House updates

Ah yes, a nice relaxing bath.... well, we can only dream. This is actually the 2nd tub as the first one we got all in place only to discover it had a big hunk out of the porcelain. We had to take it all back out, rebox it and take it back to Home Depot for a replacement. We were NOT happy. Wasted 2 hours of precious work time but at least it's in.
The hall bath is all framed in now. Urika! It feels good to have something in place. You can now get a sense of the bathroom and kitchen space. Not bad.
We moved on to the master/laundry/pantry/masterbath area. We took down the last remaining old wall. Here it lays on the floor because we are going to reuse it. Saves a bunch of time and lumber and all we have to do is cut it down to size.
We began putting the first of many walls up in this back area. What you see is a frame for a pocket door. It took us forever to figure it out and get the wall that it is in up but we finally succeeded. It was late by then so you will have to wait for more pictures. In the back corner you can see we also got the remaining floor joists in that the master bath sits over. We made good progress this weekend and I think we might come close to making our goal of getting all the walls up by the end of the month. We might need one or two extra days but we are excited for the progress none the less. Til next time. Love to everyone.

Yard Update

Well, they have the pipes all in and spanking new. I can't tell you how thrilled I was that they were able to not bother the trees too much. One of the workers said that River Birch do really well even after they have been messed with a bit. Glad to hear it cause I love those trees. They even put the sprinkler system back the way it was. You can see the pipes laying by the trees in this photo but they are ok now.
This big pipe now replaces the drainage pit that was in the back yard. It now has a top on it and they are bringing more dirt in to level it all out back there and for the water to now run to the pipe and out. All in all it is a much better solution then we did have. And yeah! no more erosion back there.

I love the fall

When we got home from church today as we pulled into the driveway I was struck by the gorgeous red that our Maple tree turned to. The sun was hitting the tree just right and it looked so beautiful that I just had to get the camera and share it. Hope you all are enjoying the colors wherever you are too!
I imagine most of your trees have already turned but we have a few like this still gracing us with the wonder of color.

Whats new?

If you look closely you will see the chimney cap that Bill put up recently. Just a little detail that most folks would miss but it looks good to us and is one more thing accomplished.
Can you guess whats new here? Remember the bricks that stuck out of the chimney on the left side. You will have to look at past pictures if you didn't guess this. Bill used a cement saw. What a mess, there was concrete dust galore. Once he made some slices he chiseled it off and that went quite fast.
No, we are not putting a window in the middle of a wall. You can see the master through the spare bedroom because Bill started demo work on the whole wall where the closet will eventually be. It is all gone now, the entire wall. Ready to build the closet space. Along the floor of this wall the timbers were all rotted and infested with termites. It was good to get that all out.
This was the last bit of demo work that needed doing. Bill is so glad to finally get to really dig into the rebuilding stuff. That's his favorite. He sure has done an amazing job. Until next time....

Side yard demo

Well they finally started digging up our side yard to put new drainage sewers in. They were supposed to start it nearly 2 years ago. The government in action. They marked the yard 3 different times in preparation but finally began this past Wednesday.
I took this photo from inside so you can see the screen but you can also see the equipment doing their things. I feel bad for the guy who lives behind us. His whole front and side yard were torn up. They took out several trees so it looks a bit bare on the right side of his house.
We may not lose our River Birch trees after all. One of them may get a pretty good shock as some big roots will be disturbed but we are keeping our fingers crossed because they are such beautiful trees and we would hate to lose them. Here are the big pipes piled up waiting to be be buried.
Bill and I have enjoyed watching the men work. Just like kids, it is fascinating to watch how they operate the machines so well.

Just a few more amazing shots of the beautiful day we enjoyed. Thanks everyone for such a great Friday! The company was the best ever and we missed everyone the second they drove out of the driveway. Back to our dull and boring life eh?

