August!

Well, monthly updates wasn't exactly what I had in mind.... but better than nothing!

First off, a big......no, a HUGE Thank you for all the family who came out and helped!!! Sorry I wasn't more organized! It was good to see you all again.

Now for the pictures...



Here's the basement framing.... Yay! a bathroom!

Completed....

A 2x10 wall on 12" centers.... That ought to hold some weight.

We also had a little scare with the 'Salt Creek' fire. Thanks for everyone's concern and prayers. We 'lucked' out and the fire never even made it into Indianola valley proper. This picture was actually from Fairview. The weather really cooperated there at the end and they were able to get it under control.

We are always finding little 'visitors'. Usually the kids catch a lizard or two, but this time we found a little horny toad!

Time to bring in the heavy equipment...

With super maneuverable, 4 wheel steering, everybody wants a turn driving!

The 'big beam' - 950 lbs worth!

Fine tuning...

The floor joists for the garage hang off this beam.

Looking kind of like a house...

Whew!

Sorry for the delays in getting an update posted. Here it is!

Here's what the foundation looked like after they took the forms off.

Getting the 'under-slab' plumbing in...

Here's the house part of the basement floor poured. The garage side will be poured on Monday the 9th.

Getting the sill seal put on.

When they say they'll 'drop' a load off, they really mean 'drop'!

And that is one BIG beam. This one goes across the main span of the garage so we don't have to have support posts in the middle of our parking spaces. It's about 7X20 inches by 36 feet. Hernia anyone?

We also attended the 'Sanpete County Fly In' recently. While there we got to meet Gail Halvorsen. He's also known as the Berlin Airlift CandyBomber. Truly a great American. He gave a talk about his experiences during the Airlift and then all the kids got to make candy parachutes. Looks like Jamie is getting a head start on the goods...

And the completed ordanance!

Bombs Away!

They also had some r/c pilots there. This guy was flying a 1/4 scale acrobatic model. It was really neat to watch.

Josh and Abby also got to take another plane ride. They were offering free rides to all the kids. I think Josh and Abby got the best pilot - He gave everybody a little glass of water to hold. Then during the flight he did a negative-g dive and everybody tried to 'drink' the little globs of water floating in front of them! We all had a really good time.

The other thing taking up a lot of our summer is Baseball! Go Abby!

Great Play!

Josh at bat.

Ready for action!

And even though Jamie isn't playing this year, she still comes and cheers everybody on!!!

Love you all, hope everything is going great!

It's always good to see progress!

First things first. On Memorial Day Josh, Abby, and I got to go for a plane ride. It was a lot of fun. We got to fly out and see the house from the air. Both Josh and Abby got to have a turn keeping us in the air. They did great. Their favorite part by far was the zero g 'floating'.

Go Abby, Go! I think she was getting ready for a barrel roll here....

Hey look! There's our hole in the ground. And look at all those blue tarps! Gotta keep those logs covered until we're ready for them. We had to take delivery a little early or we wouldn't have been able to get them this season.

After our plane ride we went to attend a special flag cermony done by the local VFW. It was very nice. Josh especially enjoyed the 21 gun salute from real M1 Garands. It's nice to take a break and remember the great sacrifices made by those who have gone before us.

The foundation crew arrived on Tuesday and went right to work. By Wednesday they had everything poured!

Here's the garage side

Here's a detail of the J-bolts. A layer of sill seal goes down, then the sill plate gets bolted on. On top of all that is the double rim joist that holds all the floor joists together.


That's all for now... We'll keep you posted. BTW - Congrats to Tiff and Jake!

Another flurry of activity.

Try to satisfy the bank's requirements.

Try to satisfy the county's requirements.

Try to satisfy the fire chief's requirements.

Try to stay sane.

Finally got the building permit yesterday. Got our documents recorded as well. What a relief. The footings are ready to be poured today. In fact as I was leaving the pump truck was getting set up.

Oh, and the logs showed up too. Two trucks worth.

Welcome friends and family!



First things first - to bring everybody up to speed... Back in October (2006) we finally found the piece of ground we had been looking for. 5 acres, some trees, some sagebrush, all at a price we could manage. Reminds me a lot of S. Utah.






At that point we had already been coming up with some house plans and pouring over log home planbooks and magazines. We finally settled into working with a rep (http://www.timberlineloghomes.net/) from Yellowstone Log Homes (http://www.yellowstoneloghomes.com/) here in Orem partly because of a fortuitous family connection to their Idaho operations. In fact, Yellowstone's plan book includes several photos from houses that were built by Kami's brothers! So far they have been great to work with.


Then began the long process of converting the dreams and plans into something a little more tangible. We struggled not to get discouraged as we faced problems and delays from the Bank, from the State, from the County, from the homeowners association, from the... no, I guess that about covers it. So here we are in May and we're finally seeing some things come to fruition. As of today we have our driveway roughed in, the well drilled, and our foundation hole dug.



They will start forming for the footings today. On Saturday (the 12th) we also got our temporary compliance certificate from the fire chief. Our building permit should be ready today! Then we close with the bank and the real work begins....


Stay tuned!