EJM, INC.

Risky New Year's

2010-02-03T21:14:00.003-05:00

Team Gemo made another appearance in the North for New Year's Weekend. Like all good minded parents, we put the kids to bed at normal time and played a killer game of Risk. Eric got taken out in a surprise move by Mrs. Team Gemo. Then, it was Mr. Team Gemo or me. After a few (okay a lot) of lucky dice rolls, I took him out. At 3am, after 6 hours, we had to suspend the game. (Children always get up at 7am...)
When we resumed playing, there were a few turns of back and forth then Mrs. Team Gemo (white) took it all and defeated me(yellow). Ahhh what a start to the New Year!

Xmas Part 3...

2010-02-03T21:05:00.003-05:00

I entertained 20 overnight guests including Eric, Elena and me. We played some games, went sledding, played some Super Mario among other things. Christmas was fun Here is the whole crew.

Xmas, Xmas and Xmas Part 2

2010-01-14T17:01:00.007-05:00

It's a Christmas miracle! We had pictures scheduled for the morning after Eric's incident, and you can't even see the damage!
All smiles in the xmas pictures.

Christmas morning Santa brought Elena exactly what she wanted, "a green present." Apparently, pausing for pictures before presents is not on the top of Elena's list.
All smiles in the funniest Where's Waldo Christmas pajamas.

Christmas, Christmas and more Christmas! Part 1

2010-01-14T16:29:00.004-05:00

For the first time since graduating high school, Eric and I did not have to travel for Christmas. Everyone came to us! First up, my family Christmas of 10. I cooked vegetable lasagna in which Eric says "...is a lot of work for no meat"

We also went out and played in the snow. Luc and Grandpa went for a ridee on the snowmobile.
Audra has the funniest sounding sledding video. Perhaps I will upload it one of these days.
We also learned this year that if Eric is low on food and water and hurts himself he really ought to sit down. After cutting himself with a knife, washing the cut and laughing at my brother for being skemish, Eric passed out on the kitchen floor and split his chin open. This wound, however, required seven stiches. As I told my sister last year or actually I think it was this Thanksgiving...If you haven't been to the ER over a Holiday then you haven't had a holiday.

CH Halloween Party '09

2010-01-14T15:49:00.008-05:00

It was a bit on the chilly side this year, but it was still nice and sunny for outdoor games. Potato sack races anyone?Randy and I whooping the youngins.Eric and Kodi chilling out.Ma and Pa went gangsta style.In an attempt to escape reality, I decided to sew Eric's and my costume this year. Elena was Alice in Wonderland. Eric was the Mad Hatter and I was the Queen of Hearts. Not to shabby considering my lack of sewing experience, but I admit Eric bailed me out at some key areas on the dress.

Top Sail Island Vacation

2010-01-14T15:31:00.002-05:00

We took the whole family vacation to Top Sail Island, North Carolina and rented a house. Elena enjoyed playing in the sand.

Luc enjoyed going into the ocean with his boogie board.

Elena is a mermaid and Luc is an Indy car. Elena calls these sand blankets.

Here's the whole group!

Birthdays

2010-01-14T14:58:00.005-05:00

Elena and Lucian chillin at Luc's 3rd birthday party.

Elena got two cakes to celebrate her 2nd birthday! One at Grandma and Grandpa's and the other at the Rockford Airshow.

May Update

2009-05-26T16:30:00.006-04:00

Apparently, it has been too long because I forgot my blogger password... Here is a little from the archives of the past 3 months...

March

We took the first nice day to go to the zoo. Elena was a big fan of the lions, tigers and monkeys.

Flat Stanley came up to Minnesota with us to watch Madelynn swim again.

April

The Easter Bunny came. Luke and Elena got to go on an Easter egg hunt too!We added a bunch of white and jack pines to diversify our tree collection. Some of these were actually quite large. May

We went to the Cubs vs. Brewers game at Milwaukee. It was early in the season this year so it was a little cold. Elena is learning to play baggo...

Here's the portion of the crowd we went to high school with (mostly). Thanks for coming! I know I had a good time. =)

Elena put together her own big bed.

Here she is pretending to sleep.

Accessorize!

2009-02-10T16:23:00.003-05:00

We took advantage of the warm weather and finally got the shutters up. They really take the outside to pretty plain and missing something to much more. Too bad the sunlight is a bit harsh to really see the colors.If anyone else has some exciting before and after project pictures and you want me to post them send me an email.

En Vogue

2009-02-04T16:10:00.005-05:00

Repurposing is so cool these days...but Eric and I were cool before it was cool. Version 1.0-As seen here in the background, this free double wide TV stand left by Eric's roommate worked well for a time, but it was too big and cluttered for selling our house. Version 2.0 - From double wide to single wide. Custom TV fit!
Version 3.0 - occurred when the DVD player did not fit, so we had to move the middle vertical piece over just a touch...

Version 4.0 - Raze the Roof! It seems our free TV (purchased with credit card points from building the house) wouldn't fit. Oh...but that can't stop us!

Seriously, one day I really will buy new furniture, "but something keeps telling me don't do it yet, not yet, not yet..."

January update!

2009-02-04T15:17:00.006-05:00

Oh hooray! The holidays were fun, but I'm enjoying staying home and getting stuff done! How's the house? Oh, it's here. There is always plenty to keep us busy. Thanks to a little help from Eric the 1st floor closet doors should be up in a week or so. He also got the zone system hooked up and a humidifier hooked up on the HVAC system. He's done other stuff too but I never remember once it's done anymore =) Eric also has been on the snowmobile 3 weekends in a row. Nice. It's awesome having a groomed trail right across the street.

Elena is growing up. She is all toddler now. She says lots of single words, loves her bike helmet, monkeys and getting tossed up on the number 3. Here are some pics.

Elena figured out her toybox was a bench!
She gave us a Christmas Eve concert.
She got a new snowsuit,
a new sled,
and a snowmobile helmet!
She's starting to like dolls and thinks she fits perfectly in this little chair!
Man is she starting to look old!

There's no business like snow business!

2008-12-04T15:08:00.003-05:00

We had gotten a couple snows already this year. After yesterday's, we thought it was worth bundling Elena up to go out and play in it. Adding the 17th and final item!
Be afraid be very afraid.
This outfit worked for a few minutes until she fell over and I took too long picking her up and she starteed crying. Perhaps partly because when she moved her head the adult spidey mask stayed in the same place... We went inside and played with the snow stuck to her boots. After a little time with the snow inside, we decided to go back outside and try it again with a little different set up.
Elena was much happier. Dishtowels can make great scarves without adding bulk.
Look at what a great job she did shoveling the sidewalk!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2008-12-04T14:38:00.004-05:00

We finally got to put up our Christmas decorations which have been on hiatus the last 3 Christmasses! (Okay. How do you make Christmas plural?)
Elena 1st helped us check the bulbs for the outside lights.
Then we had to put the lights and beads on the Christmas tree.
She helped us put all the ornaments in their place.
Then just before bedtime she got to watch the train with Daddy.

The End of Summer

2008-11-17T16:53:00.003-05:00

The snow is flying today, sticking, then melting quickly. I thought I'd take advantage of naptime and post some of my favorite pictures.Happy 4th of July!
I learned this from Daddy.
Elena in her camp chair for the Marunde family camping trip.Skip and the lift back at it painting the Cheddar Haus.The Marunde side at Elena's 1st birthday party.Happy Birthday to Elena!Look who's walking now! (14 months old)"Who's my daddy?"Elena jammin' out with her cousins Anna, Elizabeth and Sara.

Brewers vs. Cubs Sept.28th

2008-11-04T13:48:00.006-05:00

Oh my gosh do I feel behind blogging! Elena doesn't let me on the computer anymore, and I always seem to have too much to do during naptime.

It has been a busy end to summer for us. Since Indianapolis, we've spent a weekend in Milwaukee. We visited Sprecher's Brewery. Other than Sprecher's seasonal Black and Blue Blend which you can only get at the brewery, New Glarus Brewery's beer still tops the list. The headliner of that weekend was the Cubs vs. Brewers game at Miller park. Pass the baby. We had like 90 tickets. If you are interested in attending next year send me an email! !

Man that is a lot of beads for a little girl
.Elena and her posse.

MotoGP in Indianapolis

2008-09-19T16:31:00.013-04:00

MotoGP ran in Indianapolis for the first time this year. It was worth the drive, the wind and the rain! Saturday was a beautiful day! We met up with Uncle Mike and Auntie Audra. Mike and Eric got to take a Buell, KTM and Yamaha for a demo ride. Eric gave the Yamaha R6 a rave review. His face was awfully bright after the test drive and got him wondering how Honda's new CBR600RR compared. Too bad I think he will just have to suffer with his 2003 CBR600RR for awhile. After the track, we headed downtown for some Japanese food. Then walked around downtown for Motorcycles on Meridian which was a crazy line up of tons of bikes downtown. I love Indianapolis. Where else can you have the Symphony hosting a dinner on the circle with fireworks and a thousands roaring bikes just 2 blocks away? (Sorry we didn't have more time to do some visiting!)

Sunday was all about the races on the track. The Riders Cup drivers raced. I found out I was a mom when one of the 13-15 yr old riders bit it kind of hard right in front of us and I got teary. Seriously!?! Then they ran the 125cc. toward the end of that race, the weather got all Ikey. Freak heavy rain and crazy gusty winds. Since the weather was kind of in bands. They postponed the 250cc race until after the main event (The 250cc eventually got cancelled). The rains stopped and they dried the track and ran the MotoGP race. Around lap 17 the rain started sheeting accross the track. In 3 more laps they red flagged (ended) it and Rossi had another win. Rossi also said those last 3 laps were the worst conditions he's race in. Kudos to the skill of the drivers and the rain tires, none of the 125s or premier class riders bit it despite the conditions. Also despite the 80 closure. it only took us an hour and 45 minutes extra to get home via 30 Sunday night. Yea! Here are some pictures.
Auntie Audra and Elena.
Tuckered out after a late night on the town!
Before the first squal. We camped out at the top of the Northwest corner cause it has a great view and a fabulous fence backrest which helps in the wind...
Waiting for the premier class race out of the wind and rain. Elena slept through most of the worst weather. Props to the Baby Bjorn Active - a baby item that is a must have in my book. Apparently, the gusts were up to 59mph and the track even lost power.

