Welcome to our Home

Hall's Brook During Irene

2011-10-04T09:48:00.004-04:00

I meant to get these pictures up a long time ago. I can't believe it's been over a month since hurricane Irene hit. Our house was fine and in no chance of getting flooded but Halls Brook was running 6-7 feet above normal. I'm really surprised that the road running along the brook didn't flood. The water came right up to the edge but never ran over the road. For comparison, this is a picture of the brook running under the bridge normally.

This picture is of the brook as you are walking along the road from our driveway towards the bridge. Where you see the white water, is where the brook usually runs. All the water closer to us is from the flood.

My pictures are a little out of order. This picture was taken just after the bridge, looking towards a big rock that you can walk out on from the road.

This picture shows how close the water was to the road. In the lower right hand corner you can see part of the road and how the water comes right up to it.

Here is a picture taken from the road looking over the bridge. Since the bridge is so old (it's been unused for who knows how long.) I wasn't about to walk onto it. I could just see it collapsing with me on it! Usually to get to the trees on the other side you would have to walk up a pretty big bank.

This is the opening from the road that we usually climb down to get to the brook. You can see how the water was right up to the road.

This is the big rock I mentioned earlier that you can climb out on and look down at the brook.

And finally, a picture of the water running under the bridge. I wish I could have gotten better pictures, but Alex an I were staying well away from the edge! One wrong slip and that would have been the end.

In the house with all the windows closed, Alex and I kept hearing this loud booming noise coming from the brook. When we went down we finally figured out it was the way the water was hitting one area of the bridge, it was making this noise.

Seeing this was really amazing. We were grateful that we survived Irene with no damage unlike a lot of people!

Back to bread making.

Update

2010-10-18T20:31:00.002-04:00

Today was the day. We signed the papers and the house is officially ours!!! We are still painting doors and have some little things to finish up. We have been taking boxes and stuff over that will fit in our cars. We have October 31 - November 6 off of work and will do the majority of the moving then. Hopefully by moving over a couple of weeks we won't be so stressed out and will have things a little more organized. One can hope can't she???? Better get to bed. Early day at work tomorrow but just wanted to update everyone.
No new pictures since everything pretty much looks the same as the last time.

Clean Up Day

2010-09-26T20:28:00.002-04:00

Don't have any new pictures right now. Everything that is being done is stuff that doesn't really show up in a picture. The foam board insulation is all up in the basement. I have all the window trim and baseboard in the kitchen, livingroom and diningroom painted. Gary is on vacation this week so a lot more painting will get done. We are very close to being done. This Saturday is the last volunteer work day and is clean-up day. If anyone would like to come out and help, we could use your help. If you have rakes or shovels, you can bring those to help clean up and level out the yard. We have lots of machinery ruts.
I can't belive how far we have some since April 30th. I can't believe we will soon be in a house of our own!!!

a Little of This and a Little of That

2010-09-17T21:37:00.011-04:00

Here's a picture of the front of the house with the new front steps and railings.

In the close-up you can see that the porch light is up. We also have a doorbell.

Lights were put in the bedroom closets and shelves. Here's a picture just for you Kara of your bedroom closet.

The hall linen closet. The bathroom linen closet also has shelves like these.
The faucets are in and the water is running. The dishwasher is all hooked up.

Here is the stove.

These are the lights we picked out for the kitchen, livingroom hall and bedrooms. The dining room light is different and not up yet. The bathroom light isn't up yet either. All the lights were donated by the NH Electric Co-op.

Here's the bathroom sink and potty. Faucets are all installed here too. And, no there isn't a huge light streak going down the drawers, it's just how the flash made them look.
Been busy getting all the trim and baseboard ready to paint. Spent a lot of time sanding today. Debbie started painting some of the doors today since we didn't need to prep them

Counter Top

2010-09-12T18:16:00.004-04:00

I finally figured out how to download pictures to Mom's laptop. Here are some pictures of the kitchen with the countertop. I'll have to try and get over tomorrow and take some now that the stove and fridge are in. Gary and I put the knobs on the cabinet the other day.

A close-up of the counter top. The color is a little off but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

The permanent steps were built for our entry porch on Friday. They look really nice. Gary has been working on getting the baseboards and window and door casings just how he wants. I'm just waiting till he gets to a point so I can start painting. I don't know what was done on Saturday, I haven't been back yet to see. There is a lot of little stuff to do and finish so it will take a little while and there is not a lot to take picures of. I will take what I can to keep everyone updated now that I know how to download onto mom's computer.

When I'm not working on the house or at the bakery, I'm sorting and trying to get things packed here at mom and dad's house.

