WHO WERE WE KIDDING . . . ?

Ourselves of course. 

At some point we thought we just might have our new house 'somewhat livable'  by the end of October.  Well, tomorrow, October will be saying Good Morning to us and we are not even close to where we had hoped to be. The antics of the Construction Company (and a few others) literally put us two months behind where we thought we would be by now.  I guess this isn't all that uncommon when building your own home and you have to rely on others for a major portion of the work.   I still find it sad though that when People give their word it is not quite what it used to be.

But  . . . first things things first!  As soon as the patio was in my 2 Blue Strawberry pots came out of the clutter in the yard and onto the patio.  A little sad looking right now but at least they have a home and will look lots better next Spring!

The electricians arrived 2 weeks ago and installed the electrical panel.  But . . . we are still on temporary power.  :/  That means all lights, tools, garage light, and the lights, etc. in the RV are all running off an extension cord (or two!).  Not what you would call an ideal situation.  Definitely no toaster and microwave at the same time!  Actually, it doesn't even take that at times to lose power.  We have these mystery power-outs in the RV, usually when it's dark, and then Glen has to make these treks across the yard over piles of rocks, lumber and mounds of dirt with just a flashlight to find that somehow the cord has worked itself loose from the temporary panel on the temporary pole . . .  Good news is that the electrician called today and said they will be there either tomorrow or Thursday.  Fingers are crossed.  We can't go any further with the walls until the wiring is done.   

Finally found a different Plumbing/Heating Co. who came (expediently) and gave us a bid to install the gas pipes for our Fireplace, Stove and Furnace (and water tank and BBQ . . . :) AND . . . as of yesterday all the pipes have been installed, Inspector came today, and now we are all ready to be hooked up.  One of my neighbors (Flossie, my 90 year old neighbor!)  called me and said that the Utility  Co. was there today tearing up the street and sidewalk :/ to run the natural gas to our house.  We are actually making real progress!

  

Interior walls are now all studded in. The lumber on the floor is in the kitchen.  Behind the orange chair is the bedroom  :)

That's our granddaughter Katie taking a break up in what is to be the attic.

And here are the boys  ~ not quite sure what they are all doing here!  :)

The floor in the Attic space is now in.  It's a small area over the two bathrooms which will have 8' walls.  The rest of the house will have  12' walls and open ceilings.

When done, we are aiming for a 'Rustic~Industrial feel to the house.  This is an Old door (one of several) we resurrected from a yard sale.  As you can see it needs a little TLC but we do have plans for its use.  :)  You can barely see it, but there is a line across the bottom 6" or so that it is about to be cut off.  We will definitely show you the finished results.  :)

Pull down stairs to the attic installed!  'Our Supervisor' (Ernie) had several real good suggestions helping with installation.  Every job should have an Ernie.  Besides being a great help to Glen he is a wealth of information on the history of the area.  Just one of the many nice people we have met since making the decision to move here.  When we mentioned to the owner of the Heating Co. that we have met so many nice people since being up in this area, he said 'Get used to it'.  That's just how they are here'.  

How can you not smile about that . . .

til next time

Charleen

YOU KNOW THAT WE COULDN'T MAKE THIS ALL UP . . . DON'T YOU . . .?

It is now to the point where our neighbors just shake their heads.  What can you say?  I am sure to the outside world this has had to be pretty funny.  In fact, just yesterday in our travels (more on that further on down) I saw a sign in a little shop that said  "Our family is Gods favorite sitcom."  I'm afraid I'm going to have to beg to differ.  I think his favorite sitcom is right here in Mullan, Idaho and we are living it.  What else could this be?!  I will have to say . . . both of us have had to maintain a sense of humor about all of this (OK, some days thats been darn near impossible BUT we have persevered!)  

So, the leak got fixed.  That was a major worry but Glen was at it first thing the following weekend and it is now as it should be.  

Last we left, the fellows were here working and the promise was that their part would be done by the end of that week.  Phone calls were being returned, we were being kept in the loop, and the fellows were here busy bee-ing it away.  As you can see from the photo below, they did accomplish quite a bit.  But remember, this is just the shell.  It's a 2 week job (supposedly).  Photo below is 8 weeks into the job.  So . . . was the job completed by the end of the week . . .

