Still No Roof

We were given today as another start date for our roof. Bill went home to see if anything is going on. Lots of guys running around but no roofing material. The roofing company had the owners, their structural guy, two installers, and their bid guy out looking at the job. They are saying all the metal has not been ordered or cut. We have been told otherwise. Their structural guy did say that everything looked good, he suggested some 2x4's under the LVLs before we have a snowload on it. There shouldn't ever be a problem but better safe than sorry. Not a big deal we shouldn't have snow for awhile. This doesn't have to be done really fast, just by next winter. The roofing company has said Wednesday should be our start date. Who knows? Maybe when we get back from the 4th long weekend at the lake we will have something.

Moving Things Out

Before we bought Buffalo Hill the West Wing had been used as a paint room, mechanic shop for miniature go karts and all his paperwork. Two rooms in the building had upper and lower cabinets in them. Once our offices move out to the house they are not the kind of cabinets we want in our office so what to do with them. Some have gone in to the workshop for Bill to use and we have already taken the remaining set of lowers to the lake to go into the shed there. We put one set of uppers in the master bathroom. This weekend we took another set of upper to the lake for the shed also.

 These uppers were so heavy he didn't screw them into the wall he had to bolt them into the ceiling. After we took them down we saw a job and location information on the back so these came off of some job site he was working on.












Look at how much larger this room looks with the cabinets out. Both of these rooms that will become our offices are long and skinny so there will have to be some serious remodel going on with them to make them useable for us.

The cabinets give us lots of storage in the lake shed. We aren't like most lake people we have a full service work shed. Lots of tools, lots and lots of nails and screws, scrap lumber anything Bill can think of that he might need now or in the near or far future. Hopefully, he will keep enough room in the for a golf kart to fit in.

Our Zoo is Growing

Bill found the latest member of our zoo this morning. Terry Tarantula has surfaced. He/She is a nice  mature one measuring about 5 inches across. Our Oklahoma Browns are also called Texas Brown Tarantulas. They roam across OK, TX, AR and MO. In the fall, we now know to watch for their migration.

Tarantulas are helpful little creatures. They eat grasshoppers, bugs, ants, and unfortunately baby birds. Hopefully, our momma birds will keep their babies safe. I think we have enough other goodies to eat that Terry will stay away from them.

Tarantulas are not venomous. If you are bit it is like a bee sting. For several years growing up we had a family of them living under a rock in the driveway.

I will never pick Terry up in my hand, shudder shudder. But I will watch her as she goes about her daily business.

One Mans Trash

One mans trash is another man's treasure. Everyone we know wants to be involved in our building process. This is wonderful, we love our friends and customers being so excited for us. We have one landscaper that whenever he has done a sod job instead of taking the left over scraps to the landfill he brings it to us.

 We are slowly getting our hill sodded. We don't have the energy after work to lay a whole pallet of sod. Doing it this way it is easy on us and something that has value to us is not thrown away.

Earthquake Country

It is official Oklahoma has had more earthquakes this year than California. And we had 5 more last night. We happen to live over the epi center of the majority of these quakes. The metal barn we live in is built extremely well. You only notice them if you are awake, the TV is not on, the house is quiet and nothing else is happening.Below is the only way we know something has happened.

Our stove fan comes on. The apartment didn't have a fan when we moved in so we installed this one. The earthquakes turn the fan on low almost every time. When the USGS hears about this maybe we will get a Federal Grant to study earthquake movement in relation with vent hoods. The government wastes money on other stupid research programs why not ours?

Unseen Workers

We have been frustrated this week because the garage is not being roofed. We were told Monday or Wednesday and still nothing and it's the weekend. Now we know why and lots of work has actually been done on our behalf. Our roofer was told that the way the roof was done we would need to deck the entire roof. That would take a bunch of OSB and a lot of man hours. No one could tell him why they wanted it decked. Look around at the metal buildings around you and none of them are decked. Finally, one guy told him it was for noise during a hail storm. It is a garage who cares about noise. Then we was told it was for leaking issues. The joists do not line up with the roofing material. When the roofing sheets would be screwed together if the screws do not go into wood the screws could leak around them. Okay, that makes sense. Now, through all of this there have been men on the roof almost every day that we didn't know about. looking, apprising the situation, making measurements. So today, Saturday, there is a guy cutting our 10 foot sections of metal roofing to exactly fit over the weird angled roofing joists so when the roof is screwed in it is going into wood. This is being done offsite so I hope he is really good at measuring twice and cutting once. Unseen, silent worker bees are working hard to get us a roof. Hopefully, Monday the roof goes on but of course there are thunderstorms in the forecast.

