First day of work on our house!!

Josiah watching uncle Wedo

First wall up!

Busy weekend!

Hi all....on Friday Tom and Richard were busy working on facia and started roofing. One big snafu, which was my fault, was that I didn't go take a check to the business that was going to provide the roofing so they were going to not send out the roofing materials until Monday but Tom needed it on Friday to start, so he found another company that was willing to send it out right away! Whew...what a bummer!

The weather on Friday was pretty overcast and windy and rainy..ick! But they still hung in there a full day. Tom stayed to work on the house till dark. Melissa was worried because at 8:15 Tom hadn't shown up yet and so Hannah and I drove way to fast out to the house....I was thinking Tom was laying on the ground hurt or something! His phone was dead too...bummer!

He was OK...talking with a friend who helped him a little with the roof! Thank God because that was a big scare! Josiah was with his Grandpa and Nana Clark who came to pick him up for an overnighter since he hasn't seen them much lately! He had a blast of course!

Tom worked Saturday, thankfully, since Grandma Forrest came to stay with Hannah for the morning until Melissa got off work...it was a very cold, windy, heavy rainy day and the guys still worked! Kudos guys! They eventually went inside to do some finish up some small details!

Tom worked Sunday as well for the morning until Melissa went to work at 1 pm and then Papa and Grandma Forrest came to take the kids for a couple more hours for Tom to finish his interior projects. He wants to focus on the roof tomorrow (today :{ )

So Tom's brother Jeremy should be coming to help Tom with the roof tomorrow unless their horse Bonnie ends up having her baby. He will be driving all the way from Spokane! Thank you Jeremy, you are awesome for helping! Tom & Jeremy owned their own roofing company in Spokane while they were both going to Eastern Washington University! It paid the bills and got them through school! Fun times!!

I will be posting a few video clips on the blog in the bottom where the pics are...I had uploaded them to the sidebar but they didn't fit so I had to delete them and it's 2 am so I'm not going to try again!

Goodnight...sweet dreams everyone!! God Bless you all!!

House all sheeted!

So very sorry for the huge span of time without blogging....geez..I didn't realize that it had been that long!!! Our Uncle Dave emailed us and asked if our camera was broke!!!

Nope...we have certainly taken a bunch of pics for sure!! Amazing to see the progression happen somewhat quickly!! The home had trusses put on and the roof is sheeted entirely!

So I will post a few pics below..so make sure to take a look!! I really need to change this format of the blog...but that won't be happening anytime soon since I can't even take the time to make an entry!!

Where I left off was on the 12th...the next day was Friday the 13th ....trusses arrived that day and I went out to take the guys some yummy burritos from Roberto's Taco Shop and my friend Daisy came out to take a look at the digs. Richard's wife Janelle was there as well! We all ate and had fun visiting!!

Tom said that day was kind of frustrating once they started to mark out the truss layout because the prints weren't matching something or something....lingo???

Anyhow...come Monday the 16th...the guys start to roll the trusses!! It was a brutal day of very intense wind....and they still walked on those walls to roll those trusses....I couldn't have done it, that's for sure!! Both Monday and Tues were horribly windy days and those were the two days of rolling trusses.... man those guys are so good!! Thanks Richard and Will for helping Tom, he couldn't have done it without you guys for sure!!

Now Wed the 18th the sheeting begins at the back of the house!! Sheeting is done by Friday..or maybe Monday, two days ago! Now begins the work of inside arches, trayed ceiling, soaker tub decking, framing in door, etc., etc.

The plumbers came in today....Wed to start the 'rough in'...they should be done tomorrow!! Thank you to Precision Plumbing and Sean Doncaster who had patiently worked with the lady of the house to figure out what she wants!! WOWSA!!! Too many decisions for this little brain!! Sean is a cool fellow who Mel has known for a few years!! Thanks Sean, for being so patient and understanding of my mini dilemas about tubs, and fixtures!!

Thank God for people with experience and lots of ideas...I'm still stuck on what door to get and we've been thumbing through the book for the last couple of weeks, and driving by many a house to see what on earth we would want, all while staying in the budget!! That's a joke... because of course all the cool stuff is the most expensive stuff!!!

