Uncle Ben & Drywall

Since Uncle Ben had pretty much nothing to do and nothing was really going on in his life at the moment, he decided to come for a short visit and help us out with some dry wall. Which was really nice considering he had to sleep on the couch

in our 2 bedroom house and share one bathroom with this family of 5.

The girls really didn't seem to enjoy having him here.

But we put him to work helping put up drywall in our new house.I sure hope he knows how to use that thing.

The girls taking a break and having a chat with Uncle Ben.
The funny thing is that it was almost totally dark in the middle of this room. My flash was the only light, but the girls were just sitting there in the dark drinking their drinks.

These are their little observation chairs. They like to pull their chairs up and watch "Mr. John" our contractor while he's working. I think..... he likes it. He seems to get a kick out of having an audience.

The whole time they are saying "Mr. John, what are you doing? Mr. John what's that?" Or laughing at him as the tape and mud are falling off the wall behind him.
EJ earlier in the day working up on the scaffolding. Uncle Ben and EJ had the girls and our neigbor's kids up on the scaffolding earlier and we were giving them a ride around the living room. I never have my camera at the right times.
The girls upstairs.

Thanks for the Help Uncle Ben and for being away from your family during a very crazy time!

Ice Skating

There is an ice rink in "town" that we like to take the girls to.Cheese!

It's free, but it's not maintaine, so it's a little rough.

Sitting on the log and getting ready! We hope to have a rink just like this someday in our back yard.

(A little smaller).

H1 skating fast!

H2 getting up from a crash!

Getting a free ride back with Dad!

Blog Updating Marathon-5 posts in one day

So after our last house posting, we had several friends come out and help deck the roof. Thank you soooo much (Dan, Jason, Mike,Don)! I had no idea how scary it was until I went up myself. Then EJ spent a lot of time in the cold wet rain sheeting the house. (Thanks again Jason for helping.) Then EJ almost fell off the roof and we kind of went through a period of disenchantment with the whole house building thing. Thus, I kind of lost my enthusiasm for blogging. And then we moved again, had Thanksgiving and then E went to Israel and I went to visit family. We are now back on good terms with the house building thing, and I have now found a day to start blogging again.

So after the roof was decked and the sides sheeted, the roofer finally started roofing. Those are packets of shingles up on the roof. My parents came out to help and my dad finished a lot of stuff that had to be done in order to get our rough-in framing inspection. He spent a lot of time up on ladders (which is not exactly his favorite thing) in my house that has an 18 foot ceiling. I believe he left some of his blood on our walls. Thanks for all the help and self-sacrifice! After the rough-in, we had a million decisions to make as the plumber, electricians, and heating and air guys all came in and did their stuff.My dad and EJ wrapped the entire house.Our good friend and soon to be neighbor also helped with the wrap. So, then EJ went to Israel and I went south.
When we left, they had about 1/4 of the house sided.

Ok, here is the most recent picture I have of our house. Although it actually has a garage door on it now. So I'll try to take a more updated picture as soon as I can. Double 5 inch traditional lap siding. Harbor Grey -Mastic Siding. The porch posts will be built out to 6x6 and painted white(linen) and have rock about 1/3 of the way up. The windows will be all wrapped in white(linen) metal, there will be a wood porch and the front door will be stained a cedar color with the side lights painted white with grids. There will be rock around the front door area. A metal roof still needs to be put on over the porch. The garage has Timber Stone cedar shakes in the eave (by Mastic). It will shortly have board and batton siding (We just ran out) across the front, with rock about half way up each side. It does have a garage door, not shown in this picture, with Stockton Colonial windows and bean straps and handles (handles & straps not yet applied.)

Side of the Garage.

Below are some houses in a neighborhood that I used for inspiration for the board and batton, rock, garage doors and cedar shakes.

Zoey our mouse killing machine....better than any cat...leaping and darting and making her rounds across 10 acres. I try to take her out there whenever we go. She definitely knows that it is our land. She is ready to be a farm dog.

Back of the house. LJ's room will have a deck off the 2nd story. And there will be a wooden deck under the porch on the back with the posts built out and painted white (linen.)

Back of the garage.

The insulation has been blown in and the dry-wall is almost complete. It will take a couple of weeks for the mudding and taping and then it will be time to paint and tile. More decisions!

Christmas

Christmas Eve is almost always spent with our good friends (who are also a long ways from home and family) eating fingerfoods, exchanging gifts and having a birthday party for baby Jesus.I love the lights on the Christmas Tree and think they are so magical. As a kid I use to lay on the couch at night and just stare at the tree. Christmas morning!Santa of course ate the cookies and chocolate milk we left him.Here the girls are sitting at the new table they got from Grandma & Grandpa Jackson. (Dad stayed up late putting it together, so it was there in the morning.) LJ's big gift! New Bathrobes from mom & dad!
H1and H2 both got Ice skates.

Here they are practicing on the rink in the living room. (We actually took them to a real outdoor rink the next day. I just forgot my camera. They loved it and did great! Double runner blades.)

Check out this video. (We had recently watched Ice Princess.)

Group Hug! Thanks Dad..(Santa)! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

I'm so Thankful for my oldest child who is healthy and loves life.Thankful that even in a small..small...town we were able to find a small...small Christian Preschool @ the Mennonite Church. (Only 4 girls in the class.) Thankful that parents were invited to a "Thanksgiving Feast" The girls performed several songs and did a puppet show about the 1st Thanksgiving!I'm Thankful for H1's best friend who kept popping up during the puppet show.
I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!