New Addition Part 2

So I went to Texas to visit Candice and buy furniture for this new baby and when I came home, this is what I found...a new foundation

Our shed in it's new home...a little worse for the wear but still looking good.
Logan was visiting at the time and was in seventh heaven with all the equipment around. The workers were great to let them even drive a little.

He sat in there for a long time watching the big digger while pretending to drive the little digger.



While they were working on our house, this is what was going on next door. Our neighbor finally decided to remove his maple tree. Too bad he didn't do it before all the roots and shade ruined my garden space.

The big digger. We use technical names at our house.
A close up of the tree cutting.
There is our little shed. It used to be where you see the front of the foundation.

All this big equipment ruined our driveway but it was amazing to see how well they could maneuver it. I think they were filling in around the foundation at this point.
The walls go up by the end of April.




Spring has finally sprung. Love those fruitless pear trees.
Next came the beams. Our builder tried to talk us out of them. They were expensive but are so amazing. It was worth it.
The beams were parked on a trailer in front of our neighbor's house and then lifted into place. It was amazing to watch.









Then the framers were back to finish the roof trusses. They were nuts. Click on the picture. That worker is balancing on the edge of the wall while cutting off the end of the truss with a circular saw...one handed. Crazy!

The sheathing is on now too. Aren't those beams amazing?

I think the only thing we changed from the original plan was to add another window to the left of this door opening. Pretty good I think.


Stay tuned for more. I can't wait to show you the finished product. Well almost finished anyway. We still haven't passed the final inspection.

Our New Addition

Our new addition is pretty much complete. It took two years of planning and debating before we decided to go for it. We looked at moving but just couldn't find anything worth moving to that was better than where we already lived. So, in March we broke ground with the only stipulation being that construction HAD to be completed by June 1. I wanted to get everything done before the kids started hitting home for Eli's wedding June 19.

I thought I'd start at the beginning and document the process. This is our side yard where you can see the posts that are all that is left of our garden picket fence. The pathway is deconstructed too. All that work undone...
This is the back of the yard where we removed two trees to make a new spot for our shed.
Here is the pile of pavers I moved...
and the pile of bricks I moved that we used as edging.
The posts were all that was left of our beautiful gate and archway.
Here they are trying to move the shed with a back hoe. That didn't quite work. In fact, moving the shed was kind of a disaster but it did get moved.
The back hoe did work to pull these posts out of the ground. My husband does things right when he does it. Those posts were anchored in concrete and tricky to remove.
Looking from our deck to the back yard where the shed will go.
A pile of flagstone we moved that was part of the path to the backyard.
The new addition starts where the rock work on our patio ends. That tree behind the bench is now history too.
Here is the back hoe on its way to dig up the tree.
Removing the garden posts and still trying to figure out how to move that shed. Stay tuned for more of the adventure.

More Hiking Adventures with Kathee

This is my good friend Kathee. Don't be alarmed...we always leave early and throw on whatever is handy when we start off on our adventures. Here are a few pictures on one of our Squaw Peak overlook winter hikes.
Yikes...maybe come as you are hikes aren't a good idea. I think I better ask for new hiking clothes for Christmas.
We go rain or snow. We like a good challenge and embrace adventure. It is almost 4 1/2 miles one way.
I think these might have been pictures from two different hikes. I think we did it about 4 times last winter.
Here are pictures from the latest adventure. We hiked Mt. Nebo on Monday. After all it was labor day. It is 8 miles one way. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. It was all I could do to get to the top. The top is almost 12,000 feet and I had a bit of altitude sickness for awhile. It was a steep climb so coming down was hard as well.

This was 6 miles into the hike but those last two miles were a killer to the top. (Again, I'm thinking it is time to invest in some decent hiking clothes. It's not like we don't hike at least once a week and walk everyday.)
Ta Da We made it!
The view from the top.


Proof that I made it too!
Kathee had some major blisters but was a real trooper. Good thing she brought bandaids. 12 hours total round trip. We did have a snack break and lunch at the top so hikes 11 hours straight. I was sore for a few days but Kathee and I only took one day off of exercise before we were back at it again.

One more thing crossed off Kathee's bucket list. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger...right? I'm not sure what I would do without my little exercise friend. She makes life evermore enjoyable.

We are thinking about biking coast to coast. What do you think?