Drywall Downstairs

All of my contractors have been such hard workers and great people. The drywall guys are no exception. I can't believe that in 103 degree heat, one guy can pick up a 12' sheet of drywall and carry it into the house for hours at a time! Plus, they are doing such terrific job. Here's a shout-out for them...

Alanis Drywall - Ivan - (801) 783-8582

 We are doing the ceilings on the 1st level and then we will move upstairs.

OMELET TIME!

I guess it takes chickens a little while to get comfortable enough to start laying eggs in a new place, so we didn't expect any for a while. This morning we went to the barn and found 1 and then an hour or so later there were 2 more! It's OMELET TIME!

READY TO FLY!

It looks like the 5 baby birds have all made it through their infancy and are ready to fly. We are watching to make sure the cat is far away when these babies take off for the first time!

Floors & Windows!

This has been a good day. We finished leveling the floors.......

And we have new upstairs windows!!

Look at that view!

David's Ladies

We picked up the chickens last night (with the help of David's friend, Dave Hutchings) and they are very comfortable in their new home. They love the barn, the alfalfa field and the freedom to roam. When David talks to them, he always says, "come here ladies" or "here's your dinner ladies", so I started calling them David's Ladies. There are 4; Godiva, Gaga, Antebellum and Diana. I can even tell them apart already! I think I could get used to the farm life.

 

It took a few minutes for the chickens and the cat to get used to each other but they're cool now.

 

Rue - Check out the video!

Yesterday I was watering the flowers and I heard a little "mew" from the porch and Rue has been our shadow ever since. She is such a sweet little kitten and so affectionate that even David has taken a liking to her. I have a few ideas about where she came from but none that I can prove. Yesterday afternoon I called Kaydence and asked her what I should name my kitty. After some deep thinking, she came up with the name Ruth and I shortened it to Rue. The name suits her well. (I'll tell you about the chickens in my next post.)

Thanks to my friend, Cecile for the cat food. We have the best neighbors out here!

Crisis Averted!

So, Jacob from Quick Quality Plumbing is a ROCK STAR! He was able to call a plumbing company with a special "air jet" hose and get our pipe blown out enough to thread another line through it! We don't have to dig up the driveway after all! That is such a relief to us.

A 'Minor' Setback

Well, it would have been too easy to go through this whole project without running into a glitch of some sort, right? As many of you know, we replaced nearly all of the plumbing in the home. With the sub-floors up, the crawl space was exposed so it is so much easier to do it now rather than later. We didn't replace the pipe that runs from the boiler room in the garage, under the driveway and into the house and as soon as they turned all of the water back on to run through the brand new lines in the house, that pipe burst and collapsed....4 feet under the driveway! So today we will dig...and dig...and dig and write a check for an extra $5,000. :(  maybe I should put a PayPal link on this blog and start asking for donations. :D

Bright side: At least it burst now rather than after I had floors and walls and carpet and paint. Right?

 This is the spot in the driveway that runs between the house and garage.

 This is the area in the garage that the pipe goes underground.

And this is the area under the floor in the house that the water bubbles up.

4 New Members of the Family!

We added 4 new members to our family today. Aren't they pretty? They were left abandoned at a house I just sold and the buyers don't want them so we adopted them. They hadn't had water in a while so it was a good thing we stopped by when we did. They were so happy to see us and I never knew that chickens could beg, but they were begging for water. Poor things! They are laying hens so I'm sad to say we won't be buying eggs down the street at Ken's farm anymore :( We will think of some fun names for our new girls and let you know.

Baby Birds

We let a mama Barn Swallow build a nest on our front porch so we could watch the whole process and it's been fun. There are 5 babies and they are getting big so fast! I wish all of the neighborhood Barn Swallows didn't feel the need to dive at my head when I'm taking pictures, but so far they haven't hit me.  Here is their progress over the past few weeks....

 "Mama" rarely lets me get close enough to get a picture of her, but I snuck one in one day while she was sitting on her eggs.

I was able to get a few good pictures of her FIVE eggs! Isn't that a lot?

 

One day, about 17 days or so after we saw that she had laid her eggs, I found a piece of broken shell on the ground and knew that they had hatched...

This was our first glimpse of a baby...it was at least a week after they had hatched.

They were pretty hungry at first...

Now they are quiet when I take pictures. They hunker down and don't move even a little. This pic was taken today. They are getting so big!

I HAVE SUB-FLOOR IN MY KITCHEN!!

I never would have thought that particle board could look so beautiful and so level! So far, its just the kitchen and the hall, but it is GLORIOUS!

 

Now they are working on "sistering" up the floor joists in the family room so they are level.

The Birth of a New Floor

This is just the very beginning, but it was nice to see some new, strong floor joists going in!

These are the temporary support beams, holding up the 1st and 2nd floors. YIKES!

Spray Foam Insulation!

We are another step closer to drywall, as insulation is being sprayed this morning!