Thursday 29 November 2012

Busy day

What a day. I feel like I feel like I have not stopped all day! My day in a nutshell:

-Went to town to run errands including:
-First I stopped to get cash out.
-Then I went and got some groceries.
-Went to local bakery and picked up two dozen cookies for coffee time and buns to go with chili for lunch. (having a total lazy baking day bc of all these errands I left till the bitter end)
-Then I went to the post office to check mail and mail some cheques away and ended up leaving with a big parcel.
-Then I went to pick up our beef at the local butcher and for some reason I did not think to bring anything to put the meat into, luckily she had some big banana boxes to give me :s
-Then I went to get water at Mar-dee and of course they were plum out! So I then had to go back into town and got from chongs.
-Go home, haul everything in and make coffee right away for the guys. (they put the rafters on house today)
-Make chili and potatoes and coleslaw for lunch.
-Put kids down for nap.
-Eat lunch. (It's 1:30 now)
-Cleanup lunch dishes.
-Make biscuits and coffee for coffee break number 2.
-Finally get to chill out after they go back outside.

And in between all that I did quite a few loads of laundry, picked up toys, folded laundry and bathed both kids. Anyways, today our house took even more shape. We have all the rafters on and have started to sheet in the roof with plywood. We would really like to get that all done so it does not get full of snow.

 The rafters starting to go up.
 Looking from the entrance into the house. There are a few walls up in order for the rafters to go on.
 All the rafters on the house.
Rafters all up except for the veranda ones, without them not there it makes our roof look high and funny shaped. You will understand once I have pictures of the finished product to show you.
 Sheeting in roof with plywood.
 I would not want this job! My cousin is a big guy but quite nimble up there.
 Me and the Tanman checking out the progress.
 You can now see the house over top of the house trailer quite well! Yay!

Anywho, chow for now!
Ash

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Our house is pretty friggon' permanent now!

So we finished our walls like I said the other day! I am about to post a lot of pictures to get you up to speed since last Friday.

 Here the walls are almost all up. Front is done and most of the backside. Have entrance to do yet.
 Back of the house at the same time as above pic.
 Hubby working putting the vent in the wall for kitchen sink.
 This looks to the south.
 Yay! Entrance almost done! We would of poured the walls the day before but it just didn't work out. Ran out of blocks for the one corner.
 Bill and Uncle Allan finishing the last bit of blocks.
 Steven doing rebar. He was whining about the working conditions, I told him to take it up with the labor board. lol.
 Almost done!
 From the inside of the entrance. That scafolding they are standing will be used to walk on to pour cement in with pumper truck.
 Looking into the house from the entrance.

 Back of house done.
 Looking from inside the house to the entrance.
 Bracing everything with plywood and 2x4's so that the blocks would stay together when we pour cement into them.

 And we are pouring!!!!!
 It was really hard to get a good pic of the pumper truck and house.

 Hubby and his Dad finishing pouring and trowelling as they go. It was quite cold and the cement was freezing pretty quick on top so they had to finish it right behind the pump.
Hubby on the last round, they do it in two rounds.

So, needless to say the house is now cement from top to bottom!!! It is a very permanent structure now!!!! No going back now. They are working on taking all the bracing off today and get ready to start putting roof on anf sheeted in so we don't have to worry about it getting full of snow! Once we get this week over with I hope to focus more on Christmas! Hopefully put tree up this wknd or next.

Anyways, I think I could have 8 or more mouths to feed today. I have two crockpots going full of steak and scalloped potatoes to come, maybe biscuits as well.

Have a wonderful day!
Ashley

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Rest in Peace Grandpa

Today was my Grandpa's funeral. I am glad that it is over but so sad to see him go. Something that comforts me is knowing that because we are a such a large family our memories will never die. I'm sure Grandpa will be thought of everyday and family gatherings will bring forth reminiscing for years to come. At the viewing last night anyone who had memories of Grandpa could come forward and tell them. Many came to mind and I went up and shared a couple. But there were too many to tell because we would have been there all night! Here are some of my memories of Grandpa:

-When you walked in the door his hello would always be followed with a "Have you been behaving?"
-His dry humour which if you did not know him you would most likely be offended. eg. When we told Grandma and Grandpa that we were expecting our first child the first thing that came out of his mouth was, "I sure thought you looked fatter!" ha ha. You never took stuff like that to heart. That was just Grandpa.
-He actually loved to cook. I mostly remember him making soup and it was very good.
-He loved to cruise around in his old red ford truck. To coffee at the local coffee shop, NTL and out to the countryside to see how my Uncle's were making out in the field.
-He loved music. He loved to sing. He loved to play instruments. I remember he had several different little instruments that he played. One I mostly remember is his banjo.
-He loved to talk about farming.
-He loved to watch TV and movies. (in his later years when he was not so mobile and agile anymore)
-This comment kind of relates to Grandma and Grandpa but I always thought it amusing that when Grandpa was supposed to be watching his weight and you would be there for lunch, Grandma still had a full spread out. I think you could show up unannounced at 12pm and there would always be enough food set out for an army. I guess after feeding as family of ten for many many years old habits die hard. Which also leads me to tell that even when Grandpa was supposed to be watching his weight we would always get a phone call a couple weeks after we butchered a pig. Grandma would just be wondering if we had any cracklings left, they would sure love some. ha ha. Very unhealthy food. Basically whats left after the fat is all rendered out over the fire. You fry them in a pan and soak 'em up with some bread or fresh buns. (Mmm childhood reminisce)
-Grandpa always said Grace and all our family functions. I will miss that.

