Tommy the Tool Man

Today we contributed to the building of our house. Not by building a wall or anything that exciting, but...

 Tommy got to use his tools to help install our CAT6 cables. First he nailed in the the electric box. 

 Then Tom showed him how to push the wire through the hole and pull it out the other side. 

 I caught Nikki sticking her tongue out, so I asked her way she was doing that...

 She grinned and said...

 "I just wanted to know what color my tongue was!" Such a silly girl. :)

 Some of the builders also showed up today to build the external walls of the garage. 

Here is the wall between the two garage bays... 

 ...and here is where the exterior door to the garage will be soon. 

 They are getting ready to place the header in the wall for the door. 

Ta-da! It's in now! :)

Tom and Tommy  kept busy installing more of the network cables. I think Tommy enjoyed climbing through all the walls. 

 Here's a finished product. 

 Sometimes the wires were tricky to work with, so Tom pulled those. 

   Some places were tricky to install the boxes since there were boards saving a place for drywall when the fireplace gets covered in stone. Those were just hung in the approximate area until those boards were removed. 

 Tommy learned how to carefully cut the cables.

 He also learned how to punch the hole in the electric box for the wires. 

  Sunday passed by quickly and before we knew it, it was dark. But here are some final pictures of the garage. 

 Doorway into the garage.

 Finally, a view of all the doors in the garage. :) Oh Happy Day!

Cutting Up

Today we had fun walking around our new garage floor. 

 It's a wonderful place to run and play and dance around now. 

 Thankfully it doesn't bring out the silliness...

 oh wait...maybe it does!

 I love these silly kids!

 Here's a view of the garage before the floor gets sliced. 

 Our house is looking more and more like a home every day!

The concrete guys came back later in the day once the concrete had dried for about 24 hours and made cuts to hopefully encourage the concrete to crack in the right places. :) 

 It's a perfect place for four-square now or maybe even 6-square? :)

 Here's a closeup of the chimney. I think it looks awesome!

 They covered the front porch in leftover tar paper to protect it from the stone and mortar that will be getting placed soon! The wind was pretty strong though, so it looks pretty crazy now. :)

 Goodnight future Home, Sweet, Home! 

Crazy Chimney Stuff

Today was a very interesting day. The trim on the Chimney got installed today, so our builders gave us the measurements to give to the chimney company so they could build the chimney shroud. I called the chimney company and was told that they were already on their way to install the chimney shroud.  A little confusing if you ask me since they couldn't have the measurements right since the trim was just installed this morning!

So I was told that before they got up on the roof, to have them measure their shroud to make sure that it would fit. Can you imagine my surprise when it didn't fit? Nope? Well, they took it back to fix it. Surprise, Surprise, right? They did finish hooking up the fireplace to the outside before they left though. 

 Up on the roof they were getting ready to install the stone so I had to run to Sherwin Williams to pick out a paint color. SAY WHAT??? I had to make a quick decision so the trim could get painted. I think that's the fastest I've ever made a paint choice! I went with SW 7675 Sealskin - which is kind of a brown charcoal grey. I also bought a sample of SW 6356 Serious Gray to see if I liked it as a house color next to the darker trim paint. 

 We made it back within an hour and Daryl got to work painting the trim so the painter wouldn't have to climb up on the roof to do it later. Isn't he great! :)

 Jesse, the Brick Mason's son brought his 8-wheeler over for the kids to ride on. He got hit by a truck about 12 years ago and flew about 78 feet from his bike. Doctors said he wouldn't make it, and that if he did, he would be a vegetable. God is amazing and every time the doctors gave up on Jesse, God would help him pull through or accomplish things that were supposed to be impossible for him to do. He is a walking, talking miracle!

 Tommy had a blast riding on the 8-wheeler. 

 Jessie even let Tommy drive for a little bit. 

 Then Tommy begged me to come with them so the girls could have a ride. WOW! That thing is crazy! I was holding the girls in my lap on the seat and the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the floor with the girls on my lap! The kids had SO much fun and begged to do it again, but we had to go. :(

 Inside the house we got to see how they made the trim for the top curved window outside. 

