Back to Work.

There has been another flurry of activity here. The excavator finally came and the shower for the master bath came as well. It was the last thing to go in before the walls can finally go up. So, here we go. 

We decided to tar the top of the dimpled membrane as an extra precaution. It's kind of handy that the tar truck and the tar truck operator live here.

It's a dirty job and I'm glad Matt doesn't mind.

He does good work too. Thanks Matt!

Matt was also busy putting the house wrap on. 

Supporting our Canadian economy and missing our friends in Nova Scotia. 

Time to start the dirt work.

Hey, that's not fair, Phil only gets a shovel?

Matt is leveling the ground. 

There are advantages to having big brothers that drive big machines.

We have a back yard!! It slopes slightly away from the house to allow for proper drainage.

Inside, prep is being done for more walls. Now that the bath tubs and the shower are in, the last of the walls can go up. This is the master bedroom, the closet is in the middle. The master bath and the main bath are on either side of the same wall.

The upstairs bedrooms are framed in.

The laundry room and bathroom.

Matt hard at work.

He kind of reminds me a little bit of Pig Pen, from the Peanuts cartoon, with a little dirt cloud following him wherever he goes. Just kidding, Matt!

Here you can see where the driveway will come up. Instead of having the ground slope completely, we opted to have some flat areas put in so there are sort of tiers up to the house.

This is where we will park our vehicles. The sono tubes around the house have been buried completely except at the end where the ground slopes away. It's time to build the porch! Yay!!

We still need to dig out the window wells for the basement windows but it finally looks like a yard. You can see some areas of the house where the plywood still needs to be cut to fit. This has to be done from the outside and the ground wasn't level enough to put the ladder on . Not anymore!!.

This is what it looked like when they started.

And this is the finished product. 

Looks good to me. If you are wondering why that last piece of roofing STILL hasn't been put on yet, it's because we still have work to do up there. The chimney, vents and the sun pipes have to go in yet and believe me, it is MUCH easier to climb the strapping than to climb the metal. It will be the very last thing to go on after everything on the roof is finished.

It really has been feast or famine here with the work that needs to be done. We have been doing a lot of waiting for things like the grading to be done and for the tubs and shower to be put in. The windows are coming this week and possibly the exterior doors as well, if not, next week. The porch can be built anytime now and the interior walls can also be finished. We will be ordering the siding soon as well. Things are happening quickly. We have set a very tentative move in date for September ish. That's only four months away. I am so nervous to even write that down. We would like to be in before winter for sure but we try not to think about it too much. Anything can happen between now and then but it's good to have goals right? We might not be anywhere close to being ready or maybe we will be pleasantly surprised. Either way, we have a lot of work ahead of us. These next few weeks especially. 

Praying that the Lord gives us the strength and grace we need. 

He is more than able.

Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

1 Chronicles 29:10-13