operation packing

I guess this is as much a part of Operation Broadwell as working on the house itself is.  Our house is supposedly sold (inspection will be next week) if they don't find anything too major wrong with it.  They should't, because we have renovated this one pretty much all the way from ground up.  Anyway, so yesterday started the packing.  I did all the Christmas tubs and clothing tubs in the basement.  They are already moved over to the new house.  Later on I did all the wall hanging things on the bottom floor of the house.  Those things will go to the storage rental.  Anything that I will not need until I get totally moved in will go there.  For those of you who know me very well, you will know that I am a very organized person so this will probably make me crazy.  I hate all the mess all over.  But I guess you have to have a mess so that you can get it all done.  Fun times!!!  We also were able to purchase a good used refrigerator yesterday from Craigslist.  It will go in the basement of the other house so we can have some food over there and not have to carry it back and forth. 

operation house sold ~ rooftop

It has been a while since I last blogged.  It seems the past couple of weeks are a blur.  Our house in Emden appears to be sold with the inspection being scheduled for January 3rd and closing scheduled for January 18th.  If all goes as planned, we have exactly 25 days to be moved.....somewhere!  No, I have no idea where we will go.  I am hoping for a miracle and that we will be able to move into the basement of the Broadwell house while we continue to renovate.  What an adventure!  So, as if the race was not already on to get the house completely sealed up, it is now.  We will need to completely seal and paint the basement to be ready to move in there.  Of course there will be no water, so we will still have the port-a-potty outside, which will be interesting.  I opened the door the other day to find about two inches of snow in there.  Exciting times ahead!  So on to what we have been up to.  We have finished the floors and walls to the additions.  The roof is on and mostly covered.  Hopefully this week we will have the house totally sealed up where the snow and rain will be kept out completely.  Did I mention that my living room has snow in it from the blowing blizzard we had last week?  :-)  Anyway, once it is sealed up, David will order the steal for the roof and put the windows in so we have some light to work by.   We also took the wood stove we bought back and exchanged it for another.  Something was definately wrong with it.  Every time we closed the door completely, the fire would go out.  The new one works great and we can get it up to 500 degrees within a half hour to forty-five minutes.  It is toasty warm in the basement now and a huge blessing to be able to go there to get warm.  In one of my many trips to Menards, I found a great tool.  A contractor's pencil that does not have to be sharpened.  It is quickly becoming one of my favorite things.  It does not dull very fast at all and stays sharp.  At this point there is not a lot for the girls to do but take trash to the burn pile as we tear out things.  They spend their days getting muddy, riding their bikes or just drawing and reading in the camper.  I often find one of them asleep in there when I go to look for them.  Oh, I forgot to mention that David bought me an interesting torch thing to dry block with so that Jonathan could tar the basement outside.  What a job, but it is done and we can now lay pipe and get the dirt back in. I was really hoping to get some grass planeted before the ground got frozen solid.  We will see how that goes for me.  LOL




bedroom addition floors

bedroom addition roof

basement addition floor

putting on floor joists

adding faceboard

helpers

preparing for roof

wall being built

more walls

walls about done



sheeting going on

walls almost done

roof going on

partially covered

drying the block

taring the block

still coals after 14 hours!  YEAH!!!

one of my favorite tools

 

sleeping beauty

 

operation back to work

It seems like forever since we worked on the house.  David had knee surgery and is just now getting back to where he can move around a little bit. I really think he is trying to do too much but guess you can't keep a good man down.  On Monday, we went out to the property after school and set the camper back up in the outbuilding so we would have a place to sit when we are there and the girls can do their homework.  Reese spent the afternoon with us playing with the girls. David got the chimney top put on and then fired up the wood stove for the first time.  Didn't have dry enough wood in it so it only got up to about 250.  He went back yesterday and fired it up again and was able to get it to over 500 with no problem so I guess that is done.  Now to seal the house up so we can use it!  The kids and I stayed home yesterday but David went over and finished the block pieces around the window so he can start on the floor today.  Today will be a very long day for all of us!  I have to get supplies and the men folk will be working to get the floor joist started so maybe tomorrow we will have floors and be ready for walls!  Exciting times!  Oh, and my glass block window photo... that was from a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to upload it!

Reese spent the afternoon playing with the girls

my first block window in the crawl space

the first fire

the chimney cap

 

 

operation "finished concrete" YEAH!!!

