Tiny Speckles

Wednesday, December 11th.

No, I don’t mean snow sparkles, or ice sparkles – I mean the inside of the house sparkles! We walk in today and the whole house has been “textured.” Not the clumpy texture of the 70’s, but much smaller “speckles” on the wall.

Tiny Speckles in the Kitchen

I know, you really have to take my word about the speckles! I was so excited, I forgot to take closeups! However, as you can see, It really is coming together!!

Protected Openings

Every door and window was covered with plastic for protection. Kind of gave it a muted light (because of the plastic and the over-spray from the texture machine).

From Kitchen to Living Room

Even with the windows draped with plastic, we had a lot of light coming in! YAY!

Even the Garage!

Yes, even the garage got speckled!!

Have to show you the funny picture:

Window of Humidity

When we pulled up to the house, there were gobs of trucks and vans along the road – some from our house and the rest from the new house going in. The house across the street was still quiet. So we parked the truck and got out just as our Contractor walked around his van. We could tell he was happy. Immediately inside the front door our glasses became so fogged up it created a traffic jam! Texturizing the walls creates humidity. It looked so different from Monday, we just started walking around staring at the walls and ceiling in a daze. I was so enthralled I took a pic in the master bedroom with a camera that was still fogged up – we’d wiped our glasses after we came in the house – but didn’t think about the cameras! I still don’t think “camera first” when I get excited! I guess it takes time… 😀

Neato things to happen:

• Uncle from WA to start on trim.
• Garage door to be installed tomorrow.
• Flooring (laminate) for main rooms will be delivered on site tomorrow.
• kitchen cabinets to be installed.

WOW! Things are sure happening fast now!  Hope to see changes quickly. Still have the Electric and Gas lines to be connected and turned on. The rest of the HVAC installed. Plumbing connected… still lots of basic things to do. But big changes are coming!!!

 

 

Taping and Prepping…

Monday, December 9, 2013

They were busy at the walls again. This time they are taping the walls and using compound to seal seams and prep them for the future.

An Intricate Job

It is amazing to me what all they have to do to get the walls ready to finish. They are trimming the wall-to-wall and wall-to-ceiling joints. They have to seam together side by side wall board.  They have to seal around outlets. You can see the number of patterns in the kitchen, here. And this is only one room! (And there are 7 more to go.)  I really didn’t know how involved this was!

Living room Prepping

More intricate prepping patterns – this time looking out the front windows.

Stilted Compounder

This is my most fun picture. Look carefully and you will find one of the workers walking on stilts so he could reach the ceiling joints. They’re made of metal, with grips around the shins! Just out of curiosity, I had to ask him if it took him a long time to learn how to use the stilts – he told me “No.” I’ve seen them at other building sites, but had no one to ask about them. How cool!!!

Another new development! We are going to have new neighbors! There were many “guys” buzzing around up the street. One had what looked like architect drawings, one had a phone glued to his ear as he aimed a spraycan at the ground… Others were marking other areas with spray cans, and still others were pushing away snow. Interesting!!! The other house across the street from us has kindof stalled. No new changes for about a week. They are still waiting to get a roof on – their trusses are here already, just no work that we have seen. They must be going through a lull!

It is interesting how the houses seem to have pauses as they “grow” then they have growth spurts where lots of things happen all at once! Our contractor told us that his uncle (who lives on “Kelly Road” (just up the hill from where we lived) in Washington, is coming out here to work on the trim in the house! It is so funny how small the world is!!!

 

 

Putting up the walls, Part 2

Well, the frigid weather continues: It was 11 degrees below zero when we visited the house. After pictures and watching the antelope, it was -14 degrees in the south part of town.

Luckily, when we went inside the house, it was warm and nice! A diesel heater in the garage and a huge electric heater inside the kitchen area. The house is really looking like a house now – it has separate rooms!

One Guest Bedroom

It is amazing how many supplies are needed to turn a frame into a home! We can actually begin to feel the flow of the house – even better than we imagined it would turn out!

Willy in front of the Staging Area

We will get to  look out through these great doors when we eat!

Patio Door/Dining Room

In both of these pictures, the snow is blinding, making views inside the house (including the finished walls) darker than normal!

We get to see our neighbors out our front windows!

The Front Windows/Living Room

Plans, plans…. Always Willy has plans for his workshop area in the garage!

The almost-Finished Garage!

The installed Dryer Box I mentioned earlier.

The Laundry Room

The Computer Network Hubs are ready to get filled with wires!

The Hub Area is Ready for Action

And… as usual, I am a sucker for light! We even have a window above our front door! Yay!

Window Above Front Door

As we left to get into the warmth of our truck, we heard kids laughing and yelling! It just seems kids, snow, sleds and hills exist in a joyous connection and no below zero temps could possibly keep them apart!

Snow, Sleds and Kids

Beauty exists no matter what temperature! Willy snapped this pic of the new crescent moon. The trees are iced with snow (literally).

The roads are still covered in “Snirt” (Snow + Dirt). It is so cool – I get to learn new tech-y words for important weather road condition aspects of winter here! LOL!

The Moon in Iced Tree

I diligently check with Accuweather about what I should look forward to weather-wise.  It is hard for me to get my head around -24 degrees for a nighttime temperature, but I decided to take a picture of what our truck recorded.

Unbelievable Temperature at 7am

Yesterday, a secretary at a doctor’s office drove over from Cody, WY that morning. On the way over the Big Horn Mountains their car read -36 degrees below zero! Even Anchorage. AK was 33 degrees above zero, while we were -20 degrees at 7 am. WOW!

 

 

 

 

Putting Up the Walls, Part 1

We had to go peek at the house. We hadn’t gone sooner because of the snow and wind. Here’s the temp:

The Temperature!

Putting wall board up takes time. We saw them putting it up on day two. Crew of four. They had just turned off the heater when we walked in. I think we startled them.

It really is beginning to look house-like inside.

The Master Bath

This looks so neat and tidy! But not much color, yet. We’ll Fix that!!

Guest Bedroom

Not only is the camera responding slowly in the cold (remember the heaters got turned off?), it now has a dirty lens!

This bedroom seems larger than I imagined.  It is so exciting to see how the walls are changing the perspective we have of the house. It is almost like it is growing and expanding before our eyes.

Guest Bathroom

The Guest bathroom shower stall seems large in a large guest bathroom. It is hard to get any perspective with no landscape in the room.

All Weathered Up

I got caught in the picture. Note the layers: ear protectors under the hat and a super puffy jacket. This is over two layers of clothing! (Long underwear rocks!).

The Inside of the Custom Garage Door (The Garage)

Pink insulation, wall board and plywood all in one room.

Beautiful Sunset

It can still be very beautiful even when it is frigid – and besides 10 – 12 inches of snow…  Sunset, snow, mountains, wind and lots of SKY! How wonderful!