So, we already had a great truck.  A Ford 350 Diesel that hauled our little two horse bumper pull like a dream.  It even trucked along great with the camper and the horse trailer, heading over mountain passes at just under the posted truck speed limit.  It did a reasonable job hauling the massive RV down the road.  Things were good, things were standard.  But standard isn't really us.  

Terry had been thinking of getting his dad's old farm truck to help around on the farm, which sounded great to us, but we figured would never actually come to fruition.  Turns out, we were wrong.  After a series of fortunate/unfortunate events, Terry ended up in Ohio with a motorcycle that needed a ride home.  He talked his dad into selling him the truck and heading home. All we knew was that it was an old farm truck.  We pictured smallish, rusty, a few dents. 

Well, we got the rusty and dented part down, but it turns out that small was NOT a descriptor that fit the truck.  

And if that didn't give you an idea of scale, this should.

The new farm truck is a 1991 International mid-sized grain truck with a hydraulic dump bed.  And yes, it is awesome.  This truck will get plenty of use in the rural zone on gravel and hay runs and is already the envy of our neighbors.  We feel a little more like part of the neighborhood with it sitting in the front lawn.  

But that isn't the coolest part.  The best part is that my parents will be retrofitting the truck and using it to haul their RV around the country.  In the end, it should look something like this, except older and more rusty.  And THAT is what will make us really rural.

This week saw the biggest exterior change come to the house.  We had decided to add an awning over the porch off the kitchen so that we would be out of the rain while entering the house.  Our foreman, Nate, is also an extremely skilled carpenter, so we gave him some rough guidelines (roof over the door, make it look good and sympathetic with the house) and he ran with it.  The results are stunning.

It totally changed the look of the front - gave it a real entrance that is inviting and appealing.  Once we add the new front door it will be even better.  This was Chris's favorite moment of construction, however, as he realized that we had an MC Escher staircase going on with three sets of stairs all leading in improbable directions.

You can also see that the concrete is poured for the deck landing, and this meant that the stairs on our other deck were also finally finished.  

Finally, and possibly the most exciting, we now sort of have a shower.  Although it is only barely framed in, and has non-mold resistant drywall around it (to be replaced later?), it does work.  I cannot express how nice it was to finally shower.  I do sort of wish we had a door on this bathroom, though.

While this week seemed to be a bit of a stall for the contractors... again, not sure what exactly they did... it was HUGE in that we finally got drinkable water in the house.  

The plumbing was moved in our bathroom, which means that hopefully soon we will have a master bath that is functional.  Not sure how long I can go without showering, but I am losing a lot of friends in this process.  

We also laid out where we want our vanities, so that those water lines can be moved as well.  This was a little challenging with door swing and toilet restrictions.  I think we have it worked out, though.

The guys also got some of the rake boards on the roof, which apparently are needed to hold on the roofing material.  We will eventually have to paint these, so that will be thrilling.  

The actual exciting thing that happened is that Culligan came to install our water filtration system.  Two days and several thousand dollars later we now have drinkable water and a 400 gallon cistern that will store water for us as we figure out the particulars of our "low-flow" well.

This also means that for the first time since moving in we are able to wash our own clothes at our own house and not depend on the hospitality of others.

This week we ripped out our main bathroom.  As in, now we have no shower. This was with the expectation that a new shower would be installed (either in this bathroom or the guest bathroom) this week.  Turns out, one was not installed, and now we are without a shower right as school is starting... 

Chris quite enjoyed the demo of the bathroom, though I was pretty skeptical about his prowess with a sledgehammer.  He did a nice job, and a few giant construction trash bags of debris later, we have a blank slate to work with.

The contractors came in the next day and started to frame in the future tub site, a pantry closet, and the side of the breakfast nook.  We really enjoyed how much this opened up the space and how bright the kitchen got as a result.  I have to remind myself, however, that once the walls go in things will get a little more closed in.  

The guys also spent some time cleaning up the site, as it got a little messy over the last few weeks.  The materials were piled nicely in one spot, the ground was raked, and we started to look a little more civilized.

The final thing that happened this week was that we met with the contractor and owner of the company about our plan for beam repair.  Their initial estimates were around $5,000-$10,000 to do both beam repairs, but when they wrote it all out, their estimate now comes to $35,000.  We asked for some clarification, obviously.  When they broke down the numbers, we were able to correct some mistakes (such as the time the fellas said it took to complete some of the work) and that did reduce the total substantially.  We have $10,000 in our loan built in for contingency, and were able to modify our original work list to eliminate some costs (such as going to cadet heaters instead of a heat pump) to save a substantial amount.  We still have a hefty check to write, though, which sadly means a barn and arena are now even further into the future.

That said, at least our house won't be held up with beams that look like this anymore:

During this week, the guys had to reframe and car-deck the dormers.  They also spent a good deal of time fixing the holes and burn marks on the tongue and groove. They also did repairs to the front of the house, which involved taking out all the windows and doors on that side, realizing that Ted had not done any sheeting, flashing, or OSB on that side, stepping back, swearing, and asking us to fork over more money.

All and all, not a very exciting week, but I suppose a step in the right direction.  No roof on the house still, so hope it doesn't rain...

The roof came off this week.  And with it a whole other slew of issues.  That said, when the roof was replaced with waterproof sheeting it was quite an improvement over the technicolor dreamcoat roofing we had before.  

When the roof came off, we found more scorch marks from the fire (you can see some in the lower left hand corner of the house in this picture) and the contractors spent a lot of time scurrying around trying to figure out how much they needed to fix before the sheeting covered all the flaws.  

One problem was hard to miss... there was a 10'x8' gap in the roofing in the attic.  This we knew, but it was pretty interesting to actually see through the ceiling of your house to the sky.  

 In the picture below, I am actually standing on the area above the stairs, after having walked straight out of the attic.  Chris and I bought a lot of tongue and groove, and the guys worked to fix these holes, but it was an interesting perspective.

The dumpster truck filled twice with all the waste from the roof.  It was amazing how much mess there was.

The driver of the truck, it turns out, was not very good, as on the way out it took out the Comcast line on the way out.  A few hours of blocked road later and we were all able to escape again.

The other main project this week was the decking.  We originally had a door to nowhere in our bedroom, which presented a bit of a safety hazard.  

It was fun to see how quickly the deck was put together - just a few days took us from this:

To this:

Though the steps are still a bit... challenging.