The Mastermind

Mike has been here for more than two weeks, having organized huge resources and recruited help heavily for several weeks before he came up to Shelley. We hope that all that construction debris is not taking its toll. Should we be worried? :)

Roof! Roof!

With the new trusses up and the new addition framed into the rear of the house, it's starting to look like a completely different home. People stop by every day to comment on how great it is looking. One of our local Shelley policemen stopped by and as we talked we mentioned that we were hoping the changes would improve the house and the neighborhood. His comment back was "a gallon of gas and a road flare would have been an improvement!" Most that saw the house early on would probably have to agree.

A Father's Day to Remember

Sacrifice means giving up something good for something better, at least that's what I've heard. But I know that Father's Day is not just a good day, it's a great day. It's the day every dad gets stocked up on breath mints, deoderant, and light-up ties. All the things that let him know what a great dad he is. It's one of those days not to be missed.

Last Saturday night, it became obvious we were not going to have time to get the trusses up and braced before everyone planned to head home for Father's Day Sunday. Despite my efforts to send everyone home after a monster weekend of building, there were several that insisted on staying through most of Father's Day to help raise the trusses. That wasn't just sacrifice. It was one of those rare instances of pure charity.

Old Friends Make Best Friends

Out of the blue last Friday, Dirk stopped by while we were loading up the big dumptruck for about the 12th time. He wasn't quite dressed for the occasion that day, but came the next day with his two boys and spent most of Saturday afternoon taking care of business on the house. The truss boom truck (it's not called a "crane" as I learned when I called them) came Saturday night, but didn't have a long enough reach to get the trusses all the way back to the back of the house, so Jared and John ended up schlepping them back from about mid-way, across some very shaky walls. Guardian angels were on full alert that night.

Many Hands Make Light Work

The incredible thing to us about this last weekend was that it was Father's Day weekend, and yet we had the largest crew ever show up from Utah to help with the house, and all of them really knew what they were doing. After our the rip 'n tear on the garage and some major clean-up by the scouts, Wade and Davin got busy on some shiny new walls for the garage. Ceiling height in the garage before the tear-down? A very jacked-up Camaro unfriendly (yes, there is one in the neighborhood) 7 ft. Ceiling height after all the new walls and trusses? A Christmas-storage friendly 12 feet!

Before any walls could go up, we had to do everything possible to firm up the foundation walls and get them ready to bear the load of the new trusses, so Brent and Kyle took on the dirty job of filling all the foundation blocks with cement and setting J-hook bolts in them that we could secure the new walls to.

A Big Red Surprise

Last weekend was probably the biggest weekend yet. Not only did we have a huge number of men make the trek up from Utah to work with us, but the scouts surprised us all by showing up Friday night as well. They had planned to camp down in southern Utah that weekend (there are some incredible camp sites down toward Goblin Valley), but instead chose to make the long trip up to Shelley to spend the weekend helping with the house. It was unbelievable what they were able to do, and it was so good to see them all again. If we don't have some national leaders out of that group, I'll be shocked.
The scouts made short work of the massive piles of debris that had been created by tearing down the garage and most of the guts of the house, but probably their favorite part was knocking off siding, breaking down doors, and wielding the hammers of mass destruction. Boys and sledgehammers are usually a dangerous combination, but it was great here. Moms, apologies if the boys came home and did more "remodeling" with their new-found slamming and prying skillz.

Fire is always one of the funnest parts of camping, and the boys quickly put together a great fire pit in the pasture area using some of the big river rocks that had been dug out of the basement. Saturday morning, the dutch oven maestros of Troop 1185 produced a popular favorite for breakfast...dutch oven souffle...yum.

Expert Heads and Hands

An incredible crew showed up throughout the day today and more this evening. These guys really know what they are doing. All along the way, things have happened to accelerate and smooth the whole process of transforming the home. The men and boys that have made the long haul from Utah aren't just great hands, they are experts that have made such a major project far less scary than it would otherwise be. Let's just say it would have never happened without them. OK, Jenn says if it were left to me it would have happened, in about 10 years, maybe 15.

The Real Pros

John's help in all this has been huge (he's the bald one on the left. Hey, I need all the folicularly challenged compadres I can get). Those new footings for the addition to the house are his and Mike's handiwork. Not bad for a couple of IF guys. I just had to stay out of their way and lift something heavy to be useful now and then.

Garage Gone Bye Bye

Yesterday Bart came over with his big bad backhoe and saved us a ton of time by just giving the garage a nudge in all the right directions. It probably would have pulled the whole house over if Brad hadn't prepped it so well, relieving all the attachment points so it could fall gracefully in a million pieces.

After the Roof is Gone

With the roof off, the house is starting to look a little naked. I don't know if 'roofless' is a word, and somehow 'topless' just doesn't sound right.

That big front loader made very quick work of transferring all that debris from the ground (thanks to all the hands there to load it) up into the truck.

I love that nice, airy feeling you get, sitting in your living room staring up at the clouds. It's also nice to have a good view of the rest of the house...

Rip 'n Tear

Today was a huge day of destruction and mayhem, just the kind of thing that everyone loves.

The incredible crew that has come up from Utah in the last few days has done more in a few days than we could have done in months. Today the roof was completely removed. That's not something you see every day.

The guys made very short work of tearing down the roof and getting that massive amount of debris loaded into the dump truck. Rick estimates we hauled nearly 40 cubic yards of stuff to the dump today.

Electrical Service Panel

Derick has graciously offered to pick up all the electrical supplies for the home at a discount.  Part of the puzzle is to sort out some new breakers without altering the current service panel.  Most or all of the existing breakers should be OK, but we'll definitely need to add some new ones.  Probably about five of them (still need to finish planning all the electrical plans to figure out all the circuits).  This is the current state of the service box.  It was unusual for me to see the main service disconnect scattered in with the rest of the breakers.

100 amp service to the house.  We're hoping that will be good enough, cuz we don't really want to have to bump it up.  Might have to move the reanimating lab off-site.

Give a Guy a Hammer

No shortage of volunteers to help with this part.  Everyone has been armed with sledgehammers, pry-bars (Gabe calls them cry-bars), masks, safety glasses and thick gloves, and has been tearing into the house big time.  It's going to go down to the studs by the time we finish.

A bunch of the family came last Saturday and made huge progress on cleaning up the front yard (tearing out a bunch of old fence and posts, cutting the grass, pulling out old railroad ties) and a big start on taking down the inside.  By the end of the day, the house took on a nice, homey, demolished feel.