Progress! (This one's for you, Joe)

Things have been stalled a bit, but progress is still being made!

The power company, despite over a month of communication, has still not moved the power lines that currently run through our second floor. Until those move, the second story can't be framed.

While we wait, the yard has received sod! The fence is up! The windows and doors are in! The side "driveway" and front door "stoop" are poured. And while we don't have pictures, the interior walls on the first floor are all framed in! The big tree in the front of the house was slowly disassembled - there is an excavator on site removing the stump and the chipper should show up soon to make biomass out of what's left. Hopeful we can steal a piece of that tree for use in the house! We're also working to get all the steps, shelves, and window sills made from wood from Lubrecht, the College's experimental forest up the Blackfoot valley. Lotta irons.

All the material for the second floor framing is on site and as soon as those power lines are moved, we'll continue onward and upward!  Here are some pics - enjoy!!

Stump Remover!

Big Red!

 

Dog Gate and Front Door

Love me some biomass

Front walk view

Snow and concrete

The progress is amazing!  Monday morning we stopped over to see the guys pour concrete on the second floor.  We walked up and noticed a huge crane pouring the concrete.

 

 I only stayed for a few minutes, but Alex returned later to see more of the action!

Here are Matt and Richard smoothing out the concrete.  They were on a time crunch because it was supposed to rain that day...and it did!  But they were successful and got all the concrete poured before it started raining and snowing.

 Below is a picture of our house all bundled up!  The temperature got so cold that day, that they had to put space heaters inside the house to help the concrete cure. We can't wait until Richard and Matt start building the second floor!

Second Floor Prep

There has been a lot of progress this past week and Libby's mom got to see all of it. When she arrived, the slab was poured and covered in tarps; last night we walked around the second floor - stepping over the radiant floor tubing, we were able to navigate through the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms.

Libby standing in the front entrance, peeking at the afternoon light coming through the office window.

Top of the stairs! Libby is standing in the bathroom - two bedrooms to the right with the laundry room in the center.

Master bedroom! In the back is the master bath with shitter to the left (throne room), double vanity in front of that, and shower and tub to the right. Libby's mom is standing in the right hand side of the walk-in closet.

Concrete for the second floor should be poured Monday, weather permitting! We'll have a second story before we know it! Looking forward to welcoming Elle back once we're all done!

Oh, we got to see some of Yellowstone, too! Drove down Wednesday night and stayed in West Yellowstone. Thursday morning we woke early and drove into Lamar valley were we got to see part of the Lamar pack through spotting scopes. They were stuffed, sleeping, and fairly boring; Elle may have the most wolves per hour of searching of any visitor in YNP.

This guy was waiting for us just outside of Mammoth - bugled once before heading toward a nearby cow.

That's Mammoth!

Waiting for Old Faithful; you can really set your watch by 'er.

Thar she blows!

Good thing our batteries didn't run out just beforehand!

Bacterial mat. I prefer an apron.

Mother, daughter, and the turquoise hole.

Bison pooping in the road! Kids in the minivan in front of us were cackling and laughing so loud. Ha!

Big boy, roadside.

Libby hates this picture - I think she's gorgeous.

Happy to be next to her.

So Epiconic!!

Come visit - we'll show you around!

First floor and walls!

The concrete has arrived!! Well, the first round - there will be more concrete on the second floor!

Libby and I wanted to be there all day, but both had meetings - really important meetings - all morning, but we managed to stop by to see the first yards of concrete pour out of the truck.

Ready...set....

Go! Matt was the first concrete condom operator.

Concrete filling the footer.

So then we had to leave, but here is the finished first floor!!!:

They made darn quick work of smoothing the surface. It took a few hours for the concrete to harden. We may or may not have vandalized the concrete with initials.

Covered with tarps, just taunting us for the weekend!

Then the real changes began!

Walls!! (And pastries..mmmm....) Matt, Richard, Libby, and Elle are standing in what will be the garage. The door to the right will be a slider into the kitchen. The window to the right of the door will be over the kitchen sink.

I'm a helluva supervisor. That door will be our "front" door - facing Howell Street. That window will be in our living room.

Garage walls up now, too! Where the ladder is leaning will be our side door into the yard. All of the dirt area here will be our yard.

View from Howell Street. Front door. Living room window to the left; bathroom window to the right.

Might need to do some trimming to reveal completely, but our mark has been made!!