The first lap of the premier GP race everything was dry and nice. My lack of zoom and sound does not do this race justice. We will definitely be back to MotoGP in Indy.

Camptastic!

2008-09-19T16:31:00.009-04:00

More importantly than silly home projects... We took Monday to clean our bikes up, put a hitch on the Civic and prepare for camping the following weekend. Thursday, we cruised up to Penninsula State Park to meet my parents and Team Gemo. Elena got to go tent camping for the second time in her life. Lucian and Elena enjoyed long walks with Grandpa and riding bikes. Eric and I, Team Gemo and our parents all got to take the kayak out. Eric and I got to take a little time for ourselves, so we decided to work out our bikes on the fabulous mountain bike trails. As usual, he totally kicked my tail. All the pictures are on my mom's and sisters camera except these few. Here is Elena chillin' with a bottle in the camper.
Elena thinks riding bikes is hard work. The Co-pilot Limo is a fabulous kid carrier for long rides. It is a lot less work than a trailer and it reclines... (The Bell Cocoon is also a good carrier if you can't find this one on supersale!)It also detaches and sits on the ground...Where is that do not disturb sign?

Off to Indy on Thursday (before the flood)!

Paving the Way

2008-09-19T16:31:00.005-04:00

Labor Day weekend we devoted to another home project - finishing the sidewalk. This is the first home project we've actually have had fun with in a while! Elena wasn't too crazy about the rough gravel.
So we leveled and compacted it.
Then landscaping paper goes down to keep your sand from mixing in the gravel. Elena liked this a little better...
Then the edging gets put in to shape.
Then an inch of level sand goes down. Laying the pavers is the fast part as long as you lay it out to minimize cuts.
At the end of the day Saturday, Kodi was done and so were the easy cut pieces.
Elena explaining to her father the best practices for wet saw use. Cutting is the most time consuming part. This portion took a majority of Sunday. Silly curves...
We used a polymeric sand to fill the cracks. It is suppose to harden and resist erosion, insect and weeds.
Sunday evening and Eric is misting the sand to make it harden and then we are all finished!

Elena likes this much better.

The Homefront

2008-08-27T14:28:00.002-04:00

The summer has been filled doing lots of things. Other than the usual going here, there, and everywhere. Eric's been helping his dad get the barn extension watertight. We also got the Cheddar Haus painted. Yea! It's no longer cheese colored....well unless the cheese has been setting out too long. At our own house, we've been working on getting the lawn in. Mostly watering, watering and then watering. (Planting grass in late July early August is probably not the best idea) Eric's been working hard turning sprinklers on and off, so the grass is coming up pretty well in most areas. We also spend a good deal of time slaloming the trees at the perimeter to keep the grass down. This way they can grow nice and tall. The next thing on the exterior list is pavers. Since we brought the land up more than 5 feet and even though it was compacted and done in stages, we still aren't convinced the sidewalk won't settle and crack up. Soooo...we decided to go with pavers. After obsessing (well mostly me obsessing) over different paver catalogs and what we can get for the best price, we finally picked one. Now if only they would come in, so we could get it done this weekend because the next few weekends are booked!

1 Year Old

2008-08-27T14:16:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, Elena turned a whole year old. We had the party at my parents since it was more central and the pool is nice.This is her last week whistling with the help of a straw.She is so lucky. She got tons of really nice gifts for her birthday. Here she is on her on her birthday getting ready to open some gifts.She got a scooter bike from Eric and me. Here she is giving cousin Lucian a ride. I'll post some more pictures later, but first I will have to get them off other people cameras...

Catch up.

2008-08-12T16:05:00.004-04:00

Ooh what have I been doing? Nothing and yet lot of things. My camera has been down and out...dead batteries, forgetting it at my parents...blah blah blah. I think it is more of my brain that has been down and out. I actually miss work a bit and miss our friends. Now that Elena is taking fabulous naps (1-3 baby!) and is sleeping 8pm-7amish perhaps I will get myself back in gear. I always have blog ideas, but they don't seem to materialize. Perhaps now is the time.

Let the baby eat spinach. Seriously! At this age, they don't know what they are missing so give them the good stuff that's good for them!

The 2nd coat of exterior trim paint is done. 36+ tubes of exterior caulk are squeezed on the house. The gutters are even installed, so we must say goodbye to the lift. It was fun, but final grade and grass awaits us...

What is all this Shh... the baby's sleeping!

2008-06-10T20:22:00.005-04:00

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend. We finally moved all our stuff in Memorial Day Weekend (Okay, except all the stuff still at the Cheddar Haus). It was also the weekend of our sixth anniversary. We didn't do anything special, but it did happen to coincide with trading Eric's gold Nissan 2 door coupe with 224,000 miles on it for a 4 door sedan. We will miss that car and the golf ball aerodynamics. It was fun to drive and never needed any repairs, but we can all actually fit comfortably in the new car.

Now, I'm going to back track a little. Elena is growing up so fast. Here's a picture of her a little over 8 months old on April 30th.
Here is a picture of her and Ben from May 13th.
Over Mother's Day weekend Team Gemo got us this fabulous cake to celebrate our moving in! Thanks! There's nothing like good cake!

There was a couple of days the farmer behind us was having a hard time keeping his cows in. Here's a modern day cowboy herding his cows back home through our yard.

Eric finished the driveway and 95% of the land final grade. Here is Elena, May 31st, a little over 9 months old, looking pumped about her new yard.

I can see why people like to have everything settled and in its place before baby. Elena is a wonderful distraction and progress inhibitor. I seem to have tons of things started, but I am never quite able to finish. I finally brought her rocking chair from the Cheddar Haus last night and here she is playing on it today.

We're in...Sort of

2008-05-07T23:28:00.007-04:00

Thursday the 8th, the inspector came and granted us temporary occupancy. We have 30 days to finish some things like the grading and the driveway. After such a busy few weeks, we went on holiday in Illinois for the weekend. Monday evening, on the 12th, we moved in a little bit. We only brought Elena's crib and our futon to sleep on to minimize having to move stuff off the carpet. After almost a week in the house, Eric and I found ourselves a little stressed. We think it's the whole carpet business, but man, there is still so much to do! The carpet guy comes tomorrow(Monday) and Tuesday, so after that hopefully we can move in like we mean it.

Here are some pictures of Morgan and Elena hanging out on Saturday. They both are getting around like crazy. Ahhh...Remember the days when we just plopped them together and they stayed...

Minimum Requirements

2008-05-07T11:09:00.002-04:00

My parents and Team Gemo came up to help us out for the weekend. They mostly worked on the exterior. My mom and I watched the chillins and cleaned up the inside. Mrs. Team Gemo installed all the door handles upstairs early Saturday and then worked outside with the boys. The carpet was installed Friday. It looks great, but doesn't feel like it should. Since we are at a time in our life where we will be on the floor a lot with little kids, we went with less expensive carpet and a premium pad. Unfortunately, somehow along the way the wrong pad got ordered and I didn't catch it before the installers were done. The carpet people were really nice about it and are going to change it out, but it might take 2-3 weeks because the installer is booked up. Doh!
Lucian and Elena had a good time together. Here they are pondering the best way to hit the sledding jump.
Elena forgot she was 8 months old. She took off toward the stairs and decided to crawl up almost to the landing. The appraiser came Monday. He said he'd come back and take a picture of the front Wednesday so we could get the last few things that are obviously unfinished in the front done. that way the underwriters don't see red flags. Nanny found a way to keep Elena happy outside on the patio at the Cheddar Haus. The walker was provided courtesy of Trina's neighbor. Elena is digging it.

Thursday, Eric scheduled the inspector to come out and hopefully issue our occupancy permit. Eric has quite a list of odds and ends to bust through tonight. I'd keep my fingers crossed, but I'm not superstitious.

2008-05-01T12:34:00.004-04:00

Cramming 3-4 weeks worth of work into 2 is fun. Throw in an 8 month old who is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything and blogging time is significantly reduced. Things are coming together. We ran a little short on casing and had to order more. That got delivered today. Other than the couple doors that need casing and the baseboard that joins up to that casing, all the trim work is done. I have all of the trim filled and sanded and all the carpeted rooms' trim 2nd coated. Carpet comes Friday morning at 8am. Today, I get to vacumm and mop the family room and stairs and paint the new casing.We had a bit of a snafu with the kitchen cabinets. They sent a 33 inch cabinet for under the cooktop. It is suppose to be a 30 inch. No biggee except Saturday morning we opened the reorder and it is a 30 inch standard door cabinet. It is suppose to be a 30 inch 3 drawer base. Doh! The best they could do was to get the cabinet to us on Monday the 5th which means half the kitchen will not be finished for the appraisal. I'm hoping it's not an issue... Of course then only half the countertops got installed Tuesday. The lumberyard is paying the $125 extra trip fee since the countertop installers have to come back for the cabinet snafu. With as many angled seams as we have, professional installation was well worth it. What is done looks really good. I think Wilsonart really hit the market right with their newer line of HD laminates. More of a granite, hard stonelike look, only warmer to touch and no loud clank when you put a glass down too hard and more economical. Of course it's laminate so no hot pans or cutting on it.On the exterior side of things, the weather again is making things challenging. Last weekend it was too windy to work outside, so that really is making things tight. Monday it was snow/sleet/ice/raining. Tuesday a little more random cold precipitation. Eric and Skip have been working on the standing seam porch roof. They have all except 3 end pieces of the porch roof done. Now he has to do the little roof under the upper front gable. After that it is dormers to trim out and the porch area to finish. At least he can work under the porch in the rain, since the weather isn't looking too cooperative the next few days.

Kodi believes that hard maple is really hard and can't wait for the carpet to come tomorrow.

The Countdown Begins...

2008-04-20T21:25:00.004-04:00

We got a call Thursday from the bank. They decided to start charging a fee for construction loan extensions. No problem, except I would have gotten the longer loan in the beginning since they said it was no big deal to extend it. I'll write more on the bank aspect of this project at a later date which might be helpful to a few of you who would like to general your own home someday. Now we have to close by May 15th, which means we have to have the appraisal done May 5th which means we have to be visably finished. It is going to be a busy few weeks but I think we'll make it.

Thursday, Eric went to the local home store to order the countertop. After some time he decided that even though they are the best price, there is no way it was going to be right. There's just to many angle and software limitations. We decided to get them fabricated and INSTALLED by a real countertop guy! We are getting wild now... Here is Elena mulling over countertop samples. She prefers them to her toys.

