Progress

While Noel is always busy and working so hard, things just seemed to be not changing for the longest time. And then came this week.

We Have a Roof!

They say the roof will be done tomorrow. I am not convinced of that, but I am convinced that huge progress is happening, and I love the color of the roof. The siding will be stone colored. It will be ordered tomorrow and should arrive in 3 days. They cut it to the size needed so today will be getting exact measurements and an ordering list. Noel should have it installed within the week. In the meantime, he will be doing the soffit and fascia. By this time next week, we should have a completely enclosed building.

Where Are Our Doors?

Well, it will be almost completely enclosed at least. We are having issues with the doors. We know that in the craziness of today’s world, there are lots of backorders. We haven’t really been phased by this – except for the doors. A large garage door is backordered probably until the end of July. The 2 ‘regular’ doors were to be in a couple weeks ago; they are saying Tuesday now. The door on the back side will be a sliding barn door that Noel is constructing this week.

Lumber!

Yikes, I know it is all the talk, but it is real. The price of lumber is crazy! HOWEVER!!!!! Have you heard? At the end of this past week, lumber took it’s largest drop in price in history. Hopefully that means building the house will be on schedule without these crazy prices. Check this out!

Sweating the Little Things

Lots of smaller things happened as well. We got the water tube/pipe from the meter, under the shop to the backside. That took more muscles than I was expecting. Noel thought it went easier than he expected. I guess ignorance was bliss in my case for awhile. It involved tape and a golf ball on the end so it wouldn’t get caught at the edges of the elbows as we pulled it through.

We have been moving piles of clay from the front by the road to behind the shop for fill. Noel has to break it apart with Mini because it is so wet and mucky. Then Boda and I haul it to the back. When we aren’t sinking! There had been a puddle of water that got covered with dirt so when I lifted the heavy weight of mucky clay, I went right down. Noel, my hero. It actually wasn’t difficult for him to get it out – just took the engineering brain and an empty Boda bucket to prop up the front wheels, and he backed it out.

We went from constant rain to serious humidity. It’s so bad. Lots of water & Gatorade! Lots of laundry. It will be nice to just be living there and be able to come in and cool down for awhile.

The Boys

Fool dogs had a rough couple weeks. They ride in the back of the truck to and from the property. Fuzz loved the truck. Past tense. Dink has high anxiety and drool regarding the truck – and most other things. But at 20 mph, Fuzz decided to jump out of the truck. I thought he was dead! He jumped out of the side and landed on his side. I think it was because I had rolled my window down and was telling Dink he was ok, trying to let him know I was there. Fuzz is ok but now he is also afraid of the truck. I got him into the inside back of the truck and left Dink alone – dumb idea. Never got above 10 mph but Dink jumped out the back once we got to the gravel road. And yes, they are back into riding in the back of the truck. They are dogs, and we are now country-dwellers. They have to learn; they seem to have.

Once they are there though, they love being there. The humidity has slowed them down. They find cool, shady places to rest between their tearing through the woods. They did discover the gravel pile is not easy to conquer. They were quite proud when they got to the top and were able to lay without sliding halfway down.

Third Time’s a Charm

Remember the good ole’ days when you had an accepted offer on your house, so you started packing because you knew you were going to be out on the given date? Apparently not in this market. Two accepted offers have fizzled out. We are now on our third. When the check is in our hand, our house is sold. We should be closing July 23. We shall see.

Taking a Break

Noel had signed up for a regional pickleball tournament months ago, and it was a good, quick break. We headed to St Louis, leaving my mom and dad in charge of the pups. Mom is pretty sure it was as exhausting as babysitting for children, and I have no doubt. Noel and Steve got a silver medal; they had a slow start which probably kept them from the gold medal, but they played well. And it was a nice break for the body and brain to focus on something other than building. The weekend was our 38th wedding anniversary.

This is just a miscellaneous picture of the bridge that we have used for years to take to our house, and it is now even closer to our property. Not for the feint of heart if you are not a bridge-lover. There are other ways in, so you do need to plan on coming to visit us, even if you are not a bridge person!

Next installment will show a shop enclosed and being moved in to! Once those outside walls and roof are up, we will start moving things over. In July. In the humidity. But it will be a good, good day when that first load goes over.