We all crammed into the van much to Donna's worry. But with the kids strapped to the rack on top we had plenty of room :)
It was an amazingly beautiful day and the color was gorgeous. We all just loved looking out over the mountains. We had a nice lunch buffet at the lodge on top of Amicalola Falls.
Donna and Mike with Will and Amy. Lots of spoiling going on. Gonna give Bill and I a bad name. How do we compete with toy snakes?
The wonderful Wade's. You can see this beautiful family in Mississippi but not the beautiful fall colors and mountains. I think I'm jealous of Mississippi!

Here's a photo of the granite we have selected. It doesn't do it justice but is a pretty accurate color representation. The white lines you see are reflections from the camera flash. And yes, Sarah and Anna there is a little bit of green running through it. Don't give me any sass!

Time out for fun

It's not ALL work around here. Bill went to a car show recently. Here is our little baby being shown off the the masses at a show in North GA. It was a beautiful place. We spent the night and really enjoyed the weekend.
When Lynn and Steve came, Adam and Lauren and the boys came over with Walker. Lynn was dying to see him and she got a nose to nose greeting. I think she liked it though. He is 140 pounds of greeting. I think he took up the whole kitchen.
Jackson, Will, Maddox and Amy sitting in the window seat in the kitchen. They had such a good time together. It is always so fun when the gbabies are here.
Lynn and Steve and Bill and I all took a trip to Savannah. Here is a big ship passing by on the river. It was a wonderful little get away and we had fun touring Savannah and enjoying the river front. Wish I had taken more pictures.

Wide open spaces

The sissors trusses are replacing the rafters one by one.
Everything gutted including all the studs and the main roof is raised. All the beams are now really high up there. When it is complete you will be able to see the fireplace from all 4 sides. Eventually it will all be stoned, which will probably coorespond to the time we both wish we were!
A good view looking up as work continues on the sissors trusses near the ladder.
Finished! Grandma and Billy posing under the completed ceiling over the dining area. It looks almost cavernous if you could say that about a 1250 sq. ft. house. I have to keep thinking positively so I can actually see myself living here. I have to say, once the ceilings were all raised I was very excited! Bill and Adam did a great job on them. Thanks again Steve for your great idea. You need to come back, I'm sure we could find something for you to do.
Just in case anyone thinks I am only the photographer please be aware that this is not the case. I take exception to that as I am the gopher exraordinaire, the financial guru, the design center, the clean-up crew, the chef, and the orange juice fetcher in the middle of the night when Bill's legs cramp up. (He's getting a bit old for all this). Holding ladders, painting, scraping, lugging wood, home depot shopping, visiting neighbors are all just a few of my job descriptions. (I think I am tired). I have to make a salute to the amazing work Bill is doing and with an extreme amount of patience. He works tirelessly along with his regular full time job and NONE of this would happen without him. He's a keeper!

Raising the roof

Time out for dinner. We do feed the help if anyone would like to volunteer. Grandma was ready for supper.
Slaving away. Well, the help needs a break so heres Bill enjoying whats left of his caramel apple dessert. I think he liked it. We are all sitting on the "patio".
Literally raising the roof. Here Bill is removing the rafters and sissor trussing the roof to give us high ceilings. This was Steve's brain at work and it worked wonderfully. The height it gives and the open space is really amazing.
She worked for food. A good little scraper is this little granny. I decided to try and strip the 4 doors that are currently in the 2 extra bedrooms. It is working pretty good and it's red oak under that 4 coats of stubborn paint. I had to give her (me) the next day off. We were tired little puppies. It was a beautiful day though and it was sure fun having Grandma to work with.

Work is piling up! Yikes

Enough looking up, looking down is a challenge too. Some of the floor joists are rotted from years of leaky plumbing. This are was once the wall between the bathroom and kitchen. Watch your step!
All this stuff is piled up in the bathroom. Nice touch don't you think?
Ah, evidence of the worker extraordinaire. Here Bill is reducing the size of the window in the master bedroom. Where his head is sticking out is now all closed in. Only to the left of him is where the new window is now framed in.
Here is the ceiling of the master bedroom. All of these beams are coming out and the ceiling will slope upward. The light in the background is coming from the back door. I believe that is Bills head you see. Yes, he is keeping it nicely through all this. In fact, I think he is in his element.