New pics

Well....they say better late than never....I say late because I meant to post this past weekend. Where does the time go? As you'll see there's been lots of progress since the last pictures were posted. Just a few more rafters and all of the roof will be done. The sheeting will begin next week if all goes as planned and then the boxing will follow. After that progress will slow down for a while - you know, that whole 'make a living' thing (LOL) - but that's okay because we knew from the beginning this would be a long project with a beautiful ending. I've never been good at being able to "see" the vision that Jimbo is able to see but I must say I can see it now and it's exciting thinking about the future in our new home!!

MIA

Yep - missing in action! You would think I could find some time for posting pictures of the amazing progress Jimbo has been making on the house but where does the time go??

We're at VBS evenings this week but hopefully by the weekend some new pictures will be up! It's really coming along nicely!

It's time for an update

I can't believe how much progress has been made on the house in the last week. All of the walls on the bottom floor are up and you can actually tell where everything is! Jimbo has made a few revisions as he's been building so as to maximize the space. With this heat I'm not sure how quickly the 2nd floor will go up and then the roof but it's amazing to me the guys are able to work at all. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

It's been a quick whirlwind weekend - seriously, don't they all seem that way?? - we got to see everyone at lunch after church today, which was great. Yesterday Autumn made a little progress on getting Alexa's room ready to move in to. Tomorrow Jimbo has to put the light up and Kerry will finish the painting - then she'll be moving in. I'm sure Autumn will share some pics on her blog once she's in.

We've got walls!

Last Thursday the first wood went down on our new house! It was exciting to get home and see the I joists down. On Friday Jimbo and his crew (Kerry & Mike) finished up the I joists and put down most of the subflooring. Saturday brought a long day for Jimbo & Jerry putting pipe under the driveway and marking out the driveway - it will be circular (really a pear shape) in front of the house with a turn out leading to the garage. And today they stood up the outside walls around our master bedroom suite!! How exciting!! The guys have been real troopers with these hot temperatures we're having right now.


This weekend was a good ending to last week and a good beginning for this week. Grace is doing well from her defibrillator/pacemaker procedure but has been having some difficulty with her left wrist. Tomorrow she goes to get an xray to be certain there isn't a fracture (or to ensure appropriate treatment if there is). Friday Pam and Tona headed to their respective homes and both arrived safely. It was so good to see them and get to spend a little time with them and it was certainly special for Grace to have them here.


We were pretty low key over the weekend - trying to catch up on laundry (really - does it ever end??), Jimbo working at the house site, and taking some time to sit out in the sun by the fish ponds. I enjoy the fish so much but we still haven't gotten our new filters installed so the algea continues to grow. The fish don't seem to mind it too much, though. Bridgett at work today shared a tip on battling algea - barley. She said it's available at any place that carries pond stuff, in a little bale, so I think I'm going to try that to see if it will help us get headed in the right direction.

Sunday our Church had a special service to honor our interim Pastor Wallace and his wife Donnie. They have been such a blessing to us during the time we have been waiting on God to bring us a new Pastor - we're looking forward with anticipation to Andy and his family joining us on June 15th but we're really going to miss Wallace & Donnie!!


Our daughter-in-law, Brenda, took her State Boards earlier today and I know she is waiting with anticipation to hear the news she's passed and is officially a Registered Nurse!! We're so proud of her accomplishment! I remember all too well how hard it is to balance school with a husband and work and am glad she's reached this point!!


And, last Thursday Walker and his parents came for a visit - we got a few pictures of Walker and Alexa at the house site - there's one below.


I'm looking forward to supper tomorrow night with Anne & Jackie. We haven't been able to catch up for a while so it should be good food and fun sharing what's going on with our kids and grandbabies & granddogs!


Hope everyone has a great week - it will be the weekend again before we know it, that's for sure!

This is a shot of the I-joists on top of the block foundation

Look at my two sweet babies!

Now this is the subflooring on top of the I-joists

YAHOO!!! Look at our future master bedroom suite!! I can move in tomorrow! :)

The view of my walls from the other end of the house

Post Memorial Day Musings

Autumn and I both had to work on Memorial Day and for me it was extremely quiet so I was able to get lots done on our current orders build for the new Village Hospital. And even with that I was able to take out a few minutes to remember those who have given their lives so we in the USA can enjoy being free. I think we often take our freedoms for granted because it's what we've known all of our lives. A great big thanks to all of those men and women who are currently in the Armed Forces and working to maintain our freedom!! We are so blessed!!

