The sound of rain pitter-pattering ...

INSIDE MY HOUSE!!!

Today it is rainiing and I have no wall in my bedroom, bathroom or kitchen. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means: Water. In my house. All over my floors. Soaking my carpet. Splashing my toilet. Flooding my house.

We came home from Sunday dinner with Troy's family. This is what we came home to:As it continued to rain, it only got worse. We put the kids to bed. Their room, the laundry room, pantry and the living room were the only dry rooms. With them asleep, the real adventure began. Troy began using the big push broom to "sweep" the water out of the house. When it began pooling outside the door rather than draining like it used to before we dug up our yard and changed the "water flow paths." Troy took a shovel and created a trench to have the water drain to the back of the yard, while I got out she shop vac and bagan sucking up the huge puddles. We had to move a lot of furnature: my curio cabinet, our bookcase, and most everything out of our room.

After many hours of sweeping, shoveling and sucking water, we decided to call it a night and took a hot shower, and went to bed, anticipating sleeping only a few hours before awaking and repeating the process again.Luckily, we slept until early Monday (Labor Day) morning. We were planning on doing all the cleanup, inside and out, ourselves. But, in answer to many prayers, Troy's family called and announced that they would arrive within the hour to help with whatever we needed. Here is the disaster cleanup crew:

It's hard to tell who's who, but there's Brad the Dad, Emily, Tiffy, Troy (working behind Tiff) Amy, and Patrick, Tiffy's officially serious boyfriend. They all win the Golden Hammer of the Week Award, even though they didn't really build anything.
I was inside feeding the boys breakfast and keeping them out of the mud. Here's a view of Troy and Amy clearing off broken up cinder block, lumber, and concrete from the area we need to build the wall.
This is Troy sweeping rainwater out of the kitchen while the fascinated boys watch. Notice Timmy wearing his galoshes. He is prepared! Future Boy Scout in the making.

Framing the Basement

We've been busy the past week as we started framing Last Saturday. Here's what we have accomplished that time. (I wish I had taken an "Our First Wall" photo, but the memory card was full, and I didn't have time to download all the pics to the computer, so alas, it is never to be had.)
Tom came over and spent all day Saturday helping Troy. They were able to get a lot done.
Troy's parents and Emily his youngest sister came over around 4 pm and stayed until 9:00. They, and Tom were able to lift, mark and install almost half the floor joists.
It makes me nervous to watch Troy walking on the tops of the walls that are 3 1/2 " wide with a 9 foot drop to the basement floor.
As usual, we also had our two "little helpers" along
Here they are climbing on the lumber in their socks. Once they get dirt into their shoes, its hopeless trying to convince them to keep their shoes on.
Melissa and Emily were lots of help. The joists are to be placed on 12" centers in some places, and 18" centers in other places. They marked on the top of each wall where the joists should sit. It's not as easy as it sounds!
Tom making sure the joist is sitting right on the mark.
Em and Mom measuring and marking while both standing on the Little Giant Ladder
Using the speed square to draw the lines
We moved the Little Tikes slide down into the basement so the boys could play while we work and we would be able to keep them semi-contained
The novelty wears off fairly quickly, though.
Troy was especially glad to have them all there when it was time to move the joists that were 42 feet long!!!
Aunt Emily taking a break with the boys
A fun picture looking through the framing at Melissa and Tom
This is what we accomplished at the end of the day. Thank you for all your hard work everyone!

Not enough time to blog

I'd really like to have time to post some new pics of what our house looks like now, but Ihave been spending every free second out building it, that I don't have mugh time to upload the pics. Check back soon.

But, we are now in the "Framing Phase" we have 5 walls up and the joists (what the upstairs floor will sit on) are being delivered this afternoon.

The golden hammer of the week award (I just invented that, or thought I had, until I googled it) goes to a lot of people who have lent a hand. I will only use first names to protect their privacy. The winners are Alan M., Parker B., Paul W., Brett F., Tom H. and my Dad. THANK YOU! Some jobs, no matter how skilled the individual, cannot be done alone.

On another blogging note, I like cooking blogs, but don't have time to maintain one of my own, so a friend in my ward lets me be an author on her blog. Here's a link to the blog. "I Love to Cook" Hope you like it. It fulfils my desire, without the pressure to constantly update.