One for the Annals

Summer construction days are memorable. The heat, the eating outdoors, and the storm-watching. 

So many interesting cloud formations. And would they come our way? I have mentioned before that often rain is over there. But on this particular day surprised us.

One of us was on the scaffolding, and couple of us werew oohing and ahhing over the lightning over the rimrock opposite us, and trying to photograph it,, and others of the family were scattered in various spots.  One huge flash and a boom surrounding us and we all sprinted inside in seconds. The ladder on the porch was rattling and trembling perhaps in fright. Things were getting blown around, and hail came in vertically and hit the front windows (recall that our porch is 10 feet deep!).

Then torrents of rain. All our materials stored on the porch were soaked. 

A river ran down the side yard. 

And especially memorable... it rained INSIDE the house. A waterfall poured in from the top of the front door, streaming down all our drywall and on to the newly stained floor! The culprit was the upstairs window sills, which had not yet been caulked. Where else was it going to come out? All the newly installed trim or???  The thought of all that water inside our walls was upsetting, as you can imagine. 

 It will go down in the annals of Housebuilding History for us!

Why you should Build a SHOP first

 

This is what happened to the laundry room while the flooring was going in. We had no "shop" so all tools went in whatever room was available at the time. Combine that mess with the fact that we were trying to function as a homeschooling family, and have a life beyond construction. Then throw in cooking in this room vs the RV during a really hot summer, add a baby to the mix and you have a MESS! I am not sure I have fully recovered from it. 

To top it off, the tile floor in this room proved a cool spot in the heat of August. Often you would find one of the family on the floor, either a construction worker asleep (a roll of Costco paper towels at his head) after lunch, or a smaller child with a toy. Some even ate on the floor on the hottest days. On the other side of this photo is a fridge and a freezer (the RV unit was far too small).

Getting the Flooring Upstairs

As much as I love the plywood floors and wanted them on both stories, it was too late to change the order for our upstairs flooring. We did regular tongue-and-groove fir (WAY better looking than the gnarly plywood) but I wished it could all match through the whole house. However, the second story kind of has its own “look” which is not as rustic as the first story. We were not doing the “General Store Floor” look up there anyway. I had hopes that at the least the floor would be easier to finish (less splinters to glue down!). 

Getting the long boards up there was quite an interesting family event. 

The children were always glad when they could help with the house build. 

The boards handily came with cardboard and plastic "toys" to keep one amused for a while. 

Instead of turning the stair corner/landing to the second floor, the most direct way was used. 

No walls were dented and no windows broken! Because this was not stable plywood, the boards had to sit upstairs for a while and "acclimate" before they could be installed. 

This is a fast-forward from that acclimation time. The flooring was nailed in and actually made the second story look quite old-fashioned, so it did not feel too different from the downstairs. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 This is close to autumnal colors I think...the high desert at sunset! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of many blessings!