NOT.   It's a little hard to see in this photo but there is a rough, unfinished edge on the left hand side of the roof.  They ran out of roofing with just inches to go. Yup.  See the seam at the very top of the roof?  That is suppose to have a felt like sealer up underneath it to prevent wind from whipping water back up under neath the seam.  We saw the rolls of felt laying on the pile of building supplies for weeks but 'somehow' it disappeared  (not on to our roof) when the job was done.  Seems like whoever was responsible for putting it on, forgot it.  Then, so we might not notice, evidently took it home with him.  Guess they didn't count on Glen climbing up on the roof to check things out.  : /   What you also can't see is that 2 of the 3 doors are hung crooked.   And on the right hand corner of the house (Behind the huge pile of garbage they are (still) suppose to come remove, the whole corner trim is missing.  

So they worked for 3 days straight (I think that's a record) and then we sat (again) for a week and a half.  Meanwhile, the inside looked like this so we were at least able to start framing the inside walls (well . . . they are the inside outside walls if you get what I mean . . .

Raising a wall . . .

That's Ernie, our neighbor helping Glen raise one of the walls (bathroom to be exact).  That's usually my job but I deferred to Ernie this time.  :)  We affectionately call him the Supervisor because he usually comes over to check things out when there is any action going on.   We have another neighbor, Richard, who calls himself the 'Wanna be Supervisor'  :)  Quite honestly, if both of these guys weren't retired and were on the job, the house probably would have been up weeks ago!

We also continued with projects on the outside.  The property came with an old patio and sidewalk ~ remains of the once used to be home that was there.  The patio got more than it's fair share of use this summer with all of our company but we knew it was going to have to go.  It was just in the wrong place for our new home.  We weren't going to tackle removing it until next year but, because we had to dig out so much to get the ground level for the house, we decided to take it out now before winter came and it becomes a big issue next Spring with Snow melt, etc.  (You can see the unfinished edge on the house in this photo)

Back came Scott with his excavator and there went the patio . . .

(it's close to the house, but not as close as it looks ~ the perspective is off. :)  

And the sidewalk . . .  

All in one piece!  

He operates this equipment like my Grandmother picked up a teacup.  Delicately and with such precision it is amazing.

He broke the patio up into smaller pieces (still big, but smaller . . . :) and hopefully you should see how we will be using those pieces later on in the Blog).  But . . . since we have no front stoop we decided to re-use the walk for that purpose.  So he took the walk around the block to the front of the house . . .

This is my husbands sense of humor. : /  As you can see, the ground isn't even level (and it's worse than it even looks!)  The walk is just haphazardly sitting on a pile of rocks and dirt at the moment.  But . . . we have a front stoop!  (Heaven help me please . . .)

Speaking of rocks . . . this was dug up from the Driveway.  Again, a reminder as to why this area is called Boulder Canyon.

Look at the excavator and this will give you an idea of the size of this thing.  It will become part of the landscaping when we are all done.  That's mostly because we don't know what else to do with it!

The Tuesday after Labor Day we were told (again) that the crew would be showing up to tie up all the loose ends and FINISH THEIR PART OF THE JOB.  The cement Crew was also going to show up to put in the Patio thus finishing THEIR PART OF THE JOB.  The Electrician was to show up to connect us to 'real' electricity and get us off 'temporary power'.  The Rock company was going to 'try' and show up to deliver a load of gravel. The plumber was to show up to give us an estimate on hooking us up to the natural gas lines.  The 'Garbage Crew' was to show up and remove all the metal scraps, wood, plastic, etc. etc. left over from the job.  The City Inspector was suppose to show up to sign off on the outer part of the house.

Tuesday was going to be a busy day!

So let's see . . . 

No work crew showed up.

No plumber showed up.

No Rock Company showed up.

No Garbage crew showed up.

The Electrician showed up but he just showed up.  Work re-scheduled for the following week.

The Cement Truck showed up but the cement crew was off on another job (they forgot all about us) so the cement couldn't be poured.  The cement truck left. Someone got to eat 5 1/2 yds of cement and guaranteed it's not going to be us!)

The City Inspector showed up!!

(I told you . . . we couldn't make this up if we tried. )

The rock delivery showed up the next day.

The plumber still hasn't shown up so needless to say he's out of the picture and two new companies are re-scheduled.

The garbage crew still hasn't shown up.

The electrician was to show up today and when I went to check earlier there was a ladder set up inside.  Just the ladder.  ?

