October: windows, stairs, siding, and other stuff

Actually, I found one more (significant) photo from September: the day our beautiful Marvin casement windows came! We had been told that they usually send 2 guys with the truck to help unload, but there was only one unfortunate middle-aged gentleman to help us that day. Thankfully one of our strong friends was in town and was able to help spontaneously. The biggest window was over 200 lbs!


October 2: For my 33rd birthday, my husband and son built me a front door stoop. :)

Here's the weird, temporary view out the "front door"... through the master bedroom wall.


 October 3?: Oma and the kids did a great job cleaning up the work site as best they could! Here they are coming in a newly installed fiberglass door (primed white - I'll decide what color it'll be after the house is sided). I still really like it every time I walk through it, multiple times a day.

One project Dad and I did during this visit was replace the temporary stair treads (I don't have a picture of them, but we had used 2" wide strips of poplar wood and had kind of 'slotted' stair treads) with some real OSB treads, AND risers! How luxurious!

Randy and I are walking through to finalize our electric plans before the electrician comes to hear all about it and start his job. (The 2 things we hired out for this build were the septic/building-site-prep and the electrician.... although Randy did a number of hours of "their" work and it was subtracted from the bill. Yay for friends!)
  

This LR window really is about 6' tall and 9' wide, though it doesn't look like it with a tall Oma in front of it.



October 10: Right after my folks were here, we hosted my brother Tim and family (wife Laura, daughters Emma (4) and Serena (2). It was a full and busy but usually happy pole barn!

October 18: After a spendy trip to Menards, the whole crew is helping unload all our plumbing and ductwork goodies into the house. Andrew can be a real worker!



Sometimes you just have to try things on, I guess. 

I think Andrew is sleeping on the couch because he's sick here. But it's a cute pic.

 October 19: A friend who owns a chimney business had this never-been-used wood stove sitting around that he acquired from a client. We traded Randy's mechanical labor for it! It did have a little rust on it, so I sanded it and gave it a new coat of stove paint. Then Teddy and Bridget helped me assemble the fire bricks inside and apply the handles. It's a beauty!

It's in a cozy corner of the rec room.

 Mom and Dad were able to come help again in October, and this time we focused on ductwork, mostly.

October 23. Need I explain? 

October 25: The LAST nice-weather weekend of the year was spent painting the siding trim with our handy sprayer. It went fast with that thing.

Strange local geological formations.
Do you know what formed these?

Before we could start siding, we needed some flashing to meet the ground.

October 28: We built 23 of these baby trusses for an awning that will eventually span the entire south wall. We still only have a few of them up. Because winter came and they became a much lower priority than other things!

Like siding! Oct 29: The kids were fascinated with yet another cool machine in their yard. This crane truck was pushing it with that itty bitty stack of CEMENT siding.

One of the elderly gentlemen who helped us on roof truss day noticed that I was cooking our lunch burgers on a gas grill that was deteriorating. The one on the right we had picked up on the side of the road, got new burners for it, and have been using it for a few years. Well, this gentleman said his daughter left a grill at his house a couple years ago and it's been sitting around since, and asked if we'd like it. Sure! He brought it over a couple days later, after meticulously cleaning it (though it probably was not bad to begin with). It's basically the same grill but brand new!! So, I kept cooking greasy things like burgers on the old grill, and kept the new one clean with pans and grill mats.

October 30: While this seems like a photo of little significance, it's not; this was the day we discovered we can bake 'pannekuchen' on the grill! (We have been without an oven for almost a year now, but after discovering the wonders of baking on the grill, we basically have a full kitchen. Minus the sink. And, not so much anymore since the "oven" is now in super-frigid temperatures.)

Sometimes the kitchen becomes a workshop. Assembling window trim frames with Teddy and Bridget.

The beginning.... of siding.... 

October 31: For Halloween/my Dad's birthday, we did some siding by halogen-lamplight after the kids were in bed.



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