construction day 9

Framing Day 5

The framers were hard at work all day today. We had a typical North Texas high pressure area centered over Dallas which means high heat, little wind. Most of their work today was interior, but first some shots of the roofline which was an issue yesterday. I think the results speak for themselves.
















































Next, some interior shots.

Peggy's kitchen with the window over the kitchen sink looking west. I have promised to remove/trim some trees this winter to widen her view.













The master bedroom with the big picture window (facing east) as our headboard.













The high ceiling in the great room/kitchen



















And, finally, some shots as our friends see them driving south on FM 100.

Taken from near the Stewart mother-in-law house about 1000 meters away.














Taken from our pasture fence along FM 100















Same location with zoom lens.

Framing Day 4

Day 4. We dodged the big storm moving in from Oklahoma early this morning. Pasture is still too wet to mow, the temperature is wonderful, so I mosey on down to the house site to take some early morning snapshots. This first shot shows the crew working on the porte cochere. Everything seems normal.



{screenwriters note: cue the music at low volume....shark music from Jaws}
ah...omp.......ah...omp






The Porte-cochere: a closer look.



{Gradual increase in shark music volume}
dah...Dump..............dah...Dump








The crew is working on the roofline to connect to the porte cochere.

No eye contact, but I didn't realize that until later.



Dah...DUMP..........Dah DUMP..........Dah...DUMP





I'm happily snapping photos. See how our rear porch with the cedar posts runs all the way across the back. Hey! I knew what to do. I'll take another picture which will really show off the rear porch.


Louder Jaws theme.







See! Rear porch all the way across. OK, it's hard to see, but it's there.

Hmmm. Wait a minute.

There's no one working.
No construction noise.
No one in the picture.

Except two people: Rick - our foreman,
and the framing crew leader.
And, Rick is on the cell phone.

Jaws music at full volume
DAH...DUMP...........DAH...DUMP


Seriously folks, can you see anything wrong with this picture?

The only clue I have is that Rick and the crew leader are staring at the top of the construction.

So, I leave. Obviously there is an issue and technical consultation is underway.







A little later when the construction noise resumes, I wander back and invite Rick to lunch.
At the Fina.

Skip: So is it solved?

Rick: Yep.

Skip: Was it the roofline?

Rick: Yep.

Skip: Is it fixed?

Rick: Yep.

Skip: OK.

I have to piece a few things together, but my take is the framers realized there was an error in the roof design, and pointed it out to Rick.

Roofs are like stairs.
They look simple in theory, but in practice are very tricky. I first learned this trying to build a basic two step staircase. I sure wasted a lot of lumber on that one, and it was never quite right.


It will look beautiful!

Here's shot from our Blackberry graveyard., which is not so beautiful right now.

We planted 25.
8 remain.
Not a great ratio..

Next year we are shooting for 25 out of 25!!!
AND, air conditioning, heat in the winter, room enough in the shower to turn around without opening the shower door, hot water, (and cold water in the summer), and lots of family visitors!

Framing Day 3

Great weather today. High was around 95 degrees. Framing crew arrived early (0800) and stayed until 1930 hrs. Looks to me like they have raised most of the interior walls, including the wall which will house Peg's two ovens. There was a question, how wide are the ovens? I opened the CONEX we leased for the contractors to have access to and read the labels. We read the specs, which were astouding. Rick got his measurements. I learned the ovens cook three (or more?) different ways: normal, convection(?), and [classified]. Just kidding. I'm typing this while there is a TV program EXPOSING Area 51. You never know. We just MIGHT have ALIEN cooking technology in this house. Just remember....if you are asked anything about these ovens...the correct answer is "I don't know":]

Anyway, on to the pictures. But first, in addition to framing, the inscrutable Fannin County electric co-op installed electricity to the pad site. Yes, overhead lines. Three new big ugly electric poles in our pristine pastures. I decided to ignore it all and go hack down grasses threatening our vegetables. (Did you know that Texas is the only US state in the universe to have NO weeds? Only Native Grasses) Thanks to Peggy I can pick ripe tomatoes each night for my salad, so I give no quarter to invading grasses.





The roof line appears over the garage















Pancho: "Hey Cisco. What is this on the drawing..a Porte cochere?"














Cisco: "They want us to build a carport in their front yard"

Pancho: "Gringo loco"












A work in progress














Our backyard. I can't wait to sit in the shade.

Framing Day 2

Day 2 of framing.
The garage door wall is erected.












Interior walls for the Den are erected and braced.












The entrance to the master bedroom...(and in the distance, the entrance to the laundry room)












To counter disparaging remarks overheard concerning Skip's closet...here's here's the entrance to Peg's Pantry.

















All was great until some dark clouds rolled in from the north. My phone beeped with a weather alert. The radio started broadcasting.."We interrupt this program..."
And we got strong gusts from the north with 1.5 inches of rain, then even stronger gusts from the south. Someone called me to see if the trailer was OK. It was rocking., The radio said gusts to 70 MPH. I hauled in the colors to protect the flagpole from being bent (again). The aluminum pericola over the back deck lifted up and broke some of the welded joints. (Wait a second....does aluminum weld? Anyway, it's broken).


Then at sunset, all is calm. Except for the rodeo club meeting, where all participants were castigated by Fred (owner of Honey Grove Peanut and Grain) for failing to follow through with their commitments to bring in ads. Fred is a great guy, talks straight and pulls no punches. He is also tall and broad shouldered enough to give authority to his opinions. We were OK, and took advantage of the situation to score the back page of the program for the Honey Grove Cowboy Church. (Heh, heh). Plus we are sponsoring a gate which means we hang our church banner across the gate which opens to let the bull out for a bull ride. (There are six gates on the north end of the arena...all of which have sponsor's banners). The six gates at the south end of the arena are used for calf roping, etc. so no sponsors will spend money for those gates.

We may have to do concessions again...it all depends on the situation with the man who has done them previously. He is in the hospital with a leg amputated, two other family members in his crew have died, his black man (who ran the popcorn operation out of small adjacent building) has died, and he wants his son to run the concession now that his son is out of jail.

Framing - Day One June16, 2008

Day One of Framing:

Task #1 is to distribute the stacked wood to positions on the pad where the walls will be constructed











Distances are first walked off...















Then measured and snapped with chalk line















Work stops during a thunderstorm that suddenly brewed up in spite of current forecasts.
We got another 3/10' of rain.












After the thunderstorm, the back wall (facing east, looking toward the pond) is erected.














Another shot of the back wall.
















This is the north end (bathroom and Skip's closet)














This is the south wall (garage) being constructed















Measuring for the front of the house















And putting the bottom studs in place.

















This is what the frame looked like at the end of the first day. (Framers left around 1900 hrs)























A look at the front of the house






































Another look at the front.




























The back of the house. This framing is for the bathroom and master bedroom.







































The north wall of the house (bathroom and Skip's closet, again). Unkind rumors that I have a fixation about my closet are totally false and without merit.
















Great Room framing.

Lumber has arrived on site.

Laying pipe for water/telecom to the pad

Friday we laid 450 feet of pipeline. Trenching to 30", bottom layer of sand, glueing pipe, adding Cat 5e, top layer of sand, and backfilling. The temperature was 98 degrees!
















Trenching with a DitchWitch.
Speed was about one foot per minute.
Quote: "This clay is like concrete".




















Ricky (in orange) is our foreman.
The guy with the paint splotches is...our painter
















Pipe and telecom are placed on top of a layer of sand for drainage















Then, covered with another layer of sand















Then, backfilled.















Almost finished!