The work 'crew' was whittled down to one (1) fellow.  He came out Wednesday night at 5:00 after he finished working on another job.  He was sent alone because he is a Dallas Cowboys fan and the rest of the crew are Seattle Seahawk fans and there was a Seattle game on they wanted to watch.  He got to tie up all the loose ends himself  (Up on the roof, adding the felt trim in the dark, etc)  Three hours to finish what it took them a week and a half to get someone here to do.  I think they may have a time management issue here.

The Cement Crew AND the cement truck all showed up together yesterday (a week later).  The patio is now in and it looks great!  Despite the fact that they forgot us last week I would recommend their work anytime.  They really do a great job.  We've already gotten many compliments on the interior floor they did.

Besides . . . what's one week when the rest of the two-week project is already 9 weeks behind?

We decided to take a much needed break and we gave ourselves two days off from Glens 7 day 'vacation'.  We decided that at this point we are so far behind where we hoped to be that 2 days wasn't going to make much of a difference.  We left Friday morning and headed up to Whitefish, Montana.  We started to go there a year ago for a weeks vacation but our RV brakes went out on us and since it was Labor Day weekend no one was open and available to fix them.  We cancelled our vacation and hobbled home. (Truth)  I have never been there and have always wanted to see the area.  It was a lot of driving for 2 days but it was a great break.  Absolutely beautiful country!  

The Cabinet Mountains

A little action on the tracks in Plains, Montana

The absolute best Pizza we have both had in years at the Glacier Grill and Pizza Restaurant in Coram, Montana.  Hands down.

Thompson Pass, Idaho

Someones long ago dreams

A little basement creativity in Ant Flats, Montana

It looks like a blob of cement but it's actually a smoothly formed rock probably from one of the many Glaciers that came through this area

Home again and full moon over the campfire.  :)

Next weekend it's back to the Lumberyard for more wood so we can start framing the interior interior walls!  :)

See you soon!

Charleen

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

THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION I ASKED LAST TIME IS . . . NO

'This is called a 'Transit'.  This particular one is a $2500. piece of equipment.  It is suppose to tell you if the ground you are measuring is level.  If you remember from the last Blog, we wound up with a  3 1/2' difference from one corner of the house to the other.  (I did suggest we just put in a sunken livingroom but the humor was 'overlooked')  :/

Soooo . . . the next weekend it was back with this transit, the bulldozer, the bobcat, the excavator, the dump-truck, a dump-trailer and son-on-law Bob (oh yes, along with dear friends from Boise who came to visit for the weekend. It was suppose to be a Golf weekend for the boys, but . . . uh, that didn't quite work out . . .)  Bob drove all the excavating equipment  

  

and kept filling both the truck and trailer with a total of over 20 loads of dirt.  Glen just kept driving back and forth to the dump site and unloading either the truck or trailer, whichever was full.  They worked all day until dark...

and started up again on Sunday morning.  They finished about mid day, satisfied it was close enough to where it should be for the posts to be re-dug.  They were satisfied because the 'Transit' told them so.   Now . . . it still looked off, (I'm just sayin')  but 20 loads of dirt had been removed from the property and the Transit never lies.  

OH YEAH??!!

Workers back on Monday to re-dig for posts.  :)  Workers left on Monday without re-digging for posts.  :(

Seems the property was still not level.  Hmmm.  Twenty loads of dirt out and we were still 2 1/2' off.  Their $1500 Transit said our $2500 Transit lied.  Who you gonna believe?  Them.  Cause they are the ones digging the holes, and while they said they would dig the holes if we wanted, the offer came with an ominous 'But we're not guaranteeing anything and you'll wind up paying for it later' warning.  A little sour if you ask me. . . .

S o o o . . .  last weekend, once again, Bob, the Bobcat and the Bulldozer come back.  (Along with Jeff, our grandson Seans friend, who was lured with the promise of being able to try out the jack-hammer they thought they might need to break up some of that foundation Glen found when he went to the lay the water/sewer pipes.  Never had to use it so Bob let him jack-hammer dirt in his yard when they got home :) ) This time Bob and Glen pushed and pulled all the dirt around (what was left) and FINALLY got it to grade.  

Of course, this threw the scheduling for the house to the wind so we are now in limbo-land.  They were going to be here this past Wednesday and then, surprise,  it became next Wednesday.  Supposedly they didn't finish another project when they should have.  Our guess is they slipped a new project in front of ours.  By next Wednesday we will be a month behind where we thought we would be.  It's all about patience.

