Christmas Eve 2018

This was as close as it gets to a perfect day!  Sunshine without frost to start, and time to work on a garden project.  I could have cleaned my house, but as a native Washingtonian, when the sun shines, I can't stay inside.

So it seemed a perfect day to tackle my grape arbor/garden fence. Nothing puts out more vines than grapes and when they are covered with leaves and grapes, and even the netting I put over them to keep birds out, they are impossible to contain.  Even now, they are  a bit daunting.....but since I only use them to have leaves for my pickles, I figured I couldn't go too far wrong.  My main goal was to keep them from covering the driveway and the garden.  So when I prune them, I am pretty ruthless.

So after the first step of cutting back all the vines to the fence line, I used the tractor to pick up all the downed vines.

So my burn pile is maxed out and the next step is to burn it.

I have winter rye planted in all the tilled garden areas except for my little garlic patch.  You can see the garlic is coming up nicely.

The swans are back on the lake.

We've collected a pile of rocks for the children to toss in the lake this summer, the grass is coming up, 

We have a new carport with a view,

a few trees came down in the wind storm, but missed all the buildings,

and my two week old Christmas bouquet is still bringing me joy!
We made it past the shortest day of the year, so every day gets lighter and brighter.  New Year's resolutions are in place, and we're looking forward to 2019!

Starting a New Business

When we finished building our new home, we called for a final inspection.  The only item that the inspector called out said "Blower Door Test" required.  We asked what that was and where we should go to get it done.  The inspector just said "you might try calling your heating contractor or the insulation contractor."  So we pulled out the invoices from those companies and started calling. Neither did the test, so I headed to the internet.  Most of what I found there was advertisements for equipment.  We did finally find a company based in Renton that agreed to come out to do our test.  

However, during our research, we took several classes that explained the test and the equipment. More investigation showed that the requirement for the test is fairly recent - the standard was imposed by the federal government, to be adopted by the states and jurisdictions within the states.  Washington State adopted the code in 2012, and Snohomish County enacted their requirement on July 1, 2014 - just days before we applied for our building permit.  Permits filed prior to July 1 do not require the test.  

Long story short, we realized that our experience fit well with this test.  So we bit the bullet and bought the equipment and began forming our new company to exclusively do blower door tests.  We have successfully learned the equipment and done several tests of our home and homes belonging to family members.  While the equipment and set up of the new business took a healthy chunk out of our savings, we look forward to building a successful business.

It is very interesting to see just how airtight current construction is compared to older buildings.  Our new house has approximately four air exchanges per hour, while our older log house has 17.4.  We knew it was hard to heat the log house in the winter, but we had no idea just how much air movement took place through gaps in the logs, ceilings and walls, older windows, and older doors.  It has given us a bunch of new projects for that house!

Our website:  blowerdoortesters.com went live this week. Everything is in place for us to begin taking orders. Please check out our website and feel free to forward any questions to us at:  ronandrosi@msn.com.

Countertop Install

Precision Countertops came out on 8/10/2015 and did a very precise layout of our cupboards in the kitchen, laundry room, and all three bathrooms.

While most of the work was done in their shop in Kent, the two installers had to piece the parts together and carefully seal all seams.  

They did a fantastic job!

If we had a working sink, we would be moved in already!  Waiting for final plumbing - should be this week! 

Moving Right Along!

Roof is finished!

The walls are full of electrical wires, plumbing pipes, heating ducts, and vents.  After the last framing inspection and the "OK to insulate", the insulation people were here this week.

Meanwhile, Jimmy and Keith and Wayne are continuing on the outside - Doors, windows, trim, siding, soffits, etc. And Steve and his crew poured our front sidewalks yesterday and are working on framing up the back patio this week.  We've had such a wonderful talented bunch of guys working on this project that it almost inspires us to build another house. :)

  

On to sheetrock!

Time for a Roof!

Another truckload of material arrives - this time the metal roof - at 5:30 a.m. - Yikes, these delivery people get up early!

The roof has been covered for several days with the moisture barrier, so we haven't been stressing too much lately about rain!

All the interior walls are framed, the furnace ducting is in, the electrical stuff is all wired throughout the house, and the plumbing is roughed in throughout.  Ready for our framing inspection on Thursday, and insulation starting Friday or Monday.  

Metal roof going on this week - one skylite is in - a royal pain to install, but boy, does it bring in light!



Construction Continues

Ron and I have become expert shovelers - our latest project was to cover the entire crawl space with sand before the framers showed up - fortunately, we had a friendly track hoe operator with a dump truck to bring us sand and put piles in the crawl for us to rake to every corner.

Septic tank is installed - waiting for inspection to cover leach lines.

Lumber package is delivered!

Day one - framing - crawl space is framed!

Busy Times and Some Progress

We started March with a visit with my Mom and step-Dad from Alaska.  Lots of visitors and lots of pictures - then a computer crash and lots of pictures lingering on the crashed computer....so more on the visitors in a later blog where I'm sure to have lots more pictures.  Mom had a fall and spent five days in the hospital, but she is now recovering in the rehab facility of Providence Hospital in Everett. She is making amazing progress, which is what we expect from her as she has been an inspiration to all of us for many years.  As she nears her 96th birthday in April, she is still full of life and determined to be back on her feet to be home in Alaska by her birthday!

In the meantime, Ron and I have been working for a few hours every day to do "our part" in building our new house.  We are hiring subs to do the real work, but putting in 500' of waterline seems like real work to us!

We connected to the existing water line, and did all the connections (with the help of a hair dryer to soften up the pipe) and finished our job this past weekend.  It was inspected and signed off by the County yesterday (March 23), and once we cover it, we will be back in supervisory and out of ditch-digging mode.

In the meantime, the foundation guys have finished the foundation walls.  The PUD has blessed our installation and the electrician has hooked up temporary power and built our meter mast.  

Backfill will be done tomorrow, and framing will start next week!

So for now, off to the rehab facility to visit Mom and more relatives.  Definitely a busy time for us!

Getting Ready to Build

I haven't been on the internet much lately as we have a massive project going on here!  We've been getting ready to build a new house on the 5 acre lot adjacent to our house.  The good side of this is we don't have any commuting time - the down side is we don't seem to know when to quit!

We started with a site that Ron has been mowing for 20 years - not large enough for a building site so some trees had to come down.

We used our small tractor to haul all the branches and blocks of wood to other areas.  Two large Hemlock trees will provide firewood for about five years!

There were about a dozen maple trees that had to come out also - the biggest was a real challenge - you can see it in the distance - still standing.

Down it goes!

Now to remove the massive stumps!

Site work mostly done - house corners staked,

Perk holes dug - waiting for design.  Now the fun begins!