Pole Barn 8: Since You've Been Gone...

After the week of super-productivity with my mom and dad, we 

took the first day "off" and visited the courthouse in Walker, MN, 

to submit our application for a building permit for (1) a septic 

system and (2) a HOUSE! And while I was at the highway 

dept office nearby, the lady there recognized the address on 

my form and gave me the receipt for the mailbox post that was 

just about to be mailed to us. So we picked up the post at our 

neighbor's place (the hwy dept shop next door) and installed a 

mailbox that day! Woohoo! Now for contacting all those businesses 

and getting them a new address, which barely exists and 

many systems don't recognize yet. Not even USPS. Hmm.

BUT! Mail will get here, even without the W.

There she is. The mailbox is in city limits. Our land is not. :)

And the post office is RIGHT there, so of course 

I looked into getting a PO box. Bu monthly dues are greater 

than the cost of a mailbox.

A VERY empty house on cleaning day. The only "home" 

that Teddy, Bridget, and Andrew have known as home!

Our friend-realtor took some family 

photos a couple days before the keys were 

officially handed over. 

Best family shot in a long time,
even with the SOLD sign!

And here: the new digs after a LOT of organizing, believe it or
not! Our friends Vlad(imir) and Lexi (and Mabel and baby Abner) 

live in Pequot Lakes (9 miles south of Pine River) and have 

this attached apartment they're renting to us for cost of utilities. It's 

cozy and it does the job! It's also really fun to have them 

right next door. We've already shared meals and they were/are so 

helpful as we moved and settled in.

Bridget has become quite the baby-hog, 

and consistently asks "when will we see 

Vlad and Lexi?" meaning "when can I hold 

baby Abner??"

Back at the shop, I encouraged Randy to go ahead and extend the "deck" the rest of the way down the building (that is, the heated part. From now on, the "shop" or "building" refers to the area that's on concrete, being finished). He didn't want to spend the extra up-front money on lumber, but with the deck in place, it's going to be easier to wire that room, install lights, AND seal up the room for containing future powder-coating mess. Otherwise, he would have had to build the front wall up to and through the rafters to the foam insulation, and add a dividing wall where the deck was GOING to end. This way he will have even MORE storage space, and I think the lumber for the deck was about the same $ as all those walls would have been. Teddy is hoping he will get to sleep up there while we live in it.

Randy got the verbal go-ahead from the county permit guy and started digging a trench for our septic line. We picked up the PVC pipes and connectors today, and the tank supplier is pretty much waiting for us to call when we have a hole dug and they'll bring over the tank we need from about 1/2 mile away. Nice. We'll put in a holding tank for the shop this year and build (basically) a separate septic system (try saying that 5 times fast) with a mound-system drain field for the house next year.

After weeks of re-scheduling and postponements with the insulation guy, 

the ceiling got its blanket of closed-cell foam insulation!  

Randy finished the piping for the wood stove TODAY, so that we can heat the place for better painting conditions. Since we're planning on living in the shop, the spray foam needs to be fire-"proofed," and the rafters are too far apart for sheetrock, so we have a 5gal bucket of fire retardant paint. It's been so cold (40s, wet, and windy) that even with all our body heat on the deck under the foam insulation, I don't think we got it above 55 degrees in there. I don't have pictures of it, but the whole family got involved with brushes and we now ALL have "painting clothes". After hours of work, Randy got the rest of HALF the ceiling *kinda* done with a thick-nap roller, not very well, so he found a sprayer on Craigslist and will try that tomorrow on the rest. And touch up the first half...

And none too soon! I took a letter to the mailbox 

today, in my bare feet, because it's October 5th! 

We actually had flurries and sleet last week, when it 

was still September. Yaaay Minnesota.

I had to order a couple more school books and 

found the Lego Idea book on Thriftbooks in the 

process, for $4. It came in our NEW mailbox this 

week, so the kids got to look at it in the car. They are 

excited to try new things in their Lego-building. 

Andrew looks especially eager!

Coming soon... wall insulation, ELECTRICITY!!, roughing-in the wiring, septic tank, and the well hook-up hopefully!