the good kind of exhaustion

Thomas and I were eager to start the weekend on Friday.  We puttered around, checking out the temperature in the house - pretty warm for not being all sealed up yet. 

I just love the pine ceiling we've already got up!

The north half of the ceiling was beckoning for our attention.

I baked a pumpkin pie bar, and Thomas and I made up the futon.  We were biding our time, eagerly awaiting late night visitors.  Not little green men and not Santa Claus this early, though you could have called them that for all the great cheer they brought.  Jennifer and Claire arrived in the dark of a bright full moon after a full week of work and a long trek from Colorado.  They brought treats and laughter and a willing spirit to work on the house with us.

After some late night chatting and a tour of the house in the dark, we all settled down for some much needed rest.  Surprisingly, Tom and I were ready to roll early, so after making some coffee and warming up zucchini bread, we snuck out to get set up.  It wasn't long before the girls were joining us.  All day the three of us girls worked on the ceiling on the north half of the house.  First we finished the bedroom, then the guest bathroom, and finally the master bathroom.  We took a short lunch break, but those two wanted to work and to finish all the rooms.  Thomas checked out early, cleaned up, and started on dinner.  But those two wouldn't let up until the last of the ceiling in the rooms was up and nailed - even though that meant finishing in the dark!

We had an amazing dinner - Chef Tom pulled together what we affectionately call "pupu platter night": spring rolls, crab rangoons, lettuce wraps, and sushi rolls.  He had the fire roaring, and we were nice and cozy for the rest of the evening.  It was a great way to celebrate our accomplishments.

Ever the joker, Claire had us laughing about something.

a shot of the north ceiling these girls worked so hard to put up

Sunday, after another yummy breakfast, we headed back out to put up the last of the ceiling before the peak.  It didn't take long, so we showed them around a bit, including checking out the firehouse and a ride on the pumper.  I could have come up with a million other things to stall them, but alas - they needed to head home.   

Niffer was a force to be reckoned with on the scaffolding.

 I didn't know she could frown, since she's always so jolly.  Probably that board was giving her a hard time, huh??

Dubbed the strongest woman by herself, Claire showed those boards what's what!

Tom took the little down time he could for rest before accompanying me to a fiesta in Cimarron.  Sadly, his energy didn't rally like mine when we heard the music, but sore as he was, he still twirled me around the dance floor a couple times.  With a weekend so great, it is no wonder I've gone to bed at 9:30 pm the past couple nights!

Thank God!

I know that when Thomas and I were grappling with the news of water leaking in through the roof, I said something like, "At least we haven't put up the boards yet because I would hate to have to pull them down."  The ordeal left me watching to see how Thomas would take it.  Truly, we both felt frustrated and bummed about something going wrong instead of going right.  Especially after 13 months of no problems with the roof.  Especially when we were on such a roll!  We weren't feeling blessed or thankful about it at all.

Today as I told my sister about it, I realized it was a really good thing to happen.  What if we hadn't had a wild and crazy rainstorm the night before?  What if that piece of siding hadn't been ripped off on Friday, so we made all the progress on the ceiling before Sunday night's storm?  What if, what if, what if?!?! 

Of course we'd like to think there was nothing wrong with the roof at all, but given that it somehow was still penetrable by rain falling up, it is a blessing to have happened the night before we got to that section of ceiling and not the night after.  Thank God for that small favor, for showing us what needed to be done.  And please, God, let that be the last of our lessons!  No more water in the house where it isn't supposed to be, please!

A Cheesy "Holiday" Card

I almost turned back for my camera as I headed to the car this morning.  I was first out of bed, so I turned on the cars to warm them up this morning.  After a lot of rain last night, the temperature dropped, leaving the cars covered with snow and the ground very soggy.  Officially the first snow, but sadly not our first snow day.  Wouldn't that have been a treat!?!?

Somewhere west of the polo ranch the landscape turned to white.  The bushes looked like nonpareils with dots of snow all over them.  I kept waiting for big red bubble letters to appear on the hillside reading "Seasons Greetings".  Still two weeks to Halloween, but it looked like a white Christmas outside.  The sun was shining over the horizon, and everything looked so happy and dappled in snow. 

