Snow! And more updates on the house.

Posted On November 21, 2015

Our first snowy day! It feels magical. I knew it was coming and my dad had given me some unbaked gooey cinnamon rolls made by local nuns (cuz that’s just the kind of guy he is!), and so I made a plan to have everyone just stay. home. for a couple of hours this morning so we could eat breakfast together. Around the table. Together. All in one place. It was marvelous. It feels like it’s been so long since we’ve all been able to do that. Now the kids and I have determined that this must be a first snow of the season tradition. Bacon, scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls blessed by nuns. I’m down.

As delighted as I am by the majestic snow, it does put a whole new spin on this house building business. We have been super blessed with creepy warm weather in November, and while normally that would send my mind towards thoughts of an apocalyptic nature, this year I was content to take it as a gift. Thankfully we are *this close* to getting our electricity hooked up, and Jeff is working on our HVAC system currently. He thinks we are about 2 weeks away from being able to actually pump some heat into the place to finish it up, but until then we will have to bundle up and hope it’s not too frigid. Anyway, here’s the update from the past week and a half of the house build:

The outside of the house is almost finished! All we have left to do now is a little more caulking, a few outlets and light fixtures, and the battens on the gables.

Check out those guys in tshirts! It was beautiful weather last weekend, perfect for finishing up that job. We still have amazing friends offering to come and help. The house is so much better for this. I really feel like it belongs to our community. I hope we can do the kind of work out there that strives to deserve the love we’ve received through this process. Plus, we don’t really have a social life right now, at least not in the way we used to, and so getting together with friends to work has been good for us. We can’t wait to emerge from all this and call up friends to help them with their projects- not only to help them out, but it’ll be nice to get out of this crazy bubble eventually!

 

We’ve also been working on the electric, getting it all ready for inspection. 

We had to strip the plastic off of the wires carefully, then “splice” them. Still learning all the lingo! 

Check out my expertly spliced wires below…

On that particular night of stripping and splicing, I felt so happy and contented. It had been a pretty long day already, and we’d arranged for Lindsay to put the kids to bed so that Jeff and I could work that evening. We met up and put on music and just worked away. It was practically a date! Seriously, it’s amazing how things can change. I remember when we had little babies and our hands were always so full, it felt all new and incredible to do small errands without them- oh, the things we took for granted before. Who needs a fancy dinner or a movie? Not me. I’m pretty easy to please these days. It really doesn’t take much to refresh me, which is a big gift considering. Wiring our new house with good music and my best friend felt pretty special.

Below is our panel, and Jeff did all the work hooking everything up. Pretty intense!

We also got a bathtub. Not just any bathtub, but a used probably-still-works jacuzzi tub that Jeff found at the reuse store. Not only was it a steal *and* it probably works, but it also fits Jeff. This is a big deal. This man has never been able to take a bath in his own home and have his knees go under the water. Who knew? My life has been a series of decadent and satisfying soaks. Like I said, the things we take for granted! He indulged me that night by climbing into the bathtub so I could take this picture of him. I told him it was only right that we get a tub that fits him, he’ll really need it after all the farm work I’ll make him do for the next 50 or 60 years.  😉

Next came our septic field. The guy who dug our basement and worked on our driveway is doing this job too. We really like him. One of the benefits of this project is that now we have these “guys”. Our guy with a backhoe. Our plumber guy. A sturdy collection of “guys” is a good thing, I think. Anyway, the field is still in progress now, but we have a tank and know the parameters. What’s strange is the fact that all throughout this build, we’ve had nothing but sand. Sand everywhere. Once we go for the septic field? We hit clay! Thankfully it’s not too terrible, but we have to adjust some things and truck in some more sand and it’ll cost a little more than we planned. You never really know, I guess.

We also got our meter installed, so we’re pretty much ready for electricity!

Jeff also framed up our front closet. The first picture is what he sent me that night, and the second is what I took today.

Today Jeff continued to work with a friend on HVAC. Little by little!

He also installed our mailbox, which was so nice to drive up to today. 🙂

Anyway, that’s about it for now. Below are some more snowy pictures I got today.