The Floor Plans

We had our full dumpsters hauled away this morning

(one regular and one masonry)
 and another regular dumpster and masonry dumpster delivered.

We filled the masonry dumpster half way this evening with more brick and chunks 

of mortar and concrete, so we're pretty beat.

But seriously, it just feels wonderfully satisfying to crawl in bed 

all worn out from a bit of rigorous work.

Here's a side-note of possible interest...

to date we have filled nine 30 cubic yard dumpsters to the brim and one
15 cubic yard masonry dumpster to the brim. 

Counting the dumpsters delivered today we're up to twelve.

WOW!

We've just about dumpster-ed an entire house!

I'm still in a bit of a blog slump, but I figure it doesn't take much

to post the floor plans for y'all to see.
Please forgive me for my lack of effort.

First, here is the original floor plan when we bought this place...

From left to right at the back of the house (top of the plan)
there was the largest bedroom, a smaller bedroom, the bathroom, and an informal dining room that, before a remodel over thirty years ago, used to be a third bedroom.
From left to right at the front of the house (lower part of the plan) was the living room, front entry, formal dining area and then the kitchen. Pretty simple and straight forward.

Here's our plan for the main level...

This is accurate with one exception, that being we may change the small 'atrium' next
 to the front door. We're not sure about that yet. Also, the back door
of the garage needs to change position,  but I'm too tired to explain why tonight.

Dean didn't draw a plan of the original basement, but it is the exact footprint of the
main level and was as follows...
From left to right at the back of the house there was an over-sized furnace/storage room
with two windows, a tiny bedroom with a tiny window, an over-sized bathroom
with a tiny window that was covered by the deck, another tiny bedroom also with one
tiny window that was covered by the deck. Golly it was dark and awful in those rooms
and to make matters worse, the walls were all covered in dark paneling.
Whoever finished out the basement created a funky little hallway by setting the bedrooms back from the load bearing wall that runs approximately down the center length of the basement. They did this to accommodate the duct work overhead for the furnace.
We won't have any duct work as we are installing radiant heating throughout.
From left to right at the front of the house in the basement there was a long, good sized 'family room' and then the Summer kitchen/laundry room.

Here's our plan for the basement...

So, there ya go.
We're headed to bed now.
I just know that when I look at this post sometime tomorrow I'll find all kinds of mistakes.
I'm okay with that.
I can always correct them later.

G'night, y'all.

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

I'm not in the mood to blog, but the thought of getting behind is worse, so here I am.

I am happy to report that yesterday's work party was a rousing success.

Justin didn't show because he had much more important things going on...

like bringing his wife and their newborn daughter home from the hospital.

YAY!

The Brunty's dropped in briefly...

they'd only come into town from Jackson to be introduced to their new niece and 

to check out a house in Willard that they may end up renting and 

then they headed back Wyoming way lickety-split like.

  All other Mossi's were present and accounted for.

I think the highlight was when all the men together pushed on the brick from inside and 

they went tumbling down with a big boom - the brick walls, not the men.

Cowboy and Cupcake came along too and I appointed myself their 

safe-keeper during all the commotion.

We hung out in the trailer, out of the rain, and built a robot out of Lego's and created a barnyard with one of my sticker books and ate blueberries and Anna's ginger thins.

Needless to say, I didn't do any demo work, although I did get to do a bit of demo clean up in the evening time. I can hardly wait to dig in tomorrow and get more of that cleanup done
while Mr is at his 9 to 5 - the mess makes me anxious.

And, YES...mercifully, it rained off and on throughout our work party.

It was nice and cool and what a blessing!

So, without further adieu, here are the pics...

The south gable and wall are still up because we have to wait for the power company to do their inspection of our temporary power pole and then transfer the lines. 

Mr would do it himself if it were legal.

WE'RE ALMOST THERE!

We are SO CLOSE to construction now and we are EXCITED.

One last thing...

it is so fun to be out working  on the project during the day.

