Our Angel Showed Up Today . . .

late in the afternoon and it was perfect timing!!  Again!!

Kelly and I had just gotten the back wall up, both the felt and the siding and almost totally nailed down . . .

when Elder Woolley (with two Ls) surprised us with a visit.

Kelly and I thought we were just about done for the day but Elder Woolley gave us new energy and we managed to make most of the trusses, get the top plate on the walls and get several of the trusses installed!

And then while we were out there round out 4:00, a bunch of trucks and guys came down the road and stopped right in front of the house.  They were there to put down new asphalt!!  What a treat!!

I went out and chatted with this guy for a few minutes and he said he was quite impressed with the job we were doing!!  I said "yeah, pretty good work for three senior citizens!!"  Well, at least two senior citizens, I am not sure if Elder Woolley qualifies for that distinction yet!!

We are hoping we have another rain-less day tomorrow so we can get up the third wall and maybe the front wall before the rains start up again on Thursday!!  Quite interesting to work your outdoor days so much around the weather!!

Beautiful Sunny Day in Bandon by the Sea!!

We started putting up the felt that will waterproof the studio.  We need to get one wall at a time felted and then the paneling up so that the felt won't tear in the event we get some good winds.  The weather channel said the wind is supposed to be very minor until tomorrow afternoon.

First wall completed.

Kelly also started working on the trusses this morning while I was down at the laundromat getting some laundry done.

Putting in the last nails of the day.  I still need to finish nailing tomorrow morning but we had enough today.  I think we are both still recovering from the day before yesterday.

Wow!!  It's looking' like a real building, isn't it!!

And as the studio get more and more completed, our pile of materials is dwindling!!

Tomorrow is going to be another sunny day with low winds so we are hoping to get the back wall and hopefully the window wall felted and paneled!!

What an Amazing Day!!!

Oh, Man 'O Man 'O Man is This Fun . . .

We had an incredibly beautiful day today to start working on the studio!!  The sun was out all day and there was hardly a stir of a breeze.  In fact it got so warm I had to go put on a short-sleeved t-shirt!!

I think this is what I was meant to do - build houses!!  In the early 1970's I studied architecture for a couple of years until I tried to get into a 4-year school and found out that wayyyy back in those days not too many schools of architecture accepted girls!!

So, I did the next best thing - I bought old fire-upper houses and fixed them up.  But on this house, I actually get to build a building ~

While Kelly was opening up and unloading the two pallets of building parts, I was sweeping off the remainder of the water on our beautiful concrete pad so we could start building!!

Once the supplies were opened up, we started pulling the boards we needed to make the window frames and then we got right down to the fun part!!

As you can see Annie is always around trying to help out.  Her new nickname is Spooky Face because I had her all shaved down because of all the mats (hey, I have never had a low-to-the-ground dog that needed so much maintenance and I did not know that Annie needed to be brushed EVERY day!!).  Those big black eyes were not visible under all her hair!!

Here is what we got accomplished before lunch ~

And then after lunch we almost got the entire first wall completed.  Once I got the hang of the window frames, the second two went much faster!!  So, we really got the time-consuming windows all framed and now tomorrow morning we can finish up with the final boards and then move onto the next step!!

As you can see the sun is going down and we have to say we are thrilled with the amount of work we got done today!!  Kelly is covering up the rest of the shed just incase it might even think about rain!!

Now for some Advil and a bit of hand-stitching tonight.

See you all tomorrow!!

This week's Progress . . .

We got quite a bit of work done this week despite both of us having a cold.  Kelly got the old tub out of the Scary Bathroom and we could see that there were mice living in that area.  Now all the mouse housings are shoveled away and the area has been shop vac-ed thoroughly.  The boards are down to keep new mice from coming up through the hole in the floor.

We have determined that the entire bathroom floor is going to have to come up completely and be replaced with marine-grade 3/4" plywood.

We have now officially broken through the drywall to two rooms.  This is a view from the guest bathroom into the guest room/my office.

Had to cover the toilet hole as the smell was getting bad, especially now that the bathroom is open to the guest room.

Sometimes I wonder what people were thinking when they built this place!!  Drywall over plywood???  Whaaaat?

Kelly also got a lot done.  Everything was covered with plastic first.

And then over the past two days, two of the walls in the his bedroom (the master bedroom) got finished.

Cleaning out the spiders and snakes!!

Tomorrow is going to be sunny so we are going to start work on the studio and storage room buildings!!  Pretty exciting stuff around here!!  We are also calling the guy that is going to help with the plumbing and we are hoping to get him out here next week so the plumbing can start going in!!  Hopefully hot water by Halloween!!

Concrete Day!!

Last night when I went to bed I knew that this morning was the long awaited concrete pouring day!! It was kinda like the grown-up version of waiting for Santa Claus!!  Click on the video and see the process!!

All the Quilt Shows are Done for the Year . . .

and maybe forever so FINALLY it is time to really get down and get dirty working on the house.

Over the past couple of weeks we have had a darling young man come and excavate the ground and prepare the area for a concrete slab.  He is going to pour the concrete Saturday and then on Monday we get to start building my studio and a storage area for all of Kelly's stuff.

As you can see the Studio (which can also be used as a garage) will stick out and will cover the bedroom window from the street noise and will make a cute little area for a secluded patio area.

Here is the shed we are going to be building ~

And when we get done with it it is supposed to look like this ~

We are going to put a metal roof on instead of shingles and is actually going to be two spaces under the same roof because we can only build one building no larger than 200 sq. feet (without a $1,400.00 permit) and the size of this building is 24" x 12".  So, my studio will be about 18 feet by 12 feet (don't tell anyone that is a bit more than 200 feet) and Kelly's storage space will be about 9 feet by 12 feet.

So, this week we are going to be removing drywall from the master bedroom and getting all my stuff out of there so Kelly can set up his room how he wants it.