Merry Christmas!

We moved a few boxes on Christmas Eve morning (in the rain!), and Jas got the well pump and water tank installed, but that was about all we did.  This morning (Christmas morning) after breakfast and present-opening, we headed down to the house to spend the day working.  I unpacked boxes and put away kitchen stuff, while Jas worked on the water heater exhaust pipe.  Our water heater is going in the basement, so he had to cut a hole in the floor above the water heater (which is in the broom closet in the laundry room) and then a hole in the attic to run the exhaust pipe through.  He has to cut the hole through the roof tomorrow and install the water heater, as well as hook it up to the gas line.  His plan is also to get the well primed and flushed tomorrow so we can have running water.  That would be nice! :)

A Very Productive Day

This morning started early, with Jas leaving out a little after 6 to go down to the house and measure for some pipe.  Then he headed off to Lowe's before 7 to pick up what we needed to finish the water, septic, and hopefully the furnace.  When he got back a little after 8, the 2 guys from the set-up crew that Patrick was sending down to help with siding were at the house.  So they helped Jas work on siding, while Vernon and Josh worked on the water pipe. 

It was getting dark yesterday when they finished laying the pipe out, so this morning Vernon and Josh glued pipe together and put it in the trench, hooked up the well to the pipe, and stubbed the water line into the house.  They did the same with the gray water system, so all that's left is to make the final connections in the house. 

By lunchtime, we had siding on the south end of the house up past the door, so all that's left is the "triangle" at the top.  They also got the bottom row of siding on the front and back of the house.  (It's left off during transport so it doesn't get damaged when the house is moved off the carrier.)  They started the first couple of rows on the north side, but then they had to leave.  So Jas is trying to get this part finished up to the gable. 

And although he's on the phone in this photo and not working, it's actually for a good reason.  The electric company arrived this afternoon and put in our new transformer, set our pole, and put our meter, etc. up so all that's left is connecting it to the house.  Jas is on the phone with Jeremy in this photo planning that out for tonight.

Vernon's digging a trench for the electrical wire to run from the pole to the house.  The little gray pole next to him is our electrical pole.  The guys called it a "pedestal" pole.  Because our cable is buried, we have no electrical wires running above the ground so our pole doesn't have to be very big.  No wires running across to the house is nice, too!

I had to make a trip to Lowe's shortly after this photo was taken to get electrical supplies.  I got back home in time for supper, and after we ate Jas and Jeremy headed down to the house to hook up the electric.  I can't wait to have lights down there! :)  Hopefully Jas can get the furnace set up, too, and the black pipe run outside so we can get LP tomorrow.  Then we could have heat as well as lights!  We'll see how much he gets done tonight.  I must admit, this was a very productive day!

Water Line Installation

This morning started off with Jason heading down to the house site to double-check how much water pipe was needed to run from the well to the house, and from the sump pump to the drainage ditch (our gray water system).  I had to call a rental place and get a trencher/Ditch Witch for the day.  Then we headed to Cape to buy 580 feet of water pipe (2" bell end pvc, in case anyone's curious), all the necessary fittings and couplers, and pick up the trencher.  By 10:40 we were back home, and Jas headed out to the house site.  The trencher had some difficulties, and Jas' dad ended up pulling it with the tractor while it dug.  So it was slow going. 

After they finished digging the trench from the well to the house, they started in on the trench from the sump pump to the drainage ditch.  By 2:00 they were finished digging and I drove the truck while they laid the pipe next to the trench.  Then they stopped for lunch.

This afternoon they are laying the pipe and burying it in both trenches.  Hopefully they finish up before dark. 

In other news, the electric company had the underground cable buried today from the transformer to the pole by the house.  Hopefully tomorrow they will set the pole, meter base and disconnect, as well as put in the bigger transformer, so we can have power.   As soon as we get that and LP service, we'll be set!

