Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum

Work boots, work jeans, blue sweatshirt, light blue undershirt... Did they get dressed together?

The dynamic construction duo.

The house-building task master.

Jonny helping Jeff late at night on a plumbing/ truss repair project.

Waiting for the next step.

The maze of pipes developing in our ceilings.

The bathroom is set up for heating!

Getting Ready For Christmas

We went to get our Christmas tree at the Illini Foresters 24 hour sale at our typical time, about 10:30pm. We picked out a not-too-tall, definitely not-too-fat, tree to fit our living room. A few nights later, after the TCBC Christmas Concert we pulled out the decorations and got the house ready for Christmas.

Sarah and Jonny reach up high to hang the mini-stockings

Sarah and Jonny (in his new jacket and hat)

The hat looks good on Sarah too!

Follow the Brick walls all around the house!

Jeff lays a brick in the last row.

Is it straight? "Good enough that I can fix it," said the bricklayer!

Toby, the bricklayer places our handmade house numbers!

Jeff with the bricklayer and his assistant. The assistant's family comes from a few miles from Sandy's family! Who knew!

Jeff and Sarah pose with their house numbers. See the old one in the background? That's been hanging as our number for over a year.

304 W. Washington

House numbers. We had a hard time deciding what font to make our house numbers in, and if we wanted a symbol in the corners of the stone. Here are pictures from during the project, after pictures will come later.

Jeff traces out the outline of the 304 in pencil, then colors it in with sharpie.

Busy at work.

We tried to choose an interesting arts and crafts font.

Jeff suiting up for the carving job.

Extra, extra protection is always good.

Getting started on the actual block.

Life in a little house

This week has yielded some pretty good pictures of what life in the little house is like.

Eating dinner with your coat and hat on? Common place at our house either because you're busy working or because it is super cold.

Jeff and Sarah bundled up on Wednesday night to go fetch home a car that broke down a few blocks from home.

Jonathan, conked out in the chair, after a hard day of school and work.

Columns and caps and bricks, oh my!

This week has been a busy week for the brick layers at our house. They have put on column caps and will finish the wall around the base of the house tomorrow. 

The front steps and the place holder for the numbers. Tonight Jeff is out carving the stone that will go there with a dremel drill. 

Making sure everything is level.

Working on the porch columns.

The front steps, all neatly capped.

Jeff, at his perch, working on bricks around the basement egress window.

Looks like a cold job!

Jonathan, the construction assistant poses for the camera.

The set up for laying brick in the back. That's how close the two house are together; they don't leave much room for working!

Geothermal Wells

The Geothermal truck arrived mid last week.

I think it looks like a fire truck, especially from the front.

The digging crew drilled three holes, 6 inches around and 150 ft deep and put in the geothermal pipes.

The truck and digging from above.

The trough of water that powered part of the pump and was pulled up by the digging.

The front yard after the work was done.

A big, soupy mess!

YUCK!

Get out your wading boots!

Brick Wall (No! It's a good thing!)

Our brick is coming along. I promise updated pictures, as these are pretty old, as soon as I get outside in daylight with a camera!

The brick ledge we use is then covered to protect the metal from any water that could possible get behind the bricks.

The wall by the driveway is partly done. The wall will go to the height where the angle starts, above that is a porch column.

The front porch column.

The other column.

The placeholder for our house numbers. That wooden number sign has hung in hundreds of places during construction to help mailmen find our house!

The sand used for making mortar, Jeff has hauled this back and forth many times. Our house has a lot of sand on it!

The mortar mixer and the huge puddles it makes in the driveway. Last week I went to the dentist and when I sat down in the chair I realized the whole toe of my shoe was covered in yellow mortar dust from taking my bike out the driveway. Welcome to life on a construction site!

The Shower Story part 2

So in case you've been dying to find out what happened or how we got the showers into the house, here is an update:

We took the backdoor frame off, and carried them in through the door. I know, boring solution. BUT much more effective!

Jonny and Sandy lift, Jeff is invisible behind the shower/inside.

The shower wasn't super heavy, but it was super awkward.

Jonny tries to unscrew the bar we attached to the bottom in our attempt to take it in through the window.

Uh, oh, looks like we just got stuck! 

Well, we got it inside, now to get it to the bathroom.

Jonny carries one side through the study into the bathroom.

Sandy admires the shower in its new location.

Next problem: the drain holes are right over the trusses. Truss repair coming soon. These showers are making for lots of interesting blogs!