And there were walls!

As mentioned earlier, Kevin has been working on the house all week ("vacation" time from his "real" job). Today was a long 14hour day framing, insulating the pony wall and sheeting... and continues tomorow. So for now I'll leave you with these pics:

Bugaboo Park & Backfilled House

Kevin had 12 hours of pure hard work (and a little slacking off:)) from a friend this weekend. We actually are just getting to know this guy (Garret is our friends' brother, who was actually here for 2 weeks to help them build their house) and on his potential day off he offered to help Kev all day Saturday - what a guy. Who could say no?? They got alot accomplished and now we should be able to call in for an appraisor this week. Yeah!! As you'll see in the pics below, we also had our excavator come out and backfill for us. Locals are always the way to go in a small town - they're there when you need them, they somehow always have more "colour" about them than the city companies, they bring you beer in the hot sun and they even charge a little less! :) Since Kevin had worked 3 weeks straight up until now he took Sunday off and we made our way out to Bugaboo Provincial Park. Mostly we drove an hour NW of Invermere, partially along a bumpy forest road, and when we got there just walked down a short path to a waterfall. That just seemed too short to turn around and go all the way home... so we drove a little further to discover the glaciers. It always feels a little funny being almost 9 months pregnant and around outdoor enthusiasts... quite out of place;) We drove up to the base of the trails leading to the glaciers and I have to say, although I was in no shape and had no desire to climb a glacier at that moment, I was a little disapointed that I couldn't join all the others wearing their mec gear and packing their bags to head up. It's been too long! Below are a couple pictures of the parking lot we drove into. The vehicles all had chicken wire wrapped around the base, held up with 2x4's and rocks. The only reason we could come up with was to prevent marmots from crawling up into the vehicle. ? Either way I thought it was a little curious and perhaps some of you could shed some knowledge on the subject:) Comments welcome.

Quick Update

I know we've been pretty busy and haven't been very good with keeping in touch with most of you lately... phone calling and such... but we want to keep any who are interested up to speed. We must say Praise God(!) for selling our Trooper in only 2 days of having it up for sale over the weekend! Yeah:) We got close to our asking price as well, so it will help pay off some undesirable creditcard figures. Woohoo!! Kev and I were also able to head down to the lot last night and get the foundation sealed off in only a couple hours - lemme tell you, tar is one messy job! Apparently I forgot "MY" pair of gloves (I suppose gloves would be very practical, but considering I don't own a pair of work gloves and don't exactly tar every day, I think I may have a "get out free" card here) so Kevin let me use his. I didn't get very dirty but he managed to get it all up his arms and a bit on his hands and clothes. Poor chap;) So the house is coming along smoothly, even though it can feel more like smooth, slow sailing sometimes. But I'll take smooth and slow over rough any day! I think that's about it for new news around here. I'm off to have a morning cup o' jo with my good neighbour friend Devon:)

Floor Joists

...are almost done! Poor Kev and a buddy worked their butts off all day Friday and it ended up being a bit of a dud. They described it as one of those days where you should have just packed up after the first 3 mistakes b/c it just wasn't going to get any better. Ultimately they reached their goal of getting the bearing wall up but it took much longer than they wanted it to. Sunday was more productive however, as Kevin and a couple other friends were able to get most of the floor joists done. Yeah! Here's a few photos of that: Kev and I are hoping to go down there again Tuesday evening to damp proof the basement, then hopefully spend another evening putting up drain tile... thus being ready for the excavator to put the plumbing in and backfill around the foundation, which will also likely be done one evening this week. Next weekend we hope to complete the floor and call out the appraisor to FINALLY get some cash to pay all these bills. Then Kev takes a week of his vacation time to frame like mad, hopefully getting as much as he can done to put the roof on. Feels like a rat race sometimes! And I'm not even the one working on it! Anyway you can pray for us (mostly Kev) if you think of us in the next while. Getting the house to lock-up is an important goal we hope to reach very soon so we can receive our first draw from the bank and get these stacked bills paid off. Set backs are common but not welcome - something we pray daily;) Also, I've updated the blog entry from last weekend with some pics of pouring the foundation.

37 weeks pregnant... 3 to go!

Well, after 4.5 months of no hair care I now feel human again:) Meaning, I had a haircut today and had my friend colour my hair last week. Hair is highly under-rated in my case. I love change and it's always nice to pay a visit to the salon, and yet vanity just isn't always affordable. Although I have to say, I don't consider myself to be terribly vain (spelling??) but I do like to give people the impression that I'm a person who cares about herself, and that is often a direct reflection of how one presents themself physically... and it simply feels good to know you don't look like a schlep! Anyway, enough about vanity. Here's an update on "the belly" at 37 weeks, and a shot of the new "do".

Concrete, Pony & Bearing Walls

We had an eventful weekend, to say the least... it began on Friday as Kevin and four amazingly gracious friends poured the foundation. All went quite well until they reached the retaining wall on the South side of the house. Apparently the many braces they had on just weren't enough and an entire retaining wall blew out. From what I've heard this is a pouring nightmare. Fortunately there were enough guys helping that they were able to fix the problem, after much ado of course. Next we have a few pictures of Atalie being Atalie. She has really taken to watermelon (but who hasn't???) and her new "ki-ee" (kitty) pajamas, given to her by our friends in Kelowna. Friday evening Tyler (Kendra's brother) came to help for the remainder of the long weekend (yea!!!) and together he and Kev were able to strip the forms and get the pony & bearing walls up, creating the image of an actual house - or at least enough to use your imagination. Tyler busy cuttin stuff:) The above picture shows the 9' basement walls. The main entrance will be just above this height, along the East-side of the house (the left-side on the picture, as you are looking directly at the North wall of the house). Above is Kendra's "studly" brother, working hard. Or hardly working?? Maybe he really is a fake. What do you guys do all day??