Plumbing Particulars

Yesterday Jason spent most of the day just trying to figure out the plumbing.  Everything is stubbed in, but he has to run all the drains and connect up with the septic system.  So he needed a plan.  After he came up with something, we headed to Lowe's (after grabbing a quick bite of supper) to pick up pvc pipe, fittings, connectors, adaptors, and a sump pump.  $211 later, we headed home with our stuff.

This morning (Sunday), Jas and his dad and Jeremy boxed in the south side of the house.  We also sprayed insulation in all the nooks and crannies of the house (inside and outside), so everything should be weather-tight now.  The afternoon and evening were spent installing the plumbing in the basement.  This was a long process (even WITH the plan), and involved much cutting, glue-ing, piecing together, etc.  Several times I'm sure Jas was wishing we'd just hired a plumber to do this.  But in the end, he and his dad finished up last night and everything looks good.  For those of you considering tackling a project of this magnitude, may I just say that it is a HUGE project, and you definitely need plenty of help (and the patience of Job) to make it happen.  "Plan your work and work your plan!"

Tomorrow's goal is to get the water line installed. 

Let's work inside for a change.

With the bitter cold and snow flurries this morning, Jas abandoned the idea of finishing the south side of the house (it's covered in plastic sheeting, so it's safe from the elements!) and decided to work on the plumbing.  He has to make all the plumbing connections (everything is just roughed in), so he spent the morning coming up with a plan of attack.  After many conversations with me, his dad, and Patrick, he has a plan.  This afternoon he and his dad will start working with the plumbing supplies they have (supplied by Commodore) and then they'll make a list of what they need and we'll make another Lowe's run.  It's time like this I wish Lowe's was closer!

Electric service is supposed to be installed Monday or Tuesday.  Hopefully LP service will be done on one of those days as well.  We have an old friend who's agreed to help with the drywall, so we're trucking along.  We've been hoping to be in by Christmas, but there's a lot to be done between now and then.  And Christmas is less than a week away.  We'll see . . .

Buttoning Up

We spent the morning helping the set-up crew get their stuff out of the basement and the "yard", and loading everything up.  We also put up a temporary set of stairs to the front door, although the sloppy mud is such a trial to make it back and forth across. 

After lunch, Patrick Wilson helped seal the bottom of the house, and then he and Jas and Vernon started framing and sealing up the eaves. 

 

They got the north side finished, and then covered the south end in plastic sheeting to keep precipitation out of the attic.  After supper, Jas and Jeremy worked on some electrical stuff.  Tomorrow's goal is to hopefully get the framing done on the south side, plus work on plumbing connections.

The house is together!!

The set-up crew arrived bright and early this morning, and they wasted no time getting the roof of the front half jacked up.

They began placing beams under the front half so they could roll it across as well.

By around 11:30, they had the two halves together on the basement.

As you can see from the photo, the front half needed to be let down onto the basement wall.  But before that could happen, the guys had to make sure the two halves were lined up perfectly.  Luckily, I got to go in the house while they did that.  And that was like Christmas morning!  I wandered from room to room, so excited to see the finished product.  And even though we have A LOT of work ahead of us before it is totally finished (and I do mean A LOT), it was still awesome to see it.  Our house.  Ours.  After months and months of planning and paperwork, the finished product is finally here.  Well, not really finished yet, but you know what I mean.

The guys worked in the basement attaching the house together with lag bolts, while Patrick Wilson and I moved the finishing supplies around.  Inside the living room and master bedroom were door casings, siding for both ends, all the crown moulding, sheetrock, pvc pipe, roof shingles, ridge vents, etc.  Lots of stuff that needed to be moved. 

After the house was attached and the guys fixed the roof where some shingles blew off during the drive down here, Jason and his dad started on the ridge cap.  They're working on that now, trying to get the roof done before dark.  After supper tonight, Jas plans to put in the basement stairs.  All the wood is cut and the holes are pre-drilled, so hopefully we can finish the stairs tonight.  Tomorrow's goal is to frame and wrap the gable ends of the home (the open triangle you see in the photo above) and get the house "buttoned up".

