Roughing it in.

They have emptied the dumpster and the first rough of the air conditioning and plumbing are going in. Next week they do the first rough of the electricity. They predict that in September we'll be moving in.

Wendy's visit

Wendy and Ruthie just spent a week with us. They stayed and played most of the time at Joe's condo, but did make it out to Camp Thompson Ranch with Debbie, Oliver, and Victoria to check on the house, the animals and the swing set.

Of course, you can't come this close to the ocean and not eat some fresh fish. Oli hosted us at one of our favorite fish restaurants in Flagler Beach, the Golden Lion. Afterwards we played at the beach as the sun went down.

Mock fireplace

While they put in the plumbing and air conditioning and before the electrician comes to do his work, we decided to try a mock up of the electric fireplace we'll have in the great room by cutting up one of the boxes that the bath tubs came in. How do you like the fireplace part I made with house wrap and magic marker?

72 years

I'm now officially 72 years old. Here I am getting ready to blow out all 72 candles. I thought I would die of smoke inhalation as I kept taking quick breaths to get all the candles out. Yes, my mini bonfire set off the smoke alarm in the house. At least the fire trucks didn't come to help me put out the fire!!

You'll notice I had pie instead of cake. Usually I have watermelon since I don't really care for cake unless it is white and frosted with a thick layer of whipped cream and bananas. But this year we opted for my next favorite--pie: pumpkin, strawberry, and egg custard topped with whipped cream, yum, yum.

Need dollars?

Building a log home and need some extra dollars? They say that money doesn't grow on trees, but we know a magical place in Florida where life is slow but you can reach down and pick up a dollar or two (sand dollars, anyway), perhaps catch a falling star, play some shell games, and even get some advice from talking birds.

Roof is done

The last three days they have been busy finishing putting on the metal roof. When the sun shines on it, you need your sunglasses so you won't be blinded.

We are now working with the soffit and fascia people. As soon as I can get a bathtub up the stairs, the plumbers will start. The air conditioning people are setting up shop and the insulation people came by to take a look. We've been cleaning up the inside and sitting in our chairs in the various rooms planning how things will look when we are done--which we hope is soon.

Starting the inside

Now that the framing is done, it's time to start on the inside. To make things safer in the loft area, we used some of the left over lumber to build some bannisters for the edge of the loft and the stairs. Can you tell that grandma wanted to try out the corral look? We haven't attached the handrails for the stairs as we still have to maneuver a bathtub up the stairs before the plumbers can come.

Day 47--Dried in complete!

If you have been looking at the first picture of each of these 47 building days, you have been able to watch the log cabin unfold since that picture was taken from the same spot every day. Can you see the finishing touches in this picture--the frames around the second floor windows and the frames on the edges of the dormers?

The roofers have finished about a quarter of the roof. If it doesn't pour rain tomorrow, as the forecasters predict, they'll soon be half done.

What I think is the most exciting part of the dried in package is the framing of the interior rooms. They finished the upstairs north wing off of the loft--the north bedroom and my office/library/intellectual project room. They also put in the cross bars for the vaulted ceiling. Now it is imagination time to plan how to make all these empty studs magically turn into a visual delight for the grandchildren and other visitors.

I'm sure you have wondered who ran the fork lift to speed the project along. Now you know!!

We'll miss our log home builders. We've been with them so much they seem like our own children.