House, House and more House!

The last entry ended with wood being loaded onto the floor in preparation for building the walls.

And now we have some walls - the east and south walls to be exact.  Notice that the detached garage is mostly shingled except for a few feet at the top of the back side.

This wall went up really quickly - I hardly had time to snap the picture!!!  Could be because it was one of the smaller walls, and there were a ton of guys there behind it lifting it up - see all the heads?

Richie said this wall was the hardest of all because of the wind.  Lots of help from Vince, Rob, Jas (blue head), Kyle, Richie, Scott, Morgan, Doug and . . .

. . . Sheldon on the outside.  I like all the hands showing through the windows and door.  This is the mud room, kitchen and dining room.  Once the wall was standing and I was gazing out my kitchen windows, I realized that I had a lovely view of a tree - and nothing else.  The next day the tree was gone and now I'll have a lovely view of the deck and kids playing in the back yard.  And there are still lots of trees!

A side view and the nicely shingled front view of the garage.  Dual black shingles again - I like them best.

And I included this picture simply because I like it, and it's my blog!!! haha

Okay, it looks like all the exteriors wall for the house are built - now it's just the attached garage needing walls.  Need to get some serious backfilling done!

It's Elder K helping out - screwing down sheeting.

This was Nov.15 and the next picture is Nov. 25 - brace yourself for a big change!!!!

Snow!!!  And trusses!!!  We got lots of snow and then the weather plunged into a deep freeze.  Fortunately, Rich was sick at this time too (I don't mean it was good that he got sick, but it was good that he got sick when it was too cold and miserable to work outside!)  We took a trip to Lethbridge on one of the cold days.  We were pulling the trailer so we could buy insulation for the garage.  On the way, our fan belt came off and the truck died.  As we were sitting there, we saw a truck going down the highway loaded down with our trusses - a beautiful sight!  And eventually our truck got fixed and our mission was successful!

Okay, so because of the weather, our backfilling didn't happen like we'd hoped.  It's hard to put up the garage walls when the ground is so much lower than where the floor will be - see how low the guys are.  But they are amazing and are lifting a wall!!!

Today's helpers are Richard, Rob, Richie and Brent.

I was out Christmas shopping and got home to take pictures of the crane lifting the trusses onto the roof right as it finished.  At least it was still there for the picture!  We had to have Fred and the big yellow machine come in and clear out snow drifts so the crane wouldn't get stuck - didn't want stuckness added to our hourly crane bill!

And that is Clarence up there helping Richie with trusses.  He travelled great distances on winter roads and gave up his Grey Cup tickets to come and help.  Thank you so much Clarence!!!

Yes, I took this from inside my warm vehicle on my way to do more Christmas shopping!  Can you see the bonus room up there above the garage?  Isn't that great!!!  In case you were wondering, the flat peak of the roof is designed for sun-tanning. 

This is the sight that met me when I returned from shopping - most of the trusses were up, it was dark and it was snowing again!!!!

Richie and Jordyn in the great room - I LOVE the vaulted ceiling!!!

Clarence, Kevin and Drew and the white dots are snowflakes coming down through the trusses.  Richie has shovelled out the house three times now.  These flakes were the beginning of another big snowfall.

Here's that southwest corner view again.  Looking better and better all the time!!!

And I should tell you that the real reason for the flat peaks is because the truss machine doesn't make trusses taller than 14 feet.  Our peaks are another little piece that Richie will attach - called piggybacking.

And a south east view this time - love the cantilever!  That's my bedroom!!!

And there's Richie up there sheeting the roof.  I'm so glad he has such great balance!!!

And now I must tell you that I delight in power tools!!!  Can you imagine nailing all this by hand, or cutting all this wood by hand?  Me either - we'd still be back at the floor joists!

And that brings us to the end of November - exactly a month and a half of house building

(and the detached garage still isn't quite all shingled!).



Service Star

I love traditions, especially righteous traditions!  I think I'll share a few of my favourites throughout the month of December.  Today being December 1 means that our Service Star was activated.  We usually draw names to see who starts but this morning Daddy was eager to be the one starting so we all agreed.  Our Service Star is a little wooden ornament - and actually we have two of them, but one just hangs on the tree all season.  Written on it is our family motto - "Love one another and serve one another." (Mosiah 4:15). 

The person with the star has 24 hours to do a service for someone in the family and leave the star at the place where the service was performed.  So dad started the day off by emptying the dishwasher for Carlee.  When Carlee came to do her kitchen chore, she found nothing in the dishwasher but the star.  And now it's Carlee's turn to serve someone else in the family.  We added a new rule this year:  if you don't complete your service within 24 hours, then you also need to give someone in the family a backscratch!!!  Lovin it, lovin it!!!

