SNOW SUCKS

We spent 4 solid hours shoveling and snow plowing today. Do you know how weird it is to shovel out the INSIDE of your house? I'm going to be sore tomorrow... :0(

The good news? We are all cleaned up and ready to stack logs tomorrow! YAY!!

STACKING LOGS TOMORROW

Well friends, we are stacking logs tomorrow! 25 for a high feels like a heat wave in this weather! So Dave, Rick, Kirk and I are going to suit up and take on the rest of the logs!! Woo hoo!!!

I'll keep you posted on our progress!

WE'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY!

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted! Let me just say, it's good to be back! So much has happened in the last few months - let me get you caught up!

Summer, 2010 - finalized the blue prints, the house appraised (that was a crazy experience!), closed on the construction loan and set ground breaking date!

October 5, 2010 - Ground breaking day! I still can't believe it. When I look back at those pictures I remember thinking "is it ever going to happen?" Yay God! So, so fun! Excavation began mid October, and then the basement poured.

November, 2010 - All the concrete finally finished, 1st load of logs were delivered from the log home company, I left for Israel, my family and friends started stacking logs without me! CRAZY!

December, 2010 - I can believe how cold it is! It really slowed down the stacking of logs as we had to fight hypothermia. I mean, really! Totally annoying! I'm ready for spring!

January, 2011 - I thought December was cold - I should have been happy for the high 30's. I have come to the realization that, if you really put your mind to it - and really good friends will do it with - you can totally do things, and endure things that you never believed you could do! We have been stacking logs every chance we get - even when it's 20 degrees. The house is getting taller, and we are almost ready for the roof. Thank goodness! I ordered my kitchen this week, and they makes me really, really happy!!

Trees, trees, and more trees....

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! Time goes so fast - and I'm having trouble keeping up!

Family is awesome! I had planned a work day to start really clearing the spot where the house will sit for April 12. EVERYONE showed up! It was so awesome! My whole family, and lots of friends came out to help me get a good start on clearing. Praise God for men and their chainsaws! Webster, Larry, Andy, Dan, and Dave were awesome!

Even all of my nieces and nephews came to help haul logs! Caleb and Westin were a huge help also. I am blessed to have such an awesome family!

Then the last 2 Saturday's a good friend of the family Doug - brought his saw out and finished it up! WOO HOO

I'm hoping that we'll be digging soon and pouring concrete!

I promise to keep you posted more often!

Big trucks, tractors, and blueprints!

So Pam and I, along with Dave Marks, went out to see how they were doing on the trees. We came around the corner onto the bluff to see trucks and tractors everywhere! It was AWESOME! The Logging Company was there to finish up taking the trees that they had taken down. It was cool to see them loading them on a big ole' truck. He left me a big piece of a hickory tree to make my fireplace mantel. It's gorgeous!

I had an email from the guy I'm getting my logs from on Friday. It had an electronic copy of my blueprints attached. I was so crazy busy getting ready for our Good Friday service and Easter weekend services that when I opened them I said "they're wrong" and promply closed the email. It didn't even faze me... (that's a sure sign that my brain is overloaded!) I connected with Dominic later that afternoon, and he explained how they had gotten confused - and he had already spoke to them to get them corrected. Whew! It was still cool to get the chance to see the front and back elevations of the house, even though they aren't totally right. Hopefully, I'll get a fresh set of prints this week!

They're Coming Down!

I'm a tree hugger. I never knew that about myself. I mean, I'm all about nature and trees and leaving it all alone and stuff. But, I REALLY didn't like seeing my trees come down. The process was way more violent than I thought. The whole earth shook when those 80ft trees came toppling down. I had 9 that were marked to come down to open up my view of the river, and now that they're down it looks really great and all - I could only watch him do 2. It made very sad....

The cool thing is - I can't believe it's started! YAY! So, I hired the guy to take down the hard ones, and family and friends are going to help me take down the little ones on top of the hill where the house will go. We're going to do that the weekend after Easter.

Last night was Friday night house planning at Shannon and JoLynn's. Let me just say for the record "I suck at all things electrical!" My job last night was to take the blown up floor plan and add all of the electrical stuff to it. Then I had to make a list for Shannon of how many of each thing I'll need. I must have asked him the same questions 10 times - "so if there is a switch on the other side of the room that controls the same light - that single switch is considered a 2-switch?" "What!!" I finally gave up asking him and started bugging JoLynn cause I felt like she was feeling sorry for me. Hey, the girls gotta stick together!

To top this all off - I called Ameren on Monday to find out about the temporary pole. The lady said they would come out on next Monday. Okay - cool. Pam calls me on Wednesday to say the Cilco guy just called and he's out at the land! Wait! He's not supposed to come until next week. Anyway, it all turned out okay in the end. We found out that there is no transformer there - so they're going to have to install one. Now I'm working with a lady named Susan who is a customer rep for Ameren. She's super nice, but I feel like I'm always saying, huh, uhhh, okay, ah huh, well...I think so... I'm mean it's ridiculous! I have no clue what I'm talking about!

I'm meeting with the log guy on Monday - that'll be more fun I'm sure!!