The Pigg Family

Happy Valentines Day!

2012-02-14T11:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentines Day to my two favorite ladies.....

I love you!

The Walls are Closing In

2012-02-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

We made a ton of progress on the house in the last week. After several long days - including a few 14 hour ones, we finished up the fireplaces and almost all of the interior punch list items.

Dad was huge help with everything we had to get done. I'd still be out there if he didn't help out. The living room fireplace is shown above. Sarah wanted it sat on an angle, so we accommodated. It will have a stone facade once it's finished out.

The insulation is finished everywhere. We went with a spray foam and then batt insulation on top of it. As you can see, we now have drywall sitting around everywhere too. The dry crew showed up today to start.

This is the fireplace that sits in the basement. I sat it flush with the floor and built it out so that it would cover up our main waste lines. This will be covered with stone too. Both fireplaces should look great once finished. I was really happy with how they turned out.

A quick view of the bonus room above the garage. Insulation everywhere!

Steve Weatherford?

2012-02-10T17:13:00.001-05:00

It wasn't business as usual at our office today.....as Steve Weatherford of the New York Giants and the rest of the parade came trumpeting down Wabash Avenue.

Our Howard Clare Insurance sign was made over to congratulate Steve. Not bad, eh!

My only complaint was that I didn't get a single piece of candy thrown my way. What kind of parade doesn't have candy? Ridiculous!

2012-02-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday(s)....Again!

2012-02-06T15:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife Sarah and my beautiful niece Lily.

Sarah turns the big 3-1 today. A big thumbs up to her!

Lily wearing her Sunday's best!

Happy Birthday(s)!

2012-02-03T14:15:00.000-05:00

Another month of birthdays......Happy Birthday Mary and Tom!

A face only a mother (and Mary) could love.

There's so much going on in this picture that I don't know where to start.
I know Tom turned 45......Mary, how old are you?

2012-01-26T16:28:00.002-05:00

I bought them all!

2012-01-26T16:27:00.000-05:00

That's right.....I bought them all.

Somewhere, someone is fiending for some Prell tonight....and I'm sitting on a huge stash with a big smile on my face!

20 styles of khakis and a slow moving house

2012-01-24T21:10:00.000-05:00

A few updates since I've been away for a few weeks. First: Sarah took me clothes shopping and bought me some nice dress pants and dress shirts. (Isn't she the best wife ever!) We went to the Gap to look at flat front dress pants. Did you know that there are at least 20 different styles of the same dress pant at the Gap. It's ridiculous. I tried on 3 pairs of the same pants that went by different names. Anyway, at the end of the day I walked away with a few pairs that I was happy with and I must say that Sarah was pretty impressed and told me that I was looking good!

Second: The house is slowly coming along. The master shower was built last weekend and the second tile shower should be framed in this weekend. We should be getting insulation done in the next few weeks. I'll have some good pics later this week.

THE DOOR is in

2012-01-09T14:57:00.000-05:00

The front door is finally in. I bought this door off of craigslist 4 years ago and I've been talking about it ever since. We did a lot of manipulating to make our house compatible with it.

It's solid mahogany, 6 foot wide and 8 feet tall.

It is awesome!

We also added some detail on the top of the pillars supporting the portico. You can see how we flared out the tops of the pillars in both of these pics.

2012-01-03T08:50:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-30T15:23:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the shots that highlighted Christmas 2011.

The girls getting ready to tear into more presents.

A Motley Crew!

My uncle Chuck and I showing off our good looks. It's pretty clear that we both married up!

You can't have a set of pics without a "thumbs up" shot.

The pretty ladies. India showing off one of her new hats.

India didn't get excited at all!

Dax relaxing after a long Christmas day.