We had a hot date Friday night grouting. Eric got the shower and tub finished. Elena and I chilled out on the floor. Thankfully, Elena took a nap right when Eric needed me to help out.!

My mom is super relieved Eric got the 10 foot drop closed off on Thursday night. This weekend Trina's family came up to help out. Saturday, Eric, Loren, Kyle and Skip finished the railings, hung the remaining doors and framed out the support for the kneespace. Trina sanded and filled trim and also helped me paint more trim. Sara and Caden took care of Elena at the house for Nanny.
Eric just has caps to put on the newels.
On Sunday, Trina continued filling and sanding. Loren and Eric worked inside. Kyle and I went out and started planting about half of the 150ish trees we ordered. They left around 2pm. Eric and I set the master bath vanities. (I needed a sun break.) Other than a bit of caulk and a light fixture the master bath is done. Sweet! Then we went out and Eric powered through the rest of the trees. This picture is along the back of the property line. All the little green spots are trees...

State of the Union

2008-04-12T22:15:00.003-04:00

As I drove home tonight at 9pm in snow flurries, I got to thinking...'Man, I'm tired.' April 27th, 2007, we spent our first day digging. Eric has spent most of the last 350 days since, getting up, working his normal job, then traveling to the house to work until 9ish. On the weekends, he gets up and heads out to the house to work and gets home usually after 7pm. My schedule due to the whole pregnancy and cute little baby thing hasn't been quite so regular, but since I can count on my hands the amount of times I have slept through the night since December 2006, no less exhausting. The weather has also pitched in to keep this project as memorable as possible. We have had 101.3 inches of snow this season. It beats the most snowfall recorded in one season by over 25 inches. That is a lot of snow! Include with that the crazy amount of rain we got in August and all the rain this week and I think I'm precipitated out for awhile.

Upcoming on my list includes: painting all the balusters, 120-8 foot boards for the porch ceiling, more exterior trim pieces, more interior doors, then filling and sanding all the nail holes in the whole house, then cleaning up really good, then 2nd coating all the casing and baseboard, then I think I get to move in provided Eric's finished with his list...

He has staining the stair parts (He's doing that as I type this. Late night tonight!), finish installing cabinents, finish all the baseboard which is mostly the whole first floor. Finish the exterior siding, trim out the porch...(those 120 ceiling boards I have to paint), install metal porch roofing, caulk the entire exterior, finish exterior grading, finish driveway grading, put up 9 bullnose pieces in master shower and grout, hang 1st floor doors, install all countertops, forgotten item 1, forgotten item 2, and forgotten item 3.

So although it looks like we are close, there is still so much to do!

Question: Are interior door handles really necessary?

So as stressful as it can be when you build your own house (literally), have a baby and live in someone else's house, I think we are doing quite well (Eric would agree too if he was here). Only x many more months to go! =)

Here's hoping you have/had a good weekend and we have/had a progressive one!

Picture Pile-up

2008-04-03T18:59:00.007-04:00

Here's what I've been up to! Making silly faces... Cousin Lucian came to visit. He showed me how to work some of the toys on my jumperoo! Exchange student Evelyn came back to visit! This guy is trying to make me a Brewers fan! The Easter Bunny came! I got a sweet Easter bonnet!While the wood floor was curing, we went to watch cousin Madelynn swim at the Midwest Regionals held at the home of the Golden Gophers at the University of Minnesota. I did not know gophers swim... Action shot of Madelynn starting in Lane 1. Madelynn (green cap, pink goggles and short suit) getting congrats from Coach Uncle Emil (White shirt and visor) after a race. Here's part of the group Cousin Elizabeth, Aunt Sandi, Cousin Anna, Cousin Madelynn, Mommy, Daddy and me!I'm ready! Where's the water?Until next time...

Spring

2008-03-26T10:24:00.002-04:00

Over Easter weekend Eric, Emil and Skip finished up the wood flooring and finished installing and trimming out the newels. The flooring finishers came on Tuesday and started sanding the floors. They should be complete Friday. Eric decided to take off the non-rainy days this week to work on siding. So far the weather has been good enough. Monday was pretty brisk especially with the wind. Tuesday was warmer, but it was still a bit gusty. Here's some mildly complicated scaffolding. What this picture doesn't show is the little bit of sway in the scaffolding and lift due to the wind.One less pink and blue side of the house!

The Maple Affair

2008-03-17T11:19:00.004-04:00

Before we had decided on almost anything else, Eric and I found out we had a passion for maple flooring and boxed newels. This week we are seeing the results of this romance.
Pieces to three puzzles.

One of three completed puzzle.

We got our flooring from Lumber Liquidators. It was over $1 less a square foot than anywhere. The quality of the wood has been very good so far. If you do order it online and pick it up in store, make sure you pick everything up in one trip or don't sign anything! Skip forgot the 6.5 foot bullnose piece because we forgot to mention it to him. The store accused us of picking it up and lying about it when I called to say we didn't get it. We needed the piece, so Skip went in to buy another "8 foot piece" they just happened to have in stock. (Unfinished maple is all special order.) The guy at the store was nice enough to insist Skip take the (6.5 foot) piece for free...
The flooring is installed over 15# felt paper. They sell a noise reduction underlayment, but since we don't have bedrooms underneath we didn't think it was worth the additional cost.

We went with the 3 1/4 inch wide plank. There are 44 rows across the kitchen and dining room. If we went with the 2 1/4 inch wide board which is more typical for unfinished it would have added 20 rows of time, staples and labor.
One step closer to getting my own room!

Are we done yet?

2008-03-10T10:04:00.006-04:00

Saturday, Eric put up most of the trim upstairs except the aprons and around the stairs. Elena grew out of her cute white hat, so we had to upgrade. This one will hopefully fit next year.Eric and Skip are cutting a Rita requested bead in the skirt board for the stairs. Routing MDF works good except for the copius amount of sticky dust. At close up in HD, you might notice a tiny bit fuzzier edges on routed MDF than on routed solid wood, so you just have to be a little mindful where you use it if that's important to you.
Eric spent the day Sunday planing rough sawn wood that will be used for the newels and the wood mantel surround. We got all the maple for the 3 box newels and poplar for the fireplace for less than the price of one prebuilt boxed newel. Of course it helps Skip has the tools Eric needs to work with rough sawn wood. The poplar is suppose to paint better. After painting a handful of of pine doors and jambs (Skip has done a lot of the doors) and poplar sills, I'd agree. Here is Eric taking a break so I can play with stain.You can't beat 29 cent stain sample packs with a display that shows the stains on maple wood. Hmm Hmm Hmmm Which to choose?
Are we done yet?

Do I need an apron for that stool?

2008-03-05T20:19:00.005-05:00

Don't worry. This is isn't an article about diapers. Our castle has a moat in the spring!
We started using Kilz high gloss white on all the interior trim and doors, but it seems to set up too quick thus easily leaving deep brush marks. Kilz is typically rated pretty high however gloss paints are not rated. We are switching to Behr's high gloss tomorrow to see if we have any better luck since their semi-gloss is also high rated.When I saw the first piece of casing around a door I was a little hesitant, but the casing looks really neat with the stools. The stool is the bottom window sill extension piece. Eric finally got to use his 2006 Christmas present, a router table, to make them. (Unfortunately, Santa isn't crazy and didn't bring Eric a router for the router table, so of course we borrowed Skip's router.) The apron is the inverted casing beneath it.
9 bullnose tiles and some grout short of finished. Eric decided to use the bullnose for the curb instead of the field tiles so the rest are on order...I think I'm interupting something.

A Trip Down Cheddar Haus Lane

2008-03-01T21:33:00.003-05:00

These were taken last week. The view is awesome from the top. Maybe in the spring I'll take a panorama. I got stuck 20 feet from the top of the hill in the van during a slicker snowfall. All I needed was a little push from Skip and Eric to get going. That's what I get for being too careful and going too slow with eight 5 gallon buckets of primer in the back. The Cheddar Haus Drive is at the bottom just before the next big hill.

Not really lost...

2008-02-28T22:47:00.002-05:00

Is something lost if you never take the time to find it and fail? The camera was in the diaper bag. It just didn't register with my brain's locator database the last time it moved. I seem to have a lot of deliquent items like that lately...
Here are some fresh pictures.

AHH Sweet Relief!! I really could have used this 6-14 months ago...but alas it is finally here!
Tile work in progress. Did I mention we accidentally ordered the wrong tile? Eric and I were debating between two tile choices. He convinced me I liked the darker one better, then proceeded to order the one I originally was trying to sell him. I didn't catch his mistake either. It turns out that we are really glad we got this one instead. It has much more color than the one single 12x12 sample tile we got. Helpful Tip: If you are debating between two tiles, see if you can get a mosaic for your sample or at least 2 tiles for samples especially if it is a high variation tile like this one.

Eric is also adding a white wood surround to the fireplace. Our current debate between the two of us...how high should the mantel be? How many inches should the surround come out from the wall?
This is my favorite flooring so far. I saw a random piece of this in the showroom and said this is the mudroom tile. That made for a very quick and easy decision. I really like the slate look, but slate tile can be uneven. Since it is a natural stone, it also is porous and needs to be sealed which kind of changes the surface appearance. This is a porcelain tile - durable, smooth, easy clean, and no sealing(other than the grout). Perfect for the mudroom.

Update #62

2008-02-26T18:08:00.003-05:00

It seems in my organizational genius that is my room/office/baby's room, I've misplaced my camera... So after I type my update, we get to look at pictures of Elena.

The fireplace looks awesome. El niche looks awesome. The light fixtures and the mudroom tile are exactly what I was looking for. As you can see, I'm pretty happy with the way things are coming along. I will try to find the camera and take some pictures that do these things justice, but if not you'll just have to come visit. =)

Eric is taking a quick trip to Indy Wednesday and Thursday, but hopefully by the end of the weekend, he will have the master bath tile done. I decided not to go on this Indy trip so that Eric can maybe actually sleep through the night and so I can paint casing. The casing we originally ordered was ugly. It was 3 1/2 inches wide and mostly flat (We had thought it was 3 1/4 and not ugly). So that's being returned and we found a different narrower casing to use, but that had to be ordered. It should be in Wednesday. All the casing and baseboard is Ultralite MDF. Since MDF is much easier on the pocket book than pine, oak or any other solid wood, we can get slightly nicer mouldings. The stair parts are on order too. I think all we have left to order is carpet and countertops... That is nice! Now for the baby pictures...

