details and big logs

On Friday, my friend, Lea, joined Dad, Matt, Andrew and I in some housework, proving her agility with Mr. Long Arm as we marked where the rest of the lights should go in the ceiling.  We taped a paintbrush to the end of the pole.  And then had to figure out how one dips a 20' paint brush in the paint...

Matt's happy after a day of progress on our punch list.
And Lea looks at home on the ladder, preparing trim on the windows so that we're ready for drywall.
Matt and Andrew got the most exciting action for the day, though, as they cut a fallen branch from the big oak tree at the bottom of the property.  You can see the action here:

odds and ends (some higher than others)

Last Saturday, we made progress on our punch list.

(Dad tells us it's exciting that we have a punch list: it means we're down to a number of remaining tasks that's comprehensible.  Of course, every time we cross 5 off we find 2 more to add.  And it's just the punch list before the framing and electrical inspections; still, it's huge.)

Everyone was working hard at various tasks--Emily and Dad on making a closet under the stairs, Shannon on hanging and wiring the kitchen lights, Matt and Phil on hanging lights in the big room.  Well, at least until we decided that would be a nice job for the people we're hiring to hang drywall to do...

A big step was out test of Mr. Long Arms, the clever device Phil and Shan found for changing lightbulbs.  Because the one thing worse than figuring out how to hang lights that high would be realizing that you can't put in or change lightbulbs in them without a giant scaffold.  
But, with a friend on the loft to put the bulb on the extendable pole, we feel like it can work.
(Check out the Dad and Shan, watching Matt demonstrate the ability to maneuver lights up high.)

Matt also strung a mess of communications wires.  We're set for phone, fax, cable, internet, stereo system, telegraph, or whatever else we might one day want.  (Just when you thought wireless was the way of the future...)
Shan worked at getting things ready for a cabinet/cubby under the stairs.  It's fun to be at a stage where we can imagine what might go inside.  (Scrabble, anyone?)
Phil worked at making sure there are boards to nail drywall to everywhere.  Even up high.
I got to venture under the house to insulate some water pipes.  It was dusty under there.  (But do notice Emily and Dad's swell closet behind me.  And the clever way our tools are gathered together in it.)

Check out the impressive angle of the saw blade, as that closet is constructed under the stairs.   

Good stuff.

the energy is getting electric

Ok, so it's been a spectacularly long time since I updated the blog, and I was feeling pressure for a clever title.  I admit that I was reaching.

Thing is, I'm pretty excited about good progress that we've been making lately.  I think Matt's on a kick to get this thing done.  Not that we're in the final stretch...but people can hope, right?

Lately, it's been all about wiring.  Here's Matt, basking in the goodness of having succeeded in pulling wires through the long underground conduit that connects the house to garage.  He got it all connected into the garage box, and all is well.

Since the day of this smile, which was just over a week ago, he has been up a couple times, checking items off the "Things To Do Before We're Ready for an Electrical Inspection" list.  It's getting shorter.  (Well, and then occasionally longer as we think of more things...)

I think it's pretty cool to walk through the house with all these little blue boxes, full of wires.  Thanks to everyone who's helped hang 'em and pull the wires to them!  You can see evidence of Dad's good planning and meticulous attention in the notes on these wires.
Besides the electrical work, in the space between the last post and this one, the rough plumbing is done and inspected.  Matt came home from Iraq, Emily got engaged to Matt R., more trash went down the hill, some clean-up bits of framing have gone up, and more.

Now that the house is mostly enclosed, it's more tolerable to work up there in the winter.  (And, of course, "winter" weather in Julian is quite variable--remember several years ago when we poured our first concrete on a warm, sunny January day?)

Lately, it's been snowy--last weekend, the snow from the night before melted during the day, only to be replaced in the late afternoon by big, thick, gloopy, stuck-together snowflakes.  As we were leaving, the snow was beginning to make things look serene.

The only catch to the serenity was the new condition of Matt's windshield wipers.  Well, wiper.  Only the driver's side wiper stopped working.  I, in the passenger seat, could see clearly.

Remarkable how good Matt's humor remained, in spite of the challenge, no?

We're thankful for a safe drive home, and looking forward to more trips up the hill.  You can pray for warm weather tomorrow--which might just lure Mom and Dad up for a bit of work on President's Day!  :) 

how'd it get to be fall?

This summer has been a slow one for progress on our project, but, as you can see, Dad's notebook is open...

He and I made a trip up the mountain today, to bring another load of trash down and to meet with someone who's going to help us with the plumbing rough-in.  

Here's my view of the pile of wood we left in the green-recycling area of the landfill.  We only barely made it in before closing time--the shut the gate behind us.  I'm thinking this pile of wood (including the last of the plywood forms from concrete work!!) looks awfully good in the mirror.  As we pull away.
I had some extra time today, waiting for the plumbing help, and played with my new camera and some of the little bits around the house.  I think shims look pretty cool.
One of the happiest moments of the day, though, was when the black water tank in our trailer emptied into the septic tank.  We had a bit of a clog.  Now, there's hope for the trailer--that it can once again be a refuge and not a trauma...
We went up the hill last week, too--for clean-up and weed clearing.  My parents were in town, so they joined in on the fun.
It's not every tourist who gets a trip to the county landfill on his visit.  (The moms and I went to the Julian Apple Festival instead.)
Here's our little work crew for the day, on our front porch.  Which happens to be a pretty nice place to sit, even on a hot day.
Doesn't the house and garage look good?
Here's my view from inside.  I got into the corner to catch as much of it as possible.  I'm thinking it could be fun to try to track the progress from there.  :)

building in, hauling out

On Memorial Day, we made another trek up the hill, after a bit of a break.  It's hard for me to describe just how good it feels to drive up to something that looks like a house.  It's so much nicer than holes.  Or concrete block foundations.  Or even a frame of a house.  

