Memorial Day - and we are grateful

The older we get the more meaningful Memorial Day is to us. Today we went to a dedication of a Veteran's Memorial in Treynor, Iowa. Our friend, Jon Beckenhauer (a friend from waaay back when Barney was in the 24th Medical Co.), was the speaker for the dedication. Jon's speech, and the entire program was very moving. It's a well worn phrase, but it was such a tremendous reminder that freedom isn't free.

The living room window wall is now framed. We are still trying to figure out the exact design of the windows on this wall. Barney and I have been designing this house for 25 years so you'd think we'd know exactly how we want these windows, but, we don't--yet. The area on the left is the open stairwell to the walkout basement. I can't wait for them to be able to remove the stabilizing boards. As soon as the roof is on, they'll remove the boards and we will be able to walk through unfettered!


















The informal dining area is on the right hand side of the picture.


















Luke is helping with the framing. You can see him hammering away in the picture below. We are blessed to have his help. We are blessed indeed in so many ways.


















These two pictures were taken Saturday night, May 23rd. We are enjoying watching the geese families at the lake. There are lots of geese--loud honking geese at times, but it's still wonderful. You can see our house in the background in the 2nd picture.

Framing continues - now we're on the main level

This is the front entrance... the little window on the right is Barney's hobby room. The window on the left is the 2nd bedroom (guestroom). The taller framing in the middle is the main entrance. The large window area (2nd window from the right) is the dining room.) It's looking good!


















Here's a view from the back with the main level partially completed. Some birds have decided they want to inhabit the lower level. Barney & I like to sit down there and watch the lake & the birds don't really want us there. There has been quite the commotion getting them to let us sit there! They seem to have accepted us now.


















Here's the main floor informal eating area--looks identical to the lower level. I think this view is my favorite thing about the house so far.


















Here's the area (on the west) where the masterbath will be (this is actually where the bathtub will be). The view is sooo beautiful.

























Master bedroom window looking to the south/southeast. I love this..



















This is the hearthroom window to the south and the sliding glass door to the east, leading to the deck.

Monday, May 18th - We now have a floor for the 1st floor, which provides us with a ceiling for the basement! They also started working on the stairs to the basement. Hopefully by the end of the day today (Tuesday the 19th), the stairs will be done and we will have some walls up on the main floor! :-)

Friday morning - 5/15/09. The guys always get out there nice and early. There was a threat of rain, but it held off until about 4:00 this afternoon and then it rained buckets. We were lucky--perfect timing for the guys to go home for the weekend. They finished securing the floor joists and were just getting ready to start laying on the deck (that's what they call the upper level floor area) when the rains came.

Thursday evening - 5/14/09. Floor joists in place, but not secured yet. Now it seems like things are moving along quickly.

Thursday morning (5/14) --they're starting to put in the bearing walls in the basement. Look how our framer is balancing on a 2 x 4 while he's nine foot in the air over concrete! We do have insurance, but, good golly!!! There was a beautiful rainbow in the sky that morning and everyone was oohing and ahhing over it, but he remained focused--thank goodness--so he wouldn't fall.

Last picture of the day--Wednesday evening, May 13th. The picture window on the left will be the window in the pool table area. The other two windows will be in two separate bedrooms. The bedroom toward the lake could be an office, exercise room, or other optional space.

Another view of the patio door opening and the angled three-panel window area.

Wed., May 13th -- We have some vertical 2x4's up and in place. We're pretty excited. I think we're really going to like this house. We're going to have a french door with two stationery glass panels as our exit out the back of the lower level. You can see the 12' opening on the left side of the picture.

Tuesday, May 12th--the framing begins!!! Our framer is Randy Trauernicht out of Lincoln.

Monday or Tuesday morning (May 11th or 12th). The lumber is being moved into place so they can start the framing. Our UBuildIt Consultant, Mark (whom we are consulting ALL the time) comes out every Monday and reviews everything with us.

Oh--we had to try out the garage. Looks like three cars will fit nicely. (Barney is standing in back of his truck waving. )

One more picture of the foundation before they start the framing. By this time, the wood has all arrived! Here Barney and Luke are just looking things over.

Next step was moving some dirt around. There were big piles of dirt (and big holes) in front of the foundation. The front and sides of the house were graded and right now, there is basically a road completely around our house. Barney keeps joking that we're going to pave the driveway allll the way around the house.

Wow... the plumbing got done, and the next day they came out and poured the concrete basement floor. It's amazing how smooth it is! They run a huge 'sander' over it and smooth it out. It's not fully dry in this picture. (You can see Barney in the background.)

Rory Schroeder Plumbing of Elkhorn is doing the plumbing for us. Over the years, Rory has probably repaired every plumbing fixture in our current house, and he gave us a fair bid, so we're happy he's doing our new house! Even though we aren't planning on finishing the basement right away, we couldn't plumb the basement until we figured out the floor plan. This delayed us by about a week. But I'm very happy with the floor plan! It will be awesome!!! In this photo they were in the process of digging trenches to put the pipes in. Plumbing is a dirty job, but these guys did the job quickly and well! The plumbing was completed on Wed., May the 6th.