I Have Heat!!!!

It's a beautiful thing. They finished it up on Friday and it has been humming dutifully ever since. We sat the thermostat on 60 and the house is staying around 57. Considering the amount of holes in the walls and ceilings I'm very impressed with that. What I'm really excited about is the lack of mechanical noise. Just the sound of wind going into the intake. It's really nice.

In other parts of the house, the water heater is in place waiting to be plumbed in. The front door arrived.....finally! and the pantry windows got framed in and put into place.

Builder also built a ramp for Mama to easily access the house. Now, she says, she can get in and tell me how to finish it up right!

And in the meantime, Builder got a new toy....a turning plow, and nothing would do but that he turn up a garden spot for me. The robins went nuts looking for grubs and worms. It looked like the ground was moving there were so many of them in the spot.

The plot is huge, but that's okay. I know I won't be able to grow the whole thing, but it makes me feel better to have it. I may just end up growing weeds, but my intentions are good.

Progress

It's been a short week, but a very productive one. The weather kept the guys from working on Monday and Tuesday, but everything cleared up on Wednesday and what a frenzy it was.

The geothermal guys showed up and trenched from the wells to the house, laid down the pipe and then filled it all in. Now it's just a matter of connecting the pipes to the unit in the house. Then I'll have heat! Whoohoo! Can't move in though, cause shortly thereafter the guys will be tearing up my bathroom, and I ain't living with a 5-gallon bucket and no shower.

While my backyard was being torn up, the west side porch was being built up. The roof went on and the tar paper went down and by Friday, shingles were being laid. It was a wonderful thing to see. I beginning to believe there may be a house in all this mayhem after all.


Roof On




Shingles Being Delivered




Shingles On




Digging the Trench




Laying the Pipe





The Finished Pad for the Unit

Catch Up

I'm way behind in my posting, so I have a whole week plus to tell you about.

We have yet to get our three clear days, and the west porch is still not done, but it is started. The guys started out on Monday putting in the foundation.

They hadn't gotten much further when the rain started.

The rain forced the guys indoors, but there was plenty of work waiting there too. Mostly wiring. Not only are they wiring for new lighting and electricity in the new sections, but I'm getting all the old stuff taken out and replaced with new and updated. I take no chances with electricity.

By Wednesday, the rain had disappeared to be replaced by a bitter cold. Those guys are tough though and they went back out in it.

Thursday was a slow day. One of the guys was out for personal reasons and Builder was out also. That left one of the guys, who did lots of little odds and ends that needed to be done around the place. He cut all the rafters and put in a form for the cement pad in the back needed for my geothermal unit. All stuff that doesn't show up that much, but has to be done and is in reality very important.

Then Friday came. All three of the guys were back, and working hard. With good reason. Snow was on the way. According to the weathermen it was suppose to show up about noon. It came in around 10:00. It started with a flake here and there, then a few more, and then it came down in buckets. It was just a bit too soon, so we didn't get the roof on, but the rafters are up and eventually it will get done.

The snow and the cold has stayed over the weekend with more snow being added as we've gone along. Today, the temps didn't even get above freezing and ice is coating everything. Needless to say nothing got done on the porch today. Builder did come over though and did a bit of wiring. The ductwork guys came over also and finished up all the ductwork inside the house for the geothermal system. While they were doing that, the guy from the geothermal company came out and said if the weather cleared they would be out tomorrow and try to get the system up and running by the end of the week. It is so exciting. I may have heat by the end of the week!!!!!

Tomorrow is suppose to be the day that it starts to clear. Everybody is suppose to be there tomorrow working, so maybe things will be done soon. Whoohoo!!!!

Rot and Rain

What a difference a day makes.

With all the excitement Monday, the rest of the week has almost seemed mundane. Almost.

With the porch roof up on the south side, we have now turned our attention to the west side. Builder has informed me that if he can get three clear days, the porch will be done. That's a mighty big IF these days.