I delight in watching the caring and creative ways my family come up with to serve each other.

Things I Do

I love to create things.  It's one of my great joys in life.  I've always got some sort of craft type project on the go.  For example . . .

This cross-stitch by Greg Olsen called "Lost No More".  I call this my conference project because I usually only think to work on it while I listen to General Conference.  It's the most intricate cross-stitch I've ever attempted, and too detailed to attempt to do in the car.  You can see I'm slow because I started Feb 15, 2006!  But it will be beautiful when it's done! 

There - you can see the finished picture and how much more I have to do.  But I love having an on-going project to work on that is clean and I can pick it up any time and work on it.

Now here's a fun one . . .

Candy Corns!!!  I made these at Kd's craft group so I was not the brilliant designer - just the painter!  I love fall decorations that aren't gruesome and having lots of candy corns laying around wasn't bad either!!!

And . . .

Here's another project I have on the go right now.  I love these colours together - blues, greens, browns.  At this point in time, this will probably end up being a table runner - maybe!!!  That's the joy of creating - it can be whatever I want it to be!  I've sewn the first 72 squares together now - looks very cute, except for the fact that not all my corners end up together.

Yes, I delight in creating.  And I love listening to the Mormon Message by Elder Deiter F. Uchtdorf called "Create".  It really speaks to me!!!

The Building Begins

From my lack of blogging lately you might guess we've been preoccupied with something else.  Yes, the building of our house has begun!

So obviously, the first photo has to be the "before shot".  And I wish I could show you the "after shot" but that probably won't be for a few years!

Ours is a corner lot.  I'm standing in the southwest corner, facing northeast.  I'll take lots of pictures from this corner. The dates on the pictures are correct so we can easily tell when things happened.

Topsoil has been scraped off and the house staked out.  Fred and the big yellow machine are ready to start digging the hole for our house.

This is our detached garage/workshop.  We'll also have an attached garage.  So yes, that is four garage doors we have ordered!!!  By the way, so many choices now for choosing garage doors!  Rich and I built these styrofoam block walls while our two little girls were playing off in the back by the camper.

Here we see the cement truck and lots of helpers as the footings were poured for the house.  That's a set of Elders helping there too.  People are so willing to help - it's been wonderful!!!

And now we have the styrofoam blocks for the basement walls, eventually to be filled with rebar and cement.  It really is like building a house out of lego!

My dad looking very happy to help.  We were certainly very happy to have him help!!!

Detached garage with its floor all poured.  Notice the red hoses in the far back corner for in-floor heating!  It's gonna be a nice workshop!  It's funny though, people think this garage is for Richie.  They don't realize that I love working with wood too and used to sell lots of crafts and will again someday!!!  Oh, and notice Richie and Katia in the very center, and my shadow taking the picture!  A few horses live in the field behind us.

The first wall is ready to be lifted by Rob, Kevin, Dad, Lynn and Richie. 

                                                                  And up it goes!!!

Richie and Rob with the north and east walls.  Windows are high so we can have workbenches below - good planning!!!

Lifting the garage trusses.

Richie, Rob, Kevin and Jas putting up the roof.  8/12 pitch in case you were wondering!

And the view again from the southwest corner - it's changed a lot!!!

Well lookee here!!!  The roof is sheeted now and that's Richie up there.  He's a fast worker!

Okay, back to the house and putting on the floor.  Our house is a 1620 square foot bungalow with a full basement and a bonus room over the attached garage.

Remembrance Day and no school, which means more helpers at the house.  Carlee and Jas hauling wood.

That's Kevin lifting all the 2x6's from below while the people up top are stacking them nicely in the center so there is room on the edges to start building the exterior walls.

And that's all I can show you for now until I upload more photos - believe me, I've taken lots!!!  Richie has been working at an amazing pace, trying to get as much done while the weather was nice.  And that brings me to my delight:  I delight in my husband and the knowledge and ability he has to build a home - a haven for our family from the world.  And I delight in all the people who have been so willing to help us.

My Girl, My Girl, My Girl . . .

Yeah, so, Richie and I must be the luckiest couple in the world because we've been blessed with seven beautiful daughters.  Richie says that seven is his lucky number, and our next seven kids will all be boys!!!  And I agree with him - they will be our sons-in-law!!!

Let me introduce you to my girls . . .

Our first born, Richelle, was born in March.  It's hard to believe she's left home already - seems like she should only be about 10 years old!!!  Chelle is a beautiful singer, a self-taught pianist and a percussionist.  Dancing and acting are also talents of hers.  Volleyball and softball were the sports she excelled at. 