Honey, We Have a Zoo

Our zoo keeps growing. Have never been able to get a picture of our resident Road Runner, he is way too alert. He has stopped knocking on the back door and now hangs out in the front meadow. That probably means his little ones are past the age of the meal worms I set out and he has had to start going out and finding snakes to feed them.

Ever since we moved in we have seen all the signs of deer, spoor and tracks, but never actually have seen one. Our last house we could sit in the family room and watch our two herds wander through the backyard. This week we were able to see our resident deer.

There were two others but they walked off before I could snap their picture. We have altered their feeding pattern so they come close to the house now. They are there morning and evening and Bill has even seen them at midnight. When we build out the residence we will need to alter their pattern again so we can see them from the family room. These glass doors will be in the dressing area of the master bedroom.

These are our other new friends. There are two big bunnies and one little one that come in for my salad tossings and our cracked corn offerings. They do not spook as easily as the other animals. This morning the rabbits were out and had about half a dozen birds flitting around our little oasis for them. It is so cool and makes it difficult to go to work in the mornings. I need to get a bird bath set up for when all this rain stops. I think I will sink it into the ground so all the animals can reach it. That is; as long as it won't encourage snakes to come in to drink.

This is why we live out of town. I know you can get these in town but here you can feel as if they are yours. Now if only the turkeys that our neighbors swear live out by us would start showing up my zoo would be complete.

Blue Skies

Blue Skies, Nothing but Blue Skies, love this song when Frank Sinatra sings it. We were very sad to see blue skies when we got off work yesterday. The garage roofer was suppose to start  and this is what we came home to.

Blue skies, nothing but blue skies, over me. Very disappointed. We are now being told they should be there Wednesday . We will plan on the end of the week. Glad the housing industry is going so strong it's just a bummer for us. We know we go to the bottom of the list because we are a one time customer, and the contractors will service the customers first who will have more jobs for them. We just get too excited and expect things to happen when we are told they will.

Prison Work

The stereotypical work of a gang in prison is busting up rock and moving it from one place to another. Well, we have had Creed, one of our yard hands, moving rock from one place to another. I am sure the education his parents stress to him is becoming very important in his mind also. He is a great worker and super smart so Bill only has to explain the why and how to him once and he gets it. It is wonderful having a  young man that thinks more than one step at a time.

When we have a minute there is always work to be done on the driveway.We are slowly getting the rock edging put it, the fabric down and then the hybrid driveway product on top.

 This is the turn around area for the visitors, propane truck, trash guy, all those types of vehicles. These rocks are too big to be moved by one or two guys so how they are getting them around you ask? Bill rolls the rock up slightly, Creed moves our furniture moving dolly under it and then they inch it into place. Necessity is the mother of invention. We haven't had time to bring the equipment from work home to do this.

 This is the east side of the above area.  It is about 35 feet between the two rows of rocks. Lots of room for lots of traffic.

 And of course Mallory has to show how great they are for jumping off. When the driveway product goes down it won't be as much fun. The product will come to the top of the smallest rocks. This is a very long drive to do. But once it is done it's done. We are doing it the right way so we shouldn't have to redo it at anytime.

Hurry Hurry

Bill ran home and worked on the West Wing entry roof for a bit. It has to be ready on Monday for the roofers to come out Monday or Wednesday to roof the garage, porch and entry. You think you have lots of time to do the prep work before crews come out and then you suddenly realize wow its got to be done right now.

The lumber above the roof line is for the siding to go on to make that area flush with the rest of the wall. The area under the roof is inset. A little dimension to break up the long flat wall. Now tomorrow when we get back from the lake we will get the OSB boards on to the roof so it's ready for the copper roof to go on. It seems as if this is taking forever but it is actually going quicker than we thought it would.

Invasion of the Flying Stingers

We have noticed a few wasps coming and going from the Residence. The front door wall is not completely enclosed yet so they have access. Last night putting up the front light was interesting.There weren't just a few there were hundreds if not thousands of those flying stingers racing around our heads. Okay maybe not  thousands, maybe not hundreds, but at least a dozen.

We couldn't find their nest so it must be above the ceiling tiles; not accessible for us to drench them in poison. I am all about live and let live but not wasps or snakes.

Bill climbed the extension ladder, I handed him ceiling tiles and he closed off their entry. We'll see if they are strong enough to move the tiles. After closing this off you could hear them flying into the tiles and buzzing like crazy. 