Anyways those are just a few that come to mind right now. I have said this many times and I will say it again. I am so blessed to have had all four of my Grandparents up until just recently. There are not many people in the world who get to spend so much time with their Grandparents. I have been fortunate to even live very close to both sets as well.

 Our wedding August 9, 2008.
 Our wedding.
 Chris & Miranda's wedding May 29, 2010.
 Grandma & Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary.

You will be with us forever and always. Love you lots Grandpa.
Ashley

Monday 26 November 2012

Tuesday

Today we got our upstairs walls for our house finished. Which was a BIG sigh of relief. We had it reinforced as much as we could so the wind wouldn't blow the styro foam away but you never know with this wind have been having. So it was great to get that done. I will post pics either tomorrow night or the day after. It has been a very busy last couple of weeks. Making lunch for a minimum of four guys every day plus making sure there was food for coffee breaks in there to. I have made soups and sandwiches, burgers, salads and today for lunch was roast beef. I put it into the slow cooker last night on low so it would be ready for lunch today. Then of course all the fixings that go with it. Potatoes, veggies, tossed salad and gravy. A few things I have made for coffee breaks include biscuits (I will share this recipe a later date as it is delish and my mom-in-laws), cookies, muffins, rice krispie cake and texas sheet brownie.

Funny note about today. My morning started with a VERY poopy little girl! It was not wipe worthy - she went straight to the tub! Yeesh. And then tonight when I went to change her into PJ's and feed her she was poopy from toenails to eyebrows again! What have I been eating.....Hmmm.

Thanks to my mom-in-law who fed our volunteer help tonight because we had to go to my Grandpa's viewing. Which we were late to. So of course when we are late other things happen to make you more late. I had went out to start the van before we left to warm it up. The heater fan was running fine. We get in it to leave and it is not running at all! So we get to in-laws to drop Tanner off and proceed to transfer Alis carseat base to in-laws van. Oiy!

Anyways we went to Grandpa's viewing tonight and it was OK. I know tomorrow will be much harder and tear filled. Apparently Subway is providing lunch for the whole entire family!!! Now how cool is that! I LOVE our community minded local business'. It will be very appreciated.

Cheers
Ash

Thursday 22 November 2012

I detest wind.

 So here are the pictures I promised but the wind wrecked some stuff last night!!! I kept hearing a bunch of bangs and a window frame in the south fell out and the whole north wall fell over. 

 From the west.

 A pier for the deck. This is what the entrance walls sit on.
South side of house.

Cheers
Ash

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Yay! We have started the upstairs :)

So spur of the moment Corey decided that he would just take two weeks off and see if he could hire a couple of his uncles and another guy to help close in the house. We have been trying to get professionals to come but everyone is soooo busy and doesn't seem to have time till 'next week' and 'next week' if you get my drift. It took most of yesterday to put the entrance/mudroom up. The ended the day by putting the bundles of blocks up onto the upstairs floor ready to start in the morning.

 The difference between the house and the entrance is that the house is sitting on a footing. If you want to see the footing look here Footing. The entrance is sitting on piers which I don't have any pictures of. It's too much for me to explain on here. It is a lot harder to start placing and stacking the blocks on piers vs. a footing so that's why they had to fiddle with it for awhile.
 The bundles sitting on top of the floor waiting to be stacked. By the time they had quit working last night it was too dark for me to take pictures so I was outside at 8 am this morning taking pictures before they started working again and it changed again! I want to document this whole project and make an album yet.
 This is looking from the east.
 Same view of entrance, just closer.
View out of my back door. 

Now this is what they did today, well most of it...I will be snapping pictures early in the morning again because it got too dark for me. 

 From the east still. It is hard to get good pictures because we are so close to the house trailer.
 From the east but of the back of the house. Those windows are still just basement windows.
 North side of the house. Where that board is running horizontally above those basement windows is where the upstairs starts. It's hard to tell because it's all just white.
 This is the view from my living room corner.....lol! I hope my floor is not always this dirty! Or cluttered.... ;)
Ya there is much more than this done, so I will add more pics in the morning.

 This was my Tuesday morning view!! Just spectacular :) I was not a happy camper that morning so this helped! lol.
My babies :) Just chilling in the kitchen while I was making lunch yesterday.

Anywho, that's all for now folks!! Have a great night.
Ash