We've Moved In!

Into the garage, that is.

This move did not come without tremendous effort.

It took plenty of brawn and brain power, so

it's a good thing Mossi men have plenty of both.

You see, where our storage unit (you know...the freight-train container we rent) is parked makes maneuvering 23.5 feet of trailer, not including the tongue,

 into the garage difficult at best. 

It's just close enough to the garage to make it almost impossible. 

Seriously, I'm willing to bet most guys would have said...

1) It's not worth trying 

or

2) Forget it. It's just too darn difficult.

Not Dean.

Nope.

That's never been his style or approach to anything.

And so with an abundance of heave-ho it was accomplished. 

And I'm thrilled with the fact that we don't have nearly as much of a problem with mud.

*****

I didn't blog last week just because I didn't want to.

And I guess I didn't want to because I'm feeling like I've lost balance in my life.

I eat, sleep and breath the building of our little bungalow.

I think about it constantly.

 I have a hard time focusing in classes because of ideas that pop into my head 

or things I need to do or pick up at Wheelwright or aspects of design I want to research. 

I've altogether given up Facebook and Pinterest and the like for searching through 

Houzz.com's discussions and photos. 

I'm feeling too consumed, too caught up, too distracted by it all.

And now that I have that off my chest (sort of), shall we carry on?

Here's a short list of what's happened. 

It won't sound like a lot, but trust me...we've been busy.

Much of it has been about odds and ends and seemingly 

small details that were actually important.

The garage is framed. 

Well, all except the front window and the east garage door.

That window needed to wait a bit because I had one of my 

"wait a minute" episodes where I had an idea I wanted to explore with, 

of course, the possibility of changing our original plan. 

Turns out, it wasn't that great of an idea. 

The east garage door opening will be rough framed and closed in with OSB sheeting 

because the tongue of the trailer sticks out too far to install a garage door.

The night we put up the back wall in the garage, 

we had several men from our ward show up and help.

Seriously...one phone call and before we knew it we had about a dozen brethren here. 

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful ward.

I know I've said that many times, but we are very thankful.

All the rest of the framing is complete including that double top plating.

Actually, the basement framing won't be completed until we are completely closed in.

Our son-in-law, Tannon, is such a blessing and asset to our family.

He's always willing and happy to come work with us.

Dean got the beams for the deck and deck roof up.

I helped him set the huge beam for the scissor trusses that will form the deck 

roof and let me tell you somethin'...it scared me nearly to death helping him do that. 

It was just him and me doing a job that should have been done by four men. 

But the man's mechanical engineering mind came up with a method that got the job done. 

It took a few years off my life, though, I'm sure of that.

We had our final meeting with Matt, the truss designer, and made, yet again,

 more changes in the design of our roof system. 

I'm excited about these changes, though. 

Then trusses are finally scheduled to be here on Wednesday. 

We are praying for favorable weather when we set them.

It snowed yesterday.

We got about four inches all told.

When it finally stopped

I spent the evening shoveling and shop-vac-ing it all off our sub-floor.

We'd really hoped to be closed in before first snow, 

but I know we won't regret the changes we've made that have delayed us.

Since it snowed off and on for most of yesterday, 

Dean spent the day in the basement installing the windows.

This is the basement bathroom window. 

It's a hopper window, which is a somewhat unusual configuration. 

My window guy is great and got us a good deal on it. 

I had reeded glass put in; I didn't want the regular obscure glass 

that most bathroom windows are made with. 

It turned out great!

I love it.

I think that's it.

I'm sure there's more, but I didn't keep a single note these past 

couple of weeks of what all has been done.

So, it is what it is.

Thanks for stoppin' in.