trying to pick up the rake.

Ready Boys?

And HEAVE!
(and little guy gets left behind!)

Our boys are all so wonderful and helpful. Each of them has had a hand in helping so far. Even our 3 year old likes to hammer the concrete to knock it off the wood trim. He picks up nails and garbage and keeps the jobsite tidy. He is also wonderful for carrying the big rocks to the pile I am creating for projects later. He says, "Me want to help."

Loading the Truck For the Dump

Below you will see all the boys, including the baby stacking logs. The big boys were so quick to applaud the baby when he started picking up logs. And of course, he knew he was cute!

Stacking Our Winter Heat Supply

Our seven year old son cleans up, picks up nails, and helps carry lumber when we need it. He has also been a periodic helper when we are landscaping. Believe me, that is no small job! He fills his bucket with moss, dirt, rocks, and sticks and hauls it off to our fill pile or the burn pile. He is also great at keeping his little brother occupied!

Brothers are Great!

Our 9 year old is capable of so much now. This was his 3rd or 4th foundation that he has worked on. He is still mostly at a building forms and footings stage, but little by little.... That is how his oldest brother began and now older brother can do a complete foundation. He and his older brother are my main haulers when it comes to raking the years of brush, moss, rocks and extra dirt. We have to relocate it so they are gaining muscles using wheelbarrows. Below he is applying wire for rock work on the front of the house.

Applying Wire For Rock Work

Our next son, 13, is also learning, along with the nine year old. He is very helpful at home and so doesn't get to the job site as much as he would like. I am loathe to lose my wonderful helper!! Mind you, when he was away recently I had to rely on his younger brothers and they learned very quickly how to bake cakes, make bread, clean bathrooms, and run the vacuum. So this has now freed him up to go to the job and earn money more frequently. Here you will see him in a very filthy state as he is raking and picking up piles of mess.

Smiley

And of course our 15 year old is capable of using all the tools, and so strong. Recently when I was at the job an employee called him a 'forklift' because he comfortably walked upstairs carrying a stack of 8 - 2x4 studs.

Our Biggest Son

The Upstairs Is On

Ray began framing our house on a Monday. By the following Monday he had framed our house up to the upstairs outside walls. He took two days over on a customer's job and then came back to our house for a couple days. He has now got our house up to the trusses stage. Ten days to build over 3000 sf. I am impressed! It is wonderful!! Here are pictures of the different stages.

Some Trusses Have Arrived

Here is the house with the livingroom on and the trusses for it outside.

View From Near Back Fence

Here is a picture of the back of the house. There will be a deck of about 14 x 16 just off the kitchen. That is the door between the two windows. Plus a small one off the mudroom, located on the smaller end of the house.

Kitchen End of the Kitchen / Schoolroom

This is a view of the kitchen / schoolroom from the schoolroom end. To the left leads into the livingroom. If you go to the far end of the kitchen and take a left you will go into the diningroom (which is off the livingroom). To the left in the far end of the kitchen is also a wonderful huge pantry of about 4'x5' and across from that is a utility/pan closet of 4' wide x 7' tall. All those big pans, canners, toasters etc that have to shoved to the back of the closets will have their own home!

Livingroom into Schoolroom View

Here is a picture from the livingroom looking back into the schoolroom. Right between the two rooms is where the fireplace will be. It will be so cozy!

The Upstairs Is On

And here is a picture of the house ready for trusses. They will be arriving next week sometime.

As I walk through the house and show friends and talk about what our plans are for each room it is so exciting!!! When we built our last house we picked a size - 28x29 and framed everything inside that.

This time we designed our house from the inside out. We have acquired two more children and the older ones need their space, so this time we built five, rather than three bedrooms. Each of the older boys has a nice size private room. They are getting insulation in their walls so that they can have their stereos on and we don't have to listen! *smile* Colt has asked if he can pay extra and have special wiring in his bedroom - strobe lights or some such thing! No problem - he has a job *smile*.

Cooper and Briton have their own room. I will decorating it in a plane, train, car theme. They are very excited about that. Plus we are putting a window in nice and low so they can look out while they are playing.

Cassidy and Austin's room is going to be fabulous. The plans are to have the doorway to their room about 5' down the hall. This way there is a tunnel to their room. The door to their room will be designed like the wardrobe into Narnia. Once through the wardrobe the tunnel/hallway will be decorated to look like the entrance into Narnia. In their room we are going to build a 3D beaver dam on one corner of the room. Once you go into the beaver dam you will find an escape hatch which leads down to the rec room below.

This is like in the movie, Narnia. This room is a wonderfully big 16 x 18! Our boys all shared rooms that were about 9x9 before, so this is a really exciting time for them all!

Landscaping Forever!

Driveway and Front Yard

This is the front yard. See how messy it is? One day we hope to have it all with a nice lawn and fence plus gate across the front.

Well, when we bought this land it was completely treed. We took down about 50 trees to get our opening for our house, the septic, the hydro pole and the water lines. What was left was a mess!!

Front Yard View

This is what the whole front of the yard looks like. There are piles all down one side of the driveway and others on the other side also! Plus in the back there are two very large piles of logs. To get rid of all this mess will require pulling the logs out of the stack, chainsawing them into lengths and then splitting and stacking them. This is easier said than done because when the excavator came through he dumped dirt and mess all over the logs, so now to cut them we need to brush them first with a wire brush.

It will be a mess for a while!! Ray says that he will burn the brush this winter to keep himself warm while he is putting the siding on the house! *grin* Oh yes! It will be cold!

In the meantime the boys and I have begun our landscaping. The first job was the immediate back yard. We began with me raking and raking and raking and the boys picking and picking and picking rocks!! *smile* That is a job that *any* age can do - even the baby! He loves to put rocks in the bucket. And then when the boys haul it away he gets to ride back in the wheelbarrow. *smile* You should see him clinging on for dear life!

