Griz Football Weekend!

Pictures from the first and second GRIZ game of the season...

The next couple are from the start of the second game vs the Eastern Washington University Eagles

Griz WIN!

It was a great day for football this past weekend, just the right amount of cool and warm in the air and we were joined by great family and friends!

This picture is from the first game of the season...it was a HOT one but a GREAT WIN!

Porter saw a bird or a bug...

...and busted through the sliding screen door!

Poor guy had a major sneezing fit after he ran right through the door...he went full tilt, nose first...

Detail of the worst of the damage...

Porter and Earl posing with the damage.

Luckily it was fixable and no one/dog was hurt! Porter was worried at first because we tried to stop him from busting through the screen (by yelling a bit) so he thought he was in trouble but no worries, his feelings aren't hurt any longer and he is still a happy boy! Poor Porter...

Siding!

Charlie came over to help us with the siding. We actually were able to get quite a bit done with this long weekend!

Happy Labor Day!

Front of the house...

South side of the house and the new addition...

Another south side shot...We were able to get all but two rows of siding up...we'll need another section of scaffolding.

Thanks to Mom (Charlie) for all of her help...it made this weekend a lot more productive and we appreciate the help to get as fast we could this weekend.

Thanks Dad (Gordon) for the use of the coil roofing nailer...boy did that make life easier with the siding!

Lots of love and hugs!

Just an update!

We, I mean Earl, is working on the front entry trusses. You can hardly see them in the picture but they are over our front door.

You can't see it but the upper roof is shingled!

Here is a closer shot of the "baby" trusses that are over the front door
If I every wonder why Porter might have discharge coming from his eyes, it is more than likely the fact that he stands right under the saw and LOVES the sawdust flying into his face...is that weird? What can I say...Porter probably should have been half woodchuck!

Porter waiting for a piece of wood to drop from the saw.

Trusses - Phase I

Trusses are up! Well all but over the front door. We just got those today!

Hope this shot ties things together for the image of our addition.

Thanks Brian and Charlie for helping Earl while I was at work. The trusses look awesome! Time for some OSB.

Construction Site Views

Just a few shots of our view this evening...

There was an amazing rainbow - FULL rainbow that was just beautiful!

Earl admiring the rainbow...maybe there is a pot of gold next to the water tower!?!

So the front of the house had a great rainbow and the back of the house had a colorful sunset! We were able to snap a family photo.

And Porter sitting very nice!

Walls!

And we have walls...

Earl built wall jacks with pipe and boat trailer winches to raise the walls into place - they were pretty slick and really helped out the back!

Our first upstairs wall is up!

And this is our second wall...two more to go!

Stairs!

We have stairs!

The stringers were a 4th of July project just prior to going out to a Spokane Indians' baseball game with fireworks after the game

Porter loves the stairs and races up and down as we go up and down...

New framing for the addition!

New floor framed in for the stairs - and the pantry...

Came home today and the wall between the garage and the house for the pantry/stair area was up...

Now we are just waiting for our floor system to arrive...should have been today but now is Friday...it better be or we'll get behind!

Busy Weekend - Hoopfest, Backyard Fishing, and Family Reunion

Watched my brother Brian and his friends play in Hoopfest

...and Brian did some backyard fishing to get O'Neal's favorite stuffed basketball back from the neighbor's yard...

Good thing we kept our fishing poles and snagging hooks and lead!

Thanks for all of your help and fun this weekend Brian!

We also went to the Wottlin-Davis Family Reunion - I ran out of battery for my camera and did not take pictures but we had a great time seeing family at the cabin!

Busy Weekend - Addition

The garage roof/trusses were removed

The garage "push-out" was framed in

And the garage door header was moved to the new garage door opening!

It looks great!

Thanks to our family for all of the help so far with the cement work and the removal of the trusses, garage door, and the new framing!

Addition Update

Just an update since we returned from Juneau...

This is the garage footing...the new home to our stairs that will take you above the garage

This is a photo of the our fill work around the footings, as well as, prep for our new garage floor addition - which is coming tomorrow!

Earl using the ground compactor so that our floor does not crest in funny places or crack

Only one pile-o-dirt left and the front walkway is visible!

The front of our house now

This is the front of our house now...two big piles of dirt minus the excavator...We're trying to find a break in the rain to work on the footings so the inspector can come on out and check us off and then cement time.

More first weekend on the remodel/addition photos...

Scoopy-Bob is back on his trailer and the holes are dug and ready for footings...that was all going well until it started to rain like nothing else - or like Juneau...Thank goodness the rest of the weekend was beautiful and allowed us to get the tough work out of the way!

Digging out dirt from the footing area for a stim wall for the new set of stairs we are putting in...Don't I look tough!?!

As you can see Porter liked to help too! He jumped right on up to sit with me on the excavator - he didn't put on his best smile for the photo though...

I'm sledge hammering the cement into smaller chunks...Yes, I am wearing my pink Crocs...Probably not the best work shoes but they got the job done!

What a pile of cement! That isn't even all of it because we had the back of Earl's truck piled with cement as well...Earl guesstimated two and a half yards of cement - and he thought approximately 7000 lbs! Yikes!

The remodel/addition begins...

We started our remodel/addition this weekend...

Started it all off with an excavator (aka Scoopy-Bob) to help us break up the concrete out in our driveway and walkway, as well as, a small section in the garage. Also, we switched over to a bucket to help us scoop out our holes for the footings.

Earl bustin' up concrete with the excavator's jack-hammer

Brian keeping Earl on track...

The photos are kind of backwards this time...so you can see what the driveway looked like before we started all of this...

Happy excavator operator.

Excavator just after being unloaded from the trailer

On our drive last night...

There were nine elk in a field near Newman Lake...we were driving around looking mostly for deer and turkeys but ended up on our way home finding these elk

Prior to the elk we saw some deer but then saw these Tom Turkeys...they were strutting around and were just beautiful...maybe this year we'll get one...?

These Toms were HUGE!

We had an exciting drive last night!