I gave Grandma Forrest a call this morning to get some door advice so we can get the windows ordered, which should've been ordered a couple weeks ago, but I have been mulling over whether to get a door system or just a single door with vinyl windows for sidelites (which usually looks pretty darn cheesy unless it's done with careful, tasteful detail of the finish trimwork). So we will certainly be getting fiberglass door for sure, but I haven't made the final decision as of yet! Tomorrow I will hopefully get a few more prices of some things and from that I will make a decision!!

Visitors this past week included Papa & Grandma Forrest on Sunday the 15th, Grandma Rodriguez on Thursday the 19th, my friend Meagan Santos on Friday the 20th, and Grandpa & Nana Clark on Saturday the 21st! Thank you everyone for coming to see what's going on out there!! It's fun to share!!

Thank you to everyone too who looks in on the blog to see what's up!! Although it would help if I made some entries!! Just email me to remind me!!! That'll be good accountability to stay up and blog!

So as well as deciding most recently as of yesterday and the day before, we decided on fixtures, tubs, and still working on the sink and that blessed front door!! We will be meeting the cabinet guy on Friday and the electrician on Monday to hash out some stuff!!

I'm honestly feeling like I need more time to do some much needed homework on some things!! But it's a little late for that and we seem to be needing to make lots of decisions all of a sudden.

Today's scenarios included Tom talking with the plumbers about where to put the fixtures for the soaker tub because it's a tight master bath and the tub is a corner one without much room for installing the fixtures together so they are trying to figure out the best placement....he was also having to stand in the framed in master shower to try to decide where he wanted the shower head to go, and where to place the control valves for the shower...we are putting a wonderful rainhead shower in the ceiling of the master bath!! So excited....we have two water tanks so we can have plenty of indoor rain shower showers!! So exciting....I had the pleasure of experiencing a rainshower head in January while visiting our Wilson family in Eatonville at our Uncle Dave's house.....it was such a great feeling to have all that warm water falling all over you!! I loved it!!

So you all will be glad to know that we WILL be putting a sink in the laundry room!! Woo Hoo!! Now we just have to find it at a cheap price!!

The internal blinds are probably a no go!! Just worried about the maintenance of the blinds like that!! I'll have to get creative about how to cover the master bedroom patio door! Grandma Forrest suggested a solid door, but I'm thinking I would like to be able to look out onto the patio!

So we changed up the second bathroom and took Richard's idea of placing the tub and toilet in their current spots!! It was a great idea Richard!! So very glad we opened up the space in there like that!!

Ok so very late and I still need to post a few pics....take care all...God Bless you!!

Interior walls today!

OK...no pictures tonight but I definitely wanted to journal the last couple of days! I wasn't able to make it to the property on Tuesday, but the hard work the guys accomplished that day was putting up the sheeting on the exterior part of the walls.

Today...the kids and I went to see the new, exciting changes taking place which was the interior walls were being built and put up!! It was so neat to see!!

Another cold day today...not sure how cold but it felt like freezing cold weather!! Amazing! The guys said that in the morning it was even worse than what it was in the afternoon when we showed up, and it was so so freezing cold! I felt bad!! If it were up to me...I would have gone home and snuggled back in bed to go back to sleep!



Thanks so much Richard and Will for helping Tom out with this...you guys ROCK!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Tom would never have gotten this far without you guys there to help him get 'er done!!



The mini dilema we face at the moment is how to arrange the 2nd bathroom. As the guys began snapping lines and putting up interior walls the dimensions come to life, of course, as compared to looking at the plan on paper. Everything seems so small....but its twice the size and more of what we occupy now...



With that said the 2nd bathroom is so small, it seems, and we are trying to figure out a way to maximize space but also making it feel more open and not so cramped because the toilet is right next to the shower! Richard had a good idea that Tom wanted me to come out to see, and I agreed that it was a good idea. It was to move the toilet to the opposite wall so it opens up the space in front of the tub.