We had a great weekend, though it went by way too quickly. If you read Autumn's blog you know about our trip to Aiken to pick up my cousin (Pam -she's in town while her Mom, Grace, is having a biventricular defibrillator implanted - the procedure was done earlier today and Grace is doing great!! They're keeping Grace overnight in the hospital and then she has to keep her left arm immobile for the next 3 weeks as the surgical site heals) who was there for the wedding celebration of a good friend. The final event of the wedding was attending a Polo match so Autumn, Alexa and I got to go along! What fun....go on over to Autumn's blog for some pictures if you haven't already seen them.

Below are some pics of progress on the house. Jimbo says they'll start putting wood down later this week, most likely on Thursday. I'm getting excited at the thought of seeing the house go up over the next few weeks. All of these years of being a builder's wife it's always been exciting to see his projects come to life and completion but this project will be accompanied by lots more excitement as well as lots of responsibility for picking out finishes and making decisions. I hope to get to help some on the construction, too. We'll see how that goes!

Our bedroom is on the left end of the house - we'll have seperate walk in closets, a garden tub and our washer/dryer will be right in the bathroom - won't that be convenient. We'll have a screened in porch right off of our bedroom, too.

Alexa enjoys hanging out down at the house site - she spent about an hour playing in the dirt on Saturday. She's already telling "Pop" she's excited about "our" new house.

I never knew concrete could look so good!

We came home yesterday to the excitement of concrete footings!! The footings had been poured to the tune of 33 yards of concrete. And, even better than that, the masons came today. I got home too late to see their progress and it may be too muddy tomorrow (after the shower we received this afternoon) for them to work, but it's progress for sure. Hopefully I'll get to see the foundation and post pictures tomorrow.

You can't see it here but Autumn wrote the baby's names in the concrete and asked for God's blessings on them! I'm sure that picture will make it to Autumn's blog before long.

Hope you enjoy a few pictures of the progress at the house site.

On a sad note, I received a call from my good friend Janice today - she lost her Mom last night. I know from experience how hard it is to lose your Momma, my thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family during their time of grief. Please pray for them.

Our circular driveway...we'll have to come up with a landscape plan for the center :)

Two babies, twice the fun!!

Thursday evening we went to the Air Show at Champion AeroSpace where our son, Josh, is a product engineer. The weather wasn't conducive to flying so the show was limited to a formation of 3 planes flying over but it was exciting nonetheless because Josh designed the spark plugs for the planes!! Makes a Mama so proud! The food and fellowship were both great and both babies were there. Walker is spending a few days with us so he came home Thursday night and has been with us since.

He stayed with Aunt Sibby yesterday while Alexa went off to day care. When we got off work we went to Sylvia's go get him and she hosted supper for us. Walker really likes Chinese food so she made chicken chowmein and it was great!! We all ate a good supper, then home to baths and bedtime. My, where does the time go??

Today is a super busy day - first a bridal shower for a high school friend of Autumn's (thanks to Sarah for keeping the babies while we visited with friends)then home to spend time with the babies and catch up on general household chores like the never ending pile of laundry :)

After naps for the babies, which gave us a chance to have a short rest, we went outside and walked down to the house site. The grading is finished and the footings are dug and formed - so now it's inspection time and then on to pouring the concrete. It's great to see some progress. I know it's going to be a slow go, as it of course won't help with paying the bills, but that's okay!!

Then we took the babies to the fish ponds and are now watching the "Letters". It's a great video series for preschoolers. Autumn is going to be keep the babies tonight while we go to church for a reception to meet our new Pastor!! We are so excited! So, needless to say, it's been a day packed full of excitement and things to do.

Here are some pictures I've been promising....mostly of the progress at the house site and a few of the babies on Mother's Day. Hope you enjoy!

Our land at the initial clearing a few weeks ago.

The driveway after it had been whipped in to shape by Jerry!

The car parked in the "garage" as I ponder the view

Where the house will be! :)

Alexa and Walker enjoying chunking rocks into the creek above the fish pond.

Wii anyone??

Where did that rock go?

Blocks to go.