Our boys are away....

Our boys got on an airplane today in Boise, ID and flew to their grandparents in Arizona.  They were so excited and seem to be having a wonderful time. 

See Jeanne's Blog postings at
http://www.paysonponderings.blogspot.com/
for the wonderful chronicle of the boys fun.

 Mean while Stuart and I went on a little mini trip back in time to our days of nomadic life style.  Here we are camping out of the back of our car on National Forest land in a sweet little spot we found near the take-out for our kayak run the next day. 

Unfortunately we took no pictures of our blissful 2 days of boating and camping so words will just have to suffice.  We kayaked on the North Fork of the Payette river on the Cabartan section. (Class II-III)  The water was warm and the scenery was lovely.  We headed over to the South Fork to camp at Pine Flat Campground.  About 1/2 mile down stream at the end of a lovely trail there was a hot spring.  The spring came out of a hole in the rocks about 30 feet up and came tumbling down in this hot waterfall.  It dropped into a pool about 12 inches deep and the perfect temperature for soaking.  The next day we boated on the Canyon Section (Class III-IV).  It was lovely and wonderful.  After a day on the river we got in the car and headed back to Walla Walla.   We have had a productive week working and getting things done on the house project and tomorrow we head back to Boise to pick up the boys. 

Second Floor!

The progress of this day was amazing.  In the morning, no ceiling/floor.  Come back at the end of the day and wow!  there it is. 

Here is Stuart catching a first view from the second floor height in the morning. 

 By the afternoon, Stuart had headed into the mountains for a backpacking trip, Linda and George had arrived for a stop over visit, and Andrey and the crew had finished up the second floor!

 View Looking South!

 View Looking North!

 Dakota having fun in the house.

Framing the First Floor Walls

After the floor comes the walls.   Here Adam is framing the first wall.  This will be the front wall of the house.

 After they build it flat on the floor, they raise it up, set it on some glue and nail it in place.

 A view of the progress after day 1 framing.

Soon after, all the exterior walls for the downstairs are complete.

 Next comes the exterior sheeting.  Then the second 2x4 wall.  We are building with double 2x4 construction to maximize our insulation value.  This will give us 8+ inches of insulation. 

Next comes the floor joist for the second floor and the second floor sheeting. 

Building the floor

After a few months of doing things that are mostly invisible like laying the utilities and backfilling against the foundation, we are finally at the point where things will begin to move along at a good pace. 

 Looking down from the shop roof we can see the foundation with the sill plates.

Next the floor joists got hung off the sill plates.

Then today they laid the sub-floor.  A great dance floor.  They should put up the first walls this afternoon.  Yipee!  Visible progress.

Re-Roofing the Shop

 In preparation for the solar panels, we have re-roofed the shop/carport.  First we took the old roof off.  Here is Stuart working on that.

 Next our contractor put new fascia, roof sheathing, and flashing. Plus they laid the first 4 rows of shingles to get us a good start on making things strait. Thank you Slavik.

 Now we are putting the new shingles on.  And we are almost done. We came up 6 shingles short of finishing and so we have to wait a few days for those to be delivered. 
Here is Stuart finishing up the first side.

Chattanooga Highlights

We spent the last 2 weeks in June in Chattanooga.  What a wonderful time.  We visited with friends and family and got to hike and play in our old favorite spots.  We got lots of pictures but not of everything.  So here are just a few highlights of our days.

Fun with Friends! We got to see so many friends.  We are sorry to have missed a few but glad to have seen the ones we did.

Fun at the Fountain! The Coolidge Park Fountain is a great place to hang out!

 

 Fun at the Creek! North Chick is one of our favorite spots on the planet.  We spent many days there and had glorious fun.

Fun with the Bees! We got to steal some honey with Aunt T!  That was awesome.

Visiting a Great Grandma

We went to Chattanooga to visit friends and family (post coming soon).  And while we were there we drove over to Asheville to visit my Nana.  We had a lovely visit and really enjoyed seeing her.  Stuart took some good pictures of Nana and the boys.