Elena at Halloween.
Cribbin' it.

This Week's Accomplishments

2008-02-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

We have flooring in bath 2 and the laundry room. Also, most of the doors are hung.

We have light fixtures with working switches!
All El Niche needs now is a bulb and a vase...The granite fits like a glove.

Eric even took some time to be artsy. Here is Papa, Baby and The Rock.

Winter Weather

2008-02-11T20:22:00.000-05:00

Really, the amount of snow is beginning to get absurd. If you have ever driven up here, you know the last few roads are quite the treat, especially in snow and ice. We got about 14 inches of snow in the last storm. My parents came up on Friday with the camper. After working all Saturday, we went out Saturday night for my dad's birthday. Leaving the house that night Eric was in his dad's truck and Elena and I were in the Infinity which has auto 4 wheel drive. My parents stay at the house in the motorhome. On the state highway that borders our house, the wind was blowing the Infinity over the centerline due to the glare ice on the pavement. Eric was having the same issues perhaps even more so in the truck. We turned around and went back to the house and decided to stay there. We stole some mattresses out of the camper (The top bed would be too cold in -10 degree weather.)and camped out in the master bedroom. We already had the vinyl flooring laid out in there to flatten it out. Elena was happy in her playard. We had some makeshift pillows and remember those blankets they tell you to keep in the car in case of emergency... The orange one was provided by the motorhome. We didn't get the best sleep. We also learned how important a decent pillow is to both of us, but the first night in the new house wasn't bad. I can't wait for those toilets though! Sunday there was some impressive drifting action going on. On one of the county roads, the piles are pushed well over the height of the vehicle. The cheddar haus road is down to 1.5 lanes at the top of the hill. Of couse 4-6 inches are forecasted for tonight.

Kodi is the snow last week.

Our front yard.
Our campout Saturday night
Elena loves her oatmeal.

Emblazon!

2008-02-11T18:10:00.000-05:00

After I typed so highly of it, Skip's paint sprayer decided not to pump the ceiling paint. (The primer is thinner.) After 5 minutes of ceiling rolling, Rita gave up. Skip and Eric did a couple rooms. We went out and got a new paint sprayer, the Graco Magnum DX from Home Depot. It's not really the new tool Eric was hoping to have to buy for the house, but it worked well. It took us about 6 hours to two coat a majority of the ceilings. We also got the roller attachment for it and used it to put the paint on the walls for the main color. For everything else, it wasn't worth setting up the paint sprayer/roller. The only color that we aren't quite sure is going to stick is the green for Elena's room. It is a light green, but it has a bright radioactive glow...
Do these colors match? All except 2 of my colors come from Farm and Fleet's Valspar Urban Habitat color swatches, but I'm using Hallman Lindsey paint because they have a low luster acrylic enamel (aka flat and washable.) for the walls. All my colors had to be color matched. The original yellow I picked for the kitchen is the color swatch on the right, City Escape. The issue: the color matcher matches to natural light. The tinted paint (on the left) matched prefect in natural light, but under a CFL, it looked ugly green. The store tried adding more red to tone down the green and it worked somewhat but not enough. I ended up having them match Graceful Moon, a different yellow, and they also didn't add any green to it even though it called for a little. The new color (on the wall) looks really good and almost matches the original City Escape under CFLs. If anyone would like 2 gallons of the City Escape yellow and doesn't have cool lighting or likes the funky greeness, it is yours. Unfortunately, the 3rd gallon popped opened when it hit the floor at the foot of the basement stairs...

We also got a sink hooked and then eventually hot water. That blue attachment on the sink is from a $5.99 roller cleaning kit from Menards. The yellow thing is the other piece. It is highly recommended and what you've been missing your whole life when it comes to cleaning rollers!

The foyer again and a bench that works great for edging around 8 foot ceilings. They have really nice contractor ones with adjustable heights, but this was a less expensive option available at Menards. Eric is excited about his new office. The color is called Reality which made us chuckle.
Chicago Skyline is the master bath color. It looked so green going on Eric thought I switched the colors on him, but it dried this really pretty greenish gray blue.
For all those who wish I would stop with the house pictures and just post baby pictures... :)

How much longer?

2008-02-03T13:27:00.000-05:00

Here is an excerpt I find amusing from our car ride home from Johnsburg.

The setting: 8:45pm. Our S10. Rita driving, baby in the passenger seat, Eric in the jumpseat, Kodi at/on his feet, huge 40x40x60ish inch boxed air conditioning/heatpump unit in bed of truck with some hall and bath lighting fixtures in the free space.
Rita (spaced): "Oh crap, I just missed the exit to 43."
Eric (nicely): "Are you trying to make me sit back here longer."

Entourage detours through Elkhorn. Eric glances back at the load and everything looks good.

Later...Entourage stops in Beloit. Eric runs into McDs to get a cheeseburger for him and a sundae for her. Rita pumps some gas and then sits in jumpseat with dog at feet. Glances back at boxes and sees her mini chandelier she got for the masterbath and thinks happy thoughts. Eric hops in and entourage continues on their way.

Later...10:00pm almost to the gas station by Juda.
Sound: Thwap Thwap thwap.
Eric and Rita's thoughts: 'Is that the box top baffling?'
Eric: "That's a flat tire."

Entourage pulls on to a side road and Eric promply starts changing the tire which is pretty ruined. A few minutes later...
Eric (semi-annoyed): "That's dumb. You can't hook the good rims to where you store the spare."
Rita (happily helpful): "There's plenty room right here next to the air conditioner."
Eric (apprehensively): "What?"

Except concludes. It appears that somewhere between the 43 exit at 67 and Beloit, we lost 2 lighting fixtures! Doh! Casualties of our fatigue. Eric is usually strap crazy, but really thought there was no way those could come out. I am usually so concerned with losing stuff, but I didn't think twice. I also didn't realize when we were in Beloit that there should have been 2 boxes between me and the bathroom light, which now I remember seeing when we left the house, nor did Eric realize in Beloit that 2 were missing. By the time we realized it, it was too late, too dark, and we were too tired to go back and see if they survived...and for the money in gas and not having an additional spare not worth it. Unfortunately, one was a really nice master bath vanity light bar and thankfully, the other was a less expensive hall light, but here's a cute baby with a mohawk to make everything all better...

Rub a dub dub...

2008-01-19T19:57:00.000-05:00

Is that a lab in the tub?

Oh yes, it is. Kodi has found one of the joys in rural living is running across the road to play in poop pasture. Therefore, he has also become accustomed to daily bubble baths.

In house news, Eric finished up the whole back of the house last Sunday, but then the weather turned too cold. The siding can wait until it's warmer. In the meantime, the drywallers finished and the vacuumer finished. We put plastic on all the windows and doors. Thursday we primed the upstairs in 3 hours and today (Saturday) we primed the first floor and were done by 1:30. That was awesome. Eric's dad has a paint sprayer he bought when putting up the building in Johnsburg in mid 90's. It still works with a little TLC and a new tip. So Eric sprayed and I followed behind rolling. (It's called backrolling. It evens and smoothes out the spray.) Eric's dad also helped with rolling, keeping the bucket full and keeping us moving along. Sunday, we plan on spraying and backrolling the ceilings. Then we get to go back to the old fashioned way and roll the wall paint on by hand.

In baby news, Elena is just starting to roll over. She's maybe done it a handful of times, mostly for daddy and refuses to do it when mommy's watching.

Hope you don't get too cold!

January Meltdown

2008-01-13T09:12:00.000-05:00

Due to the projected warmer weather this week, Eric took the week off to work on siding. In the beginning of the week, the melting snow caused the fog to be so thick you could not see the house from the road. Here are pictures from the week.

We are using Certainteed's Weatherboard Fiber Cement Siding. A company called Cement Side out of Rochelle, IL prefinishes it with a 25 year warranty. They have 5 stock colors, but will apply a custom color for no extra charge. It just is not returnable if you overestimate. Eric and I went with a custom color and are super happy with it.
This picture was taken Saturday afternoon. If you stand in the right spot you can pretend the whole house is done... We've had one snafu with putiing up the siding. The cement fiber shears Eric bought broke half way up the 1st garage wall. There was a big bubble in the metal casting right where it broke, so Dewalt is sending us 2 replacements for it. Hopefully, they will get here before Eric finishes. Now, they are using the grinder to cut it, which works but is horribly dusty. Eric also can't wait for gutters. Each day he ends up soaked from water dripping off the eve on him.
Here is the completed drywall and El Niche as we like to call it (proper spanish would be el nicho, but we like el niche). I'm working my way through the house with the vacumm. I purchased some drywall dust bags for the ShopVac which came with a free upgrade filter. It has worked really well not putting the dust back into the air. The only drawback is I'm using the 4 inch crevice tool nozzle because it gets the best suction. That is a lot of floor space for 4 inches a swipe. I know poor me on ground level in warm, dry weather...

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

2008-01-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

Cloth diapers?!? What? Why would you do that? Actually, it has been easier than I thought it would be.

Where do I find these ideas? I owe it to my days of being a research tech. When you have to get up and change tubes every 10 minutes (minus tube changing, storage and walking time) you do what every good tech does...internet research. I came upon a whole internet world of cloth diapering. These aren't your mom's or your grandma's cloth diapers...

There are prefolds, contours, fitted, pockets, and all-in-ones. In addition, there are a zillion different types of wraps to go outside the prefolds, contours, and fitted. You can buy the gross plastic pants, but there are much nicer ones out there now. Pockets and all in ones are most similar to disposable diapers. They all have silly names like Bummis, Happy Heiny's and Thirsties. I tried all the different basic types in a sampler pack. In the cloth diaper world, everyone has their favorites and opinions. I sure have mine now, too.

The hospital where Elena was born uses cloth diapers which helped us get the ball rolling. In the beginning, we used good ole prefolds (the rectangles most people use for burp cloths) with a prowrap. Here's a newborn prowrap (outer cover) with the umbilical scoop. Eventually, we decided on using the BumGenius one size pocket diapers. The Fuzzibunz pockets came in a close second, but the BumGenius have snaps to change sizes as baby grows where as the FuzziBunz come in S, M, L and you would have to buy more as baby grows. The BumGenius are a little more bulky in the smaller sizes because of this, but it is more economical.This picture is of the newly remodeled FuzziBunz which look nice. I have an older version without topstitching. I'm glad to see they added the topstitching. It makes a big difference. Eric also liked the Velcro on the BumGenius over the snaps. Pocket diapers go on like a disposable. The only difference is first you stuff the pocket with an absorptive insert. The fleece that touches the baby's skin stays dry and allows the liquid to wick to the inside. The BumGenius has a suede-like microfleece which works really well. All pockets have colorful waterproof outers to keep everything else dry.