Then about halfway to work it looked like the ice queen's domain from the Chronicles of Narnia - a bitter gray blue cloud mass that blocked out the sun.  It was snowing, and the road was a bit slushy, not just puddle-ly.  In the car I didn't feel it, but it looked colder.  I could also see from some of the higher vantages the yellow of dried fields to the east.

The snow thickened on the sides of the road the further north I drove, even as the falling snow tapered off.  A brotherhood of cows nose to tail followed the powder-coated barbed wire to unseen pastures, hoping to see some green, no doubt.  Through the tree-lined section of highway, the road was littered with yellow leaves still attached to branches too weak to hold up the snow.  A snow plow rumbling south splattered my windshield with slush. 

And now, the sun shining, the scenery dripping, each leaf a leaky faucet, each roof a softening avalanche waiting to slide.  Thanks, God, for the moisture!

September progress into October

Help!  There are pictures trapped on my camera...oh wait, I don't need help; I just need to remember to upload the pictures to post them.

So the pictures from mid-September are about where we left off at the end of September.  After a party weekend with the Fords and family celebration with the Vigils, we had only the window of time after youth group on the 29th to put up some more planks on the ceiling.

However, the first weekend in October we rocked!  We "finished" the south side of the ceiling - stopping a couple rows short of the crown, as that will be a separate piece to stick in after the north side is up.  It is very beautiful, and I I'm glad we chose to go with the pine. This past weekend we progressed on the north side, but not until after dealing with the siding.

Friday was shaping up to be a decent day, until pulling into the driveway after work and seeing a piece of siding midway down the north wall hanging off.  Argh!!  We don't need anything to go wrong - we're trying to get into this house sooner than later!  Gratefully, the wind was calm enough in the morning on Saturday that we got out and did some repair work on the siding and secured the rest.  We put up the eave on that side, but then had to call it a day.  More progress to come.  Sunday, however, was too windy to get back outside, so we resumed with the ceiling when I got home from youth group.  We made good progress in our bedroom.  (Of course, I always have to suggest just two more rows when we're winding down, only to have them be especially frustrating.  I guess I don't know when to quit!)

Today we both had off, so we nearly finished the bedroom, completed the front hall, and joined those two as they climbed toward the peak of the roof.  After a quick bathroom/drink break, I got us set up to tackle the ceiling in the other bedroom.  As I prepped the space, I unleashed a shower of rain down on the floor.  A shower of rain!?!?!  After thirteen months of no leaks, now?!?!  After 11 months of no problems, the insulation goes up.  And then just last Wednesday on a day off, I finished our second insulation barrier.  And now it leaks?!?!  The only thing we could figure was that the rainstorm Sunday night that filled our rain barrel was coming sideways and even falling up because the winds were so wild.  The insulation wasn't ruined or even wet - it was between the two layers, but all the same, we pulled open that bay in the ceiling, laid a trap of drywall to see if there are any more leaks, and sealed the heck out of our roof cap.  What a day!

On two positive notes -
     Pop and his trusty sidekick Andres finished the septic line on Saturday, connected up the pipes, and buried it!  Of course soon after as I predicted, the house had a farty smell where the pipes were not connected to toilets and sinks with p-traps full of water.  A little tape stopped that.  And though he threatened, Tom has not yet tested out the septic line.
     PLUS -we are so excited for a visit from a couple friends this weekend!

What Love!

This weekend we continued to honor the lives and memory of Tom's grandparents.  The boys all gathered at the cemetery and poured a little sweat equity in their remembrance fixing up the family plots.  Granny's headstone was placed, and gravel was spread.  They certainly had worked up an appetite, and we girls laid out a spread for lunch.  After lunch we all gathered at the cemetery to see what a nice job the boys did and recall some stories of Granny's life.  It was a real treat to get to see all our tios and primos once again.  And God did well by us providing a beautiful sunny day with a fresh breeze!

 such a pretty marker - and with Our Lady, too

the brothers!