Cabinets are in

2010-09-07T09:59:00.003-04:00

Just a quick hi. The computer has been acting good the last couple of days so I decided to try to get some pictures put up here. These are a couple of weeks old. I need to get some updated pictures to put up. Here are the kitchen cabinets.

Here are the kitchen cabinets a couple of days later with the crown molding up. Paul, the site supervisor, had his finish carpenter put it up. He did a really fantastic job!!!!

And finally a close up of the crown molding.
I'll have to get some pictures today. A lot has happened since these were taken. Most of the interior doors are up, the dishwasher, washer and dryer are here and the counter top in in. The window and door trim is up and the baseboard is too. Just have to finish painting all that. I'll try to get some more pictures today. Have to get going...have to get a package sent off to Kara.

wall colors and flooring

2010-08-21T20:13:00.006-04:00

The last 3 weeks we have been painting, painting, painting. Paul, the site supervisor, was on vacation so it gave us the time to get the painting done. Yesterday and today were the first days back to work. The flooring was delivered during the week and they started to install it yesterday. The kitchen and dining room flooring is in. Gary's and my room is started. The vinyl flooring is installed in the bathroom.

Here is part of the vinyl flooring in the bathroom. Gives you an idea of what it looks like.

I sort of did this backwards, but here is the flooring in our bedroom.

This is a closer view of the flooring in the kitchen.

The kitchen

The other half of the room, the dining area. In both these pictures you can see the flooring and the green wall color.
This is Alex's blue room. We talked him out of going with a dark blue. I should say, Kara talked him out of it.

This is the blue in Gary's and my room.

Kara's bright green room.

These next 2 pictures are of the livingroom. The walls are a light buttery yellow but they don't show up really well in these pictures.

Last but not least is the blue bathroom.

Kara and I left today to head out to Houghton. She comes out a week early since she is helping out with freshmen orientation and training for leading a freshmen group the first half of the semester (FYI). We stopped at the house on our way out of town. The kitchen cabinets were just arriving. It was hard to leave since I really wanted to help. Now I have to wait until Monday to see them and to see how far the floors came along. The window sills have also been cut and are sitting in the windows.
Things are coming along really fast! The move in date keeps getting moved up. They are talking about September 8th now. I will believe it when we are actually in the house. A lot can happen between now and the 8th.
Time to go and let Kara have her computer back.

July 30 and July 31

2010-08-05T14:21:00.008-04:00

Sorry I didn't get these posted last week! Once again our computer was in the shop!

Welcome to Debbies Hard Rock Cafe! People seem to gather on these rocks under the pine trees to eat lunch. Debbie thought we should call it the Hard Rock Cafe so we surprised her one morning with a sign.

During the week, the sheet rockers, finished taping the walls. We sanded and then started priming the walls. The 3 bedrooms were finished. This is Karas room. I won't bore you with pictures of all of them.

We've been wanting to take down this over grown bush for a while, so Alex took on that task.

Here's what it looks like now. The apple tree should be much happier to have the extra space.

This is how far they got on the front of the house. Almost done!!!
Paul, our site supervisor, is on vacation for 2 weeks so there won't be anymore build days until August 20th. We will be busy though, when we aren't at work. We get to paint the rooms!!! Kara, Alex and I went out the other day and primed most of the rest of the house. We ran out of primer and couldn't finish.
The front of the house is now all sided except for the white flashing running along both peaks. I still need to get a picture.

July 23 and 24

2010-07-29T16:45:00.012-04:00

Hi! I finally have a chance to get on the computer! Here are the pictures from last week. This is the master bedroom. You can see that the taping has started.

Kara's room

Alex's room. His room is between the living room and Kara's room. Since it only has one window, it tends to be the darkest room and he wants to paint it a dark blue!!! I'm trying to mediate between him and Gary and get a lighter blue with maybe one wall a darker blue!

This is part of the bathroom. With it's shape, it is hard to get a picture of it.

The entry closet. It will be nice to have a closet to put coats in as people come into the house. Then they don't get dumped where ever!!

The dining area, taken from the kitchen.

The kitchen, taken from the dining area.
And, last but not least the living room.

So, as you can see the house is really coming along!! Now we can actually see what the room look like.

Here's where the siding was when we finished last week. The only side that isn't done is the front.

Gary and I went over yesterday evening to do some picking up around the house. I'd better get off of here and get out to the house to work!! It will be exciting to see how far we get today and tomorrow!

