WHAT'S A 70 FOOT STRAW SNAKE DOING IN THE YARD?!!

I drove up the road expecting to see maybe a roof . . . No such luck.  Instead, I saw this 70 foot straw snake wrapped around two sides of the house.   Workers weren't there so no one could figure out what it was suppose to be for.  We (the 'neighborhood' :) thought maybe it was for water run-off when they eventually poured the flooring but that wasn't it.  Seems that it was just there to protect the neighbors yard and the street from dirt getting thrown in those directions.  Considerate, but that happened to be sum total of the work done on the house that whole week. I'm being nice and biting my tongue at the moment. . .

So . . . once again the concrete flooring was promised last Monday and Monday came and went and phone calls were made, messages left, and phone calls weren't returned.  Glen's hair, which can't get much grayer, was turning even more ghostly before my very eyes.  

Tuesday I said "Do you mind if I call today?"  Up to this point Glen had done most of the calling and talking  with the Project Manager and the fellow that is the Crew Boss.  While my husband can make his point when he wants to without any problem, he is also not a 'Rock the boat' kind of guy.  (that is, unless he and I are on real water, in a real boat, and then he thinks its hilarious to rock the boat and watch me panic . . . or fall in . . which has happened . . . : /  Some boys just don't grow up.  :)   Anyway, he more or less said "Have at it."

You know, there are definitely some advantages to growing up in New York.  One of them is being 'gifted' at birth with New York Attitude.  (There are people that would argue that point I'm sure). While I've been out West now most of my life, there are some things that just stick with you.  That is one of them.  Fortunately, I haven't had to call upon it in a very long time, but I did on Tuesday.  So I made my call, hoping that I would actually get to talk to someone and that NY wouldn't fail me!  :)  

I did get to speak to the person I needed to, I didn't have to leave a message, and I had the opportunity to make my point(s), (yes, I was polite but New York was with me the whole way! :)  I received an apology for the delays, (I said that we would take responsibility for 2 weeks of the delay due to the leveling issue but then the other 5 weeks was on them.), I received a promise phone calls would be returned (and they have been), that the crew would be there the next day to continue working (they were), concrete would be poured Friday, (it was) and their part of the job would be done by the end of this week (still remains to be seen but they were there today working away!)  Who knows if the phone call was worth anything or the timing was just in sync with when all of this was going to happen anyway.  I'll take New York . . .  :)

So . . . for two weeks we sat like this . . .

and then in two days we went to this . . . 

Leveling for concrete and the roof going on . . .

Gravel being delivered to go under the concrete . . .

 

Concrete being delivered and spread . . .

Concrete poured, plastic up for rain protection (and from kitty cats too!) . . .

You are looking at plumbing for the main bathroom on the left and the Kitchen Island on the right.  Looks small doesn't it . . .   : /  Hubby and I have since laid out the chalk lines for all the rooms.  Well, he did.  I just held on to one end of the line where I was told to go stand.  :)  I have to say, that between my drawings ('the plans') for the house (rooms, walls, Kitchen island, etc.) and Glens laying out of same, we wound up only 1 inch (!) apart on measurements for the entire house.  Not too bad!  

That's Glen down in the hole . . . 

A lot of progress was made today BUT we hit another glitch. (It's Monday  . . . why would we expect otherwise!)  We received our water bill for the property and quickly realized something was wrong.  Way too much water had been used since the last billing.  Glen immediately had this sinking feeling that this wasn't going to be good.  He was almost sure it was a leak in the underground pipes 'somewhere'.

 Water pipes go in all directions including under the newly poured concrete.  Glen thought that it was probably not under the concrete but until he could dig a few holes he couldn't be positive.  He dug in three different places and found nothing.  Long story short, he called a new Mullan friend who has an excavator, and he came over and dug down deeper where Glen thought (hoped) the problem might be.   So . . . remember a while back when one of the workers hit our newly laid water pipes with an auger?  Glen thought he had fixed the damage, but the auger must have grabbed hold and twisted the pipe, breaking it in a second spot he didn't see.  So, the culprit was found, but it will have to wait until this coming weekend to be repaired.  A thing called 'work' is taking precedence.  But . . . at least it's fixable!

 :)  

See you soon!

WE HAVE WOOD!

Yes, we really have posts and roof trusses up!  

We had been 're-scheduled' (again) for this past Tuesday and as hubby and I drove up the road to the property, with *bated breath,  we were both ready for the disappointment again of not seeing anything happening.  BUT ... not to be this time.  We actually had posts up ...

  

and they had been working on assembling the roof trusses too.  If you look at that second photo you will notice a little black  'thing' attached to the top of the post. That thing is actually a Hoist.  It doesn't look like much does it?  Well, they actually take four of those and attach them to the top of the four posts that a whole roof section will be attached to. Then, those 4 little hoists lift the whole roof section up off the ground up to the roof level where the fellows then set, and fasten them.

We left Wednesday and I went back up on Thursday alone to follow the progress. When I got there they already had the back truss and rafters up and set.  As we have been told several times, no one has built a house in Mullan in years.  : /  So . . . we have become the Social Center for a lot of our neighbors who come out to watch the progress daily (such as it is) on the house.  One of those neighbors is a wonderful lady by the name of Flossie.  Flossie just celebrated her 90th birthday last week.  She is sharp as a tack and an absolute delight.  On Thursday Flossie and I sat on her front porch together and watched as they worked to set the rest of the trusses.  

Dodger, our dog, . . . supervising the job.

If you look at the wood band around the bottom of the framing you'll notice, over on the left, that we are still 'slightly' not level.  That seems to be our nemesis.  That area will still need to be filled in before they can proceed with the foundation.  You can see the Hoists a little better from this angle.  Hard to believe something that small can lift that whole section of roof.

When we were moving things in to the garage for storage a few months back, we stuck our wrought iron divider up along side of it.  The overhang is very low and everyone kept bumping their heads so we thought that would help to avoid that problem  Well, then it needed something to hold it in place so we put one of my big Planters along side of it to hold it.  Snow was still on the ground so no plants were peeking out at that point.  A few weeks ago I went over to that area of the garage and, much to my surprise, there were my Lillies and Clematis in full bloom.  Despite being very neglected, they had managed to thrive and bloom pretty much on their own.  I'm taking that as a good sign.  :)

 

The Lillies originally came from my Garden two houses ago in Idaho.  Only fitting that they come back home.  :)

I came back Friday hoping to see the actual roof(ing) being put on.  NOT.   No one was there, or had been there.  Guess we are back to the 'Who knows when they show up next' chapter.  But, Glen and Bob will be working on the plumbing this weekend so we will just keep forging forward.

So . . . * 'Bated breath' (when you almost stop breathing).  As I wrote that I wondered who ever came up with that phrase in the first place and for some unknown reason I decided to google it.  I, of course, spelled it 'Baited breath' because that's how I've always seen it.  Well, I was wrong.  It is 'Bated Breath' ~ well, it was originally  'Bated Breath' ~ and Shakespeare was the first to use the phrase in The Merchant of Venice.  In 1933 a Poet, by the name of Geoffrey Taylor, used the spelling 'Baited Breath' in his book 'A Dash of Garlic and thus, changed the meaning . . .

Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.

So . . . now aren't you glad you stopped by . . .

til next time . . .

Charleen