Since I was up last, Dad went up a bunch of times with the HVAC people.  Now there are more ducts.  And a giant contraption down in the crawl space.

Here's Emily and Dad, admiring some ductwork.

Emily and I built some little walls to hide the duct that goes up to the second floor.  We'd been hopeful that we could skip this little step, and somehow fit the duct into the wall.  We underestimated the size of these things--they're big ol' ducts.  But now they're encased in little walls.
We followed it upstairs, too, adding a little wall into the closet.  Someday in the future, we'll have to figure out the walls above the closet and over to the bathroom.
While Emily and I were making walls, Mom and Dad did some heroic cleanup work, hauling a pickup load's worth of old wood down to fuel a neighbor's fireplace in El Cajon.  The scariest moment was when they *finally* got to the bottom of the pile of stuff on the garage side, and wondered what creatures might be lurking under that last board.  Happily, nothing of significance was there.
We hauled it away from the side.
Just look how clean this area is now--I think it's been 3 years since it looked anything like this!  :)  The Julian neighbors seemed happy about these efforts, and even volunteered to help with our weeds.

Plus, in honor of Grandpa, we set up a little low-impact watering system for the apple trees we planted just before Matt left.  Buckets, with little holes in the bottom.  Hopefully, these will help us keep the trees happy without using too much water (or requiring too many trips up the hill!).
What do you think of our new, orange-buckety landscape?
I found a new favorite wildflower growing.
And, just wanted to share, again, the glory of the garage, in all the glory of its near-complete exterior.
We built that!

in living color

Check it out: the house is painted!  It looks beautiful--the siding and stonework are all done, and (except for the door) the paint is, too.

It looks lovely, and complete.  Like this house is a very real possibility.

Thanks to everyone who's helped us get to this point.  It feels really good.  Maybe today is a good time to remember where we were just a year ago.  Or more. 
The back was is particularly stunning--it looks great in the afternoon sun.
Roger and Larry, who have been working on the house, are definitely the stand-around-and-look-at-it-all-while-having-a-beer-and-talking kind of guys, so they seemed fine with our stop by for a look-around.
I think the little rectangles for vents are particularly nice bits of the stonework.  See:
We watered the little apple trees, too; they have more signs of growth.
Some of Nona's old daffodils were blooming on the west edge of the property.  The looked good in the sun.
And, though we still have a ways to go with our yucky, full septic tank, we heard some movement when we tried emptying it today.  Not all that we might have hopeful for, but it was something.  We added more enzymes, and will hope for even more next time!  (Note to those with trailers: empty your tank regularly.  A full, stopped-up waste tank is really, really gross.)
We also stopped by Jerry's, who has had our HVAC system for 3 years now, waiting to install.  They were glad to see us.  ;)  And, plan to start work installing the system next week!
The weirdest thing we saw, though, was this remote control weed trimmer, which we passed on the way to Jerry's.  It turns out there really are professional applications of skills gained playing with RC cars...
Of course, there's still lots of work to do (like, um, plumbing, and electrical work, and interior walls and ceiling and flooring, for example), but I'm very happy tonight, basking in what's already been done.  :)  

it looks like a *real* house!

I haven't been up to see the house in person for a bit now, but the pictures are sure looking great...  The siding is all up, the awning over the garage doors is finished, and the rock siding is looking good.  Check it out!

Next week: the painting begins.

outward progress

It's looking good up in Julian, as the folks we hired to put up siding are hard at work.  And, the guy who's putting the rocks around the bottom level of the house has started making a pile to work from.  Here's our current pile of Julian schist, waiting to be adhered to the house.

The front is mostly done, and looks great--and the lower parts of side #1 are done, too.  I think it makes the house look a whole lot bigger.  We (Mom and Dad, Phil, Matt and I) stopped by the house after a hike, on our last whole day together before Matt's deployment.  It was good to see how the house is moving along.
Here's Mom, surveying the action (well, really, the discussion going on amongst the guys).
Matt ordered some apple trees to plant on the property; they came in last week, and so we thought a swell last project before deployment would be planting them.  We look forward to seeing how tall they are when he's back!  (Though, I should add, it's totally okay if he gets sent home before they've had much chance to grow.)  I wonder how long it will be before we get to taste the apples: Gala, Fuji, Delicious, William's Pride and Cripps Pink (which, Wikipedia tells me, is also known as Pink Lady, should you want to avoid apples that sound oddly like gang colors).
With all the little trees planted, we took a bit of time inside, to enjoy how good things look.  Thanks to everyone who's been helping--it looks really wonderful.
Now, it can be time for more of the plumbing fun Dad started, and wiring, too...