Just a Quick Post

2010-07-28T20:03:00.002-04:00

We finally have our computer back. I will get pictures uploaded as soon as I can fight my way onto our computer. On Dad's right now. It will probably be after work tomorrow. I'm hoping to get out to the house tomorrow and do some clean-up. Lots of siding pieces laying around the ground and other stuff. Would like to get it all picked up before work starts on Friday. We think the sheetrock guys were coming back this week to do more work. It will be interesting to see how much is done. When we went Monday or Tuesday to take some measurements, just about everything had one coat of the mud on. I can't believe how fast this is all going!

Computer's Down and Sheetrock is Almost Up!

2010-07-23T20:10:00.004-04:00

Just wanted to let you know that my computer is in the shop so I don't know when I will be able to post pictures. It's too hard to figure out Dad's computer to upload pictures from it. It's been exciting this week. The sheetrock is almost all up in the house!!! I can't believe it. A sheetrocking crew has volunteered their time to do this!! Wow!!
The other volunteers have gotten alot done on the siding! It's so exciting. It's hard not to think that we'll be in soon but lots can happen to slow things down. I keep telling myself not to get too excited but it's hard not to. It will be interesting to see how far everyone gets tomorrow. I have to work until 2:00 so about all I'll be able to do is some clean-up like I did today.
Hopefully the techs can figure out what is wrong with our computer and fix it before too long. I know blog posts without pictures are no fun!

Friday, July 16 and Sat, July 17

2010-07-18T17:24:00.009-04:00

Busy weekend. I went over to the house site both Friday and Saturday after work. Gary made it over on Friday too. I spent a lot of time in the basement. At least it was cool there!!! I was chiseling off ridges(?) in the seams of the cement. Not sure what to call them, Burrs? They were sharp edges sticking out along the seams and they had to be chiseled off before the foam insulation can be put up. My arms and back are sore and achy today. I also have bruises on a couple of knuckles that I kept hitting with the hammer when I missed the chisel!
The insulation is all in on the main floor and in the edges along the ceiling in the basement! That was fast! It was interesting seeing it being blown in. Insulation will be blown into the attic once the sheet rock is on the ceiling. Speaking of sheet rock, we have people coming on Tuesday to put up the sheet rock!!! I can't believe it is time to sheet rock already! I think they are related to one of the college volunteers and do this professionally and are volunteering their time for our house. How great is that? I still can't believe how fast this is coming along. Before I know it, It will be time to paint and I'll have to actually make a decision on the paint colors!!!

Besides the insulation, the guys finished the siding on one side of the house. I really like how it looks!

This is how it looks on the other 2 sides:

And, they started to put siding on the front.
Thought I would show you the basement. Not much to look at but it is another part of the house that I haven't shown yet. This picture was taken from the bulkhead door stairs.
This one was taken from the back corner looking towards the bulkhead stairs.
Can't wait to see what the house looks like with the sheet rock up!! SSOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!

Another Flooring Sample

2010-07-13T19:22:00.007-04:00

Here's another flooring sample for you. This is the vinyl for the bathroom floor. It has 9 inch squares. I'm trying to pick flooring that will be pretty neutral so we can paint the walls just about any color we want. Now that I have this sample we can go and pick out the color for the bathroom sink.

I've decided that Gary needs to make some nesting houses to put up at the house. We've had fun watching the birds that use the houses at Mom and Dad's. This year we have a pair of Great Crested Flycatchers. Hopefully we'll be lucky enough to see the babies take their first flight. Last year we had White Breasted Nuthatches in the birdhouse and Alex and I were lucky enough to see the babies take off.
Here are Mom or Dad Flycatcher

Flooring and Cabinets

2010-07-13T14:03:00.003-04:00

No house pictures to show today, but here is a picture of the flooring and the kitchen cabinets wood. The flooring is cherry and will go through out most of the house. The smaller piece of wood is the sample for the kitchen cabinets. This is rustic alder in a natural stain. The rustic means that the cabinets will have knots in the wood and may have some knot holes in them. Ashland Lumber where we are getting the cabinets from had these cabinets in one of their displays and both Gary and I loved them.

It is lucky that both Gary and I tend to like the same things. It has made picking out the flooring, cabinets, counter tops and hardware easy. Out of everything picking hardware for the kitchen was the hardest but we found some that we both really like. I tend to like a more contemporary feel and Gary tends to like more traditional.
I'm off to the flooring place today to get a sample of the bathroom vinyl we picked out. I forgot I needed it so we could pick out the color for the bathroom sink and counter.