 

Bill used a conventional ladder to get to the top of the entry ceiling.I used these great steps the framers put in as part of the wall. The ladder wasn't secure so you had to have a person holding it; being your safety guy and there was no one around to hold it for me. I am short but with stretching I could put my foot up on one board and then haul myself up to the next board. Bill doesn't realize how ingenious I  have to get sometimes to be right there when he needs me.

This is the ceiling we had to get op top of. Went ahead a laid out a partial path of OSB boards that will act as a walkway from a secret door we will build on the right side to a door we will have going into the porch tower to give us access to change light bulbs. We laid the boards were we were and  we will add the others later when we are on that end of the ceiling.

Lights

Went shopping yesterday for outside lights. I had looked on line and found the ones I thought I wanted and Bill liked them too. Saw our store pricing then looked all over the internet and our in town price was the best by far. So off to the light store to look at them in person. I am sure I let out a squeal of delight when the salesman showed them to me. Just what I wanted. Then found out their price on line is higher than their in store price so I saved almost $10 per light. Woo Hoo love those savings.

 Filled the back of my car .Love them, the are long and tall to follow the lines of the columns and then curved lead to follow the curves in the front door. Bought for the front columns, a matching pendant for the West Wing entry and two for either side of the big garage window. On my way home I suddenly thought of our garage in the back. That is where we will be coming and going and we need lights back there on a motion detector. Maybe I need to call my salesman, John, and order two more.

 Doesn't it look pretty? They only had one of the big ones in stock. The second one will be in next week.

 Couldn't wait, had to get the ladder and electrical kit out and put the one I brought home up on the column. The electrical wires are there but they go nowhere we had to run the wires before the rock work was done. We haven't started running the electrical lines through the house yet, we need some walls put in to do that. But the lights will be ready for their switches to be flipped when we get to that point.

 Sp pretty, our last house had really big lights and I got tired of them. Big house = big lights, they worked at that house but, they overpowered everything else. This house we went with smaller so you see they beautiful rock and gorgeous front door.

 We couldn't wait for the power to be hooked up. As soon as it got a little dark we went out and shone a flashlight up into the light so we could see it. We really like it.

I am not ordering lights for the back of the garage, once we got the lights home we may have decided we may not  put lights on the front garage wall so we will use these in the back for us to come and go with.

Surprise

The rain has slowed the rock yard down so Bill headed to home to get some stuff done. After work I went Birthday present shopping for 3 grand kids. Yes, three of our four have their birthdays within two weeks of each other. When I got home what to my wondering eyes appeared?

 Bill had started the eyebrow over the West Wing door. When our businesses are moved to the house this will be the door renters and business visitors will come to. It leads directly into the Trophy Room and the offices will be to the right . We wanted to show an entrance but not detract from the entry going into the Residence. I went to a home builders home last December to deliver a Christmas gift and saw they had four doors on the front of their house. It was a large home yet I had to stand back to determine which door was the one I was suppose to go up to. They were all possible front doors. Luckily, their concrete salesman came just then and said he had gone back to his car and called them to ask where to go. We don't want that problem so this will be just prominent enough for people to see but not fight for attention with the front door. The overhang will come out three feet, so if someone has to wait for us to unlock the door and it's raining they won't get too wet.

 This picture shows how long the West Wing and garage are before they turn the corner and become the Residence. We are trying to come up with as many ideas as we can to break it up into smaller visual pieces.

 Bill is fighting Tennis Elbow right now so the air hammer is the only way we can get anything done. It would not be a good thing if he had to stand on the ground and tell me what to do.  I do not hammer well; poor hand eye co-ordination.

 Couldn't wait had to bring some of the rock over to see what the columns will look like. They are going to be small and just wrap the corner of the door inset. The open door to the left will be removed when the garage roof is finished.

Then to make my day even better I saw that he had installed the door handle on our beautiful front door. I was going to do this but he discovered that we needed to redrill the factory holes. They didn't line up right.You would think when you spend this kind of money on a door things would be right. I don't make alterations, if something is going to get messed up let it be Bill  not me. So one more thing he had to do.

It's a Maze

With the front door in, the entry framed in and the garage not useable yet we have a parking problem. Neither one of us are willing to be the one to have our vehicle out in the storms. Bill's truck has already had hail damage repaired on it and mine is still way too new to get dinged. So we park in line; one behind the other. I pull in as close to our armoire as possible. Yes, that is one of our pieces of furniture that is stuck with not being in the apartment. I have to be within two inches of touching it. Bill pulls in behind me and I wave him in until he is within an inch of  my bumper. He had to take the trailer hitch off of his truck for it to fit. So every time he needs to use the trailer he has to do a little extra work.