First floor prep

It has been a busy week, both in our lives and at the job site. Libby headed to Yellowstone with a class of undergraduate students, met up with a group of graduate students, and presented as part of a keynote panel. I've been working hard at the computer trying to get a couple reports out. But who cares about that stuff - check out our house!!

After laying hard pack and compacting, the footers were dug and forms laid out for the concrete.

The forms were built and reinforced in preparation for the first floor concrete pour. The "rectangle" in the middle of the house will be the stairs to the second floor!

Then all the plumbing for the first floor was installed along with insulation. The R-10 hard foam insulation runs under the first floor and around and under the footers. Moisture barrier (black plastic) runs under the entire house. The rebar grid was installed and set to "float" on top of the insulation and in the middle of the concrete slab when it is poured.

The picture above is the front of the garage and, in the background, the kitchen!

The picture above is the garage and, in the back ground, the first floor bedroom/office and bathroom!

Last step before pouring the concrete was installing the radiant floor tubing. There will be two zones on the first floor - the garage and the rest of the downstairs. The tubing is spaced evenly and secured to the rebar grid so it, too, will float in the middle of the slab. This is our heating system! The tubes coming out in the middle of the house will be contained in our mechanical/utility room. We should be pouring the first floor in the next day or two and then, onward and upward!

Jury Duty

Today I was supposed to be on jury duty, but at the last minute was called and told the case had been settled out of court and I was no longer needed.

Now, many of you are likely imagining my giant sigh of relief; in reality, I couldn't be more upset. And while this attitude is clearly unsupported by conventional wisdom, I assure you my sentiment contains no sarcasm (for once).

Why do we hate jury duty so much?!? I love it!

In all honesty, I've been looking forward to this for months. Early this summer I received the initial letter - you are on our list and will be contacted about a specific case - and so I sent in my acceptance. Arriving home from our wedding and honeymoon (and our honeymoon's honeymoon of driving across the country), I received a second letter - you have been selected for a case and are required to appear on Thursday, October 4, 2012 for trial. I dutifully marked my calender (pun intended) and the anticipation began!!

What kind of case would this be? What questions would I be asked? Would I be the kind of juror lawyers strove to accept or, more likely, the guy they couldn't wait to vote out of the pool? Who would the other jurors be? What kind of conversations would we have? Who would take the lead? Would it be a clear case (god I hoped not)? How would we settled arguments? Would we deliberate (ooooohhhhh, deliberate!) for days? Would it be a small little boring case we decided in 10 minutes or would I somehow be lucky enough to be part of the biggest trial Missoula had seen in years?!!? The anticipation was killing me!!!

I even heard we got free lunch! And our parking tickets validated!!!! What is there NOT to love!??!

Dilbert's got it right.

And then...poof! Gone.

I trust my name is still on the list and thus my hope remains this story is but only paused, not ended. The ugly chapter in my love story - waiting, longing for reciprocation - begins now.

The Beginning

This is the beginning:

Well, sort of... 

We've neglected to take pictures as the lot was prepared, but less than 24 hours ago, this was a flat, grassy lot. Before that, the place was crowded by invasive shrubs, littered by bicycle parts, and frankly looked like hell. And so, despite the fact there could technically be another "before" photo, this is THE beginning. In 3 to 4 months, here will stand our new house!

Today was also the beginning of winter fall in Missoula. It has been a record-setting 43 days since it rained here. Late summer was filled with smoke and we had been praying for rain and enjoying our trips out of the valley. The smoke from forest fires is acrid, burns your throat, and sometimes materializes into ash and falls from the sky. We were done. But I didn't really expect to wake up this morning to snow; I guess we just skipped that whole rain part. I hope these two story-lines don't collide too heavily over the next months...

But back to the house! We've been working with Richard and Matt - two kiwis who run a construction/remodling company named for the New Zealand native Silverfern. For the past few months we've been scheming over drawings and beers trying to figure out exactly what this house will look like, how it might fit on this lot, and best assimilate to their grand plans for this corner of the "North Side" of Missoula. After all the planning, we're finally starting the digging! Here's Libby with the ceremonial first shovel-full of dirt and me with the less-well-known ceremonial first tamp!!:

We'll keep a running update as things progress, including a full description of the plans and how they develop (evolve?) as we go. Much to come, but after all our searching and angst, it's AMAZING to be starting this process. We couldn't be happier with Matt and Richard and can hardly wait to show you around the new digs! Come visit! (But you should probably wait until February...)