A Bit Closer!!!

From August 10 until September 27

- faced some of the kitchen cabinets with cypress
- built a corner kitchen cabinet on the left side of the sink then rebuilt it
- built the matching cabinet on the right side of the sink
- changed the fittings on the stove
- primed, caulked, and puttied
- put up beam above sink between kitchen cabinets and installed hanging mason jar lights and put up a beam in the dining room and installed the light fixture
- rented a man life again and painted the remainder of the house with 2 coats and installed the flashing
- put down a piece of linoleum flooring in upstairs bathroom
- called in reinforcements to run plumbing from water heater upstairs to bathroom upstairs and to the downstairs master bath and connect the upstairs AC drainpipe to the new plumbing and install the upstairs shower plus rough out the plumbing for the toilet and sink
- built an access door for new plumbing that is connected to master bath through wall in dining room
- put in bead board plywood for the walls in the upstairs bathroom
- installed Sara's floor
- put in Allie's ceiling which is rusted tin that has been sealed
- finished running and tying in electrical lines
- put in bead board plywood ceiling in master bedroom
- put up beam in master bedroom
- put up door and window facings
- put in floor and ceiling molding in master bedroom
- put in one section of missing wall in office/classroom using salvaged pine tongue and groove and did more demo on a remaining piece of wall to prepare the wall for closing in with the salvaged wood
- installed another sub panel for electrical lines
- connected stove and outlets on the island, connected upstairs water heater
- put in insulation and bead board plywood in about 1/2 of the remaining wall in office/classroom
     

Scrapping, Caulking, Framing, Installing, etc. (Lots of Doing Something!!)

This post covers our house building from July 20 through August 10.

July 20  - We replaced wall boards missing from our bedroom wall with the exception of a few because we need to finish the electrical word before closing in around the junction box. We also framed in our bedroom closet wall, did remaining demolition in our bathroom, installed electrical lines in our bedroom, bathroom, and closet, put putty over screw holes in the kitchen and dining room ceiling, applied Kiltz to remainder of the mud room wall and sanded.

July 26 - Installed old tongue and groove boards on the outside of our closet wall and installed the closet door, finished connecting electrical lines in our bedroom, primed Wyatt's bathroom which will also serve as a guest bathroom, puttied and caulked pantry wall, put up trim along the front living room wall and where the angled ceiling meets the flat ceiling in the living room and loft, sanded outside wall of Sara's bedroom.
 
August 3 - Took a break from the house to build a 20 by 4 foot raised vegetable garden frame, framed and installed door and boards on the outside of the storage closet under the staircase, began painting Wyatt's bathroom a lovely navy blue that he chose with Sara's help, began installing tin as tub surround in our bathroom, and did some other things but I'm not keeping as good a record these days as I did when we first began.
 
August 5 - August 11 - During the week we layered cardboard boxes, peat moss, and composted manure in half of the garden but discovered we need lots more soil.... David and Wyatt went under the house to remove and reroute gas lines for the stove which we temporarily connected to a propane tank and we have FIRE and can now cook at the house via my new gas stove (David's priority). Several days during the week and then finishing up on Saturday we were able to scrape all loose paint from our bedroom wall and the downstairs storage closet and outside bedroom closet wall. Then we applied  putty and caulk to get the walls ready to be primed and painted. We finished installing tin in our bathroom. We also installed a ceiling in Wyatt's bathroom and the laundry/mud room. Allie sanded the outside wall of the staircase. Wyatt and Allie removed nails from old cypress boards that we salvaged from a barn we tore down, then David planed the boards. One day during the week Sara, Wyatt and I discovered the hot wire fence down in the front and hot wire was not kicking at all. We fixed it to the best of our ability and then David and Wyatt later that day had to replace some of the plastic insulators with ceramic and redo some of the fence. Thank goodness that did the trick and since then nothing has gotten out.

 
 
 

Just wanted to share some of the mishaps and adventures we have encountered over the past year

Anyone who knows us knows that David is a busy man and often has mishaps which he says wouldn't happen if he was doing nothing....so this blog is a trip down memory lane over the past year to share some of our mishaps and adventures. Let me just say that it is almost always an adventure with him. However, he really is a modern day MacGyver.

