Exhausted & Ecstatic

The past few weeks have been extremely demanding as we prepared for:

our 4-way inspection

the gypcrete crew

the insulation crew

aaaaannnd

sheetrock!

Oh, I'm SO EXCITED for sheetrock.

But that's still not for another week.

ANOTHER WEEK!

Can you believe it?!

We've been so, so tired.

I woke up this morning with raccoon eyes and Dean said to me,

"What's the deal? You usually always remove your makeup and 

wash your face before bed and it doesn't seem like you have been doing that lately."

I told him he's lucky I've still been brushing my teeth before bed.

I think I finally kicked my nasty sinus infection, but for most of the week

it robbed me of my stamina and kept me feeling pretty crummy.

All the while, our days have been long, ending late into the night to get everything done.

This week I think we'll finally catch a breather.

Here are the highlights from this past week:

One of the items on our 'to do' list from Inspector Mike was to 

re nail most of the sheathing that wraps the exterior of the house.

Mike found that the air compressor was set too high and the 

nail heads had sunk too deep which affects the shear strength of a wall.

So, I went out and bought another 4,000 8D nails for the nail gun, Dean 

turned down the pressure on the air compressor and renailed the entire house.

I told him I'd be happy to do that, but I think he was worried about me handling

the nail gun for that long - it can get heavy after a while and it took HOURS.

Remember how I said that the wiring was DONE?

Well, I'm gonna quit saying anything is DONE til after we move in. 

Actually, I'd better just avoid using that word altogether.

We have 7 thermostats in this little house and I got 'em all wired 

one evening this week. 

I actually can't remember which evening because

everything is pretty much a blur.

And, as of Monday night, all the outlets and light switch boxes are done.

There I go again using that 'D' word!

Now, about that linear shower drain.

You know...

the one that was gonna cost us 350 smackers.

As it turned out, the line for that drain didn't hold up when we 

filled the vents for inspection.

That was discouraging at first, but I think it was meant to be.

We were forced to do one of two things - 

repair the leak as it was

or

reconfigure the drain system.

It was a toss up as far as time and labor,

so we opted to reconfigure for the standard $35 drain.

YAY!

Dean stayed home on Thursday to start putting the 'sleepers' down 

for the gypcrete crew. 

I went off to my three hours of class 

(my LAST class to finish then I'm DONE and there's that 'D' word again)

and it's really, really hard for me to be gone when he's here.

There were several other things done that day but, as I said, it's all pretty much a blur.

And then on Friday, Inspector Mike showed up again for round II or our 4-way.

AAAAANNND...

WE PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS!

We are SO ecstatic.

While Dean was at his 9-5, I did the 4-way walk through with Mike.

Mike told me that just the day before he had inspected a new construction home

and that inspection took SIX HOURS and he left behind a TWELVE PAGE call-out list

of things that weren't done right or weren't done at all.
"And that house is being built by a 'professional'!", he said.

Mike has been very impressed with the quality of work on our little home and 

even took pictures of  Dean's full height truss blocking saying, 

"That is a work of art!"

and 

"I've got to take pictures to show the 'pros' how it's supposed to be done."

And if ya want to see what truss blocking is, here's a picture...

(not that you'll even know what you're looking at)

There are several of them all along the front to help support the load of the cantilevered section of the roof.

Mike also mentioned how  impressed he's been with the cleanliness and 

organization of our 'site' whenever he's come out for a visit. 

I'm not even gonna try and pretend that hearing compliments like that don't 

make me happy because they certainly do.

Dean and I had planned on spending Friday night and all of Saturday

putting down the tubing for our radiant heating system. It turned out that I didn't

end up on my hands and knees with Dean  all day long after all because 

our wonderful neighbor and friend, Bob Bruington, came over 

and helped Dean and he didn't leave until it was

ALL DONE!

Yes...

D.O.N.E.

Awesome Bob Bru.

We feel so loved and so incredibly blessed to have such wonderful neighbors and friends.

And not only did Bob stay Friday evening and ALL of Saturday...

his sweet wife (and my sweet friend) , Linda, brought us a DELICIOUS lunch!

WE should have bought lunch for THEM!

I ended up running out a few times to buy components and I did some

'dancing' with the giant roll of tubing; unwinding and feeding it 

to them as they needed it.

Here are pictures of some of the tubing throughout the house...

Looking from the front room fireplace, past the dining area and into the kitchen.

Looking from where the range in the kitchen will be and into the front room.

Our bedroom.

Looking in through the front door.

Looking in through the garage entry.

Well, that's the bulk of it for now.

We had nice, impromptu visits from several of our children

tonight, so the evening has gotten away from us and it's late, so

 that makes it time to wrap this up.

Thanks again for all your encouragement and support;

it means a lot to us and we are very appreciative.

I am really, really looking forward to 

what we'll have to report in the next two weeks!

Good night and God Bless.