Safe Room Open

Today they took the forms off the safe room and opened it up. It looks a lot bigger now!

Joe wanted to climb in there to show how big it is. He is just as much a drama queen as his sisters are.

Safe Room

Today they poured the Safe Room. It is so tall! I can't wait to see what it looks like when the forms come off. We had a little kitten that kept hiding in the forms today. We had to keep fishing him out. I think we are going to have to re-name him Hoffa.

Catch Up

Ok. I have been really busy so I have several pictures to post at once.

First they framed the inside walls.



Then they sheathed the outside walls. This really made a difference in how things look. It is looking like a house.


Next they installed the new septic tank, pumped my old one (fun times!), crushed the old one and hooked me up to the new one. I was only without a septic tank for about 20 minutes tops. It was great!.

Today they back filled around the house. Now there is just a small step up to the front door.


They also prepared and poured the footers for mom's garage and safe room.

Walled In

I woke up this morning to a lot of banging around. I wondered what on earth Joe was up to then I remembered getting up with him at 4:30 this morning to get him off to a ward temple trip to Oklahoma City. Then I heard the distinctive sound of a nail gun and realized that Eric and his crew were there and it was much later in the morning than I thought.
They worked really hard and fast and got the three remaining outside walls up before it really got raining here. We were very impressed.


I didn't get a picture of them on the job because it started raining and I was busy making yogurt and forgot. When I looked up again they were gone.
Mom was able to drive over after the rain went away and was actually able to climb up and take a look at her new house. She seemed very pleased and excited. The window opening are so large. We love them!
Miss Caroline is smiling down her happy 9 year oldness in her birthday apron. She is quite pleased with her present. :o)

South Wall

The crew got the South wall up today. I had no idea the windows were that big. They are going to be lovely. That Southern view is also the best on the property. It looks like something out of an English pastoral scene. It is always misty and just beautiful. What a gorgeous scene to wake up to.

The backhoe worked for a long time filling in around the house so if mom isn't too tired tomorrow she might get to peek at the floor herself.

Line Dancing

Sorry the picture isn't much to see right now but it was a very exciting day.

Eric and his boys put down the chalk lines for where the walls will all go. IT was very exciting actually. After they left I went out and hopped up on the floor and ran all over the place walking in and out of all the rooms. It was so fun to see where everything will be.
Eric and Diana came over this week and talked over the house plans with me and mom. We had been making notes since the project started. We made a few changes to Howard's original plan for mom's convenience. We have made it so the whole house can be moved through in a circle like the house she and dad built. She likes that flow. Every room has two ways out. You don't get trapped in a room that way. We also moved the guest bathroom and made her sewing room a bit larger.
Eric said that if all goes well, the first floor will be framed by Saturday. Mom and I are so pleased with how fast and well Eric's teams work. The back hoe guy was here again working on the drain field. That is taking a long time because of all the rain we have had the past two weeks. Today we dodged more rain. That made for good work days. I am so glad it passed us by. Newtonia is still in such bad shape and they are all frantically working to get their roofs back on to save what is left of their homes.
Interestingly, I visited with one of the older ladies in Newtonia yesterday and she said that the tornado ripped off the side of her house where she and her husband were hiding. (they were crouched behind their couch because they had no where to go fast enough. She is in her 70's and he in his 80's. She said that the weirdest thing happened though. The tornado ripped off the side of her house but left her genealogy room almost untouched. There was a lot of mud on the walls that she had carefully cleaned up but the wall of books and records she has spent her whole life collecting were safe.

Floored

The floor for mom's house is in.

Eric has had all four of his sons helping him on his projects this week. They all are good hard workers.


Caroline is standing in the far corner of mom's new house. She is in what will be the bedroom.
It seems so far over there. I am standing where the garage will be.

Caroline got permission from Eric to climb the dirt hill today. She wanted to let you know just how big they are. The are quilt the climb to the top.