Friday, July 9 and Saturday, July 10

2010-07-11T14:25:00.010-04:00

I wasn't sure that there would be anyone working on the house yesterday. When I got out of work at 8:30am it was pouring rain. It stopped late morning so I thought I'd better get out to the house site since I had told Debbie I would be there. There was a small group of people working away at the house. Three of them had started putting up the siding. Debbie and I finished stapling that fibery fabric/paper stuff to the studs in the house. This is the stuff that will hold the insulation in. Dad - if you are reading this, the insulation they are using is Cel-Pak by National Fiber. Gary said you had asked about the insulation before but he didn't know anything about it at that point. We have a brochure we can send out to you.

When I arrived at 12:30, this is what the house looked like. The color of the siding is Vintage Cream.

Here's the back.

And here is the other side of the house. It's hard getting pictures of this side. By the time the guys finished for the day, the siding was up to the bottom of the windows on all 3 sides.

These next pictures show what the inside of the house looks like right now. This is from the back of the house looking down towards the door.

This is from the door looking down the hall to the back of the house. On the left is the entry closet and to the right is the living room.
This is the living room and through the stud wall is Alex's room.

This is the dining room. On the right you can see the fibery stuff stapled onto the walls. To the left you and see the roll of more of this stuff. Still need to finish putting it up.

This is the kitchen. Behind this is the bathroom. The black thing is the tub.
The electrician was there this week and ran the wiring. It is great to be able to see where all the switches, outlets, lights, etc will be. I can't believe how fast the house is coming together. I thought it was going to be a lot slower than it has. And the people who keep coming back week after week is just amazing! I am so thankful to all of them. We wouldn't have a house coming together without the help from all the volunteers and the people from Pemi Habitat. I am really happy to be able to start working on the house again myself. I missed being able to do it when I was sick.

Bad Blogger

2010-07-10T17:32:00.004-04:00

Well, I goofed, I didn't get these pictures posted when I said I would!!! Sorry! These pictures are from 2 weeks ago, showing the foam insulation going up on the outside.

Alex had fun playing with a giant magnet on wheels. He went around the house picking up nails.
Last week the house didn't look much different but everyone had done a lot of work. They put tape over all the joints in the blue insulation boards. Inside the house they put some sort of thin man made fiber (I have no idea what it is called.) on the out side walls. This stuff comes in big rolls and reminds me of some stuff I use in my art projects. This is what will hold the insulation when it gets blown in.

Work from June

2010-07-07T22:31:00.008-04:00

These pictures are a little out of order but I want to get them posted. These were all taken in the middle of last month. Here everyone is starting to shingle the roof.

Before they started shingling, they were putting up particle board and finishing the roof over the dining area and porch.

This is the particle board going up on the back of the house.

Here are the start of the walls inside the house. We are standing in the doorway of the kitchen/dining room area.
I am finally feeling much better. I started back to work a couple of weeks ago and now feel strong enough to start working on the house again. I won't be able to this Friday, since I'm scheduled for a full day at work but I'm hoping once the temperatures cool off, I'll be able go over and to do some site clean up.
I do have some pictures of what was done last week. I WILL get them put up on the blog tomorrow. Now that my energy has returned, I should be able to keep up with posting better than I have!!!

The Brook

2010-06-15T19:35:00.004-04:00

I don't have any new house pictures but I thought I would show you some pictures of the brook across the road from our house. I think it is called Halls Brook. Alex took these pictures. He loves anything to do with water. The sound of the brook from the house is really calming.

Day 5, May 15

2010-06-14T12:37:00.008-04:00

Here are the photos I took at the last build I went to on May 15. That day we, I should say everyone else got the plywood put on the roof. I made it up into the attic area but could not get out onto the roof. I uploaded the pictures wrong so this is where we finished for the day. The dining room and the porch just have rafters over them.

This picture was to prove to Gary that I actually did climb up the ladder and make it to the attic area. I did help pass the plywood through to the people on the roof.

Here, they are putting the plywood on the first side of the house.

Here was the start of the plywood.

The next 2 pictures show the workers putting in the last of the rafters over the main part of the house.

Debbie has taken pictures of the work that was done when I couldn't make it to the site, so I have more stuff to put up of the house. I just need to sort through them and get them ready to put up. I'm feeling better but not 100 percent yet, so I'm hoping to start helping out again soon. I might not be able to do much but it's so frustrating not to be able to help out at all!

Quick Hi!

2010-06-12T06:56:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that I am still here. I ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks. I had my gall bladder removed and then had some complications. I have been home for a week now and am slowly getting my strength back. It has been frustrating not being able to get out and help with the house. The progress on the house is amazing!! My friend, Debbie, has been out working on it and has taken pictures. I will get pictures up as I am able. Hopefully it won't take me too long to catch up.