Many of our PV family regularly drive past and honk and wave to us as they go by 

(actually, they did that when we were still living in the house whether we were inside or out); 

sometimes they even stop and visit for a while and we especially love that. 

What a treat!

But it's funny that since the house has really looked like there's a big deal going on with it, 

total strangers slow way down and just gawk at what's going on. 

It's so funny. 

They totally have expressions of disbelief on their faces. 

We get a good laugh out of it.

It would be really great if I invested a little more in my presentation here, but this will have to do...
that bad blogging mood, remember.

G' night, y'all.

Party Preparation Day

We're hosting a family part tomorrow.

It starts at 8 am.

We're serving doughnuts and chocolate milk.

It's a work party.

We're takin' the brick down!

WAH-HOOOOO

We're pretty excited.

We're actually more tired than excited at the moment because

there was a lot preparation to do to be ready for tomorrow.

The rest of the framing needed to come out, 

along with the remaining celotex, rock-wool, plaster/button board and windows.

It's late, we're tired (especially Mr) and we're itchy and filthy

and

our pump has gone dry.

Yep.

No water for showers.

So, we're headed over to Jo-Tan's to clean up.

And then there's the bed that needs making because the sheets are still in the dryer.

And did I mention we're tired?

Here are a few pics of what remains of the old house.

We're hoping that what's left won't still be there tomorrow.

Good night, y'all.

Power and Delivery

I spent the night last night in room 4514 at McKay-Dee Hospital

waiting and witnessing our daughter-in-law do an amazing job of bringing our

3rd grandchild, Madisen Amelia, into the world.

There's not a single thing sweeter on this planet than hearing your grand baby's

first cry...or in Miss Madimo's case, first whimper.

Sweet little lamb, that baby girl.

Back at the Bungalow Mr Mossi and our son (in-law), Tannon, were hard at work assembling our temporary power pole and getting it planted in that 5 foot deep hole that I don't want to talk about anymore.

Tan sent this picture text at about 9:15 ....

Now it's my turn.

I've got to take my bleary-eyed, sleep deprived self down to the county offices 

and get someone to come out and inspect it before the 'powers that be' will hook us up.

But not before I get back over to Mc-Kay and 

steal some more sugar off those sweet, pink, newborn cheeks.

We're "marching right along"

(to coin a phrase from Aunt Natalie last night)

A First Time for Everything (and hopefully a last for some)

"Hon...we need to go to Home Depot and rent an auger to
 dig that five foot hole tonight for the temporary power box.", says Mr Mossi
"Okay!", says me.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

That thing was a monster!
 A beast!!
 A force to be reckoned with!!!
And I pray that I never have to be the other 'man' on a two man auger again.
Ever.
We started at about 8:30 Monday evening.
He thought it would take us no more than half an hour.
He thought wrong.
but I must say I've always appreciated his optimistic outlook 
The first foot or so went alright.
And by 'alright' I mean I wasn't yet having thoughts of living the rest
of my life as a cripple because of a gas-powered hole digger.
After the first foot or so
I suggested to Mr that perhaps we'd come upon an
ancient Indian concrete slab because that auger wasn't budging any farther.
I even considered for a moment calling my new friend, Wendy Johnson, to come take a look.
She's a for-real archaeologist and actually digs up for-real Indian artifacts for a living.
Yeah, she's cool like that.
Anyway...
I happen to be married to the most determined man on the planet.
This usually works to my advantage.
This time it nearly did me in -
 along with this newly discovered, barbaric nemesis of mine.
Let's make this short story short, shall we?
Standing opposite from Mr D for Determination, I rode and tried my hardest
to control my side of that monstrosity as if I was in the rodeo ring riding a crazed bull.
I put all my weight into it (and I've got plenty) and still my efforts to control seemed nearly futile.
I probably would have laughed out loud when the thought passed through my jostling brain
  that my I must have looked positively absurd what with all the
jiggling that was taking place over the surfaces of my well-padded physique.
But laughing would have required effort that I had no resources for.
Yeah.
That's not a pretty mental picture, I know.
Sorry.
 We turned the motor off for a short break and out of desperation I called Tannon
 to come take my place opposite Mr Mossi.
No answer!
We'd made it to almost 20 inches down, but I was no longer willing to help
drill though the ancient Indian concrete slab.
It was almost dark.
We quit.
Before heading into the house trailer to clean up, I suggested
 that we fill what progress we'd made with water.
So we did.
We rounded up our two available buckets  and filled 'em several times.
It took about twenty five gallons.
We got up early the next morning to finish the dirty deed.
We plopped that giant corkscrew into the muddy hole, Mr gave it a little throttle, I yanked
the cord to get it started and whu-duh-ya-know...
down, down, down it went like buttah -
comparatively speaking, anyway.
And now we have a hole that is the depth required by the power company to plant the temporary power pole that is the power company's required height so I can continue to use my hair dryer and curling iron.
However...
every muscle from my navel on up is so pained that I can hardly move,
let alone raise, my arms.
 I may just have to wear a hat for a while...
except I'd have to reach up for that too, wouldn't I?
In fact, just rolling over in bed nearly brings me to tears from the pain of screaming trapeziuses, pectoralis majors, deltoids, serratus anteriors, latissimus dorcis...
 all of which I'd previously believed I was born without.
Ya learn somethin' new about yourself ever'day, I reckon.
Pass me the Ibuprofen, please.