     

Since we actually had a free Sunday we decided to take a ride up in the hills behind Mullan.  This is the road (?) we wound up on.  It just kept getting narrower and narrower and . . .  Glen thought there would be a turn around but but no such luck.   It's then called 'backing up the Jeep the last quarter mile you just drove'.  Better him than me.  But then, I would have stopped driving on this road about 10 feet in.  Just sayin'.

Sunset on the way home.

See you soon!  (I hope!)

Charleen

DO THINGS EVER GO AS PLANNED . . . .

It's been a while since I've written but the building supplies that were suppose to be delivered July 1st . . . weren't.  They were suppose to be on the back end of a 40' truck that had another delivery in Montana and our supplies were going to be dropped off on the way there.  Unfortunately, the Company did not check our location before they made those arrangements.  The road up to our property is narrow, with several sharp turns and does not smile at 40' trucks.  They had to rethink their strategy and it took them an extra week and a half to do that.  

The Building Supplies.  :)

They had big, deep holes they had to dig for the Building posts.  They didn't want to start that until everything was here.  Delivery finally happened around the 10th and the post hole digging was again scheduled to start the next day.  

They sent a nice young fellow up with an Auger.  The holes are suppose to be approximately 4' deep.  This area we are in is called 'Boulder Canyon' or, as the locals call it 'Boulder Draw'.  The only thing the Auger managed to hit was Glens newly laid (and functioning) water and sewer pipes. That ended the work for that day (and the day after, and the day after, and . . .)  Pipes get fixed and back they come.  This time with a mini excavator ~ much more suitable for digging in this terrain.  But, before they start digging everyone realizes that the pipes are in the way and are only going to get hit again.  Re-measuring is done and the whole house (fortunately just string at this point!) is moved 5' in one direction.  Holes are dug with promises to be back the next day.  

  

This is not just any hole.  This is the hole with the broken water and sewer pipes.  :(

Three days later  the 'team' (2) shows up to set the posts.  BUT, what hadn't been noticed is the drop-off level of the property.  Yes, everyone could see that the property sloped but what no one realized is when the house was moved the 5' it threw the slope off expotentially and now we had this 3 1/2' difference in the floor level from one side of the house to the other.  Not a good thing.

Glen and helpers will be re`excavating one side of the property this weekend in order to level it off so 'maybe' next week they will REALLY get to start on the actual building.  

In the meantime, we have had more company in the last month than we had in one year over in Wenatchee.  I'm thinking that friends and family are glad we are back  :)  But, remember, we don't have a house yet!  So it has been fun figuring out who is going to stay where.  Tent, Trailer, the one bedroom in the apartment . . . We've had company from Coeur d'Alene, from Newport,Wa., from North Carolina, from North Dakota, from Lewiston, ID (and most of them all came on the same weekend ~ Thirteen people and 5 dogs!)

     

On the left:  Friends and family around the campfire.   Up at the top that's us at about the 9th hour of the Wallace Blues Festival.  We manged to last about 11 of the 12 hours it went on. :)

On the right:  Tents, Trailers, ATVS, motorcycle and Bikes all on our property.  Our RV is not in the photo.  (This is not a big piece of property by the way . . .)  The drink in the corner is mine!

                                                 
The Campfire at Night.  We needed something for a Campfire.  In the past Glen has built us some very nice Fire pits but for now we needed something temporary until the house is built and we have a permanent spot.  So, this is our Washing machine tub.  Uh huh.   They certainly don't look like much during the day but at night they just glow with the flames showing through all the holes in the tub.  The owner of the appliance Repair Shop said he can't keep them in stock.

Some Treasures from the property.  During the initial excavation the 'Cap Gun' up at the top was found.  Anyone remember those?  I had one.  I played Annie Oakley with mine . . .

In the mint green and violet trimmed garage that was on the property when we bought it, the other treasures were found up in the attic.  The fellows decided to get up there and see what was what.  Among other things, there were 3 old wooden boxes filled with books where Smokey the Bear was found, the old sled, and that's about a circa 1960 something International Pickup Tailgate.  Believe it or not, I've come up with a use for the Tailgate.  I'm going to let that be a surprise when we get to that point.  :

A Mullan Sunset over the property.

More Company arrives tomorrow from Boise.  They are (very) 'old' Friends.  :)  Hope they bring their work clothes!

Charleen