If I need to get into the deep freeze I go past the golf cart, open my second row doors, crawl through my car, close the door squeeze by the garage door spring and frame we are selling make it to the freezer. To get back I just reverse the obstacle course and can make dinner. Growing up our deep freeze was outside in the old chicken coop and it was easier to get to than this.

Come On In

More rain this weekend so we didn't want to go to the lake. What to do at home? Oh, yeah, we can put the front door in now.

First step uncrate this baby from this monster box. We could not even budge the door in the crate. There was lots of wood surrounding it to protect all the glass.

 Isn't it beautiful? Love the glass. Really like that the outside glass is smooth. All the ripple glass and leading is set inside. Our last house we had a stained glass door made and having to clean the not smooth glass was a chore.

 This is the transom for over the door.

 Walked the door for a bit to get it over to the entry and then got smart and used a 4 wheeled dolly. We have to remember to use tools and not our backs. The chair is there as additional protection in case of an earthquake. We didn't want to take the chance of this door being knocked to the ground by a little shaking before we got it screwed to the framing.

 We laid the old ceiling tiles down and then the door down to apply silicone to the bottom. We left the OSB board over the doorway as long as possible because of the rain. We put the West Wing door in during a snow storm and now this one while raining. It's the only time we have to do these things.

 Our entry way with the OSB taken down and the door put up. And yes; that is the lawn mower at the front door doesn't everyone keep their equipment in their house? We still have everything in the Residence until the garage roof gets on.

 Next step was framing in for the transom.

 We love it. Wyatt and I had put my front porch table there last week just so it was there. It looks good in it's spot.

 Another small step accomplished.

This picture didn't turn out well. This is the west sun coming in through the front glass. The glass looks like ice with the sun coming through.

Now I am anxious to get the family room door in and as soon as we can get the cars in the garage, the kitchen windows can go in. Each step makes us more anxious to get the next one done. We kept going out and just looking at our front door, we are so excited.

Love the Rain

Oklahoma is in a worse drought than the Dust Bowl days. We aren't in danger of the state blowing away like we were back then but it is still pretty bad. We are in better shape now because of improved farming techniques and irrigated lawns. Our house has received over 3 inches of rain this week and it is suppose to rain all weekend. Wish the pond was fixed, this rain would go a long way in filling it. But, that project is way down on the to do list.

The problem we are having with the rain is we still don't have a roof on the garage or front porch. We are next in line with the roofers but they have to finish the job they are on now. Every day it rains pushes us back three days. The day of the rain and two days for things to dry out so they can get back on the slippery roofs. So our garage walls trap the water and it gets higher and higher. We are concerned that it may at some point seep into the Residence or even worse into the apartment. So Bill, my out of the box thinker, came up with an idea. He drilled small holes into the plate boards for the water to seep out of. Plate boards are the boards that are attached to the concrete floor that your wall studs are nailed to. After the rock goes up those holes will be covered so no chance of insects of coming in through them. The holes are small enough that the integrity of the boards is not compromised.

The next concern we had was the rock columns. They are fresh mortar absorbing all the water from the inside out. Pity the poor guy if anyone should ever run into our columns, those babies are solid concrete. There was no rock trash to pick up because the masons put it all into the columns along with masonry. But that means we haven't had enough time for everything to dry inside the columns and now rain is falling into them since they are open on the top and no roof protecting them.

So up Bill goes and puts a raincoat on each column.

He cut pieces off one of the tarps from the pond and laid it over the open top. Another potential problem circumvented by my ingenious husband.

Spiced Rum

The lumber supplier just delivered another load of lumber for the next step. And again they delivered the wrong stuff. Our builder friends say this is the place to buy from and the pricing is good, but only one delivery has been right so far.

We ordered cedar for around the garage doors and the brought out Douglas Fir. Not a pretty wood to be exposed each and every time we go in and out of the garage. They did send out the Trex boards we are using for the fascia. Yes, we are going NO maintenance on our high exterior wood. No painting during construction or in 5 years when the strong west sun has taken all the color out of the paint.

 Doesn't the Spiced Rum look incredible with the rock? So excited!

We can't do any landscaping since we don't have our sprinkler system  yet. But, we were working on a rent house this weekend and they had planted rose bushes with huge red roses that I had to take a cutting from and it will hopefully live. Not in its permanent place because it has terrible thorns but it is in a place where it will get watered this summer. My sister dug up a bunch of Irises and I put them on the far side of the pond. They are great for soil rentention and don't have to be in a sprinkler system. So hopefully next spring we will have a profusion of color over there and the only maintenance with them will be mowing them down in the fall.