Dear Santa:

2011-12-23T16:16:00.000-05:00

Karma Wins Again

2011-12-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

Caught my truck on fire tonight. Let me explain...last night when I was driving home in my truck Roy, my brakes began to make a horrible sounds and it felt like they were locking up and grinding. I parked it when I got home and drove the Saturn today. Convinced that I could fix it, I came home after work and jacked it up and found that something was messed up more than I originally thought. Zach suggested that is was the ball joints. I called a friend who said to bring it by and he would have it fixed tomorrow...great....problem solved. One problem, I had to get it to his shop. I was fairly certain that I could make it the short 9 miles to his shop. WRONG. About 4 miles into the trip something up front broke. My brakes seemed to lock up on the right front side. My right front tire tilted in. Sparks began to fly. I could hear metal begin to grind. I made it to the shop just in time. Fire erupted from under my truck as I jumped out. I sprinted in a panic and asked for a fire extinguisher to put it out before my whole truck went up in flames. After emptying a whole extinguisher I assessed the damage. It was a mess of melted rubber, twisted metal, and blazing red hot brakes. Not good. Now I'm no mechanic, but from the look of things, it looks like it will be an expensive fix. The damage looks pretty bad to me. Maybe I won't be getting my truck back tomorrow after all.
Karma. Life got me again.

Great.....There Goes Our Perfect Season!

2011-12-20T09:31:00.000-05:00

Dear Tennessee Titans:
How does it feel to get beat by our 4th string quarterback?
In your loss, you not only embarassed yourself, but you also ruined our potential perfect 0-16 season.
How are we going to get Andrew Luck in the draft if we keep winning games against losers like you guys?
While we're on the subject of quarterbacks, thanks for sending us old washed up Kerry Collins. We sign him for a 2 year $4 million deal and he lays an egg. He made it all of 2 games. That's probably more of our fault though. Why did we think a 60 year old could limp out on the field and be our quarterback. Curtis Painter almost played better than him. That's right, I said almost. You know Painter's problem? He went to Purdue.
Looking back, I now realize that my brother was right when he said that we should have signed Michael Vick. At least then we would have had an excuse as to why we played so poorly every game......you all know what I'm talking about.....we would have stayed up all night every Saturday watching dog fights at Michael's house.
If we do stop beating clowns like you guys and are LUCKy enough to get the top draft pick, we'll need another receiver to add to our roster next year too. Maybe we can pick up Sam Hurd?

Long Weekend

2011-12-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

Another long weekend for me. It started off good on Saturday morning though. Here was my view from the field at the front of our drive.

Tough to beat!

The house is still rolling along. We have a mess outside due the weather and the work going on, but the actual structure is looking really good.

A little frost on the roof...

How to Build a Bulkhead

2011-12-16T06:15:00.001-05:00

Now that our HVAC rough-in is completed, I wanted to get the lines covered up and ready for drywall. This turned into a pretty large project in the basement. I ended up building a bulkhead (fancy word for wood frame that covers something up) to cover all of the exposed heating and cooling ducts.

The simplest way (I think) is to build your framework on the ground. Using 2x4's I made a simple frame with upright supports at 16" on center. I had to build the same framework for each side of the ducts.

Next, I raised the framework up and screwed it into the floor joists.

Finally, I added the horizontal 2x4's at 16" on center as well. It's not very complicated, but it takes a good amount of time to build the framework, make sure it is level, and hold it above your head to screw it in (this can be tricky when you are working by yourself!).

This is the view of our long run of heating and cooling duct work in the basement. As you can see, this was a pretty time consuming frame to build. But, this will allow us to cover everything up with drywall and add a few can lights in the bulkhead. It was a lot of work, but it should look great once the drywall is done.

2011-12-15T13:50:00.000-05:00

Behold....The Super Cookie

2011-12-14T17:11:00.000-05:00

The two best cookie makers in the world made some great sugar cookies last night. Unfortunately, they aren't iced yet, so I haven't been able to eat many of them yet.

I think India had more fun playing in the flour than she did shaping the cookies.

With the leftover dough, India and I got to make a Super Cookie. There's nothing really super about it other than it is about 3 times the size of the regular cookies (that makes it super in my book!).

The Vanity Project

2011-12-12T15:32:00.000-05:00

Sarah and I took a trip to Indy to get some lights and other things for the house last week and we stumbled upon what we are going to make our final vanity for my "man" area in the basement bathroom.

This is a really unique looking cabinet that we both really loved. I'm going to drill out the top of it and cut the top drawers back so I can mount a vessel sink on top. A few minor modifications and we'll have a really cool looking vanity that you won't see anywhere else.

I haven't started the drilling yet because I've been busy on working on other items. I promise I'll get this out of your garage this week Genny and Randy! And, I'll post some updated pics once this project is underway.