June 28, 2012 - This was our first moving day from Crowley to Bayou Jacque. We had the horse trailer loaded down with most of our belongings. David is hauling the trailer with his Dodge and I am following with the kids in my truck. It was smooth sailing on I10 to I49 right up until we neared Opelousas. At about that time David had a blow out on one of his rear truck tires. He pulls into the Opelousas Walmart parking lot to buy another tire and have it changed. After much waiting in the June heat in vehicles loaded, he became a little impatient and ended up rolling the tire out to his truck and changing it himself. I've often wondered if that was a sign of things to come.....

October 2012 - We actually began working on the house on September 1, 2012 and knew there were several things that we couldn't do ourselves like a new roof and AC. We asked Stafford if he could install our new tin roof. We had to remove the old roof ourselves. With the help of Todd, Heath, and Wyatt the old roof was cut into 6 large pieces then hooked to a boom that David built and welded to the front of his tractor. He lifted each piece and hauled it away from the house. The boom only malfunctioned once while carrying a piece of the roof and luckily no one was underneath or around it when it fell about 30 ft from the house. It took a day to remove the old roof and it was getting dark by the time we finished.







































January 2013 - Rain, rain, and more rain caused flooding of up to 3 feet on Lebeau Church Rd. Our first attempt to get to the house was quite a time consuming ordeal. David and Allie drove the Dodge to the house to get the 4 wheelers while Sara, Wyatt, and I waited at the end of the road for them. After many attempts to navigate the 4 wheelers through the water to get to us, both flooded and died. They were able to get one of them running again long enough to pull the other one back to the house. Soaking wet they eventually came to get us in his truck. Thankfully none of our property was flooded except the low lying areas along the bayou. We spent the remainder of that day working on the house. It took about a week for the water to recede.
Several of our friends even braved the river like road to help us with the house.

There are also mishaps and adventures that I don't have specific dates for like the time David called me around 6:30 in the morning in the fall of 2012 on his way to Midland to tell me that he just had a near death experience. Now, understand we have been married for 20 years and I have personally witnessed many crazy things that seem to only happen to David. So, when he tells me that his brakes went out in the curve right before the train tracks at Lebeau which caused him to fly over the tracks at about 20 mph or more causing this near death experience, my first thought which I spoke was, "Were you driving too fast?" He was very offended and hurt by my question and explained that he was not and that due to his power steering going out he barely made it across the tracks and into the right lane onto 71. I did feel bad and then began to worry for his safety! If I remember correctly, I went to pick him up, came back to Sam's to drop me off, and then he took my truck to work. I don't remember if it was that afternoon or another day that we were finally able to bring his truck home. I followed him and somewhere along the way the brake caliber fell off and I ran over it. After getting his brakes fixed, he drove it without that brake caliber for a long time and possibly didn't ever change it.

There was another time when he called me this spring at about 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning on his way to the welding shop. His truck had died on the side of the road and he needed me to come pull him to Sam's. I pulled up in front of him, he hooked up his truck and I took off headed north to a turn around in the road. After successfully getting turned around, I pulled him to Sam's going a little faster than I should have under the circumstances and prayed that no one would pull out in front of me. He took my truck to work that day too. After work he managed to figure out and fix his truck. It wasn't long after that we traded in the Dodge on my suburban. He inherited my truck and it didn't take long for him to get comfortable in it! Yes, I think there are a few chicken bones on the floor.
 
Another time David, Todd, Shane, and Nicole took off in a caravan of several trucks hauling trailers headed to Crowley to pick up hay. After only 10 minutes into the trip David runs out of diesel in the Dodge. Without missing a beat Todd pulls in front of him with my truck, they hook his to mine and were off to the gas station. Once in Crowley, they discover that the hay David thought would still be in the field was gone. There was some hay left at the other field so all was not lost because they were able to haul a piece of equipment home along with the few bales that were left.





One of the most unconventional things he did was build a ladder to put in the remaining collar braces. It was made of treated lumber (very heavy, very long and slightly dangerous)! That is definitely me in the third pic. I had a moment of temporary insanity!!

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




February 2013 - On ladders on scaffolding to install tongue and groove boards to install ceiling fans with a 9 foot extension pipe. Nothing at all dangerous about this. Just remember kids Safety First!! Actually David's motto is Safety Sucks!













There have been numerous times the cows and horses have gotten out of the fence. Just a couple of weeks ago the horses went about 2 miles across a bean field and ended up on Hwy 71.
Oh I almost forgot about the time David was hauling his tractor here from Crowley and he had a little problem with the trailer he had built to haul it with. Nate to the rescue which meant leaving the trailer on the side of the road. It was never seen again. It was either picked up by someone in need of a trailer or the police....

