Oven Jackpot

Not much of an update on the house. Just that we are STILL working on the foundation. We've put in enough rebar to hold up the Statue of Liberty! The most exciting thing that has happened lately is we found our double ovens! We came across a great deal on Wolf double wall ovens. One major purchase down, a few hundred more to go. Pictures will be coming soon!

Slaving away...

Good Lordy! We've been working like slaves on the foundation! In honor of our hard work, I've changed our play list. I don't have any pictures right now... Just think of big ditches and you will get the picture. We are hoping to finish all the fine tuning tonight and start putting up the 5 tons of required rebar. Maybe cement can be poured next Friday!!

We've decided that we will not do our own brick work. It is a skill/art that takes years to master. We don't have years... So, we've started the process of interviewing brick masons. Hopefully we will find a good, inexpensive, trustworthy crew to help us out! If anyone knows of someone in the area, please let me know. Whoever it is will have to understand that we ARE NOT contractors and we are VERY picky! (Bless the heart of the person we decide on!).

Thanks to Jeremy for coming out last night and enduring the slave work with us! By the end of the night we were washed with sweat and couldn't lift our arms. Russ and I slept like babies and are SUPER sore this morning! This is the best workout plan ever!

The Foundation

We actually moved dirt tonight! Here are some pictures from our foundation digging party.


Cheesy "ceremonial" ground breaking picture.


First official scoop.



TJ excited about his new dirt piles and ditches to roll around in.


Russ digging away...

After dark. We almost finished. We had to stop because we couldn't see what we were doing.

The third and final building.

We've been really looking forward to getting to a stopping point on the garage so we can start on the house. It finally happened tonight! Though the garage isn't quite secure enough to stop working on it, we just needed to do something new, so we spent the evening laying out the house. It won't be long before the dirt is being moved. Alas!

This weekend we took a short break to go to the Pageland Watermelon festival. Though we had to leave before the actual festival, we enjoyed conversing with the Burch family and friends on Friday night. But it was back to the grindstone around lunchtime today! Thanks to the Burch family for the wonderful hospitality. We had a great time!

Good job on the trivia question Kristi! The answer is Led Zeppelin.

Trivia with friends tonight. Also got to visit with Beth's mom before heading to the Kickin' Chickin.' Always nice to have a break.

Trivia Question: What classic rock band first performed under the name "the New Yardbirds?"

Update

I'm so absent minded about some things! I completely forgot about the trivia question that I posted a couple of weeks ago. Thanks KB for reminding me about it. The answer to the trivia question was slaves. Even though slave trade wasn't really abolished until 1865, Thomas Jefferson signed a bill abolishing the trade of slaves in 1808. Here is a link to read more about it - http://www1.american.edu/TED/slave.htm.

Now, hopefully I can remember to post another question AND the answer this week.

The garage is going slow right now. We've been putting up garage doors and trim around the outside. Thanks Ronnie, aka Angry, for coming out and helping last night! I have a feeling that you will be the next to move to the country and build a house! As soon as we finish closing in the garage, we plan to dig the foundation for the house. While the concrete is curing we will finish the electrical and such in the garage.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days!


TJ "driving" his truck and "pulling" his boat and trailer. Give a kid a box and he will be content for hours!


TJ with life jacket and paddle. He was rowing down the lake fishing for catfish...


Shingles complete. Entry door and 1 garage door up.

Working on the ridge vent! Yes, those are spotlights on our heads so that we can see in the middle of the night!

Shingles

When I was a little girl my grandmother got a case of the shingles. Though I can't remember ever seeing any horrible skin disorder, I remember the pain she endured and the long amount of time it took her to get over the sickness. Well, Russ and I have experienced our own bout of "shingles" the last couple of days... I wonder when we will heal?

Our shingles are black, smell like tar, and putting them up makes you feel like you are 167 years old the next day! Starting on Thursday night, we have been steady putting on shingles on the garage. We finally finished last night and we couldn't be any happier. We are so sore! Russ got out of bed this morning and could not stand up straight! All I keep thinking is, "thank God we got through this without anyone taking a tumble!" Standing for hours at a 31 degree angle doesn't do justice for the ankles or back.

As always, we have our thank yous to pass out... A huge thanks to Jeremy for climbing on the roof with us on Friday night! What a way to spend your evening off! It probably taught you a great life lesson: Ask what the job is before committing to helping out!

We are happy to report that we've moved on to bigger and better things today. We have the entry door and one garage door up! It looks really great. I will post a picture tomorrow. (I forgot the camera in the car. And I'm too sore to climb down the stairs to get it!). The building is really taking shape. We hope to have it complete in the next couple of weeks so that we can start the foundation on the house.

House color scheme #2.

Here are the other pictures. Some of the color schemes are the same... Anyway, let us know what you think. Also, you must remember that our house isn't quite as grand as some of these!


Picture 6: Medium gray, white trim, black shutters.


Picture 7: Tan, off white trim and ceiling (this one had black shutters). Also, check out the light. We are going to get one just like this to hang from the ceiling on the back porch.



Picture 8: Light gray, off white trim, brown door, blue ceiling.


Picture 9: light tan/cream, white trim, brown door.

Picture 10: Light gray, white trim, white ceiling, light stained door.

Though we haven't posted any pictures lately, we promise we are working! The garage doesn't look much different than the last picture. We have some of that Tyvex stuff on the sides... that is about it. After looking at our lumber count for the house, we decided that we WAY underestimated. So, for the last couple of days we've been sawing lumber... Not too exciting. Thanks to Jeremy for coming out and helping. It was such a relief when he showed up. Those boards are HEAVY when they are wet!
Also, I cannot go on without thanking Trent and Matt for all of their help last weekend. The roof and tar paper would not be up without them! We feel so blessed with good friends and family! It has been amazing to see that when we need help the most, people just seem to show up. You can totally tell that God has his hands on us!
Last night we went to Lowe's before heading to trivia. We started looking at paint colors for the outside of the house, garage and shed. At the beginning of this project we thought we were going to paint everything red. Now, we are thinking something a little less loud... Now we are looking at some sort of gray, tan or cream. Check out these pictures that we took in NOLA earlier this month... We like all of these color schemes - some more than others. We both have our favorites... and, of course, it isn't the same one! Your thoughts on a favorite?

Here are the first 5 pics. The next post will have the others.


Picture 1: Darker gray with white trim and black door and porch railings.


Picture 2: Dark gray with white trim and red door.



Picture 3: White house with white trim, black shutters, red door.


Picture 4: Dark gray with white trim, black shutters, red door, white railings. (and blue porch ceiling).

Picture 5: lighter gray, cream trim, black shutters.

Quick picture update of progress over the weekend. Will post more later.

In my blog observations over the past few weeks I've noticed that most people take a break during the week to just post pictures, thoughts of the day, or bible verses. They are titled something like "Wordless Wednesday" or "Thankful Thursdays." I thought that I would follow in my friends' footsteps by doing something similar... But I can't find a name for it.

Every Wednesday we go to trivia with friends. It is our only break from building and we really enjoy this much needed respite. I thought that I would make Wednesday nights (or Thursday mornings) a time to share a trivia question from our night off. I just need a catchy name... any thoughts?

Trivia question of the week:

Topic: History

Question: In 1807, Thomas Jefferson signed a bill to abolish the trading of what?

Remember the rules of trivia... NO PHONE A FRIEND, MAGIC PHONES, INTERNET, ETC.