So Tom spent tonight drawing up a couple different scenarios he would frame up. Both scenarios involve getting rid of the hall closet and he's taking away my space for a cool bench in the utility room....he says there's still room for 15 in. of bench...

My thinking is it would be nice to have a spot to sit and take off your shoes and put on some slippers coming in from the garage! Also a spot to hang our coats and keep our hats, gloves, some shoes, etc. Especially since we are going to get rid of both hall closets!! We are being bold....

Tom called Grandma Forrest today to have her look at the set of plans she has with her at home to see what she thought of some things we are thinking of changing. She had good input as well!



Wow...so many decisions! So Tom says trusses are coming on Friday!! How exciting!



I will hopefully post some pics tomorrow!



Thanks for reading! I'm thoroughly enjoying everyone's input in regards to all the things I'm posting and my polls I've put up!! As far as the sink in the utility...I think Tom is certainly trumped!! Everyone seems to be on my side with that!! :) With the blinds, I've heard a mix of yes and no. Definitely a little more difficult to weigh out! Thanks for the input...I love hearing it all!! So good to get second opinions since there are so many ways to think of something but our two brains can only think of so much!! Thanks for sharing your brain power!!

Take care all!



...........to be continued!

Walls are up today!!

OK....week 2 day 1 of framing the house as of today!!! I'll include quite a few pictures in this one if I have the patience to upload...we'll see...there will be at least a couple of new ones!!
I have a video I can upload too...we'll see if I can figure that one out, since I'm still having issues with the whole PDF to JPEG to uploading a picture deal!! Thanks for the help with that problem John...I tried what you said but it's not working for me!!! Ugh!!!

I'll start with today!! Today the guys...Tom, Richard, and Mel's brother, Will got all the exterior walls up including the garage walls. It was a freezing cold day...and windy too.. but it's pretty much always windy up where the land is!! The kids and I went out to take a look and I had to put Josiah in his snow pants and boots, and heavy coat so he could roam around the house!!
So hats off to the guys for enduring the harsh weather conditions to get all those walls up today and also the massive huge beams that go over the garage exterior walls! Man those looked heavy!! At one point Richard did comment on the fact that his he couldn't feel his lips or nose because they were numb from the cold!! Crazy!! Thanks for all the hard work and effort!! We truly appreciate it!! The guys are so talented to be able to frame up an entire house!! It's such a great accomplishment!

So I guess this post will be one of much rambling!!!

Friday the guys worked on building walls on the ground to get them ready to be put up today!
The concrete for the garage was poured and worked on all day on Friday! It was covered in tarps to protect it from the cold! I tell ya...the weather is so wierd! It has hailed twice in the last week! Josiah was trying to catch the hail in his hand today....he caught some then he licked the water off!! So cute!!

We are at crunch time for getting the windows ordered because Tom and the guys should be done framing in two weeks and they need to have the windows set by then to get an inspection to be able to proceed with the roof!

We are having a hard time trying to figure out what kind of entry door we want...we haven't really done our homework...so now Mel is going to drive around to see what would be desireable for the house!

So begins the tedious details of picking and choosing so many different components to the finish work of the house!! We are looking at trim as well as windows..should we get a dining room door with or without the interior blinds, should we have a privacy window in the master bath since it's the only window in the bathroom unfortunately! Should we put a sink in the laundry/utility room...Tom says no & Mel says yes!! What kind of floor will we choose?? We really need to go look around at stuff, which we haven't done!! If you have any input...let us know!

Mel started work on Wed, so it has been a busy week and of course that's my excuse for not blogging until now...I almost bailed out of blogging tonight as well, but I made myself!! I'm so exhausted...so much to do so little time is what it always feels like on my end of things!! Hannah's been congested but is now getting over it, and that is emotionally draining because you hope that they feel OK even though you can tell they are miserable when they can't hardly breathe!! So Hannah is on the up and up! Josiah is such an awesome kid...so very good....although he wears Mama out throughout the day as he in the the testing boundaries stage. It's fun but sometimes frustrating and exhausting!! We love our kids and are so very thankful they are healthy and happy! We are BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE!!!!

We love you all and thanks for keeping up with us on this blog deal!