Day 4 of framing...

Subfloor is nearly finished.

Inside the basement.

The basement has walls!

Framing!

1st load of lumber delivered

End of Day 1 of framing. 

It has been extremely hot and dry here.  Typically  the framing crew arrive about 5 am and stop around 1 pm to beat the heat.   I have noticed that the noise, doesn't bother me at all since it is directed at our house getting built!

End of Day 2, floor joists started.

Missouri Youth Tour

Missouri Youth Tour
So, Jenny entered an essay contest with our local rural electric co-op this spring, and ended up winning an all expenses paid trip to Washington, DC.  She is on the trip now and it looks like she is having lots of fun, and seeing lots of great places.  You can click on the above link to follow her trip on facebook.  While I still wish I could go to DC, this has been a great way to almost feel like I am on the trip with her.  Another post on this later.
 Posted by Pam

Jenny at the Jefferson Memorial

Summer on the farm...

 Summertime on the farm always holds its own special scenes and aromas that set it apart like no other.  Some of my favorite things are looking at the hayfield after it's been cut. We feel especially thankful this year to have been able to use a round baler for most of our hay crop.  We are saving a small field for square bales, which the kids are looking forward to helping with (That is really a true statement!).  If there was a way to include the aroma of a newly cut hayfield I would have.  I personally love that smell.

Field sprinkled with hay bales...

Blackberries ready to pick!

Yum Yum!

Summer would not be complete without blackberries.  We have a great patch next to the barn where some walk-in freezers used to be.  It is great to stand on concrete while picking.  I am especially prone to poison ivy, so I am a very careful picker.  If you look closely at the bushes, I am sure there is some poison ivy amongst the berries.  These are going into the freezer to become a future cobbler.  Next time I am making blackberry freezer jam.

The underneath stuff you don't see...

 Well, progress has been happening on our house.   The forms have been taken down, drain pipes have been laid down, and a mixture of creek gravel and dirt has been brought in to put around the concrete.  The water is supposed to drain through the creek gravel better.
   Here you can see some of the black sealant on the concrete, and the footings have been poured for the front porch.

 Load after load of the creek gravel/dirt has been brought in for the basement floor.  You can still see the concrete footings for the support pillars.

You can also see some of the drainage pipe along the left wall.

Dirt has been backfilled next to the retaining wall on the back side of the garage.

All in all, it is pretty exciting to see the progress being made.  Pretty soon it will be time to start adding the wood.

Posted by Pam

Basement Walls going up!

 Seeing our basement walls go up was pretty exciting.  Here the forms are ready and braced.  This is the front of the house.  Later it will be backfilled and it will get a front porch.

 Looking at the back view.

 

It was especially neat to see the concrete placement truck get set up.

 The guy in the orange shirt is spraying the insides of the forms with something to keep the concrete from sticking.

 Here comes the concrete!

First they poured concrete footings for the pillar supports.  These will be under the basement floor to help support the ceiling.

This guy had a really neat job.  He uses the remote control to guide the boom on the truck.  Looks like playing video games might actually have some real world applications!

Painting the Garage

Last week we spent a few extra days at our family farm before our family reunion.  We thought painting the garage might be just the right sort of family project for us.  This is a one car garage with an additional room that was originally a summer kitchen for the house.  Mostly it has been used for storage, although Hank and Rod lived in it a while during college.  It had been so long since it had been painted that most of the paint was already off due to weathering. 

Peter and Cordell putting on primer. 

Don't you hate it when the annoying photographer makes you interrupt your painting to pose for a picture?

This only looks like Walter is not working.  I assure that he had the hardest (and dirtiest!) job with scraping the paint and dodging the bees.

Smile!

It's finished!  This is the front.  I personally love the doors.  

And this is the back side.  We chose blue and white to match the house.

This is the house Pam grew up in.  I spent many hours petting cats on that front porch!

Not many houses can boast of having such a pretty outhouse, and it still gets some occasional use too!

Posted by P