Wednesday was cleanup day. They moved all the salvage wood off the west side of the house, and piled all the kindling off to the side. Then they moved the shrubbery from in front of the house. It's all been with the house from the beginning, so I'm trying to save it if I can. Only time will tell.

It was a beautiful but cold day and things were going quiet nicely. I knew it was too good to last.

They started removing the old front stoop and that's where we found it. Rot. Real rot. Lots of rot. Deep rot. Everything came to a standstill as I watched little dollar signs with wings being sucked into the cold clear air. It wasn't a pretty sight. I'm not a contractor, builder, carpenter or even a whittler, but even I knew this was going to require some major overhauling. I knew there would be jacks and creaking joints involved, along with saws, drills, nails and screws. It was getting uglier by the second.

I could so have done without this. If it was as bad as we thought, they would have to go under the house, jack it up and start pulling and cutting and replacing boards. Not to mention two or three days of really hard labor for my crew.

We just decided to leave that part for the next day and finished cleaning off the west side.

Today didn't open on a promising note.

It was raining. Lots. I gotta give my crew credit though. They didn't let that stop them. They just hunched up and went to work in it.

Then the news got better. The rot was not as bad as originally feared. It could be fixed without jacking up the house. In fact, it only took about three hours to get the job done. Even though it was pouring down rain, the sun was shining in my world.

Then work really started moving. Builder was designing wiring, and the crew closed in where the door had been and framed in the window that will eventually go there. They also framed in where the new front door will go.

We're still moving forward.

Digging Down and Building Up

Wow, what a way to start a week!

I pulled into my driveway Monday to find this sitting there, along with five other vehicles and seven men milling around. I actually had to park in the road because I couldn't get in my driveway.

The appearance of this behemoth caused quiet an increase in the traffic by my house and my truck being out there didn't help the flow at all. Luckily it was quickly moved into the back yard and I had room to park in my own yard.

This contraption is in reality a well drilling rig and it was there to put down the wells for my geothermal system. I wasn't expecting it for a couple of days so needless to say it was unexpectedly exciting at my house. Caused quiet a stir in the neighborhood too. I actually had neighbors out on their porches down the road watching the commotion. Nothing like being the center of attention.

So in quick order they drillers placed the machine in my back yard, raised the drill and went to work. Hole #1 went in directly east of the driveway. They hit water at 50 feet down which is truely amazing in this area and stayed in water the rest of the way down the 200 feet required for the well. Isn't that typical? When you want a dry well you get water, but if we had been looking for water it probably would have been dry.

So an hour and a half, two drill bits and 200 feet later, Hole#1 was done. I could not believe how fast they were.....and how loud. I was stuffing cotton in my ears and I still got a headache.

In the meantime, the builders were steadily putting on my porch roof. They had the best view of operations.

After finishing Hole#1, the drillers moved the rig 20 feet to the north and started in on Hole#2. Wouldn't you know it. Dry as a bone. Lots of limestone, with a start of sandstone and a small pocket of coal to make things interesting.

Another hour and a half and two more drill bits and they were done. They were pulling out of the drive by 2:30. It was amazing. Course they would have left sooner if they hadn't gotten the rig stuck in all the mud that had unfrozen while they were working.

It was a free for all at that point, with loads of gravel, broken cement blocks and logs and pieces of scrap wood all being used to give traction. Nothing like grown men playing in the mud with large engines. But it worked and in the end, it finally lumbered its way down my driveway and out of sight, leaving me with a pile of limestone dust and some unbelievably large ruts in my yard.

The pipes had been lowered into the holes, the holes were back filled and now it is just a matter of connecting the pipes to the unit that was put in the house last week. Maybe I'll have heat soon in spite of everything.

And through all the commotion and noise, a porch roof was added to the house. It's really looking awesome and that porch is going to be my favorite hangout spot weather permitting.

Yesterday, the decking on the roof was finished and the weatherproofing was laid down. Today we start on the west side.