How Many More, Mum?

Looks like Dane is praying *grin*, but he is actually being a little more picky that I need! In reality I think he is taking a break and playing!

It is looking good already. You won't notice the difference because you didn't see how bad it was before. But we are seeing progress. Obviously we will be going back to pick out more rocks as the earth settles.

Clearing all the Dead Brush and Needles

Looking Good

In the meantime the kids can have their trampoline and swingset put up.

Lunch Break

Raising the Beam

The livingroom is wonderful. It has a beautiful big beam across it. This came from our land. We wanted a reminder of all the trees that we had to chop down to build our house.

Ray chopped it down and then while I was at home one day he hauled it into the house.

If you could see this thing you would be surprised. It is over 16' long and about 16" across. It is heavy! He was going to use a guy's truck to haul it over the yard and into the house. I objected, fearing he would wreck the truck! We tried pulling it across the yard, but put it aside.

Me Making a Sad Attempt at Moving the Log

The next day I come in and he says, "What's that stick doing in the livingroom." *grin* Cocky guy! I find he has manually hauled the log across the yard, up over a 2' step into the house. He peeled it before he did this.

Log Peelings

The Log In the Livingroom

I wanted to wait until the older boys and the employee were there so it would be easier and not so scary! But he knew we could do it! *laugh* So we got the three little ones outside holding a rope and hauling while we lifted from the other side. I am sure that their little bodies couldn't do much but they liked helping.

Big Helpers

He and I worked as a team and lifted that log up 8' to the top of the wall (on one side).

Beginning the Lift

Leaning On One Livingroom Wall

Half Way Up the Second Wall

It was resting there and then we worked the other side up. Boy it was so heavy that if we dropped it it would surely have crushed/destroyed one of our legs! Scary!



When that side was up it was not over yet. Now we had to move it across the top of the wall - 7 feet to the end of the wall. At the end of the wall was a drop off - it could roll right off! We got to the end with a lot of struggling and sitting on top of the wall to do this!

Note: the Lip On Each End of the Log!

At this point we had to drop each end into a slot that he had prepared. The overhang on each end was only 1.5". We could not afford to have it leaning too far to the right or left or when we dropped it the other end would catapult through the air! Finally it was done.

Well we thought it was! Not really - one end was too tight. We had to pull it up again and then Ray had to climb up on the wall and chainsaw the gap to fit better.

Chainsaw Ray Notching the Log

Now it was done. And it sure looked good. Ray has now peeled some more logs and he will be using them as posts at the bottom of the staircase.

Septic Tank Miracle

Load of Drain Rock for Septic System

When we built our last house it cost us about $1,500 to put in a lagoon. That is like a large 40 x 40 foot swimming pool. Except you wouldn't want to go swimming in there! :o) Mind you, our dog sure did! She would come out all green from algae. The ground at our old house had too much clay to put in a regular septic tank.

Since that time regulations have changed and now the whole system has to be put in by special people and the cost is exhorbitant! We have heard horror stories of people buying land and being landed with quotes of $70,000!!

We were warned that we could expect ours to be between $15,000 and $30,000! We were a little concerned about this because we hadn't budgetted for that much. We actually made it a subject that we wouldn't buy the land unless it was under $10,000. I know that was low, but I felt a peace about that number. The people countered and told us we should expect it to be $15,000. I told Ray that I wasn't happy with that number and just didn't feel it was right.

The quote from the septic guys came in and sure enough the people were right - the lowest quote came in at $14,500. I was still not at peace with it. We did not remove our subject and just sat on it.

Then a few days later the septic guy called back and said he had just 'happened to find an ammendment' which made it possible to do our septic in another manner. This would cause our septic cost to be $8,500. Coincidence?? I don't think so!!! That is why I did not have any peace about the price! God is good - ALL the time *grin*.

Installing the Septic Tank

Many Hands Make Light Work

Daddy's Little Helper

Today Ray went to the lumber store early to pick up more wood. After dropping Cassidy off I headed to the land. Today we got another few sections of exterior walls up. Plus we go the walls up for the kitchen, dining room, food storage room, mudroom, and rec room. This was all completed before I left at 3:00 pm.

I am getting used to hauling wood, I guess! :o) It wasn't so bad today. Take someone who spends all day cooking, cleaning, schooling etc and tell them to start hauling hundreds (no lie) of 2x6 studs and they might not like it much either! By the end of the day I was actually looking forward to the next day (sort of :o)) When we built our last house seven years ago I *thought* I made sure I would never have to do it again! *Never* say never!!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

It is really neat to see it all coming together. My window in the kitchen is 5' across and the view is out to the woods behind. It seems so private and considering what we left behind when we left our acreage, that is wonderful!

I just wish we could build faster!! *smile* It is so exciting to see our plans coming off the paper and going onto the land! It seems so different from when we look at paper.

The little boys have been so wonderful. We brought lots of dumptrucks and basketballs and diggers for them. They are loving the sand box! But they are also so helpful when we need them. Cooper was our little garbage man. He had to wander around the job site and pick up all the garbage he could find. We also paid the little boys a penny a nail for all the nails they could find. I figured it would be a great way to not have stray nails when we are done. Austin and Cooper were the ones to take the garbage out to the street on garbage day. It was a treat for them to see the little garbage truck come and pick up the cans. Living out in the country before we had always had to take our garbage to the dump.

Today I had Cooper and Austin bringing 2x4 studs to the house for me to carry to the guys for laying out to build walls. Cooper was so proud of himself for being so strong.

Little Helper!

Another Little Helper!