Cottage days 1 & 2

The crew from Blitz, which is building the post & frame part of the house arrived from Kentucky at about 11:30 am. Without much talk they proceeded to start sorting through the materials and putting up the batter boards.
They then unloaded a Bobcat from their trailer and dug all of the holes for the posts.
These 5 guys don't waste any time and without much talk they just do their jobs.  It appears they have done many jobs together as a crew.

end of 1st day

Yesterday, they arrived about 6:30 am and jumped right in. The put the remaining trusses on the garage and put up all of the perlins on all of the trusses.
Things changed rapidly on day 1 but, slowed as things became more complicated. They still work as a team with 3  on the structure and 2 on the ground cutting the lumber and gathering what is needed for the ones up on the cottage.

framing the front porch

The plumber is scheduled for tomorrow and maybe concrete Saturday or Monday.

Ta ta for now.

House has begun

YEA!!!!!!!!!!! This has been a good week.
The site for the house is being prepared. The materials for the post and frame part of the house have arrived.
The plumber is lined up to start his rough in work.
All in all a good week.

site prep

some of materials for post & frame

We have lined up all of the subcontractors save heat & air. One of our friends from church is working on that aspect.
It is hard to believe that we have had so much trouble getting the trades to do new construction work. I personally called several plumbers, electrical contractors and HVAC contractors. most did not return my calls, and some were so expensive  or did not do new work that Mike & I became very frustrated. With the economy as it is, so little work, you would think that there would not be a shortage of contractors looking for work. Not so!

Here is the reasons for all of the work that we have been doing.

Chico

Fiesta

Encanto

We have started installing the new stalls and storage room.
The frames are in and we have started installing the wood separating the different stalls.
On going work in process.

Brenda has been helping with St. Vincent dePaul cook this weekend. Yesterday she rubbed the meat with mustard and dry rub. Today she went to help take the butts off of the smokers and helped distribute them.
She has become very active in that ministry.

I will continue to update as the house and barn progresses.

Ta Ta for now.

Progress in Bolton

We have officially been off of the road for 5 months now and things are progressing.

The Barn extension is almost complete. We are waiting for some parts to complete the sliding door in the horse wash room.
As you can see from the pictures, the process for adding the 15 feet to the back of the existing building. The whole barn is 81 feet long and now 45 feet wide. There will be 9 total stalls, 3 for Mike & Barb's horses and the rest for boarding.

the back wall of the extension

after we pulled existing siding off

Taken from existing to SE corner of extension

Back door of horse wash room.

Mike & I did this in just over 10 days work. (not bad for 2 old guys) Barb helped hand the roofing up as the sheets were 3 X 22 feet sheet metal. Not so heavy as awkward to handle without crimping them. Barb is a trooper. Otherwise he and I did the rest of the work. We learned how to do sheet metal work, as we had no experience in that area.

We have started building the new stalls and the Fly spray system is in. with all of the manure generated by just 3 horses the flies are becoming a real nuisance. We have high hopes and have heard good things about fly control with this system.

The permits for the cottage (building and septic system) are in hand and construction should begin by the end of this month.
The building will be post and frame (pole barn) and will be done by a company specializing in that type of construction,
Mike is acting as general contractor, so he and I will be building the interior and subcontracting the concrete, electrical, plumbing and HVAC.
Brian, Mike's oldest, son does flooring on the side and does beautiful work. He will be doing some of the tile work for us. Mike's other sons may be helping as needed.
Hopefully it shouldn't take too long to get the cottage completed, until then we are still living comfortably in the motor home.

Brenda still hasn't found a job, although she is still looking. But she has joined the SVdP society and is busy with volunteer work. She goes to the soup kitchen 3 times a month, that serves the homeless of Memphis.

We have officially joined The Church of the Nativity and I have complete Lector training. I will start serving at mass on the next schedule.
I really enjoyed the training sessions. The instructor was so good and I learned or relearned so much about our church and faith. It is amazing how much is forgotten if we do not study and keep up with the changes going on in our church.


Ta Ta for now