We finished the concrete work today!  The basement floors are done!  I will have to say it was incredible watching my husband finish the basement floor.  Amazing how the cream comes to the top leaving a smooth finish.  It took all day to pour and finish that.  I put clear block in the two basement crawl spaces while they were doing that and also hung a tire swing for the girls.  The girls worked on pulling metal out of the burn pile so we can take it to the metal man.  The rest of the day they spent riding bicycles and swinging along with  playing up in the loft.  It is so much fun to round the corner at the wood shed to hear them singing and playing up there. Fun times!  This will be the last update for a bit as David will be having knee surgery tomorrow and will hopefully sit around and relax for a couple of weeks like he should!  :-)

here comes the concrete

leveling

finishing

extra space

almost done

hanging the swing

a little too high

fun times

a great time

operation loft house gang

We have had beautiful weather this week for working on the house.  Friday we filled the block with concrete to reinforce the walls.  It went really well.  I got to guide the shoot for the truck as David and Jonathan ran the board along the wall and guided the concrete into the holes.  What a job.  Today David and the boys graded the rock and prepared to pour the basement floors on Monday.  Jonathan and I started splitting wood yesterday and I finished it up today.  A wood splitter is so cool.  I will have to admit though it is another job that uses muscles that I don't usually use.  :-)  I stacked about 3 cords of wood yesterday and today.  It looks so nice all stacked up on the skids in the wood shed.  The girls had company over for the two days we were there and they created a club in the wood shed loft.  I power-washed it for them so it would be clean and David stopped and got them some straw to haul up there for seating.  They have spent a lot of time decorating.  It looks so nice and it is very creative!  They have had a blast.  Nathan came out to help us today also.  What a blessing he has been.  Next week will come the basement floors and the window then it will be smooth sailing.  LOL

doing grade

ready to pour

log splitter



wood split and stacked

the loft

welcome

creative wreath from outdoor finds

the loft house gang

decorated loft

make a joyful noise





operation basement walls

We have not posted much in the last week because we are doing the same thing each time we are there, the basement wall block.  I can finally say that I think it will be done and filled with concrete this week!  YEAH!  I think the plan is to pour the basement floor also.  This will be an exciting end to a job that feels like it has taken forever.  Then up with the house we can go.  This week we also glass blocked in a basement window (I get to do the other two).  We also tore out a place in the foundation that had a hole and leaked water pretty bad and poured some concrete to be able to block it closed the next time we are there.  David also knocked a hole in the basement going out to the new part that we are building so it is much simpler to go in and out now.  In knocking out that wall though he found something very interesting.  There is no footing, the basement floor is the footing and the existing basement walls are two seperate walls with about a 3 inch void in between.  Think we are going to try to take out another basement window and fill the void to make it a solid wall.  INTERESTING!  We have had our son and a friends son this week and they have done an awesome job at mixing mortar and buttering the ends of blocks so that I can lay mortar and David can lay block.  We make quite a team but I know those two young men will be as glad as I am when they hand that last block up!  LOL  Good building trades class for them and good exercise for those biceps!

doing glass block for light into the crawl space

mortar man

basement repair

laying block

being a help meet  :-)

my mortar message (he was measuring while I waited)

operation help

Imagine knowing that you are headed over to the new house to help your husband lay concrete block, knowing how sore you are after putting 50 of them in the hole the day before and helping him lay those 50, that this day, your goal is to lay at least 100 and you know what you are going to feel like when you are done (you know I am just a woman). Now imagine turning the corner only to find that there are two other men in the hole with at least 100 block that they have already carried and are now putting up! WOW, talk about a blessing. All I could say was "thank you". What else is there? Thank you is really not even enough because I did not have to lay any block yesterday at all! So thank you, Derek and Drew for getting our corners up strait so we can have nice looking walls! You were a HUGE blessing! I did help David mix mortar and fill the block in the back of the house so it would be almost ready to build on. We cut our first tree down, a dead one in our own yard. The girls had fun climbing on that for the day. We got the tree cleaned up and a lot of the wood shed cleaned out. Just a little bit to go and it will be ready to split and stack wood in. I think one more day of cleaning in there and it will be done. David put up some lights so we can now see between the house and the outbuildings when it gets dark so early. By the way, we had a friend come over and lay the block in the back of the house on Thursday. He did a fabulous job and it is almost ready to build on. David continues to say that as soon as this block is done (not his trade in any way) that he will fly through getting the floors, walls and roof up (that is his trade). It is so exciting! 

bedroom addition

bedroom addition

cutting dead tree down

some one has to carry block

laying block

blessings