 Daryl was just about finished with the paint as we were leaving for the day. 

 We should have a stone chimney when we get home later today! I can't wait to see it. :)

 The girls had fun relaxing while I took those last couple of pictures of the house before we had to leave. 

 They were both pretending to sleep on the rocks. Silly girls!

Who Let the Crazies Out?

It's a beautiful foggy day today. The fog was super thick, but it was still beautiful with the sunlight filtering through. Tom, Tommy and I hurried down to the house to look things over.

 When the girls finished their breakfast, they walked down to the house together - I love how they held each other's hands as they walked!

 Then we inspected the basement together. We saw that the lights in the basement living room had been installed. 

Then we checked out the guest bedroom.

 Nikki loved peeking out the window and giving it a hug. Things were about to get crazy!

 I got some cute pictures of my crazy kids who actually WANTED to be in pictures today. :)

We got to watch the insulators spray the foam up in the ceiling. 

 It's amazing how the foam is sprayed on super thinly...

 ...then it expands rapidly and covers the pipes quickly!

 Here's the basement living room.

Basement hallway. 

 Basement garage.

 We headed upstairs where we noticed that yesterday they installed the tongue-and-groove ceiling on the screened porch. WOW! It looks AWESOME!!!!

 Then the crazies came out to play. I tried to take pictures of the fireplace and they appeared. 

 So I tried taking pictures of the electrical work in the powder room, and again the crazy appeared!

The electricians have started cleaning up the wires downstairs in the basement, so at least that's looking a bit less crazy. 

The electricians have even labeled what cords go where. 

Our walk-in pantry with can lights.

Then Tom took the crazies on a tour of the light switches and they had fun pretending to turn on all the lights in the house. Thankfully they remembered to turn off all the lights when they left so the electrical bill wouldn't get run up too high! :)

 Tom found some foam insulation last night and tried to convince the kids it was super heavy.

They believed him...and were shocked when they discovered how light it actually was. 

 Then they each had fun showing off how strong they were!

 Tommy loved impressing his sisters with his strength...and also tossing the foam at them. They thought it was a great game. :)

 Back downstairs, our damaged window had been repaired...

 ...so it got installed.

 Big Mike and Daryl talked about how to turn this sewer pipe (not used!) into a laundry chute. Mike wants to have Daryl build a box to house the pipe so he can build a smaller opening with a lid to discourage kids from playing in the laundry chute. Stories were shared about the fun kids have with laundry chutes. Apparently one of Dan & Daryl's childhood friends climbed down a two-story laundry chute - only to get slightly stuck in the middle and the friend begging them not to get his dad...which eventually led to the dad having to come and get him out. I don't foresee my kids playing in the laundry chute, but I'm glad our builders are making it safer for the crazies and their friends!

 Outside in the garage, I noticed that they marked the placement of our future door and garage door walls. Can't wait to see the actual walls in place soon! Unfortunately, that has to wait for the cement floors to be poured, and that's still a while away. 

 Finally Tom had to leave and go to work, so we headed inside for school and lunch. 

 After lunch, the kids and I went back down to the house site and watched them remove the support posts from the front porch and install slanted supports for the eventual pouring of the cement front porch. 

 The basement siding had been completed on the back side of the house. I think it looks great. :)

We continued around the house to watch the brick masons work on the wall. 

I think it's amazing how straight and even these lines of brick are - and I'm AMAZED to see very little brick scrap on the ground. These guys are NEAT and CLEAN! 

 We also got to watch them cut the brick down in to smaller pieces for the top of the brick wall, where it meets the trim siding. 

 They told Tommy if he came back tomorrow, he could help them lay some brick. He was THRILLED to say the least. :) 

 Then they used a brush to clean up the mortar between the bricks and also wiped off any spilled mortar on the bricks. 

 Then we got to watch the stone get delivered for the house. 

They should be installing some of the stone next week, when they finish with the brick. Can't wait to see what it will look like!