I'm sure there are many more but my memory fails me at the moment!




 

Finally Painting.....

My last blog post was about 2 months ago. Much has transpired since then including finishing our 1st year of homeschooling, Midland graduation, FFA state convention, our last rodeo until September, Jr week of camp, several weddings and funerals, VBS, Fourth of July celebration, Jr High week of camp, etc. There have been a few days since May 23 that we have been able to work on the house. We have however been able to accomplish much in the few days we have worked.

May 25 - Jeff came to help today and he and Sara were able to close in an old doorway on both sides and on one side of another doorway. Allie sanded then began painting the front wall of the house. Wyatt burned a wood pile, scraped paint off of boards that Jeff and Sara put up and helped Allie in painting the front wall of house. David, Slade and I did electrical work, demolition to a door from the pantry to the bathroom and the ceiling in the master bath. We also cut out a hole in the wooden counter top for the sink. We also put up bead board in pantry and in the mud room.
May 27 - David filled in the old door space between the pantry and the bathroom, finished the last bead board in the pantry, and put the last two bead boards in the mud room.
June 29 - Bryant helped us work on Wyatt's room putting in flooring, stairs to his raised bed, and storage area above the AC unit. The girls sanded their rooms.
June 1 - We built a frame for the kitchen island, stubbed out electrical and gas pipe, installed cypress exterior for the island, a plywood top and then the stainless steel top.
July 6 - Bryant helped David build a partial wall in upstairs stairs bathroom, put in insulation and plywood on outer wall in front part of upstairs bathroom, finish plywood on ceiling of upstairs storage closet and most of the wall, fill in last part of loft wall and ceiling. Sara and I put in lat boards for the dining room and kitchen ceiling. We worked together to put up almost half of the bead boards on the kitchen/dining room ceiling.
July 12 - Picked up the kids from CYE, cooked supper at the land and had help putting in three sheets of bead board in the kitchen/dining room.
July 13 - Kelle and Angela came and Allie and Wyatt helped them paint two coats on the front wall/porch of house, as high as they could reach on both sides and almost all of the back wall/porch. Sara helped them paint then helped me caulk and putty in the guest bathroom and mud room and I applied kiltz to 3/4 of the mudroom wall then sanded the bead board wall in the mud room. Sara and I also replaced missing boards around the dining room window. Bryant helped David put in walls and floor in back part of upstairs bathroom and finished installing bead board ceiling in the kitchen/dining room.

 

Building a kitchen

Despite having a little more work to do upstairs we have decided to begin working downstairs again.

April 23 - Allie cleaned up inside and sanded more of one wall in her room. David and Wyatt took turns mowing the grass. Then David and Wyatt helped Sara and I extend the hot wire further into the pasture.
April 27 - Put plywood on the ceiling of the front porch except for a few small pieces and put plywood on the ceiling on most of the back porch.
May 4 - Finished loft and balcony floor with pine tongue and groove boards and finished railing on balcony. Began scraping off contact paper from what will be the dining room wall.
May 10 - Installed Allie's floor, wired a light in the kitchen and dining room and connected electrical wiring for back porch fans. Scraped more of the contact paper from the wall.
May 17 - Checked electrical lines for washer and dryer, rerouted electrical line from laundry/mud room light to a new switch, rerouted a line for the refrigerator and dishwasher, ran a line for the kitchen backsplash outlets, installed wires for three lights over what will be the sink and put in a light switch. Began scraping paint off what will be the dining room wall.
May 18 - Put in insulation along kitchen wall, installed bead board plywood on kitchen wall and framed out and put bead board for the refrigerator cabinet. Drilled holes and put in pipes for sink drainage and water lines coming to sink, framed the kitchen cabinet. Put in plywood counter top and took measurements for stainless steel counter top. Scraped more paint off the dining room wall.
May 19 - Picked up and delivered more supplies and materials from Lowe's.
May 20 - Philip helped David put in a missing piece of plywood counter top, cut out the door spaces for the front of the cabinet, installed the front, reinforced the countertop, checked measurements for stainless steel countertop and measured and marked for sink cutout.
May 23 - David and I went to the house at 5:30 in the morning and connected the electrical lines for the AC units so that Troy can connect them and install thermostats. We will have AC to work in and just in time since summer time weather is here!!!