More Exterior Progress

2011-12-09T11:10:00.000-05:00

The siding is slowly creeping around to the front of the house. Each day brings us a little closer to being finished with the exterior. Don't get me wrong, we still have a long way to go, but we can finally see the exterior elegance coming out of the framework. The top eyebrow window still needs finished out as seen in this pic.

The bay window that pushes out of the east wall looks really cool. The crew did a great job of wrapping it with trim and then throwing in a few blue fiber cement siding pieces to accent it. It will be roofed with a metal that matches the color of our front porch.

Pretty sweet!

You can really see the beauty of the window headers and sills in these pics. They make the windows look awesome!

As you can see in this pic, we still have to fill the screw holes with color match caulk......just another thing on my list.

2011-12-06T08:57:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-02T15:49:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving 2011 is in the books. Check out this sweet turkey cheese ball.

Somehow I didn't manage to get too many pics, but I did sneak this one in of the kids around the tree. Yes, these are our future leaders. It's going to be rough out there.

Correction.....The Best Night of the Week

2011-12-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

Yes, my friends.....it is tough being this awesome!

The Best Night of the Week

2011-11-29T14:47:00.000-05:00

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show --- Tonight ---- 10pm

Enough said!

P.S. I'm still waiting for Adriana Lima to call!

Nu-Wood Window Trim

2011-11-24T06:20:00.000-05:00

There are only a few (expensive) options for custom window trim...the best option that I found is made by Nu-Wood. They are based out of Jasper, Indiana and can be found online at http://www.nuwood.com/

We ordered our window headers and sills from them. They are a urethane product, so they are lightweight and won't rust, rot, etc. And, they are easily painted. They come in a standard white primer color so we went over them with a gloss white to match our other trim. These pictures don't do them justice since I took them in our dark garage...actually, they look really good. I'll get some more pictures of them installed on the house next week.

As you can see, the headers are a little over 7" tall, so they should give the house a somewhat more grand and old school look. Expect to spend a few hundred dollars per window. Your other options are to buy really expensive metal kits that are now sold by the window manufacturers or to have the trim milled on site. The time and labor expense for that is pretty high.

2011-11-23T09:59:00.000-05:00

House Update

2011-11-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

Here are a few update pictures and some quick info on where we are on the house.....

The front porch is poured. We went with a colored and stamped concrete. It came out looking really cool.
We're very happy with it. You can see the framing up of porch pad in the pic above and the finished product below. The lighting wasn't hasn't been the best with all of the rain and overcast sky lately, but this will give you an idea.

The siding is moving along quickly and is looking awesome. The blue color that we settled on looks great and the white trim that we are using really accents nicely. The windows in these pics show a 4 trim piece with standard headers. The front and side windows will have custom headers and ledges (that I'm pretty excited about...more on those in the next post).

What you are seeing is the lap siding. Next week, the staggered shake siding will be started. After that, we will finish with the stone all the way around basement and bottom perimeter of the house.

Open Season

2011-11-19T20:35:00.000-05:00

Isaac shot his first deer this morning. It was a pretty good sized doe. He shot it about 200 yards from our new house. He was pretty excited...and dad, Zach and I were pretty excited for him too. Luckily, Issac got a good shot on her and dropped her right away. We drove right up to her with the four wheeler and were on our way. Congrats Isaac! It will be the first of many!

And....Tara shot her first and second deer last week. She shot a nice buck not far from our house. I was out of town, so I didn't get to help with this; which was kind of a bummer for me. I love to help track and help out after someone puts a hit on one. Congrats Tara!

Another Pigg!

2011-11-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

No...it's not Sarah and I.
Denny and Tara have struck again! They are expecting number 2 sometime in the next year. Let's hope it's a boy so he can carry on the Pigg name, crazy manliness, and incredible good looks.

Congrats Denny, Tara, and Lily!

Captain Moore

2011-11-11T21:21:00.001-05:00

Captain Brad Moore flew into Terre Haute today with his new plane and was awesome enough to take me up for a quick flight. His plane rocks.
I don't get to see Moore that much anymore, so it was pretty good to be able to catch up with him.

We had a great time. Moore flew me over our house and I got a few pics from above. Check out the view of our house from his plane. We are located in the center of the pic next to the lake.

