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The Trusses, Roof and Hurricanes

On the Tuesday after Labor Day, we had plans for the builder and the crane guy to finally put the trusses on the house.  Finally!!

It was supposed to start at 8:00 am.  We had planned to go watch for a few hours before coming back home and starting schoolwork.  Well, my usual, crazy, emotional self kept finding things to do to prolong getting out there.  That’s just weird, isn’t it?  I know, I will always have issues. Its just the way I am.  My poor family…

Anyway, I didn’t want to go out there and find that the crane guy was sick, or hurt.  Or that the builder had walked off the job.  Or that the house had collapsed.  Like I said, I’m a nut case!  But after waiting almost a month for the roof, my fears were huge!  And somehow I thought if we didn’t show up out there the any possible problem would not be real.  But the kids were anxious and Jim was ready to go too.  So I finally dragged my feet to the car.  Jim was following us in his truck so he could go on to work afterward.

Y’all, I am so crazy that I drove right by the driveway.  On purpose!  Just so I could see if the crane was on the hill.  I couldn’t really see without wrecking though, so I made Maleah look as we drove past.  She didn’t see anything.  She didn’t see anything!!!  I might or might not have uttered a not so very nice word under my breath.  Hey, it happens.  And I am sorry.

I was a whirlwind of emotions when I turned the car around and headed back to the property.  Ok, let me just say that I love Maleah.  But Maleah is blind!  Or she really needs new glasses because the crane was up in the air.  Bigger than life!  And they already had the first truss put up!  I was so excited I almost drove past the driveway again!

We pulled up to the housesite to see the guys already making progress!

We promptly set up our chairs and got busy watching them work.  That just seems wrong to them I’m sure.  There they are working their butts off and we are just sitting and watching.  

The trusses went up fast. I think it took a little less than 2 hours to have them all put on the roof.  We waited close to a month and it only took 2 hours to get those silly trusses in place.  Who knew?

We had waited so long for these silly pieces of wood and I took a few too many pictures, I’m afraid.  Sorry!  I was more than a little excited!!!

Jim was wanting to keep the ball rolling so he even jumped in to help. 

Maylin and Camden were just chillin’.  They lost interest after a few minutes.  Camden was mostly just disappointed that the crane didn’t fly.  And they he couldn’t fly in the crane somehow.  So they spent the morning lounging in their hammocks.  What a life!

Half way there…

And viola’!  All the trusses, all the CORRECT trusses are finally in place!

Whew!  Jim paid the crane guy and he mosied on his way to another job.  Scott and his helper took a break and the kids and I were allowed to explore the house with the roof actually on! Well, partially on, anyway!

I think Maylin’s picture says it all.  We were all beyond excited! 

At some point during that time, Jim went to take a phone call and came back wide eyed.  He motioned for me to follow him and spelled b-e-a-r.  Well, we know there is a bear out there so I started looking around thinking,” How brave is this bear?”  I mean, there is a really noisy crane out here and 2 nail guns firing constantly, not to mention my herd of kids.  Wow, brave bear to investigate all that noise and madness!  No, not really.  Jim took me to the kids pool and showed me these foot prints.  Ummm, not really a bear print, honey.  I belive that is a dog print.  That was good for a laugh at least!!  Oh, goodness, how I do love that man!

I couldn’t help but laugh when Jim thought these wear bear tracks.  Oh, how I love that man!  Even if he is the worst tracker in the world.  Ha!

Scott and his helper worked furiously to get the trusses braced and as much done as they could before the rain hit that afternoon.  And the horrible thunderstorms.  And then more thunderstorms and rain.  Yeah, just when we had been waiting a month the weather turns into moonsoon rains every 3-4 days.  Go figure.  To be honest, we were kind of expecting some kind of delay at that point anyway.

Scott wasn’t able to work Wednesday because guess what? It was still raining!

