SO, THINGS ARE GOING ALONG PRETTY WELL?

Yes, everything has a roof over it.  The plywood is all on, on the roof - even the steep sections.  Chris, who is John’s older son, is absolutely amazing at climbing.  He was an Eagle Scout and that’s where he learned to climb.  He had his climbing harness on, and was all rigged up, and was climbing around on this incredibly steep part of the roof, having a great time.   It was incredible to watch him up there. 

WHEN DID YOU FINISH THE ROOF?

We finished the roof yesterday.   I did a little bit of hammering.  The guys were so patient with me.  For every one nail that I hammered in, they had done three or four.  They were like bam, bam, bam, bam - and they were done.  And I was there, using both hands.

SO, WITH THE ROOF ON, WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, hopefully, the basement floor.  John has decided that we’re going to pour a quarter section at a time.  He thinks it would be better to do it in sections, since the guys he’s working with have never poured concrete before.  It will be easier to manage and manipulate.  I’m hoping that we’re going to do that next week.  It all depends on when the shingles are delivered.   If the shingles come first, we’ll put those on as soon as they get here.  They’re supposed to be here next week too, so we’re hoping to do either the shingles or the concrete - which ever comes first.   It also kind of depends on the weather.  We’re supposed to be getting some rain.   But the felt is on the roof and I think it’s going to keep things pretty dry, even if it does rain.

WHAT ABOUT THE WINDOWS?

We’re not ready for those yet, but we did pick out our siding.  We chose shingle-style siding in a natural earth tone color that will work well with the natural surroundings.  It runs vertically instead of horizontally and looks really cool.  The siding shingles have a backing on them that helps keep the heat inside in the wintertime and the cool inside in the summertime.  Their R-value is one of the highest that they have out there and the backing is a partially recycled product.  We’ll save money on the heating and cooling, which is also good for the environment, so I’m happy about that.  So anyway, our supplier came out and measured for the siding. 

The other thing we did was, we sent all of our paper work in for PP&L (Pennsylvania Power & Light).  So we’re hoping that next week sometime, they’ll start digging and putting in power poles.  We’ve already cleared out the trees that we needed to.   Andrew and some of his friends cut down trees and hauled out brush a couple of weeks ago.  They were all excited because they all got like $20.   They came home so dirty I had to call moms to apologize, but they had so much fun.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Well, also, we purchased scaffolding today.   John rented it for the last week, and he decided that for the amount of time that we’ll need scaffolding on the inside and outside of the house - putting in windows, dry walling, painting - that it made more sense for us to just purchase it.  So, we purchased three sections of 5′ by 5′ scaffolding.  We can put it up anytime we want, and it will be a lot more convenient.  That was our other “fun and exciting” thing we did.  It’s not one of those things that you go out and buy everyday.

AT THIS POINT, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAKING YOUR DEADLINE TO FINISH THE HOUSE.

Depending on his mood, John is still looking at sometime close to Christmas.  If it’s a bad day, then he gives himself more time and moves it over to Easter.

REGARDLESS, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE MAKING GOOD PROGRESS.

Yes, and thanks be to God, no one has gotten hurt, other than getting a splinter or hammering a thumb - but not bad enough to actually get injured.