The Dirty Factor:

Dirty diapers are thrown into a diaper pail (foot operated garbage can) lined with a washable waterproof liner. With these pockets, you do have to pull the liner first then throw both parts in can. When I get low on diapers (roughly 48-56 hours) I simply invert the bag into washer and press play. (The LG has a play/pause button I find so much more enjoyable that the old pull start button.) Currently, I use The Cheddar Haus's Front Loading LG Tromm HE washer. It does a great job with a prewash to get the dirties off and an extra rinse to make sure the soap is rinsed clean. Occasionally, if a little stain is left I simply lay the stained part in full sun and miraculously the stains go away. It's free no chemical bleach...

The Green Factor:

They say disposable diapering costs about 17 cents a diaper from newborn to potty training. That's roughly $2000 total (depending on how diligent you are at changing them). 18 BumGenius are roughly $300 plus $30 cloth wipes (It's easier to just wash the wipes with the diapers than to throw them out.) You do have to factor in water, electricity and laundry soap costs but even thats got to be $200 total max. My new washer should pay for itself. Timewise, it is maybe 10 extra minutes a day.

The Other Green Factor:

Eric and I consider ourselves reasonable environmentalists. I'm not going to strap myself to a tree to avoid it from being bulldozed, but I'll plant another one to replace it. #1. They say cloth diapering even when you add the additional water used for washing and electricity for drying (you could always put them outside to air dry but that would require a clothesline...) still uses less water than the manufacturing of disposables. #2. Human waste ends up in the septic or sewer where it belongs rather than in a garbage dump. (You are suppose to dump the solids out of disposables into the toilet, but that sounds messy.) #3. It leaves room in the garbage dump for the other thousands of pounds of trash we produce.

The set up:

Other than the diaper pail, the only other thing different is the wipes. I c-fold the cloth wipes and put them in a Prince Lionheart wipe warmer with 2 cups of distilled water mixed with a healthy squirt of aloe and 2-3 drops of tea tree and lavender essential oil. I have a Wahmies wet bag with a waterproof liner for diaper changes on the go. If we are going for more than 2 days then I usually bring along some disposables. (I'm not that crazy). Although lately I have been having a hard time with her blowing out the back of the disposables diapers. Doh! But that also has reinfored my preference for the cloth. I also use regular disposable wipes when I'm away from home.

The results:

Good. I actually prefer the cloths now. I feel like I'm investing with every diaper change rather than than spending. Here's a picture of Elena modeling a BumGenius diaper.

It was a good Christmas...

2008-01-04T09:55:00.000-05:00

Eric had a nice long break and the drywallers are almost finished!

A family room.

Eric's future office.

An angled kitchen.

Combo pic.

Stairwell window.

A baby.

Two cuties.

2007-12-20T16:56:00.000-05:00

Morgan and Elena both 4 months old.

Drywall...drywall...drywall...I made it out of gypsum.

2007-12-20T16:36:00.000-05:00

This is Wednesday, Dec. 19th.

Holy Boom Batman!

The first thing to come through the front door.

These sheets are huge-12' by 48" and then 12' by 54" for the first floor walls.

That definitely knocks down the amount of seams.

House pics

2007-12-20T15:45:00.000-05:00

Here are some house pics from the last few weeks. Some of these were taken with Eric's Mom's Nikon SLR so the file sizes are much biggger and will take longer to load than my Canon 2.1Mp powershot. I'm too lazy to reduce them, but I did put up the bigger thumbnail so maybe you wouldn't need to open the fullsize.

Here are some lethal icicles.

All noise is muffled in the garage with the exposed insulation. That should change with the drywall. The garage heater did help take the chill off before we got the house furnance hooked up. Although, I think I got conned there...

We don't have a lot of interior walls on the first floor. The "simple" floor plan really complicated HVAC, electric and plumbing. Most of the interior stud spaces are filled with something.

From the kitchen to the dining room.

From the breakfast into the mudroom and powder room. A pocket door separates the two.

The family room with the fireplace.

How'd that get in there...

Oh the weather outside is...

2007-12-13T11:38:00.000-05:00

delightful, beautiful and making things difficult. As most of you know, Eric and I love the snow, but this has been a particularly cruel December. We have received 22.7 inches of snow and have had 0 time to play in it. Out of all the Decembers...

The house is of course still coming along. I did end up pushing all my dates back a week. Eric's grandfather passed away Nov. 25th at the age of 98. Elena had her first trip to Oklahoma to attend the service. On the way home, we ended up staying an extra night in Bloomington because we ran into the 1st ice storm. (The 2nd one was all snow up here.)

The fireplace got installed on Sat. the 8th. All our rough inspectioins passed Tues. the 11th. The insulation came Wed. the 12th. The heat got turned on Friday after we figured out the rumbling was the blower fan not screwed to the motor. (It's hard to stop a Trane when you can't START one!) Drywall is scheduled to arrive this Wed. the 19th. I cannot wait for this date because Eric will finally start talking to me about such fun things as paint colors, tile and flooring. His head has been too full for any of that so far. The pictures I took over the weekend didn't really come out. The snow was far too bright. So I will take some tonight to post.

But here are some other pictures to hold you over.

Ben playing in the snow.
Kodi needed some attention during picture time.

Baby in a Polish basket.

Elena's 1st Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T11:32:00.000-05:00

It's my first Thanksgiving!

That flash always gets me.
I know Kung Fu!

There's Turkey?

What?!? I have to wait for my Turkey?

Why can't this camera do a faster shutter at medium lights? This would have been my best picture!

MMMmmm. Turkey...

What's going on?

2007-11-22T12:32:00.000-05:00

What have we been up to? I have been scheduling things. The fireplace gets installed Wednesday, Nov. 28th. Insulation is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 6th, and drywall Wednesday, Dec. 12th. So Eric has his work cut out for him. He's been working on getting his framing-for-later list checked off. He's also is working on HVAC. We now have propane service and a working garage heater! Yea! My parents and 2/3 of Team Gemo are coming up this weekend to help finish the electric rough in. I have also been doing a little more than my usual dance with the Shopvac. Last week, I combed the stores for the best price on good but inexpensive tile and came up successful. Now, Eric and I just have to hash out the details. I also have been painting exterior trim in the garage at the Cheddar Haus. I get 1-2 hour sessions between baby time. Last Saturday, I even got to insulate the first 8 feet of the fireplace chase. I used the kraft faced fiberglass bats, but if I did it again I'd use the unfaced with the 4 mil poly vapor barrier. That's what the insulation company uses. We decided not to go for the "green" UltraTouch cotton bat insulation which I've had my heart set on since before we started. But we did opt for hiring the insulation out and going with Certainteed's MemBrain vapor barrier. If the wall cavity gets too much moisture the molecular structure of the plastic changes and becomes permeable to dry out the wall cavity. We'll see if that was worth it in 20 years... Elena has been becoming even more aware of her environment and the people and animals in it. Here she's showing off her pink diaper. Here's hoping we make our Dec. 12th drywall deadline! Happy Thanksgiving! Oh and I forgot it snowed big wet flakes last night. The kind that make you crazy when you are driving with your brights on (I picked a good time to go to the store for cheesecake ingredients) Here's a picture of the front yard this morning.

What about Ben?

2007-11-22T11:13:00.000-05:00

We've seen Eric, Rita, Kodi and Elena, but what about little Benny? How has he spent his last year at the Cheddar Haus back in his homeland? We adopted him from the Green County Humane society in February '03. He, his mom and a sibling were brought in to the Green County Humane Society in pretty rough shape. Both the mom and the sibling didn't make it, but Ben did. If you've ever been in the TV room when he is banging on the sidelight (He knows it makes more noise than the door) you can get an idea why. Ben is very persistant, lucky and relatively fearless.

He and Cheddar have taken to Ultimate Fighting Kitty Style. When we move out, we will have to bring Ben back for rematches.

Curious Ben inspects everything. Here, he is inspecting the siding trim I'm painting in the garage. You'd think after getting his paw smashed in a door when he was being fostered as a kitten (He's missing one digit from that incidence) would have made him shy away from doors. Nope not Ben. He has made darting through exterior doors a science in which he has earned a PhD with honors. Once perfecting his escape skills, he moved on to hunting skills. I can't help but feel a little bit of pride when he comes back with a little mole or mouse swinging from his mouth...along with a whole lot of "Eww gross Ben. Did you have to..."

Post #42

2007-11-09T10:52:00.000-05:00

I feel like it's been forever for a house update. It's been on my to do list for weeks. Since the last update, Eric did a little more work on the porch. The electrician and his assistant (my mom and dad) have been up twice and have most of the wires run, though I still need to put in half of the ceiling fixture boxes.

Eric has finished up some of the interior we'll-get-that-later framing. The ceilings in the stairwells, the master bath tub surround, the master bath door, the sink wall and I'm sure one or two more other things I've forgotten about have all come off the to do list. Here's the peninsula in the kitchen where the sink goes.

We also finished the kitchen! What more do you need than a microwave, plasticware, and microwavable packaging? We even had Stoffer's microwave lasagna to celebrate the finished kitchen. It was pretty good.

Eric also has been working on the soffit. Here is where Eric started. I've actually been helping with the soffit when I can. I cut the pieces on the saw and then bring the panels up to him. Gus and Nate were up this weekend and helped Eric get quite a bit more soffit done. Lately, it has been too windy to get back up on the lift, so he's been doing heat runs with his dad.

The mason came out Saturday and got the porch brick done. We picked out the brick in the showroom in less than 5 minutes, since they were closing. We didn't even have the siding color with us because I had to send my only color chip to the siding company to match the paint. A few days before the brick was delivered I was starting to wonder/worry that maybe I should double checked it, but luckily the brick is perfect. Props to Eric for spotting this one.

And of course I continue to take the same picture of Elena in her carseat. She is starting to do a lot of crunches trying to pick her head up to sitting. She also started grabbing a toy with her hands repeatedly today. She's definitely getting older quickly!