This was such an amazing day, and getting to walk through the house and see everything was really amazing.  But I realize that we have some long days of work ahead of us to finish things out.  But as Patrick said today, it's worth it when it's your own house. 

The Really Big Day, Part 2

After we finished lunch, we noticed that the guys had started to roll the house across.

 

 

They put support beams under the house, and then put those beams on rollers.  They then rolled those across the square tubing they put in the basement this morning (see the previous post, first picture).  There were two guys working the winches (you can see them in the far left of the above photo), and they rolled the house across.  It actually went very smoothly, and in no time it was across.

The next step was to lower the house down onto the sill plate.  While these guys worked on that, the delivery driver needed to get the carrier out of the way so he could pull the second half up.  In order to save time, he had Jason pull it out with a tractor.

I took a quick shot of the house as Jas pulled the carrier out.  Starting at the far left, you have the master bathroom (door is open) and then our closet (door is closed).  Then the big opening is the kitchen (the wood supports in the middle of that opening will come out when the two halves are connected later).  Then on the far right is the hallway leading to the kids' bathroom and the laundry room.

Given the sloppiness of the ground (and yesterday's difficulties getting the house into place), the delivery driver decided to drive as quickly as he could across the front.  He almost made it the whole way, but got stuck right at the very end.  So Jas used the tractor to tow the truck and the house the rest of the way.

Right after that, the delivery driver handed me an envelope with the keys to our new house.  And that was totally awesome!  As he said, once you have the keys in your hand it really makes it real.  Now I just can't wait to use them to get into the house for the first time! :)  Here's Connor holding the keys for me . . .

Unfortunately, by the time the guys got the jack posts attached in  the basement we were losing daylight.  So they headed to a motel, and we finished burning the rest of the trash.  Tomorrow morning they plan to finish moving the front half of the house onto the basement and securing the two together. 

More photos tomorrow!

The Really Big Day, Part 1

I'm breaking this up into two posts, because there are going to be a lot of photos.  This morning we checked email around 7:30 to see if Patrick had let us know when the set-up crew was going to be there.  As I was checking, Jas saw their trucks go by on the way down to the house site.  So we hurried with breakfast so we could get down there, too!  They wasted no time getting started, either.

First step was putting in the beams that the house would roll across on.  Notice how intent Anna and Connor are.  They stayed for an hour or so, and then got tired and went up to Grandma and Grandpa's house to play! :)

They also had to remove the wrap from the roof so it could be hinged up.

Then they set to work putting the roof up.  This involved a lot of precise movements, because each man had to run his jack up evenly so the roof would stay even across the length of the house.

Jason burned the excess furring strips and plastic while they got ready to jack the house up.

Three guys on each side, they hand cranked the jacks to get the house up high enough to clear the carrier and the basement wall.

While they were doing that, the other half of the house showed up.  They had hoped to be further along before the second half arrived, but it didn't happen.

So he had to park and wait.  We chose that time to take a break for lunch, while the guys finished getting ready to move the house across.  I'll cover that in the next post.

The Big Day, Part 2

About 1:30 this afternoon, Patrick Wilson called to let us know that the house had arrived at his lot, and the back half was on its way down to us.  He said they'd left maybe an hour ago or so.  Jason decided that he'd go down to the building site and wait for the house, and the kids and I would come down a little later.  By 1:50, Patrick was calling back to say that the house was leaving Chaffee (they made great time apparently!), so we all started bundling up to head outside.  By the time we got ready, the house was turning off the highway and we could see it from our driveway!  So we hightailed it down to the building site to wait for it. 

The only corner we were a little concerned about was by the daycare, but they seemed to make it with no problems.

My first glimpse of it!  It is so beautiful, and the siding color is such a pretty green.  I'm so glad we went with that.  The brown shingles and white trim really set it off.

Here they are coming around by Travis and Amy's.  Almost here!

Getting ready to turn into the driveway!