*I took these photos before we added the extension.
With the extension attached the auger was taller than me!!

Good Progress

Work on the Bungalow got sidelined for most of the week.

It was a bit frustrating.

Dean had to do some impromptu work on our ol' truck

 (rear brakes, fuel pump & fuel pump wire harness) 

that he just finished this morning.

 

The man...he can fix anything. 

Today was busy and I was gone for most of it.

My sweet friend, Dj, went to the temple for the first time.

It was wonderful to be there with and for her.

And it was wonderful to be there with so many of our PV10th brothers and sisters.

I rushed back to town to be at Natalie's home for Kimberly's baby shower.

Nat did a fine job as hostess and confection chef.

When I finally arrived back at the Bungalow I was excited to see the progress.

A few pics...

About an hour before I left for the temple,

President Mikail, our neighbor and the second counselor in our Stake Presidency, 

came over in his workin' duds and joined Dean up on the roof joists and 

helped take down the top of the chimney. They were working on that when I left.

When they finished with the chimney top they took down all the joists together.

I got back just before 8 pm to find Mr Mossi still goin' at it on the framing and celotex removal.

The North End

The South End.

The South gable is still up because the electricity is attached to it.

Sheesh!

Those men worked hard today.

We are so thankful to Pres Mikail.

What wonderful neighbors and leaders we have here.

Dean figures we can have all the exterior walls down by next Saturday...

unless we have anymore surprise repairs on our vehicles - let's nope not.

I sure hope this hasty post makes some sense.

Goodnight, y'all.

Elevation and Proposed Color Palette

What?!

Three blog posts in 24 hours?

Well, we've got a pretty good downpour going, so we're just hanging out in the trailer.

I thought I'd post the rendering of the elevation for our bungalow project.

We sent the design Dean and I came up with to Dean's architect brother, Kevin, 

and he sent us this drawing with some changes that we really liked.

For years now I've been saving pictures clipped from magazines and printed 

off the internet of Craftsman and Bungalow style homes. 

Yes...I was doing this long before the trend recently hit in the construction of new homes.

I love that I don't have to clip pictures or print them off internet sites anymore 

because of the wonderful world of 

PINTEREST. 

Some folks are drawn to Victorian style homes, some like Art Deco, some like Tudor, 

Pueblo, Pacific Lodge, Dutch Colonial, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Cape Cod...

the list goes on and on.

I have a healthy appreciation for many architectural styles and could spend hours walking around old, historic neighborhoods looking at houses like pastries in a pastry shop window,but my favorites have long been Craftsman Style Bungalows and that's the look we're going for here on Fruitland Drive.