Gma's Pics

2007-10-22T15:56:00.000-04:00

From 2 weeks ago...

"Man building a house is hard work!"

The building of the porch continues...

2007-10-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

I can see why a truely custom home costs so much. If we were paying Eric, we'd be broke due to the man hours on the porch. But, it is coming along and looking fabulous. I can't wait for it to be finished...
Elena slept well at the house Saturday morning. I got to help make the trusses for the gable portion of the porch.

It gets dark pretty early now. This is Eric's and my wild Saturday night.

The end of the day Saturday.

A view from the lift Sunday after all the trusses were up.

At the end of day Sunday Eric got most of the roof sheathed. We just need 2 more sheets of plywood.

Elena's Touring Weekend

2007-10-17T22:51:00.000-04:00

We took this weekend off the house to do some traveling with Elena. Friday night we cruised down to Frankfort. On Saturday, Elena attended cousin Kyle's game, her first high school football game and also celebrated cousin Sara's birthday. Then it was off to Evanston to visit Team Gemo. After a fabulous night of socializing, Elena slept through her first ride down Lake Shore Drive on the way to Indy. In Indy she got to meet a few friends, but not quite everyone on this trip. She also got to stay in her first hotel room. On the way home, she stopped by her other cousins' house in Rockford, so Daddy could change the oil in his motorcycle and take it for a short ride.

"You guys can sleep in the pack and play. I'm taking this bed!"

"Who needs strollers? These things carry so much more!"

Extra! Extra!

2007-10-09T15:31:00.000-04:00

Suddenly, we have materials coming in all over. We have exterior trim I need to paint. We have the porch lumber. We have the sheet metal for the porch roof all broken up in standing seam style. We have a bunch of electric stuff. The steel doors are in at Menards. We still have roofing stuff because he still hasn't finished (The contractor still needs to do more flashing yet...) The siding was suppose to be delivered Wed, but we pushed it of until next Wednesday so Eric can make room. We have the soffit material ready to go. The columns for the porch got delivered twice yesterday... Once around 2pm the semi showed up and we unloaded our 500 lbs skid (6 columns) with the neighbor's skid loader. Then around 4pm we got a call from another shipping company driver who was 30 minutes away with my shipment of columns... Since these boxes actually said the names of the columns I purchased we took those too, but they are actually the same thing packaged under a different name. (The company is going to come pick them up...darn.) Eric's goal is to get the porch framed this week, and start siding next week. My plan is to get the trim painted and then I get to hang fixture boxes.

Here's el niche. The elliptical will be cut out...but that one looks too steep. So we get to stare at it for a few days and then decide on it. What do you think?

I'm overly super excited about the open hub grilles on the transom...so I had to include the picture.

This is me working at the house... well trying to work, but it turns into this more often than not. Isn't she adorable? I tried a less expensive carrier, but it was way uncomfortable. This one is worth every penny.

It's electric!

2007-10-09T15:09:00.001-04:00

The electrician (aka my dad) and mom were up this weekend. First things first, we got the outlets in the garage wired and the garage door opener installed and working. We also got a majority of the boxes installed. Now we just have to run miles of wire...

We have working water! This is our well pump. It is a constant pressure system. We set the water pressure then if one person is showering and someone else decides to water the lawn the pump speeds up to maintain the set pressure. We also have the septic tank hooked up to the panel and it should work, but we have nothing to test it with...well no fixture that is...
And here's a picture of Elena watching me, but pretending to sleep. It's amazing how early you learn that trick when someone has a camera...

Prices not always as they appear at Home Depot

2007-10-01T16:10:00.000-04:00

We went to order the garage doors at Home Depot a few Saturdays ago. On their display, the solid door is roughly $900 and the window panel says $300 (Prices are rough guesses. I don't quite remember.) So we go to order it thinking it should cost $1200 and the price is actually somewhere around $1500? What? That is not what the sign says. "Well since it is a special order we don't get as good of discounts from the manufacturer." "Okay but the sign says the door is this and the window panel is this. What are those prices then?" "Well you could order it separate like that but you'd have an extra panel and you'd have to assemble it." "Don't they come unassembled anyways?" "I wouldn't really suggest doing it that way" "But your telling me I can get more pieces for $300 less?" What a bizarre hassle! It made no sense, and I don't spend that much money on something so nonsensical. We ordered the doors from Menards where the sign says $590 and $335 and surprise! The special order total is $925. Plus, the door panels were the same R-value, just the glass was uninsulated.

Also, to special order 2 6-panel steel doors in a custom jamb depth at Home Depot, the Jeldwen doors (which I'm sure are really nice)are $100 more than the Pella doors and $200 more than Menard's Mastercraft doors. We will see if the cost difference correlates with a noticable quality difference. I doubt it. We opted for the Mastercrafts. On the garage doors, Menard's Ideal brand were really nice, so I'm glad we didn't pay the extra for the Home Depot ones.

And the final result...

2007-09-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

The steps...

The porch...

Hooray! Hooray!

2007-09-27T16:44:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was the last concrete day. This porch took many more man hours than we were expecting, but the stressful concrete part is done. Eric did a good job of ordering the right amount of concrete for the porch. He also feels he got a free stoop/air conditioner pad in the back of the house and also free stairs leading up to the house from the garage. Here are a couple pics of the overly complicated porch =)

Prepour form set up. Part of the complication was the brick ledge around the perimeter.

Eric finds troweling enjoyable, particularly if he isn't the one figuring out the quantity to order and paying for the concrete.

Eric adding texture to the concrete. His lines are so much straighter than mine would be...

And for Elena's fans, a picture of Elena taken at 4 weeks old (9/22).

Watching Concrete Set

2007-09-17T15:29:00.000-04:00

Saturday, 9/15, we got the garage floor poured. For this one, we rented the power trowel and Skip, Eric and 2 neighbors Tom and Denny, helped a little bit. But due to the colder weather, the concrete took awhile to set up for the final trowling. In the meantime, the basement stairs and floor 2.1 stairs got built. I actually did some work between baby time and cleaned up the half basement and exterior!

We used the under concrete insulation here too. We figure with living space above part of the garage, it can't hurt. Plus, if we heat the garage it should help out a bunch.

Eric power trowling.

The little bit in the sun set quite quickly compared to the shaded part.

Elena hanging out at the house.

Where art thou finished roof...

2007-09-17T15:16:00.001-04:00

Slowly, the shingles are appearing on the roof. Not quite as fast as all the other items we hired out... Some delay is due to rain. The underlayment we used is a synthetic and can be really slick when damp which is a little scary on an 8/12 pitch. Not quite so sure I'd use this underlayment again. I'm not sure the extra cost is worth it. However, it is suppose to hold up well for a lengthy exposure time and did handled all the rain we had since the trusses went up.

Elena in Jburg

2007-09-17T15:08:00.000-04:00

We took a quick trip to Johnsburg last week so Elena could meet Great Grandma! We also got to meet Morgan who is 8 days older than Elena. Morgan was sleeping most of the time while Elena was awake, then when Elena fell asleep Morgan was up. Man, my heart goes out to anyone with twins!

When there's a Moon in my Winder.

2007-09-06T15:02:00.000-04:00

After a bit of a siesta due to rain and baby, Eric was back to work this last weekend installing windows with the help of Skip, my parents, Team Gemo, Clarence and the Piotrowski's.

Here's the front sans the porch.

This is what that huge hole in the back of the family was for.

The Story of Elena's Arrival

2007-09-05T19:47:00.000-04:00

Here is the story of Elena's arrival. This may be a little over detailed, but I like details so reader beware. =)

It all started around 4 o'clock pm Thursday, August 23rd. I was talking on the phone with my sister and had an extreme urge to use the restroom or wet my pants which revisited me 30 minutes later when I was getting off the phone with my sister and then again during a phone conversation with my mom after that. I thought "Hmm.. This is a little out of the norm even for being 40 weeks pregnant." An hour or so later the sensations (although without the urge to urinate so much) kept coming every 20-40 minutes. I was trying not to pay too much attention because I didn't want to get dissapointed if they were to stop or if it was going to carry on this way for a really long time.

Around 7pm, I figured this definitely was something. Eric was working late checking code and releasing the next version of his program. I told him he needed to finish it up that evening because he may not be at work on Friday. Eric finished work around 9:30pm and we decided to see if we could get some sleep. No can do. The contractions were just close enough and strong enough that there was no way I was going to sleep. Doh! So we decided to time them. I was getting a strong one every 15 minutes with a mild one in the middle, so roughly every 7 minutes and lasting 60 seconds or so. That was a little surprising.

Gradually, the mild in-betweens stepped up to the same intensity as the rest of the bunch. The best thing I did to cope was sit in the shower with the warm spray on my lower back. We called the oncall doctor and left a message to call us back. Over an hour later, the nurse called back. I think this is around 1am... She said to come to the hospital when the contractions are 3 minutes apart and last for 60-90 seconds for an hour. "Whoa! 3 minutes! Yikes!" and that was with telling her it was a 50 minute drive! Another hour went by and we decided to go hang out at Eric's sister's house (She's about 10-15 minutes from the hospital) because sitting in the car, seatbelt on for 50 minutes with 17-25 of those minutes being in a "contracted" state sounded a bit more uncomfortable than neccessary. As it was, they were about 5-6 minutes lasting over a minute. Yup, car ride not so comfortable, but we had the last Harry Potter on CD which aided in a little distraction.

We called Amanda when we were about 5 minutes away to warn her we were coming. Silly, Eric and I expected them to go back to bed when we got there around 3am, but we ended up hanging out in the family room. From about 4-5pm, the contractions started to be close to 3 minutes apart, but then I got sick (perfectly normal) and they slowed back down to 4-7 minutes although remained quite strong. I think they got back to around 4 minutes or so and we decided just to go to the hospital anyways. I think we went to the hospital sometime around 6ish...

Once at the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitor that checks the baby's heart rate and the uterine contractions (tocometer). For reference, I was 70% effaced and 2 centimeters at the doctor's on Wednesday. When they checked me upon arrival at the hopsital I was still about 70% effaced, but 5-6 cm. Emotions sparked... 99% Relief! The contractions I had been feeling were making progress and they were actually going to admit me and get me a room. 1% Trepidation "Holy crap this really was it!"

