It is the 20th of July and I am just finishing the June log and starting July! I can’t even begin to express how busy it has been. It’s not just the house, but the rest of our lives have to go on also and it just becomes all-consuming at times. Time has gone so quickly and the house is moving along fast now. We are still hoping to move in October, but Mark has promised we will eat Thanksgiving dinner here finished or not. This month so far has been getting ready for the roof. Fireplaces had to be put in, air conditioners, more pick up framing, etc. Everything that had to go up through the roof had to be completed so that the paper could be laid. This past weekend and tonight we were working on the details on the gable ends. The roofer will be here in the morning to start putting the paper down, so everything has to be ready to go. We originally thought that we had more time to do it and we could work on getting the doors and windows in. But when we went to order the tile, we were told that it could be here the next week instead of the six to eight weeks we were originally told we would have to wait. That is excellent since we are getting into monsoon season, but just changed our timetable a bit. We met with Total Watch Security to see if their portion would change since our walls are bales. What they asked was for us to put the windows in and then let them come into wire before we put in the last (7th) course of bales. We also decided to ask a neighbor if he was interested in installing the doors. A big decision is always what to farm out and what we are going to do. The roof, I begged to farm out since I am totally petrified of heights and it is one of the more dangerous of the jobs. I said that I could do it, but really didn’t want to. I think the clincher for Mark was when he saw how long it took me to tape the seams on the roof one day when we were expecting rain. I absolutely could not stand up and scooted around on my butt. I came down sick to my stomach; I was worthless for the rest of the day and had splinters in my rear! Curtis & Mark have started the electrical and will hopefully be finished by the end of the month. That was actually a cool part to sit and visualize where all the fixtures and switches would go.
We get visitors almost every day that we are up here. The house is very visible from the main road and people are curious about the straw. Everyone has been really nice and fascinated by this concept. And it is nice to take a break and give a tour of the house. Mark can’t tell me to get busy if I’m giving a tour to the guests!
All the windows are in, except for one that is on backorder. Wednesday Mark & I were doing some more framing to raise the walls to the roofline. I have started working on my bale entry wall. Mark & I celebrated our anniversary (July 31) by putting in air conditioning and the rest of the fire blocks. Bill (he works for Max at Aarco Air) and Lea (his girlfriend) came Saturday morning to work on the air. Bill, Lea & Mark worked on the air and the kids & I finished the fire blocks. The roofer (tile part) came in the morning and started laying the tile. His partner I guess decided to go to LA and left him to work by himself. He said the tile would be done by the end of the week and that he would do the ridges next weekend. After that Mark & I have to go up and do the boosters and mud some more to get that authentic old look. (hahaha it's 2020 and we still haven't gotten around to finishing the boosters and extra mud!) We have to finish bringing up 2 more walls, dropping the powder room ceiling, building the outside entry, finish the air and the electrical. Then I think we get the framing/rough inspections.
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