Jasmine is our second born, arriving in October.  Jas is in Grade 11 and is a very intelligent young lady, often top of the class.  She's also very athletic, enjoying volleyball, softball and especially basketball.  Jas is a thoughtful and helpful girl, and a great leader.  Jas sure makes beautiful sounds from her flute!

#3 arrived in March - Sweet Jordyn.  She's in Grade 8 and does very well academically too.  She plays the clarinet and enjoys clogging, volleyball and softball too.  Jordyn is a creative genius!!!  She writes novels, her artwork is phenominal and the gifts she makes for us at Christmas are amazing.  She even created "Pigmy Puffs" and sold them at school - with different outfits for each holiday!  A marketing genius!

Carlee is our fourth girl and she arrived in October.  She's in Grade 7 and is a pretty smart girl.  She loves volleyball, basketball, softball and clogging.  She's getting that trombone figured out now.  She's learning how to rip-stick.  She's enjoying Young Women's and works on Personal Progress diligently.  Carlee is a character and makes us laugh lots!!!

Jennafer is our fifth born - arriving in March (do you see a pattern?)  Jenna just started public school in Grade 4 (all our girls are homeschooled til then) and is doing very well adjusting.  Jenna is very coordinated and it's fun to watch her dance.  She has a lovely singing voice and was a mermaid in the play Peter Pan.  She's enjoying learning softball, volleyball and basketball skills.

Miss Katia is number six and she was born in March (the pattern is broken!).  She's in Kindergarten and has a joy and zest for life.  She loves Primary, Storyhour and Thursday School.  Katia is so friendly to people and especially has many elderly ladies that love to visit with her.  She makes people feel loved!!!

And finally, Mackenzie really broke the pattern and arrived in September.  She's as sweet as a little one-year-old can be and get tons of love and attention from her sisters.  She was really sick with Bronchiolitis when she was two months old but has been very healthy since then.  We all love her to bits!!!

Aren't they delightful?

I find so much joy and delight in these fabulous girls, my daughters!!! 

Family Pics

October 2 was the date our our 2010 Family Photo Shoot.  It wasn't quite as easy to do anymore because we don't all live together.  We actually had to plan for this!!!  So this was the Saturday of General Conference.  We watched the morning session, did our pictures, then rushed off to our nephew's wedding.  So, picture time was the middle of a very hot (27 C) fall day, so the sun was much too bright for picture taking, but it really was our only time to do it.  And we are so grateful to our niece Jaime for being our photographer. 

These two pictures were the first ones taken in our current backyard.  Love the sun, but not when you're trying to take pictures!!!  Our white shirts would have looked much better on a cloudy day!!!  Now we're all just glowing!!!

Then we went over to our new yard, where the house building hadn't started yet.  This is the back fence on the east side of our yard.  We'll get to see some beautiful sunrises over this field - can't wait!!!

I cropped this picture and turned it into a mouse pad for Richard for Christmas.  It has the phrase "Our Family is Forever" in white letters across the bottom.  Makes a nice little computer reminder about what's really important, just in case we're spending too much time at the computer playing mindless games, or blogging, or whatever (not that we'd ever do anything like that!).

Jordyn, Chelle, Jenna, Delle, Rich, Carlee, Kenzie, Jas, Katia (in case you couldn't tell!)

I blew this picture up into an 8x10 and it's by our front door.  It's my little "Return with Honour" reminder!!!  This will be a nice shot to retake every year as the girls all get older - one of them might even get taller than me (or Rich!) someday!!!

 

This is a fun one - sure looks like a lot of us!!!  And we planned for everyone to cross their feet except dad!  This nice grassy spot is right in the middle of where our new house will be.  So the next time we lie in this spot, it'll probably be right in the middle of the living room!!!

And the sun wasn't quite so bright in this shot - now we just have the wind blowing our hair in places we didn't want it to be!!!  At least it's not raining!

Love Sepia!!!  We're tucked in front of our neighbours fence on the north side.  I love that some flowers were self-sewn in our yard from their side.  The only problem with this spot was that there were some prickles in the grass so we couldn't all sit quite where we needed to.  I usually like family pictures with mom and dad together.  But I love how these ones look like "Richie and his Girls". 

And my personal favourite . . .

I just love the colours and the casualness of this picture - kind of wild, kind of tame, kind of balanced - and the submissive dog!

Don't I have a delightful family?  I'm am so blessed to have each and everyone one of these people as part of my life.  They are all so unique and special - each one adding a different dimension to our family circle.  Whenever I look at my family pictures, I just feel delighted!!!