Moving Along

Hi All,
I'm trying to do better about posting a bit more often. This time there is a good bit of progress in a short timeframe. Two things before I get to the house.

There is a private road that runs along the eastern boundary of our property. Since we bought the property we have been trying to get the county to take it over and maintain it. There are five landowners that had to agree to deed some right of way to the county in order to make it happen. Between getting a survey and getting all the effected landowners to have documents signed and notarized it has taken every bit of six months to get this done. Working with the county has been by far the easiest part of the ordeal. On Tuesday, June 5th, Susan and I attended the Rusk County Commissioners Court and saw all our work come to fruition. Welcome to County Road (CR) 1114 D! Once the East Texas 911 office gives us a street number we'll be official and be able to change our address to our final one.

On the way to Commissioners Court we got some much needed rain. What we didn't need was to be quite so close to a lightening strike, about 100 feet by my estimation, Wow! It shook us both up a bit. I'd be very happy to never again be close enough to see the orange ball of flame that is at the end of those white streaks in the sky.

On to the house. All the siding is up and it's 90% painted. The HVAC ducts are all in. This was by far the worst job of any Susan and I have done on the house. The spray foam insulation is in and where there is going to be drywall, it has been hung. So here are the pictures...

Clapboard siding for the back side gable end. From left to right; Grady, Brian, Amber (Scott's daughter) and Scott.

Spraying Kilz as the first layer

Finished with the Kilz

After the Kilz, brown paint. Of course it has a much fancier name than "brown".

The final coat and we're done, I told you we weren't going to leave it yellow.

Spray foan insulation is in. The roof part isn't finished in this picture.

The drywall is up. This is the master closet.

That's all for now. Take care!
Brian

Late May Update

Hi All,
Things are still moving along with the house. Since my last post we've gotten a roof on. Yeehaa! Power and water is into the house, all the wiring and plumbing is installed, just the wires and pex, not all the fixtures. Almost all the siding is up, including the bark we put on the gable on the front of the house.

It's already getting hot here, it's in the 90's. The forecast for the first five days of June is 100+.  Hopefully we'll have air conditioning soon and be able to work inside.

Here are some pictures to show you how things are looking...

Grady and I hooking up power to the house

Ain't it pretty!?

Cold water manifold so we can shut water off to individual rooms

The guest bathtub is installed and plumbed

Installed a ceiling fan to help cool off the inside

The roof is on! The roof is on! And Susan doing her pyromaniac thing. Scrap lumber doesn't hang around long.

Bark siding going up

Exactly the look we were going for (there will be a porch roof and the siding will be painted)

That's it for now. Take care.
Brian

Wow!

It's been an entire  month since I last posted. Talk about being a slacker! Trust me, we haven't been slacking off on working, just posting. Besides the work on the house we've put up a rain water catching system on the barn, harvested some veggies out of the garden, just about completed the hen house and changed out several hydraulic hoses on the skid steer, not to mention pulling the hydraulic pump off the backhoe.

Since our last post a fair bit has been accomplished on the house. Last week we had some friends take vacation time to come help us work on the house. It was great to see Jay and Carol again and their help was very much appreciated. Jay spent most of his time up in the rafters installing can lights or running wire while Carol worked on clear coating our doors and windows. Thanks you two! Only two disappointments with their visit. They didn't stay long enough and we didn't get any pictures with them. How did that happen?

But what you really want is to see pictures, so here they are...

As our OSHA safety officer, Susan is falling down on the job. A ladder on scaffolding in the rain. 

Ricardo, our stonemason, finished our "accent" brick wall.

The heater / air handler is in

The front of the house has some siding. It won't be staying yellow.

The deck, which faces the pond

The great room with fireplace and two sets of french doors on to the deck

Susan up in the rafters cutting a hole for an A/C boot

Electrical wiring is coming along

A wood stove we bought, pretty much where it's going to sit.

Some of Jay's handy work in the rafters

Some new neighbors moved in down the road. Their oldest son did a little fishing in our pond.

Hopefully tomorrow some roofers will show up and start putting metal on our roof. I hope, I hope, I hope!

That's all for now. Take care!

Brian

It's spring in East Texas

Hi All,
Time for an update on progress and such.

All the exterior sheeting is up

Duncan doing his inspection as the wrapping goes on

The triple window on the left is in our bedroom. It is six feet tall and nine feet wide. It is awesome! 

Just before the rain came again about half the windows were in. And rain it did. In the last 20 hours or so we've gotten almost three inches of rain.

All work and no play makes Jack (and Susan and Brian) a dull boy / girl. So we took a day off to go to the Dallas Arboreteum for Dallas Blooms! with my brother and sister-in-law.

Half a million bulbs in bloom and perfect weather

 On St Patricks day we went to dinner with friends at a mutual friend's restaurant in Mount Vernon (Texas), The Chophouse on Bankhead. Yum!

Back at home we walked around close to the homesite and marked all the Dogwood trees so as to not accidently take them out when we get around to clearing some more underbrush. Several will be seen from the aforementioned bedroom windows.

Much easier to see in real life. Come see for yourself! 

That's all for now. Take care.

Brian

Next up, a roof

Hi All,
Since our last post lots has been happening, not all specifically on the house. Things that have been planted are starting to break ground or leaf out. On this list are pecan, apple, peach, pear, pomegranite and mulberry trees, potatoes, asparagus, rhubarb, mint, cilantro, rosemary, lavender, peas, radishes, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, black berries, grapes, spinach, tomatoes, onions and garlic.

Two weeks ago we made a trip to LA (Lower Alabama) to visit our friends there and pick up our new acquisitions. They are not pretty but seem to be in good mechanical shape. Both have already been put to work.

1980's John Deere Backhoe that Susan has named "The Beast"

New Holland Skid Steer still looking for a name

This past week we had five days we were able to work without rain!!! That's a first since we started framing the house. Other than a few small things inside, the framing is pretty much finished. Friday afternoon we started putting the decking up for the roof. If we can get five good days this week we hope to have the roof finished. The fireplace is virtually complete as well, all that is left is the fire brick in the firebox and the cap on the chimney.

The first few sheets of roof decking

There will be windows.  They are framed but the sheeting needs to be cut away

We think we're really going to like our fireplace

That's all for now. Take care.
Brian

Working Hard Before the Rains Come Again

Hi All,
One of my criteria for where to settle down was a place where it rained. I didn't want to deal with little or no water or frequent droughts. I think we are over achieving on that scale. So we have to make hay while the sun shines. Or at least doesn't rain.

Last Thursday we got a delivery of siding by 18 wheeler. On his way out he got stuck in the mud. Two tractors, a four wheeler and 2.5 hours later he was on his way.

More trusses going up

The fireplace is coming along

At the end of the day, only four more trusses to go

Susan and Duncan after a long, hard day

That's it for now. Hopefully we'll get the rest of the trusses up before the rain comes again tomorrow. If we make it past 8:00 before we're in bed, it'll be a miracle.

Brian

We have walls!

Hi all,
We have made some progress since my last post. I'm sure all will be happy this post will be mostly pictures. All I'll say is "please stop raining". There has been almost no progress this week with rain and freezing temperatures.

Susan hauling lumber for the rest of the walls

We have had a few days of nice weather

Duncan checking out the stone that will go on our fireplace

Trusses were delivered last Friday

The flagstone for the front porch and master bathroom and the stone for the fireplace

The fireplace is coming along

That's it for now. Take care.

Brian