birfday workday

In celebration of Will's 29th birthday, Will requested for all of his friends to do the most logical thing one would think to do on a birthday: work. We did do some real celebrating later (more on that below), but all in all I'd say the birthday workday was hands-down the most productive workday Sunset Hill has had yet.

Starting off the day with donuts and some hard work.

ZOMG we have windows.

boyztown.

back that thang up.

Rare photo.

Upset.

Workday budz.

Addition windows I

Addition windows II.

Addition windows III.

Worksite love birdz.

East wall and roof.

West side before.

West side after.

Interior window view.

With everyone's help we were able to finish the roof, install the addition windows, and insulate and cover the entire east wall of the house. DANG. To celebrate, we ended the work day with a Sunset Hill bar tour which included stops at the AmVet, Steve's Place, and Uncle E's. I'll refrain from trying to describe our experiences at any of these places because words just won't do them justice.

THANK YOU Sunset hillbillies (Carrie, Tim, Josh, B-Carl, Josiah, Guff), Cdubs (Rob, Chris, David), Nate, Joel, Jackie, Ashley, and last but not least, Tom.

Next up: replacement windows, siding, and the back door!

Raise da roof

Since our last post we were able to accomplish three big things: fill up our big dirt hole around the house, enclose our east wall with insulation and OSB, and seal the roof!!

Warmer winters for the yellow house for the first time in 80+years.

Guff and Josiah insulating and covering.

Making some progress.

All done!

Skylight!

oh hi.

The roof wasn't the only thing gettin' raised.

B-Carl roofin' for the Lord.

Starting to shingle the roof. No more dumb tarp!

This will be the second bedroom upstairs.

and one day we may get to this. Next up, though, are windows, doors, and siding...

oh hi, June

So apparently May came and went, and we somehow managed to survive the Rapture and a tornado (mutually exclusive events), frame the addition, build a staircase, and start tearing down our siding. Who knew that the end-of-times could inspire so much hard work?

Last I left off, we had just finished the subfloor. Now, we've got this:

 and these...

closet.

And it only took a little bit of this...

and a little bit of that...

and from time to time, a splash of this...

Ok, not really. I will spare you all the gory details...except for the one about us thinking that Will had been pre-raptured the day before and that we would have to carry on without him.

Will and Charlie put the floor down on the second story, so now we have a really sweet "deck" to hang out on before we frame upstairs:

Charlie also managed to build this thing all on his own. I don't know for sure what it is, but Will seems to think it's important:

Will and I also decided to go ahead and start taking down the first layer of siding from the east wall of our house on Memorial Day because we are totally NUTS:

Then, just to round out the month of May, the 3 dinguses (Will, Guff, moi) made a run for it and stayed up until after sundown ripping off the nasty lead paint siding. This is the pic from the day after:

Will, aka husband of the year, has had a rough go of it this last month. Aside from the scare of the pre-rapture and starting a major construction project during what was likely one of the rainiest Springs on record for Indiana, he was tragically clobbered on the head last night by a rogue hammer:

Job (as in the Bible): 20. Will: 3.

Although our project was originally just a mudroom, two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, it has grown to include new siding, insulation, and windows for the entire house. My sister calls this "scope creep";  it's more of an avalanche at this point.

I think we'll be more than happy with it in the long run.

Oh, and God rescheduled the rapture for October 21. Back to work...

p.s. thanks for the reminder Jenny, the original home remodeling queen.

Progress

Subfloor.

If it would stop raining I could probably sunbathe on this thing...

Will=good idea.

Oops. Spooked ya.

exposed.

Tom, as always, jumping right in.

Frank you very much.

A job well done. Well, not really done. Maybe one day.

Rain delay.

The rain has set us back, which is mostly just frustrating. We're not really into the whole "taking a break" thing...we want to get this project moving.

The most painful part of the delay is having to wait even longer for our pups to come home. When we started the project we had to send them for what we thought would be a brief stay at their grand-pup parents house. I haven't really been counting the weeks, but it feels like forever since they were last around. We are keeping our fingers crossed for an Easter return. Ask and you shall receive?

In case you don't know our pups, I am pleased to introduce you to Joanna (right) and Joaquin (left). 

Joanna is down-to-the-bone Basset Hound. Joaquin is a pure-bred Heinz 57 watchamacalit. I'm not sure that I've ever both loved and loathed something as much as these two pups. That's right: not even Jose or Will have pushed me to the brink of insanity like these guys. But for whatever reason the three of us who take care of these dogs really love em' and are aching to have them home.

I actually had a dream a week or so ago that I opened our front door and Joaquin was just sitting there, looking so nice and sweet, just waiting for me to tell him it was ok to come inside. *sigh*