I am an Enforcer Man! Don't Nothin' Go Down in my House....

2011-11-10T10:09:00.001-05:00

Since this is my Friday, I'd thought I'd leave you all with one of the all time greats --- Terry Tate Office Linebacker!

2011-11-09T13:14:00.003-05:00

The Work of 10 Men

2011-11-05T06:15:00.001-04:00

We realized that we would have a lot of painting to do at the house, so I splurged and bought a Graco Magnum LTS 17 airless paint sprayer from Lowe's. One word....Awesome. Best $400 I've spent this year.

It does the work of 10 men. I'm actually looking forward to painting the inside walls.

It took us longer to layout the material and tape it up than it did to paint it. As you can see above, we purchased fiber cement soffit. The problem was, we couldn't get it pre-finished so we had to paint it. The sprayer took about 30 seconds to spray each piece and it looked great. No runs, no streaks, no errors.

Sarah did all of the taping and spraying. She is like a pro now! The door she it taping here goes in our kitchen. I'll post the finished pictures once the final coats of paint go on.

A Sneak Peak at the Roof

2011-11-04T10:11:00.001-04:00

Here's a sneak peak at what our roof will look like. We have about 40% of the roof on now and I'm praying that a lot more gets done this weekend.

Sarah chose the StormMaster Slate roofing in Pewter Slate. It's high wind and impact resistant and has Scotchgard Protector that makes it algae resistant. It was a great choice.

What's Next?

2011-11-01T18:00:00.002-04:00

We are looking pretty good lately. At this pace, we should be in by next Halloween. Notice the eyebrow window frame that was added yesterday (left side of the picture on the roof).

Only kidding. Genny and Randy will kick us out long before then.

Check out the large doors that got put in yesterday. These were crazy priced, but I really like them. We looked at a ton of door options and these seemed to be the best for us.

These pics show how they open up from the middle giving a huge opening. We have one that opens up to the upper porch (not poured yet) and one that opens up to the ground level where the bluestone patio will be.

The amount of glass in these will make the view so much better!

The view from the basement (above).

Suck For Luck!

2011-11-01T09:02:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T12:33:00.000-04:00

So....I guess today is Halloween. Do you know what tipped it off? I saw about 80% of the citizens of Terre Haute dressed as welfare recipients and tweakers. Wait, those aren't costumes.

Saturday night we did round 2 at Deming Park and enjoyed the not so scary wagon ride. Apparently I missed the haunted train ride on Friday night. After that we headed over to Washington Street to see the light show.

Emma dressed Mason (the dog) and Butterscotch (the goat) as a wiener dog and a hillbilly goat.

There's nothing funnier than a goat dressed as a hillbilly!

Wait a minute....is that my shirt?

Last night India got dressed up in her butterfly costume and we hit the streets to visit as many places as we cold before dark. Isn't she beautiful!
She got some great candy that I plan on eating. Thank you everyone!

We have round 2 of trick-or-treating tonight. I'm not a big fan of loading up and running around everywhere, but I guess I have to do it. It would be much better if we could stay home and everyone would come by our place.

More Work and Play

2011-10-31T10:29:00.000-04:00

After a late start on Saturday due to the World Series festivities, I did start to work on the wiring in the afternoon and all day on Sunday.

I figured out that we have TONS of recessed lights. It should be a lot of fun to wire them all.

India with mom and dad trying out the new window seats.

Here's a better look at the back of the house where the guest room sits. The windows are making the place look so much better.

Morning Crisis

2011-10-28T14:15:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday All! It looked bleak last night...but then the Cards turned it around and pulled off a miracle to force game 7 tonight.
This morning looked just as bleak as I was faced with a far greater crisis....I was out of Prell.

It wouldn't be such a huge deal to most people, but to me it is! I've been using Prell since I was 13 years old. And, it is incredibly hard to get now (probably due to it's huge popularity and economical price point).
Anyway, the crisis was averted as I discovered that I had a full bottle of Prell waiting for me at the office. (I left it in the shower there). I figure with this run of luck I need to go all out and make my way to St. Louis for game 7.....so, I'm road tripping it right now on my way to Game 7 of the World Series in St. Louis. The crew so far is me, Dillard, Kastigar, and Pat. If anyone is in St. Louis too, send me a text or give me a call. We'll be up tonight toasting Frank while watching the Cards!