Day 4

2010-05-15T07:56:00.015-04:00

We accomplished a lot yesterday. About half of the rafters are up! It is so exciting! Gary finally had a day off of work and was able to help out on one of the actual work days. I took a lot of pictures so I will just let you look through those and not say much.

This will eventually be my ceiling.

Here's the happy Debbie worker who will get after me when she sees this photo. She came to stand by me so I wouldn't get her in the photos I was taking. I made brownies to bring today, maybe that will help!

Getting ready to put the rafters up.

Here we are at the end of the day. Half the rafters up.

I don't like heights so I spent a lot of time carrying boards around and lifting them up to the people doing the roof work. I'll post more on todays work. Hopefully the rain will hold off again. We've been very lucky with the rain so far.

Week 2

2010-05-07T16:28:00.006-04:00

Hi! Here is week 2 of the build. This week we are only working today (Friday) We got a lot done again thanks to all the volunteers that showed up. Thought I'd start off by showing you a little bit more of the yard.This is a little shaded area between our house and the neighbors. In the back you can just make out an old apple tree and to the right of it some sort of flowering bush that is very over grown. We may end up taking that out and planting something new there eventually. Just beyond the apple tree is the dirt area I showed last week that will eventually have grass planted there.

Here we are getting the end wall ready to go.

Here is the wall up. This is the back wall with the 2 bedroom windows. The plywood did get put on not too long after this went up.

Here is the front of the house with the walls up. All these smaller walls went together a lot faster than the bigger ones last week. We also new more of what we needed to do! The bumped out part is the dining area. Then you can see where the door will be and the living room window.

Here is the interior wall going the length of the house. Now I know where all the doors are and have an idea of how big the rooms will be. We also know where the stairs will be going. Gary stopped by on his lunch from work to see what was going on.

Oh, I also meant to thank Shirley for the cookies!! Everyone loved them.
I hope you will stop by again next week to see what we have gotten done on the house. Bye for now.

House Build Day 1 and 2

2010-05-01T21:38:00.015-04:00

We have now finished the first 2 days of construction. It was a lot of work but exciting. The first day I forgot my camera. The first day a big group of college students came out from the campus chapter of Habitat. By the end of the day, we managed to get the flooring on over the basement. The site supervisor didn't think we would get that far the first day so he had to make a call to get more supplies delivered or there would be nothing to do on Saturday.

When I got to the site on Saturday, the truck was just delivering the supplies. We had another good size group from the college and various other people. We really appreciate every ones help. It was so much fun to see 2 walls go up today. By the end of the day, I was really sore and tired. I'm glad I remembered to pick up gloves on my way t the site yesterday. Some of the college kids didn't wear any and had some good blisters on their hands from all the hammering.

In the next couple of pictures, you can see how far we got Friday.

These next pictures show the raising of the first wall. Here, you can see Paul, the site supervisor, giving us instructions on how to raise the wall.

To give everyone an idea of where things are in the house, the first window is the living room, then two bedrooms.

Here is the second wall up. You can see the dining room window on the right. Then there is the kitchen window, bathroom (I'm assuming) and a bedroom. I think it is the master bedroom. I saw the house plans but it is hard to remember just where everything is.

This shows the end view of the house from the back of the property. Through the trees on the right side, you can just see the neighbors (last years Habitat build) house through the trees.

Here is what will eventually be our yard. Since it gets sunlight all day, I'm thinking it would be nice to put in a small garden. We will need to put up some kind of fencing to keep the wildlife out of it. We'll also need to put up some kind of fence to keep the dogs safe. We really don't need Ginger wandering off and running into something and Riley would make a good couple of bites for some of the bears and other animals out here.

I want to thank everyone again who came out here the last couple of days. We really appreciate all the help we received.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing how far we have gotten. I'll try to post things as they come up and keep pictures posted of our progress so stop by again to see what we have done.

Welcome to Our Home

2010-05-01T20:37:00.004-04:00

I decided to write this blog to record the journey of building our home with Pemi-Valley Habitat for Humanity. This way I can show friends and family the progress we are making. We found out on April 15th, that we had been accepted for this house. It took a while for it to sink in. I kept waiting for someone to tell me that it had been a mistake. After talking to different people from Habitat, it finally did start feeling real.

The day after finding out, we drove up to the property and looked around. The foundation was already in. Not much to look at but it was fun to just go there.

Well, I have more to show tomorrow from the first two work days but I am just too tired right now. I hope you will come back from time to time to see the progress that is being made.