Saturday, March 31, 2007

Construction Update



Inside the house, the sheetrock is all installed and the mud and tape work starts next week. They've cleaned up the inside and installed the corner edging throughout, so it should take about a week and a half to finish things off.








Brick work continues on the outside of the house. The crew was pulled off to another project, so work has gone slower than I would hope. Today the first coat of the stucco was applied around the house. It should take 3 days to dry and then they apply the color coat. The brick work should be completed next week.


























Friday, March 23, 2007

Escalante Trip

This past week we spent a few days in Escalante, Utah to visit family and friends. While there we enjoyed a couple of hikes. Day-1, we hiked the Lower Calf Creek Falls trail with Aaron, Annika and Emmy. The hour and a half hike ends at one of the most beautiful falls. Aaron and Emmy enjoyed getting in the water to cool off after the long hike.



Day-2, we hiked with friends Dennis & Dana Waggoner who moved from Tulsa, OK to Escalante to become part owners of Escalante Outfitters. This was an all day hike through an unnamed slot canyon in the Grand Staircase National Monument.





After entering the slot canyon, you descend deeper and deeper. The walls quickly become higher and more narrow, seemingly with every turn. Towards the end of the canyon you rapel approximately 90' to drop down even further. It was certainly an unforgettable experience!

Construction Update



Brick work began last week on our house and continues this week. They've completed the wainscoting around the sides and back of the house and are now working on the front, which will be entirely brick. Yesterday, they put up the scaffolding around the back and sides for the stucco application, which should start soon.
Inside, they've completed the sheetrock work and now move on to mud and tape. The rooms have really started to take shape, and we've been blessed with early spring weather so it has been very nice.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Family Update







Mike, Darin and Katie are moving this week to California where Mike will start his new job. His former employer closed their offices in SLC and we are grateful he found another opportunity. Unfortunately for us, it requires they relocate to San Clemente, CA. Much of this week was spent getting packed and Susie and I were glad we could help. As I write this, they are on the road and Susie went with them to help with Katie. She will meet up with me later in St. George for a visit to my Father. I expect we'll be visiting California a little more often now.

We are going to miss them something terrible, especially that little Katie. At least Emmy is still close.


Susie and I got to keep Emmy last week. She is such a fun little girl. We always look forward to her visits.




Construction Update


The insulation process began last week and they finished applying the Tyvek exterior wrap. We had a lot of snow and cold weather, so we were glad that most of the work was taking place inside.


















As soon as they finished installing the insulation, the sheet rock was delivered. At the weekend we had a break in the weather, so everything got set up and the installation of sheet rock began over the weekend. It will continue through this week. The brick masons will start Thursday of this week and we are grateful for the sunshine. Temperatures this week have been in the 60's. Its great.










Friday, March 2, 2007

Construction Update


Regardless of the snow we've been having, work continues on the home. I'm most impressed with the roofer who seems to work no matter how cold or bad the weather gets. He just adds a snow shovel and broom to his tool belt.
Below is a picture from the kitchen area looking into the living room. Susie is gathering remnants of copper wire to use for a craft project at girls camp this summer. The other picture is down in the basement looking from the family room into the game room.


The front door was delivered and installed last week.




The electrical and cabling has been completed. And the heat and air guys have finished their work. Below is a view of the network, phone, satellite and theater cabling in the basement storage room. Also a view in the equipment room of the electrical cabling. You should have seen it before they looped everything into the boxes. It looked like a chaos of wires and cables. I'm hopeful they got everything into the right place.
As you'll note on the first picture, they've started to wrap the house this week. We have an inspection today for all the inside electrical, heat and air. Next week we start insulation inside
and masonry work outside. After insulation, the sheet rock work should start on the inside.