Even though it was bitterly cold and windy, the ground was still soft and spongy around the house site, and we were a little concerned they'd get stuck.  Jas went to get the tractor just in case, but they didn't have any problems.  The delivery driver brought wood mats to drive on so he wouldn't get stuck, and Jas and Josh and Uncle Andy helped place and remove those as he drove in.

The ends (as you can tell) do not have siding on them yet.  Jason will have to do that in the next few days.  Also, the roof is hinged down for transport since our roof pitch is higher, so that will have to be raised tomorrow when the house is set.

After they finished moving it, I looked through the patio doors so I could at least see the kitchen.  All I could see was the massive island, but man did it look beautiful!  I'm so excited (words can't even begin to describe it), but I'm really looking forward to being able to set foot in it tomorrow.  We've been looking at this house as a 2-dimensional floor plan since June, and it is so amazingly cool to see it in real life now.  I'm just like a kid on Christmas morning! :)

Tomorrow is the really big day, so I will post lots of pictures!  Can't wait! :)

The Big Day, Part 1

This morning has been a flurry of activity, which will continue until probably around suppertime.  Our septic guy called about a quarter 'til seven this morning, to let us know he was on his way.  Jas bundled up in his bibs and heavy coat and sock cap and headed out to the site to start leveling the ground up.

When the kids and I arrived a little after 8, the guy was digging the hole for the septic tank.

He finished up, and then sat in the truck to keep warm while they waited on the tank to arrive.  (It's around 28 this morning with a strong north wind, so it's incredibly cold.)

Jas spent most of the morning leveling the front yard, really wishing the tractor with a cab would have started! :)

He finished about 10:15, so we headed into his parents' house to warm up and wait on the septic tank to arrive.  While we were in there, Jas noticed he missed a call from Patrick Wilson about 8:30 this morning.  Apparently because of the weather up north, the house had not arrived at his lot yesterday as scheduled.  This morning when he called Jason it was passing Springfield, IL.  They still plan to bring it down today, but it will probably be after 3 before the first half gets here.  So we've got a little time to kill.  We're hoping to go get the water pipe and install it while we're waiting this afternoon.  The septic tank and pipe showed up, but I didn't get to take any photos of them unloading the tank because it took us a little while to get bundled up so we could head back outside!

 

They unloaded the pipe, too, so the big truck could leave and make room.

Jason stayed to check things out, but the kids and I headed home to grab some lunch and update the blog.  I'll update again this afternoon. :)

Tomorrow's the big day!

And our septic system is not being installed today.  The guy called Jason around 7 this morning, and they decided to put it off for one more day and hopefully the ground will dry up some more.  It has been so damp the last couple of days, and the rain Saturday night did not help matters at all.

That means tomorrow will be very busy.   Jason is taking off work because he HAS to get the front yard leveled up so that the guys can get the house in tomorrow.  The septic should be installed tomorrow as well.  I'm sure I'll be posting lots of photos.

Crunch time has arrived! :)

Sunday's Activities

Because of the rain we got last night (grrr!), we couldn't move dirt around and get the front yard leveled up today like we wanted to.  So we kept busy with other projects.  Jason selected our mailbox post months ago when we cleared brush at the edge of our property line.  (Remember that?  Fun times, people!) :)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago he leveled the ash log he had previously selected, and encased it in a bucket of concrete to keep it stable.  Today he put it in the ground (after contacting Dig-Rite to come and put flags down where cables were buried).  The only line near the road was the phone line, and we stayed clear of it.

First, Jas and Connor dug a hole.

They dug a square hole first, then in the middle dug a large round hole for the bucket to sit in.  Connor did a lot of the work . . . :)

Then they had to inspect the cut on Connor's hand.  This is hard work for a little boy!  After this, he put on gloves like Dad.

After that, Jas added some gravel to the bottom, put the post in the hole, and checked to make sure it was level.

Concrete mixing came next, and then he placed a layer of concrete on top.

And there's our mailbox post, newly encased in concrete and ready for a mailbox to sit on top! 

Septic should be installed tomorrow.  More photos then! :)