Job Well Done

Can you hear that? It's the heavenly chorus singing "Hallelujah!"

The roof is finished! At approximately 5:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time on the 21st day of August the last piece of facia was affixed to the house by hard working, father of three, husband to one, friend to many, and so on... John.

The man didn't even flinch when I asked him what his next project would be! Technically he gave the wrong answer though. He named a brand new project instead of the cleanup. What is he thinking? Hmmm. Does anyone else think it would be great fun to rev up the saw and cut the boards and beams into firewood? If so, please let me know when you would like to come over. Thank you.

Here is that handsome man cutting and bending this custom piece to get it just right.

The final piece ... and..... it's done!

My Very Own Construction Worker

John worked really, really hard on the house. He came in all dirty and sweaty.

He asks me, "You wanna make out or something?"

"Um. No!" Thanks for working so hard though. Now please take a shower. We'll talk later.

Still Roofing

Just because the dumpster is gone doesn't mean the work is over. The roofing continues. John is on the roof nearly every non-rainy day. It is seemingly slow-going with only one man working most of the time but the progress is evident.


This is our roof ... from the inside. (You seriously didn't think I would climb up there to take a picture, did you?) We have two little storage closets that aren't "finished." The boys and I listened and watched as the John and Randy tore off the shingles that day. When the sunlight made its way through the cracks, we were even able to see the guys as they worked and, of course, holler to them.

As I write, John is up there putting new shingles on this section. He's almost done shingling our house roof. Today is cooler so he won't be as worn out as yesterday. After the shingles are done, there will be the ridge vent, counter flash the chimney, facia, the other stuff, and the garage.

Okay, okay. You talked me into it. I climbed up the ladder and took this picture. Wow. Look at the nice new shingles. Look at the strong man attempting to even out his tan while working. Look at the steepness of this roof! And then keep praying for that strong man's safety.

After he works hard and comes inside dirty, hungry and tired, he gets to look forward to this: our boys.

They love to sit with him.

Play with him.

Make him laugh.

And climb all over him.

Picking Up the Trash

The day came for the dumpster to be picked up. Since Josiah would be at school, he requested pictures "unless the driver doesn't like his picture taken because it makes him nervous or something." (Isn't he thoughtful?) I was briefly tempted to show him the drop off pictures again, just backwards. But I'm a sucker for my boys' requests.

Here is the full dumpster. Wait. What? Oh. Okay.

I stand corrected. HERE is the full dumpster.

Time to cover it.

And here comes the truck.

Yes, I'm aware there's a hooker in the picture. Don't worry. There's nothing inappropriate here.

Gotcha!

Seriously. I was a little concerned that the dumpster was too heavy for the truck.

Apparently, he wasn't really trying to lift it yet but was just making it snug.

All secured. Let's get this show on the road.

If this truck could groan, I think it would.

Get 'er up there!

Nathan was jumping up and down with excitement over the show.

The driver was very nice and waved to Nathan. Good-bye, Dumpster!

Good-bye, Truck and Nice Guy! (I shall call him Dave.)

*Dave* even honked as the truck drove away. Yeah! HE HONKED! HE HONKED! Yeah!
The simplest things can make Nathan's day.

I'm excited to be able to park in the driveway again and to use our backdoor without having to squeeze past the dumpster.
I, too, enjoy the simple things.

They Took the Roof Off

I've got some catching up to do. Deliveries, trucks, a dumpster, scraping, pounding, friends, ladders, pounding, and more pounding. As the construction continues, so must the stories. If you like construction, you're in for a treat. If you don't, well, you're in for it anyway.

On the 25th of April, John and some of our friends took the garage roof completely off and built a new one. We had a great time watching their progress.

Removing the roof has begun.
Here's my inside out view.

Noah had a front row seat.

There was sawing and hammering....

heaving and kicking....

until it was gone.

Micah and John S. got rid of that last stubborn beam.

Clara, the house, was calling, "What about me?" Hold your horses, Clara.

Eli and Nathan did their own project of carrying wood back and forth.

Nathan looks like a little construction worker. Sometimes the boys would climb up the ladder to get a better view or sneak in a couple slides.

Isaac and Josiah did some of their own work. Hey! That's MY Pibb!

Ahhh! Refreshing.

The roof must go on.

No roof vs. old roof

Don't drop it!

Hi John!

After they finished rebuilding the first half of the roof, they removed the other half.

Tah Dah! The bones of the roof are back.

There was much measuring, cutting and nailing.

They wrapped up work at dinner time. Literally.

Thank you for all your hard work, Ric, John S., Mike, and Micah! Awesome job!