Prediction: Cards 5, Texas Rangers 3

The Windows Are In

2011-10-26T17:23:00.000-04:00

Our windows were delivered on Monday and they are almost all installed.

We went with Andersen 400 Series Woodwright double hung wood frame windows pre-finished in white.

They are dual pane, low-e with smart sun, and have a glazing and argon gas....so, they are not only beautiful and expensive, but also efficient!

The matching 12' doors should be really cool once they get installed.

India's Terre Haute Children's Museum Brick

2011-10-26T08:26:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken a while ago, but I'm just seeing it.
Dick and Terri bought India a brick at the new Terre Haute Children's Museum. India was really excited to be able to go find her name on the building.

It was a really cool gift and as you can tell, India loved it! Thanks Dick and Terri!

More Sun

2011-10-25T15:06:00.000-04:00

The sun is shining again today. That means we'll see more progress on the house. The windows were delivered last night, but it was dark thirty by the time I got home, so I only got to view them by flashlight. I'm anxious to get home tonight and see how they are looking. The word is that the crew may have all of the windows installed by tonight.

This week's reader contribution comes from my number 1 brother Denny. Denny sent his contribution from the land of black gold, big cowboy hats, and a failing border patrol program. This was taken at the Texas State Fair.

I've seen similar signs at various parties.

Posting = FAIL

2011-10-22T09:01:00.000-04:00

I'll be the first to admit that I've slacked off on posting over the last week. I've got busy again and we had 4 days of rain that brought work at the house to a grinding halt (unless you count the two nights that I spent unloading materials in the rain).

The sun is shining and it looks like it's going to be a beautiful (work) day today. I'm headed out the door to get some work done. I'll have some updated house pics to post later.

Want to know what India is being for Halloween? The cheapest outfit we could find.......The Marker Bandit!

Really?

2011-10-13T10:01:00.000-04:00

Sales are rising.......

Hard gummy's.....seems like a contradiction to me.

The View from our Drive

2011-10-13T07:00:00.002-04:00

Another good morning.

We are very blessed to be building in such a beautiful place!

Mole Hills Out of Mountains

2011-10-12T11:33:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the slacking on getting house updates up. Believe it or not, I've been pretty busy. It's now excuse, but I'll throw it out there and maybe it will stick with some of you. Here is the current view of the house as of 7:30 am this morning. It is looking great.

One major change from the last few months was the work that I did on Monday and Tuesday of this week. You probably won't even notice it until I tell you about it. I had to move an enormous amount of dirt to make way for the water line coming from the well. Wouldn't you know that the biggest pile of dirt would be right in the way! Not a big deal, but it took a lot of time to move it. I picked up a wheel loader (shown below) and put about 15 hours on it moving dirt. I worked until 1am on Monday night and then started working again on Tuesday morning. I love running equipment, but 15 hours over a day is a lot. A note for Sarah: If you are looking for things to get me for Christmas, I would like a Wacker Neuson WL30 Wheel Loader, like the one I rented and shown in the pic below. It is awesome!

The best part is now the front view of our house isn't obstructed with a huge pile of dirt. The bad news is that I have a pile of dirt in back that will probably take me another 15 hours to spread. No peace unto the wicked!

1 More Week of Progress

2011-10-05T10:44:00.000-04:00

The garage framing is now finished and the stairway going up to the bonus room and down into the garage is done too. It's really nice to have stairs to run up and down to check things out.

The bonus area up top is awesome! We chose to take out the wall at the bottom of the stairs in order to open the space up in our mud room and allow you to see to the top of the stairs and see the window at the top. I think it will be a pretty good adjustment.

The roof decking and fascia should be started today. I picked up the Certainteed fascia trim yesterday. Don't get me wrong, it looks really nice, but it is ridiculously overpriced. It had better look really, really good when it goes up!

The septic got started yesterday too. The main line and tank are in. It looks like they will be installing the fingers today.

More Framing

2011-09-28T15:07:00.000-04:00

The second floor is almost completely framed now. All that is left are the garage walls and rafters and some of the rafters that go over a small part of the kitchen.

