We've got WALLS, YA'LL!!!

Well, I have about three different posts about three-fourths done, but just gave up on them for now. Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to travel down an "occasional bunny trail" when trying to tell something....I came by this honestly-directly from my Mom! I got a pretty good dose of it from my paternal grandmother also. Even though she passed away when I was twelve and don't have alot of memories of her, I DO remember trying to follow her conversation with a bit of frustration!

At any rate, I MOST definitely write the same way I think and talk.....going all around the world to paint the ENTIRE background/sideground/above-ground and underground picture, often totally forgetting the main focus of....wait a minute....
Now what was I writing about????

Oh yeah...the progress of our log home.





We spent about two or so weeks on excavation. And of course, the one thing that anyone trying to dig a basement fears, happened. We hit rock. Fortunately, we have a wonderful excavator/landscaper and dear friend..."Special Ed" of ELS (Earth Leveling Systems/ Edward L. Scarborough). Be it known that mere rock would prove to be no barrier for Special Ed. (He really has that on the sides of his trucks!) He just got a bigger truck/digger thingey and blasted through the cursed rock. Not meaning to take away from Ed's glory, but thankfully the rock was mostly sandstone.



So after excavation, comes the next step/disaster/way over-budget item- the pouring of the concrete. For some reason that I am not sure I totally understand, we used about twice as much concrete as estimated for the footings and slab. The bad thing about this...$$$$$ spent on something so drab/unappealing as concrete. The good thing about this....this house is going to be built on a bomb shelter. I even proposed just putting a roof over the basement walls and stopping there.















After the concrete work was done, we had about a week waiting on the delivery of the logs. During this time, we experienced monsoon-type rains pretty much daily. Tom took advantage of the short break to (1)make a quick trip to the coast to host a Continuing Ed dinner for the Physicians we work with there (2)cook a wonderful Mother's Day dinner for me and both our Moms (3)lend a hand to Wes and Sarah on the renovation of the house they have purchased recently (4) repair tractors/lawn mowers/weed-eaters and multiple other yard equipment that I had torn-up working on the yard/property (5) stand there shaking in fear for his life as I shot my first snake...a 3 foot rattler (6) briefly work on our "one-week" bathroom renovation that started mid-March. I'm sure there were a few other pressing items he had to deal with during this time, but it all starts to run together at some point. And just a note in reference to #4....we have someone coming out tomorrow to do our lawn as both lawn-mowers are now at the John Deere place (they just love us up there...we alone provide a large portion of their business). I, as usual, had nothing to occupy my time during this brief break, so I busily "helped" out by making more work. We/He decided it might be cheaper to pay someone to do the lawn versus me tearing up all the equipment regularly.






The little black bar that appears to be bending downward actually is.....thanks to me. Oh yeah....I don't typically drive the tractor in my snappy little copper-colored yellow-box slides.






...this would be the snake I shot with a shotgun.....the little stringy things hanging down on the left side are where his large head WAS....before I BLEW it off with my first shot!












Finally, the day came in which the logs arrived....at least two eighteen wheelers of stuff, anyway. I was all set to document with photos this monumental day. I sat in the POURING rain at Top-Hat where the trucks arrived and proceded to unload portions of the delivery to a smaller truck that would be able to get up our road to the house site. Well, theoretically would be able to get up our road which was just a "bit" slippery/muddy due to the monsoon rains of the months of April and May. So after taking up the longest beams, it was decided that the truck would not be the best mode of delivery. Enter the "monster" fork-lift/road-eater. For each large load of materials it took up to the building site, it ate one foot of mud/road.
















The actual construction of the exterior walls is in full-swing now and hopefully the roof trusses will be going up beginning tomorrow.






















After going over budget on the concrete, we came up with a way to make-up the overage.........outdoor plumbing!!!.....It's not too expensive and they come and empty it weekly...perfect for us....as there is always somebody around here full of it!!!