The birthing suites at Meriter are pretty sweet. You labor, delivery, recover and postpartum all in the same room. I hung out in the rocking chair for the paperwork portion, then in the whirlpool tub for a little bit, which was a great relief for a few contractions, but then seemed to add to it. At this point somewhere between 8-9am I decided I was tired enough from being up all night and thought I could use a little relief. I knew I didn't want an epidural. I did not want to be tethered to anything and I wanted to move freely. (They checked the baby's heartbeat periodically with the doppler rather than the continuous monitor.) The other option was Numorphan, a short acting opiod analgesic, given IM and IV which is suppose to take a little off the top. I think it shortened the length of the most intense period of the contraction and probably lowered it down a notch too, but you still felt like you were participating in active labor! Before they administered the drug, they checked me and I was a good 6cm and 100% effaced. Yeah! More progress! At the hospital, they said the drug had about a 1-2 hour duration though online I've seen 2-4 and 3-6. Perhaps this depends on dosing and body state. Does a laboring body process drugs differently?

Anyways, the next time block consists of changing positions, changing positions and changing positions. Obviously, I found this the most beneficial way to cope with the contractions. One of these positions I highly recommend if your instituion has it, is sitting and rocking on a "birth" ball (also known as an exercise ball or 1996 USFIRST ball.) Nothing like a little counter pressure =) It's also pretty neat that in-between contractions you can feel totally normal. They checked me at some point after that and I was at 9cm. I remember thinking "Whoa, this is transition. It's not too too bad." I think the drug was working.

Some time later the nurse asked me if I felt like pushing. I said "I'm not sure." Low and behold the very next contraction I was sure and yeah I was. How did she know before I did? But before getting the go ahead to actually start the pushing phase, they checked me and there was stil a wee bit of cervix in the way. Doh! They don't want you pushing until it is all gone otherwise it can swell and be problematic. Not pushing is probably the hardest thing ever. Talk about fighting your body's natural programming. This is definitely where focus and certain types of breathing come in. (The nurse or doctor will tell you how to breath.) After some amount of contractions and then 5 more, she rechecked me and "Yea! no more cervix!"

I think the pushing phase comes as a relief because you actually actively participate in the process and hopefully you are on the home stretch. Well sort of, your body tells you when to push and then you listen and go along with it. I think my mom said the pushing portion was a little over an hour...it didn't feel like it was that long to me. I do know I was in 4 different positions. I only remember things by position changes. I really liked using the squat bar for awhile. Then presto chango, the room transformed into a delivery room. Scales and incubators and trays start coming out of the closet, the bed magically changed, a pediatrician appeared, and before I knew it, I had a warm brand new baby sitting on my stomach and Eric's a little choked up. They were both cute. I felt really pretty good and pretty hungry, so while they were checking the baby and buttoning things up, I finished the rest of my orange jello I had started around 7cm...

Worthy of my first blog

2007-08-26T16:49:00.000-04:00

I finally found something important enough for my first ever blog post. Of course, that would be pictures of my new baby girl. Before we get to the pictures though, here's the usual specs for those who are interested. Elena Marie, August 24, 7 pounds 8 ounces, 19.5 inches long. Oh yeah, both mom and baby are doing great!

Hey guys, it's cold!

That's better.

There's so much space around here!

Kodi meeting the newest member of the pack.

Post #27

2007-08-20T12:37:00.000-04:00

There is not a whole lot to update on. Eric stacked about 6000lbs (25 squares at 250lbs a square. A square is 100 sq. feet in roofing talk.)of shingles on the roof last week. He used the lift to get them up but then carried and stacked them in 5 piles at the peak. He also continued to work on putting up the pink 1/2 insulation last week. This weekend, it rained the entire time, so we didn't work over there at all. I'm so glad we got the tar paper on. The house is staying mostly dry with all this crazy rain. I was waiting to post an update last week because the roofer was suppose to start (and finish), but didn't show up after he said he'd be there twice, so we have to see what is going on there. It would have been a perfect weekend for the baby to come, but no baby either. I think it is a procrastinator like me. Doh!=)

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.

2007-08-12T08:28:00.000-04:00

It feels like it should be Monday because we've had two good days of work on the house, but nope it's only Sunday morning. Yesterday, they finished up the front gable, dormers and chimney. Eric and Skip rolled out the roofing underlayment on the north side Saturday evening. So hopefully the inside won't be too wet after that storm last night. Today, he plans on rolling out the underlayment on the front/south side and working on the pink stuff. Here are a few pics from Saturday.

The stairs.

No caption required...

Oh the pretty patterns.

A view from the driveway.

Raising the Roof!

2007-08-10T19:00:00.000-04:00

Today was another awesome day. It is amazing how a roof makes a house a house. =) We did have a little snafu. As they were setting the trusses, we came up 3 trusses short over the garage/master bedroom. It turns out the itemized list of trusses from the lumber yard did not match up with the drawing they provided of the truss plan. The big plan called for 11. The itemized list called for 8, so only 8 were built and delivered. Doh! However, a phone call and 2 hours later, while we still had the crane, our 3 trusses showed up. Talk about customer service. Mistakes can happen, but being able to correct them so quickly is the important thing. In addition to trusses, we also got stairs going from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor. No need to worry about the pregnant lady using a ladder anymore! =)

Kurt making his brother's job easier.

The first set.

Now we are moving.

Placing the gable end.

Placing the other gable end.

The missing links hot off the press.
Done for the day. Where's the cleanup crew? Oh there's only Eric...

Ready for Trusses

2007-08-09T22:51:00.000-04:00

We are ready for trusses. Here are some cool pictures Eric took from the lift.

" How many bungees are in the truck?"

Construction Project 2 - The Baby Update

2007-08-08T09:19:00.000-04:00

The Baby Construction Project has been going really well. I can't really complain about anything, but we did have one little issue. This baby decided it preferred to be in the selective group of baby's where 3% are in the breech position at term. This gave me 2 choices: 1. Try external cephalic version or 2. Schedule a cesarean for next week. I chose to try the 1st option. In my ECV, they first monitored the baby's heartbeat and my uterus for any contractions for 20 minutes. All looked well so they start an IV. (My first) Then, they give you a drug to relax your uterus. In my case, they used terbutaline IV. They checked the baby's position on the ultrasound. Then the doctor scooped the baby up from the pelvis. Then repositioned her hands behind the baby's head and upper back and the resident placed his hands below the baby's pelvis and they worked together and manually pushed the baby in a forward somersault around to head down stopping for a little breather halfway. It's only a few minutes but Yikes! Talk about extreme! Thankfully, it worked on the first attempt. They only try it 2 or 3 times, but even just once is enough. I can't imagine 3 tries let alone 2. Then, they monitor the baby for an hour and make sure the heart rate looks good. Now, we are left with a baby in the correct head down position and I don't have to pick the baby's birthday. Safetywise in well trained hands the procedure is safe for the baby. Now, in the head down position, there is less risk to the baby due to a breech cesarean and to me for a cesarean. Even though cesareans are pretty safe, if I can avoid one all the better. Would I do it again? Yes, but I sure hope I don't ever have to!
Here's a pic of me at my shower a few weeks ago.

Rainy weekend.

2007-08-05T18:55:00.000-04:00

This weekend, we had a crew up for Skip's birthday. They got the remaining exterior walls up and then called it a day (rain) around 1. Eric decided to take Sunday day off to relax and visit. Monday night they finsihed all the 2x4 walls. Now we just have some odds and ends to fix up before Friday, Truss Day! (Don't worry. We hired that out!) Let's hope the weather cooperates!

Fresh Pics

2007-07-31T22:23:00.001-04:00

Here are some pics of the weekend an Monday progress.

Never tell a lab "up." He just might listen.

2007-07-30T20:27:00.001-04:00

Here's a little anecdote from Sunday. Eric and I were both on the 2nd floor and Kodi was looking up at us so sweetly from the ladder rung. So I tried to take a picture. As you can see, I could not get a good picture. He'd stick his tongue out, look away or kept hopping down. So Eric said "Kodi up!" to get him on to put his front paws up again. Well Kodi decided "up" meant climb the ladder and proceeded to get his front paws 4 rungs up and his back paws one rung up before he fell off the side. Doh! It was a heartfelt effort with all the gusto from him...but not exactly what we were going for. At least he didn't get any higher. As it was, he did nick his nose slightly. Is this the same dog I had to shove across 16 inch wide by 6 foot long plank a few months ago?

Kodi at the start of the big climb.

Kodi after deciding climbing ladders wasn't his forte.

Update #19

2007-07-30T19:49:00.001-04:00

Okay It's been awhile, but we have made some progress. I just don't have the most updated pics yet. Last weekend my brother was up and helped finish set the 2nd floor joists. Then we took a little siesta to visit family and do the fun baby shower stuff! This week Eric and his dad worked on sheathing and some odds and ends. This past weekend, July 28 and 29th, we did pretty well. (You all know "We" doesn't really include me so why I say it I do not know. I think I like to feel like I'm participating.) One of the neighbor's framing crew stopped by and asked if we could use him. Of course we can! Clarence and Eric made some really good progress this weekend. They raised all the west walls, the house front wall, the east side garage/house wall, the elevated part of the back wall and some interior 2x4 walls too.

The horse farmer by the Cheddar Haus let us borrow this crazy forklift machine the other week. We used it to lift full pallets of 2x6 studs, 2x4 studs and sheathing to the 2nd floor deck.

This is the front wall.

Progress update No. ?

2007-07-16T15:26:00.001-04:00

We are rolling along. Most all the 1st floor walls are up and over half the 2nd floor has floor joists and sheathing. I have a lot more shade. Yeah!

Here is the view from about the master bath above the garage. The second floor steps up over the family room, hence the kneewall.

This is looking from the breakfast/kitchen into the family room. Those are the windows when I saw framed for the first time I exclaimed "Holy @#&$ those are huge windows." Of course all the windows in the house I picked out, so I really should know the size... The windows here are double hungs with transoms on top.

This is the view from the front door. You should be able to see the whole crazy 4 panel slider with transoms we are putting in the family room. The header on the left is the entrance to the study and the wall on the right is the dining room. The 2 foot wall left of the dining room wall is a closet which will have a 45 degree wall coming back to the dining room wall with a little built in niche eventually...

Today, Monday, we are exchanging our 18 inch culvert to a 16 inch one so it matches what we already have. Eric will install it this evening, so we can get the hole out of the middle of the driveway. Tomorrow, we get our 12 inch microlams we were short on so we can finish the 2nd floor joists and sheathing. So hopefully Thurs.(weather permitting) we should be on to 2nd floor walls. Yea!