The weather took a turn for the worst last week. We have had days and some nights of rain. Lots of rain! It makes for a muddy mess and it's not too fun to work in.

It's been a few late nights and early mornings trying to make sure everything is going smoothly and looking over the days work.

The upstairs is looking pretty good. We had the issue of the front stairs being a little too close to the entry door, but I think we are over that now.

Right now, the crew is working on getting the storage area over the garage finished and sheeting on the exterior. I can't wait until they get the roof decking on. It kills me to think of everything getting wet during the rain.

When You Don't Have the Money for Hydraulics....

2011-09-28T08:39:00.000-04:00

.....you have to improvise.

The Second Floor and Plumbing

2011-09-22T06:00:00.002-04:00

The second floor got started Tuesday. I'm still amazed that the framers can get the elevations and pitches right while working at heights.

The treads and risers also got added to the stair stringers yesterday. Now we can run up and down the stairs (and not have to hug the 2x4's while tight walking the stair stringers). We took India upstairs for the first time last night to show her where her new bedroom will be. She loves it and had to show Papa Pigg, Papa Randy, Grandma Genny, and Uncle Zach.

The plumbing got started over the weekend. The main trunk is now installed, along with a Little Giant sewage ejector, and the main lines running up to the second floor. Another 1/2 day of work in the basement and the plumbing will be finished there.

The second floor framing makes a huge difference. It makes the house look a lot further along than last Friday.

This view shows the portico and the beginning of the second floor framing. The view up here is great!

We Now Have a Portico (Glorified Drive-Thru)

2011-09-21T16:32:00.001-04:00

Framing is still rolling along. Our portico was added on late last week. Every time I'm on the second floor and looking over the edge and at the portico I can't help but think of the U2 song Vertigo:
Hello, Hello (¡Hola!)
I'm at a place called Vertigo (¿Dónde está?)
It's everything I wish I didn't know

I thing it's more fitting to replace the word Vertigo with Portico. I'm not expecting much laughter here, but in my mind it's funny.

For those of you not wanting to ask, a portico is a glorified word for drive-thru. Kind of like what they have at McDonald's and Hardee's. The only difference is that we will have competent people inside our place.

The portico kicks off the west side of our house, allowing you to drive through it and park in the garage --- or park under it if you are a guest.

The space over the portico on the second floor will house our master bathroom.

Also, you can now make out our front porch.

This place is finally coming together!

Darn Rain

2011-09-15T14:37:00.001-04:00

We had our first rain day yesterday. We have been really lucky to have great weather so far. It's a major letdown when you get home (knowing it has rained all day) and you find that no progress has been made.
It should be like high school sports --- the work/game should go on as long as there isn't lightning.

The garage is now framed in and decking was put on Wednesday. The garage is awesome. The walls are almost 12' tall!

The network of supports inside is pretty crazy.

This is the view from our kitchen looking at where our pantry (left), laundry room (middle), and bathroom (right) will be. The second floor framing will be started shortly.

If I find out who did the rain dance, there will be serious trouble. The rain only held us up a day, so might let it slide this time.
Today, the sun is shining even though it's a chilly 65 degrees. This is great working weather in my opinion.

Not so Timely....

2011-09-15T08:46:00.000-04:00

....but still pretty funny.

Soccer in a Corn Field?

2011-09-14T14:32:00.000-04:00

I haven't got to witness it personally, but it sounds like Lily is cranking it out on the soccer field.

Check out the background....who planted all of the corn in the middle of a soccer field? Ridiculous!

I believe that her first game is this weekend. Lookout other team!

What Child Labor Laws?

2011-09-09T10:51:00.001-04:00

The boss cracking the whip and telling me to get back to work. Just looking at her makes me tremble.

I know we break a few child labor laws and about every OSHA guideline out there by having her work on the house....but hey, good (cheap) help is hard to find.

Wells and Walls

2011-09-09T06:00:00.001-04:00

The well drilling started today. I find the whole well drilling process pretty fascinating.

Basically, a big 30 inch bit is used to drill down into the ground as far as you need to go to hit good water. Out on our property, most of the wells are around 45 to 50 feet deep. It's kind of a crap shoot when you drill a well....you may or may not hit good water and you may or may not have to drill more than one hole.