And here's the current color palette I'm considering.

It's probably hard to get a good idea from this photo. 

I used Martha Stewart swatches, but we won't be using Martha Stewart paint; 

these are just a good sampling of the colors I'm thinking we'll use.

The main color is a deep golden yellow represented here by MS's "Dried Chamomile"

The next color is a dark, moss green for the gables represented by MS's "Pup Tent"

The the third color is a warm cream for the trim represented by MS's "Heavy Cream",

(which is not a really great representation as I'm actually wanting a warmer cream color for the trim)

The last is a dark brown-tone red for the front door & window trim represented here 

by MS's "Kiln"

The general rule for Craftsman Style homes in regard to color is an earthy palette of

 nature inspired browns, greens to help the low profile of the bungalow blend into it's surroundings. 

Nothing, of course, is set in stone yet.

I still have plenty of time to change my mind.

There ya go.

A rainy evening's blog post.

Now about that book I'm reading...

What does my one of my favorite films and ORB have in common?

I cannot believe that I just realized this,

but the bathroom that we just tore out 

of this old place

had the exact same tile as the bathroom in 

one of my all-time favorite movies;

a movie that I practically know by heart!

Steel Magnolias

Yep.

Remember this scene...

Awesome!

And if you're wondering if I'm now have regrets

about tearing it out...

Nope.

None whatsoever.

Bringing Down the Rafters

Mr Mossi was just on the phone with an excavator.

Wow.

Now comes the part where we start forkin' out the green stuff.

I'm not good at that; it makes me anxious.

Anyway...

the rafters are officially down as of about 8:00 and removed from inside by about 8:30.
All that remains of the roof structure are the joists and the gable ends.
It won't be long till those are down too.

Dean got started on it late Saturday. By quitting time it was a little more than half-way done.

He'd intended on starting earlier, but ended up having to repair the air conditioning in the ol' truck and seeing to various other little fires that needed extinguishing.
He and our indentured helper got right on the rest of it after work today. 

Here are a few photos that may seem rather blah to you, but to us it's pretty exciting.
We're movin' right along.

Surprise Visitors

I'd like to introduce you to our
Independence Day
Surprise Visitors...

 

These lovely people are Scott Randall and his sister, Cleone.
Their father, Percy Randall, built this house in 1955 when Scott was 8 years old.
Scott lives just outside of Manti and was in town visiting family for the holiday.
They thought they'd take a drive down memory lane and, for them, Memory Lane happens to be Fruitland Drive where they spent all the days of their childhood years.
His first 8 years were spent right next door to the south where the Brechbill's now live.
As they drove by Our Retro Bungalow, Scott noticed something being thrown out the window.
He turned back around toward the house, parked his car in front, got out, walked up to the front porch and  through the pink daisy front door into the house and introduced himself to Dean.
Mr Mossi suddenly felt a bit sheepish and apologized for the condition of the house and explained just exactly what was going on.
Scott assured Dean that it was all okay.
We had such a wonderful visit with these fine folks.
Scott reminisced about how he used to take his baths
in that very bathtub when he was just a boy.
He told us about the 60 head of cattle his father kept across the road
back when the Randall family owned most of North-East North Ogden.
He talked about the countless cherry and apricot and other fruit trees that grew
everywhere along our east side as far as the eye could see.
He told us how he and his friends and cousins would toboggan
down our backyard hill all winter long.
He told us about the irrigation canal (so THAT'S what that little gully is up there) at the top of our property that watered all the surrounding orchards, fields and gardens.
He told us about he and his father driving all the way to Arizona to purchase the flagstone to put on the front of the house under the living room window and the front porch planter.
I could literally go on and on and on about our visit, but long blog posts
often make for tedious reading.
And speaking of reading...
I'd really like to get some in tonight, so there's another reason to keep this quick.
Suffice it to say,
it was an absolutely delightful surprise visit with the children that
this old house once knew and sheltered.