Random pics and best practice headers...

2007-07-16T15:08:00.000-04:00

Here are some random pics from the week of the 4th from my mom's camera.

It's too hot out here for pictures.

Suzi working hard.
Fixing the headers...Smack your headers together and put them flush with the outside wall. This is the best way to do it, apparently. If they are microlams nail 3 rows 12 inches apart depending on size and nails. You can also line the top and bottom with 2x's so the drywallers have a nice screwing surface if the header is not wall depth.

And here is actually a picture of Eric and me without something in the way. (That was totally unplanned in the previous pics with me which is why I had to post them.) Yup, I really am cooking something up.

Good Day Sunshine

2007-07-10T11:32:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a good day with plenty of sunshine. Actually, a couple more clouds might have been nicer. It was toasty. All along, Eric and I had been planning on paying a real framer to help us out framing. We aren't totally nuts. It just hadn't worked out until Saturday. Saturday Steve, a foreman with the builder up the road came and worked 7-12 for us. In addition to him, we had Eric, my parents, Randy, Paul, Eric Wags, Amanda and Emil. We cranked out over half the first floor walls, hung the large truss girder over the garage, and placed the long TJIs for the 2nd floor over the garage and breakfast room. Sunday, Eric, Skip, Randy and Paul finished shoring up the TJIs and sheeted over them. Now I have a nice shady spot to hang out in the garage like a real Hoosier. Only, I'm missing all the NASCAR paraphernalia and beer. Sunday afternoon Eric and his dad finished rebuilding the rest of the conventional headers on the first floor. Here are some highlights.
"Looks plumb from my house."

Hooking the girder on the neighbor's lift.

Randy, the site's head safety officer...

I was told I needed more pics of me. Here's one.

Ooh Here's another one.

Placing the girder.

Pflump.

2007-07-07T10:31:00.000-04:00

Ah. There's nothing like the sound of the electric company burying your power line. They came out and buried about 350 feet of wire in a about an hour on Thursday. Unfortunately, the crew that hooks it up won't be out until Monday due to the holiday and vacations. Still pretty quick service. I am not complaining. The bummer is, Friday, the generator quit quickly with something between a pop and a thump. "That didn't sound good." It blew a rod. Doh! Estimated time of death is 4:40pm. Eric ran to the True Value and rented the yellow one. The nice part is the yellow one, like many newer generators, ramps up when there is a load and then goes back to a quieter idle when there is no load. At least this weekend, we won't have as much generator noise. Note the nice hole in the metal casing in the green one. You can even see a part of the crankshaft in the debris field. The silver lining of this is that while Eric was renting the generator, we reviewed the 2nd floor truss plan one more time and realized that the plan calls for a drop beam right though the middle of the foyer. Why did we not notice this before? Doh! Doh! So that has to get refigured by the floor truss guys on Monday. At least we spotted it before we started hanging them this weekend thanks to the generator. And now that I am caught up on my posts, I really need to get myself out there with some cold beverages and snacks. It has been hot out there!

"Back to the Framing"

2007-07-07T10:23:00.000-04:00

Wednesday the 4th though Friday, my parents came up to give us a hand framing. We finished all the 1st floor 2x6 walls and a little bit of rebuilding. (See my post on how to frame a header coming up soon.)

The Joy of Paying

2007-07-07T09:50:00.000-04:00

Monday, July 1st, the septic guys called and said they were up the road and wondered if we wanted to be next. "Sure." Monday evening they dropped off their equipment. We showed up Tuesday at 5pm and it was all done. The joy of doing a freakish amount of things on your own is, when you do hire people, it is awesome. They get stuff done ASAP and we don't have to lift a finger. Also, our friendly farmer friend mowed and baled the lawn.

Porch Pour

2007-07-07T09:43:00.000-04:00

Monday, July 2nd, Eric and Skip poured the porch foundation. After removing and lugging forms Tuesday until it stormed and then half of Wednesday, Eric and I decided if we ever did this again, we would use all quadlock on the whole project. Then just one cement pour with the pump truck.

Grade A

2007-07-07T09:33:00.000-04:00

Eric spent the last week in June grading around the house and moving tons of dirt from the back to the front.

Dog used for scale.

Here Eric is building up the front so the cement truck can drive up it and reach all the porch forms.

The Electric is a Go and Other Happenings

2007-06-29T14:22:00.000-04:00

The electric passed inspection. Hopefully, we will have power by the end of next week! No more noisy generator. Yea! This week, Eric has been moving lots of dirt.

In other news, the exchange students Martynka (Poland) and Evelyn (Germany) went home on Thursday. We'll miss them, but I hope they are enjoying being home. Martynka gave me 3 really neat books for the baby. Two of them are the original Winnie the Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner written by A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard. This version has the English text on the left side and the Polish version on the right side. Very cool. Now, if only I knew more Polish sounds than the word tak (pronounced tock, means "Yes" ).

"You've got a little work to do."

2007-06-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

We don't claim to be electricians or electrical engineers. So when I called the inspector to see if he'd been by, it was no surprise when he said "You've got a little work to do." Doh! 1. Remove the ground screw-wrong application. 2. Isolate ground and neutral in load center 3. Move ground rods to one side of meter box 4. Ground rods require one continuous wire-not a separate one to each and last 5. Wrong clamps connecting ground rod to ground wire. So with those corrected, although I'm still not sure we have the right clamps, we will try try again tomorrow. Here's the fixed versions. Note: The copper wire coming from the top actually must be hooked directly to the ground bar on the left side of the panel rather than grounded to the box.

Pushing Dirt and Making Sparks

2007-06-25T13:57:00.000-04:00

Last week consisted of some rain days and mainly backfilling. Saturday, Eric mounted the meter panel, breaker panel and 2 inch conduit. We finished pulling the wire on Sunday. I actually got to run the fish tape and then pull a rope through the conduit all by myself. I even got to help pull the 3 mains until we got to the dual 90 degree angles. Hopefully, it passes inspection today, so we can call the power company and get hooked up. Sunday, Eric had an opportunity to use the neighbor's skidsteer, so it was a full day of grading, taking off top soil and backfilling.

This is an impressively large load for the old backhoe.

Ooh meter panel with grounding rods... Note: The grounding rods in this picture are incorect. They should be continuous. See picture in more recent post.

One day all the black, white and porch foundation (now just concrete forms) will be covered with dirt. Do we dare count how many buckets worth?

On the other side of the house, this land needs to be taken down to about 8 inches below the top edge of the concrete. I wonder if Eric knows how much landscaping block is in his future...(post occupancy)

"Those windows are huge!" -Rita

2007-06-18T17:08:00.000-04:00

After some rain, work and party delays, on Saturday, June 16th we were back at it again framing 1st floor walls (Okay, not me but everyone else). Our crew this weekend consisted of my mom and dad, Randy, Kenny, and Team Gemo.

Assembling the back family room wall.

Team Gemo takes a break to sample the local brew.

Raising the family room wall.

Luc and Grandma hanging out.

The end of a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who helped out!

Deck, Deck, Sheath.

2007-06-18T16:47:00.000-04:00

Saturday, June 2nd we worked on the 1st floor decking. Emil, Randy, Paul and Skip came to help out. It started out pretty rainy, but then turned into a beautiful day as you can see. We used Trus Joist's I-joists for the flooring system. We like these because it was nice and simple running one continuous span across the width of the house. This will also save us some head height in the basement because we can run duct work, etc. between the joists rather than under. Placing a joist.

Randy's gatorade commercial.

Sheathing by the stairwell.

One more concrete pour out of the way!

2007-05-31T11:06:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, we poured the garage foundation and porch footings. Eric did the filling, while Skip did the trowel finishing. After the pour, we finished up all of the load bearing walls in the basement. We are ready for decking! Forms and many other construction tools on this site are provided courtesy of Skip's Construction Supplies Unlimited.

On the schedule: Thursday-form stripping. Friday and the weekend - 1st floor decking and basement stairs.

Porch Footings, Garage Foundation and Basement Framing

2007-05-29T14:57:00.001-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend with Eric's dad, my parents, Loren and Kyle's help, we finished setting the garage foundation wall forms (traditional forms), setting the porch footings, and framing some of the basement. This week: pour the walls and footings, and more framing.

Basement flatwork

2007-05-29T14:24:00.000-04:00

We poured the basement floor 5/19. We opted for the load bearing wall basement instead of the steel post and beam basement, thinking it would be cheaper. Due the spread footings under the load bearing walls, we had to pour the floor before we could start framing. Now, I am not so sure this is the cheaper option with the additional concrete. Post and beam would be quicker and easier. But in 10 years when we decide to finish the basement, it will be half done...

Floor pouring is hard work compared to footings and walls. We hired Adam and Lance, two guys who do this for a living, to do the finishing with Eric and Eric helping with the manual labor portion. That first row somehow took 8 yards - half of our concrete order! Thankfully they had another truck available to bring a 3rd load since we would have been short. Perhaps it is a wee bit thicker than the 4 inches we planned on... The white underlayment is an insulation/vapor barrier called Ultra CBF.

Insulated Concrete Forms aka ICFs

2007-05-29T13:51:00.000-04:00

ICFs are very cool. You use them in place of traditional concrete forms. If you want your 26 week pregnant wife to put in concrete forms, this is the only way. We used QuadLock ICFs (Legos for adults). I'd highly recommend them. They are very easy to set up. When you are finished pouring you have 2 1/4 inch styrofoam insulation on both the interior and exterior. You can build an entire concrete house out of them. We opted for basement only. The pump truck operator said our Quad Locks were one of the most solid ICFs he's seen. This is important because blowouts are bad...

Assembly. 4' by 1' panels connected by plastic ties.

Pump truck out of Dubuque Iowa

Eric fills the walls while the pump truck operator moves the boom and controls the flow.
Basement wall pour complete successfully with no blowouts...

Excavation

2007-05-29T13:33:00.000-04:00

Yes, we started on the house. I'll try to keep posting new pictures of our progress and other tidbits about materials we liked or didn't like.

This is Eric digging in the backhoe. Excavation is definitely worth paying for if you don't have your own equipment.

It took a little over a week to do most of the excavating. The house on the hill who paid a sub contractor took 1 day.

This is me with my new best friend the laser level. Also included is Kodi who was not really enthusiastic about the hard rocks...