5000 ft. is a lot!

This week has filled with pulling wire. Thousands and thousands of feet of wire.  Today I counted the empty rolls. We have used almost 5000 ft of wire. White wire, blue wire and yellow wire. We have used almost 3 cases of plug boxes and almost 1 of light boxes. We have installed 8 pot lights with 16 more to go. All in all, the wiring is almost complete!!We have also finished the satellite and computer wire hook-up.


THE LATEST NEWS:

 We usually get to the house between 8-8:30 and leave between 5-5:30.

 Soon it will be time to insulate, poly and drywall.

We have also picked up the garage doors and they are at the painters getting a nice paint job. We are waiting for the guys to come back and finish the soffit, fascia and siding.

I spent too mush time on hold an the phone today. Getting the MTS and Wiband set-up started.  It would be great to have a land line phone again.

The yard has been a mud hole. We have had to 4x4 in and out through the mud until today. Now I can almost make it to the front of the house with my van.

Dean's dad has been at the house every day. What an amazing blessing he has been. From climbing up in the attic to insulating windows. He is my hero. Saving me from doing all sorts of things I would rather not have to do and saving Dean all sorts of time. We love him.

We really need to take some time for a run to Wpg. for supplies. There are some things you just can't get in town. It just seems impossible to take the time to do it, other than after supper and then we are just too tired.

goose hunting

ductwork and electrical

This week was another productive week. The plumbers came and started to install the ductwork and we got all the main floor walls framed and the electrical started.

We also spent some time with our awesome interior decorator this week and finalized our exterior colours. This is a huge thing  me. I feel much more content with those things picked so that it is one more thing we are done with. We also met with our kitchen cupboard builder to finalize the kitchen. We ended up redesigning some of the kitchen now that the walls are built we needed to change a few things. Now our kitchen is 2 feet bigger. Not at all what we really need, but it will work better for putting in the flooring. Very glad we thought of this when we could sill change things instead of trying to make things work with the flooring when it would be to late. 

I am so glad that we are doing the building. I don't know how it would work to have someone else make these decisions for us. Even though we had blueprints  made up, we have changed so many things while we are actually building.

Such a good week.
Dean even had time to go fishing on Saturday and goose hunting Sunday afternoon.

    This(down below) is the wall we had to add to make the kitchen bigger. Dean built a cool shelf in it.

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                                           Notice the elecrical boxes in the wall studs!!

                                                       The plumbers were very busy

                                                           We will be warm this winter!!

and then there were walls......

Yesterday Dean and I spent the day planning and also polyed and drywalled the ceiling above half the house.

It looks so different to see a white ceiling instead of the wooden rafters.

We started with the on-suite bathroom and walk in closet.

We finished up the day with the master bedroom, hallway and guest bathroom and bedroom walls.

We ran out of 2x4's so we had to finish up some kitchen stuff untill tomorrow.

windows and interior

All the windows and doors that we have received are installed. \It sure makes the house look way more finished. This is the rear of the house.

We had a lot of fill brought in from the pond hill. We had an excellent skid steer operator level the driveway out. We still need a tonne of fill yet to bring the front yard level up another foot or two. Then we can spread the dirt hill on top of it.

I love building with wood. I love the smell of freshly cut wood. I love the nailing and sawing and I love to see walls go up. Dean and I had lots of fun the last few weeks working together and seeing the house take shape as we stood up the walls. I was happy that we decided to do it ourselves as we changed things as we went along.

The many doors and windows on the back will give us so much light and the sunset every morning.

Dean and the kids spent the day building walls on the main floor. I was listening to a speaker (Beth Moore)in Winkler while they worked. Dean and I took and drive over when I got home so I could see what they all did and take a few pictures.

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This is my waxing room!!!!

^ This is the kitchen walls.

                                                     ^This is the living room with the view to the East.

One week

Its been one week in our 500 square foot, one bedroom apartment. The kids are sleeping in the bedroom and we are sleeping under the chandelier in the dining room. The kids go to sleep before we do so it works better that way. We share a washer/dryer with 3 other tenants and we try to walk softly on the laminate floors, so we don't disturb the tenant below us.

We each have one suitcase of clothes and not much else. The apartment size fridge freezer is not much bigger than a camper cooler, but it fits our needs as the store is only 3 minutes away. We have our love seat and living room chair and some borrowed end tables and a coffee table where we eat our meals on.

Most days while the kids are in school and in the evening when they are home, we spend working on the yard and house. We don't have a phone in our apartment so we rely on our cell phones (no chatting for me).

As I am writing this I am wondering if it may sound like I am complaining.....

I am not.
I feel so blessed to have a place to stay that has a kitchen, bedroom and even laundry in the building.
 I feel so blessed that we have so many people that have offered to have us live with them (so we wouldn't  have to be in this small space.)
I feel so blessed that we have furniture to sit on that is so familiar and comfortable.
 I feel so blessed that we have kids who have not complained once for this small space where we are living right now.
 I feel so blessed by the carpenters that are working on our house.
 I feel so blessed by the people who come and help us when we need strong bodies.
 I feel so blessed that we are able to build a home in the country I love.
I feel so blessed that we can live in a 500 square foot apartment and make it into a fun adventure.

lets see how I feel after week 2......

My Own Little World

What a great song. Thought I'd share it.

We've got shingles!

The progress on the house has been amazing this week. We now have shingles, the windows have arrived, the geothermal heat lines are almost in and the basement is framed and the elecrical boxes are in the walls in the basement.

Pete's plumbing working on the Geothermal heat lines.

Making a big mess...

Basement walls with electrical boxes on the walls.

production week

We had a good week so far this week.

Last week we had a lot of rain. We went almost every day to squeegie water off the wood floor. It was really frustrating to see the water sitting on the wood making it swell. We really tried to keep positive and hope for the best.

This week the guys started on Monday, finishing up the rafters so that they could start placing the plywood on the roof. Dean got the tractor going and put the sheets on the roof for them so they wouldn't have to do it by hand.

After one day they had half the roof sheeted. I expect they will have it ready for shingles by the end of today.

While we have been waiting for the main floor to be ready for us. We decided to start framing the basement.

It raised our spirits to see something different getting finished.

After  a day of Dean, his dad and I putting up walls. We had a big chunk of the basement framed and the whole basement planned out for where the walls will be placed.

This week we have also decided to move into town. As much as we love living in Gretna, it is time to get back into our own space.

As I walked Miranda to the bus this morning. It felt very odd. I realized that it has been 5 months since they have been in school and we had that routine that the school day involves. It may take me a while to appreciate it. So far I would rather have them home. They are such a great help and so much fum to have around.