Camden didn’t care about the rain very much.  He was just thrilled to have a place to play with his cars.  I wish I was that carefree.  Jim probably wishes I was that carefree too…

For some reason I let the kids ride their bikes in the house.  At first I thought it was cute and funny.  Why not?  And then the crashes started.  And I realized what a mistake I had made.  Believe me when I say that bicycles are outside toys.  Always.  Lesson learned. 

Maleah was happy that she had finished her schoolwork that day.  That makes Mom happy too!

So after the rain, Scott would have Thursday and Friday to hopefully get the roof on completely and maybe the doors and windows in before the next tropical system came through.  Yep, Hurricane Irma was supposed to be making it’s way to us by Monday and Tuesday.  Directly behind Irma was another hurricane that they were predicting to take the same path only a short time later.  Yikes!

Well, thank the Lord, Scott and his helper worked furiously Thursday and Friday.  They even enlisted the help of muscle man Jim.  Jim is still sporting a black thumbnail as proof that he helped.  Thank the Lord they didn’t give him a nail gun!!   However, they were all determined to get the roof done and the protective layer on it before Hurricane Irma.

Why, that resembles a roof to me!!!

The kiddos loved the house with only half a roof.  They actually begged to leave it that way.  Hmmm, I wonder how long it would take for them to change their mind this winter??

Camden is always finding scrap pieces to play with.  He LOVES construction work.  Almost as much as he loves planes.  

At first they were predicting 70-80mph sustained winds as Irma came right over us.  Thankfully, the forecast changed a little more every day and the storm was going below us and more to the west.  I am so sorry for whoever was still in the path of the Hurricane, but I was incredibly thankful that it wasn’t us.

The roof is on!!

The roof just needs shingles and that baby is done!

The kiddos occupy their time by building their own little houses out of scrap materials.  How cool is that?!?!  I would love to claim that they inherited their imagination and creativity from me, but that would be lying.  They got all that from their handsome daddy.  Love you Jim!

On Friday, Jim had taken the day off to meet 3 people out there. The first was his buddy, Doug, who was doing our plumbing, the second was Home Depot, to deliver all our plumbing supplies and the 3rd was the HVAC people.  Well, Doug had gotten behind and couldn’t make it until Saturday.  Maybe.  Hopefully?  Please, Doug, Please!

Then, Home Depot called and said they had lost our order.  How does that happen?  I can’t imagine how crazy their store was due to Hurricane Irma but they had already taken the money out of our account the week before.  So, to call and say they don’t have an order to deliver to us….well, that made me slightly frustrated.  Jim stayed calm and asked for the manager who assured us the order was there and he would find it, but the order might not be delivered today.  Ummm, not going to work for us.  The plumber really needs the dimensions and details of the kitchen and bath stuff to do the plumbing.  Doug could do the basic stuff but that’s it without the order from Home Depot.

An hour later they called and said the order was found and it would be there by 3.  Now we’re talking!!  They showed up around 4, but at least they came!!  But-there’s always a but isn’t there? But, the kitchen sink base cabinet was wrong.  As in, it wasn’t a sink base cabinet.  It had a large drawer where the sink was supposed to go.  Not going to work.  Back on the phone to the manager. They would send someone to pick up the wrong cabinet and deliver the right one first thing Saturday.  Great.  Problem solved.

Then, we realized that we couldn’t really leave all this stuff in the house without windows and doors.

All this stuff was finally found and delivered..

And we had no place to put it!

Oh, yeah, we were supposed to be completely “dried in” and have locking doors by now.  Woops!  We decided to leave the tub and shower, as if we could have moved it to our house!  We loaded up everything else in the back of the truck and suburban and took it home to store in our basement. Not quite what we had imagined doing but, at this point, we were just rolling with it!

Thankfully, the HVAC people showed up on time with a plan and suggestions.  Now, to wait for their quote… and the plumber to show tomorrow…and to wait out Hurricane Irma…whew, that’s a lot of things to wait for!  But we have a roof, so I am thrilled!!

 

 

 

 

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