Spooky night

Well it's Halloween and I just got done working. I've been trying to get a wall done each day. Two to go, but together they have two doors and three windows which take longer to frame.

Here's what it looked like at the site about 9:15.

What a wind storm

Much of the Midwest experienced a major storm Monday, and we were no exception. The entire new house had been covered with billboard tarps for weeks but they had hardly been necessary. We have had some record-setting low precipitation months this summer and the soil is as hard as a rock.

A few weeks ago we bought some chrysanthemums at the auction. When we tried to plant them the next day I was unable to make a hole in the soil near the road, even using a pick ax. Instead we built a very small pool for them, watered them well and will plant them after the soil softens up. They should look great at the entry, next year.

Here are two shots of the building with missing tarps. It was cold today, and will be until midday tomorrow, but after that I'll get the rest of the tarps replaced. As shown in the second pictures, I'm now nailing long boards to hold them down so I don't lose another day replacing them.

Sandy's sanding project

After installing most of the old rafters from the 140-year-old barn, we decided they were just too grungy and Sandy took on the task of sanding them clean.

Here's an example of how they looked:


She worked on them for about a week, at least a few hours each weekday and some on the weekends. Our oscillating sander lost its pad, and though we tried to glue it back on, the connection only lasted an hour or so before it came off again.

She found a light belt sander and finished the job with it. It was worth the effort as you can see by this picture:


In other news, we've ordered our SIP roof and walls about ten days ago, and our windows about a week before that.