Ceiling and Insulation

It's been a long day.

Mr took the day off of work to 

work.

He's exhausted, but in very good spirits because of all that we got done today.

I say we, but the truth is I only put in about four hours of labor on our bungalow 

today due to distractions beyond my control.

The ceiling is finally down and out of the house.

And so is the insulation.

Man, oh man, insulation is nasty, nasty stuff.

Sitting directly on top of the plaster & button-board ceiling was 

 a three inch thick layer of loose, blown in 'rock wool' insulation
with R13 batt insulation on top of that.

What a stinkin' HUGE mess when that all came tumbling down!

Here are a few pics...

Mr stomping the ceiling down between the joists.

See what I mean? 

Messy, messy, messy!

As it turns out, I'm not much use when it comes to demolition, but I rock at cleaning up.

Mr constantly reminds me that that is an extremely important contribution.

Yeah, I suppose.

I gotta say though that I love that Tannon came by and helped out for a while.

THANKS, Tan!

Snow shovels...

not just for snow shovelin', ya know.

I'll tell you somethin' right now...

We were itchin' and scratchin' like a bunch of tick and flea infested hound dogs

what with all that insulation and perspiration.

Eeewww.

We're glad that nasty job is done.

Tomorrow...

the rest of the roof will come down.

Oh, and...

our engineer stopped by today for his 'on-site' inspection.

He says we're good to go on our plans!!

WAH-HOOO

I must mention too that we believe that this engineer is nothing short of a blessing.
Yes, indeed, we pray about things like that.

He is charging us less than 1/3 of what other engineers have quoted us 

AND

he'll get us all set in less than two weeks!

We were told by other firms that we would be waiting no less that six.

The power company also came by to go over details with us.

They had some good news and some not-so-good news.

I believe that's called 'balancing out' or 'compromise' or something like that.

And when I get around to it,

I'll fill you in on our awesome, surprise visitor on July 4th.

G'night, ever'body.

A Great Start on the Roof Demolition

We've come almost as far as we can with the interior demolition 

while having the roof still on,but Mr Mossi wanted to go ahead and dig into 

the roof  before he has to go back to his 9 to 5 on Monday. 

He started on it by himself yesterday and got about 20% of the shingled sheeting removed.

He had some good helpers today and is feeling grateful for hard-working sons
(when I say 'sons' I mean sons-in-law included) 
and relieved that they were not only able to get all the shingled sheeting off,
but also get a good start on removing the planks under the sheeting as well.

Here are a few photos...

Men at work

Takin' a break.

This is about where they left off for the day.

Before calling it quits for the day, Mr decided to add a skylight to the living room.

Nice touch, don't ya think?

Main Level Demolition is Mostly Done

We're pretty tired and this is gonna be as quick as I can make it.

We're at about 60% completion on the main level interior wall demolition.

We mostly just have the perimeter walls left.

We'll stomp the ceiling plaster down after we get the roof off in the next week.

*We hope that's done in the next week, anyway*

Let me tell you somethin'...

plaster - thick plaster - and button board is some tough stuff to take down.

I'm talkin'

T.U.F.F.TOUGH.

In comparison, it makes sheetrock seem like construction paper.

Yeah.

#paininthebutt

We are so happy to be mostly done with that.

We uncovered the backside of the fireplace. 

It makes kind of a cool photo, I thought.

And we had a special helper come by today.

This cowboy thought it was pretty awesome that he could

 take a hammer to Poppo and Nonna's walls and 

he really went to town in earnest. 

It was fun to watch him work that hammer like a determined little man. 

Cupcake refused to get involved in such nonsense. 

She just reached those precious little hands upward and said to me, "Hold you?" 

She wanted outta that mess. 

*Such a girly-girl*

And, of course, after a long day of hard, sweaty work...

a bath is mandatory.

Good night

and 

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.

ps...I can't wait to tell you about surprise visitors that dropped in on us today. We were so delighted. It'll have to wait, though. Really gotta git ta bed now.