You can see the drill bit (and the start of the hole) in the pic above. Below you can see the 2" thick and 30" wide concrete pieces that will be stacked on top of each other to make the outer walls of the well. These are dropped into the hole that they drill out.

The garage walls also went up today. The space looks enormous when you walk inside. The walls are really tall. We chose three 9'x8' garage bays --- we had to go 8' tall so my truck will fit inside. The total garage is 24'x47'.

Here's a nice view of the walkout basement with the garage on the left and the first floor of the house on the right.

Prep Work

2011-09-07T15:03:00.000-04:00

Zach and I have been prepping a few areas to get them ready for concrete and pavers. Normally when Zach and I work together we try to have a little fun by calling each other names and finding other immature things to do. Last weekend we were really lucky to have had the port-o-potty dropped off at the job site. It is awesome. It's like having a port-o-potty right next to where you are camping in the wild.

We put one of the dogs in the urinal and tried to get a picture, but she jumped out before we could. So, I felt it necessary that both of us got in it for a pic. I'm thinking about adding some mood lighting, some posters, and a radio.

The actual project we are working on is the back porch and the front approach where the pavers will go. We spent most of the morning digging out the area and getting the grade right so concrete can be poured. After 4" of concrete, we'll throw down a layer of sand and then we'll be ready for the blue stone pavers.

This is what the back porch area looks like now (after a day of work). I know....not very impressive right now.

Floor Decking?

2011-09-07T12:56:00.001-04:00

The floor decking is down and the crew is beginning to put up the exterior walls on the first floor.

With this amount of progress you can finally see the house coming to life. Even though I've looked at the plans a million times, I'm still amazed at how it all comes together during framing.

Having a good framer that can look at the details and make adjustments to fit your needs really makes a huge difference. We've been pretty lucky so far.

The pic above shows the bedroom in the basement.
You can see the plumbing stub outs for the bathroom below.

Since the basement is being drywalled, we have to put studs on the exterior walls.

Notice the additional "blocking" between the I-joists. This is done to prevent the joists from moving and twisting at the bottom.
During last nights walk through we noticed that we need to move one door and we haven't got our joists for the second floor on site yet. Both were minor problems that we'll get taken care of today.

A lot of Floor Joists

2011-09-06T13:12:00.000-04:00

All of the floor joists and rim board is done and you can now see the area where our stairs will go down to the basement.

Everything has been going pretty smoothly lately on the build. The lumber material situation was worked out (on a few materials that didn't show up with our first delivery), but it wasn't a big deal. The weather has been great. It's around 70 today and awesome out. So, we should see a lot more progress tonight.

This is a good shot of the I-Joists and the rim board on the outside (with the red on the top). We went with 14" tall joists at 12" on center in order to eliminate some of the supports in the basement. This will open the space up more....and ultimately make Sarah happier with the space. The 14" tall joists will go above the garage as well.

The site looks a little cluttered right now with lumber everywhere, but it is inevitable when you have a large amount of materials dropped off. It bugs me to have it this way....but if the work flow keeps up, it will be short lived and the place will be back in order.

These last few pics show the view from the basement (above) and the stair opening (below). The original plans called for supports around where the ladder sits in the picture above ---- the taller joists allowed us to eliminate them.

The windows were ordered today as well. We are going with the Andersen 400 series with simulated divided lites and pre-finished in white. It's nice to have this big (ridiculously big) purchase out of the way.

Everyone pray and continue to do the anti-rain dance. It would be nice if the crew can work every day without have to deal with rain and mud!

Happy 7th Anniversary!

2011-09-04T06:00:00.002-04:00

Sarah and I celebrate our 7 year anniversary today. That's right, she has put up with me for 7 long years. In that time, we've made it through 3 houses and 1 child. Crazy!

We have been very blessed and had the opportunity to see and do a ton of things over our 7 years of marriage.

I'm thankful for every day that we have together!

Who else would put up with me for that long?

We are heading to St. Louis to stay at the Ameristar Casino tonight. Anyone interested is welcome to join us. It should be a fun day of poker and then an 80's tribute band plays tonight. Get your spandex on and join us.

I'm going to need to win some money at the poker tables to afford Sarah for another 7 years.

...And, to everyone that said we wouldn't last a year....you were way wrong!

Heavy Load

2011-09-03T06:00:00.001-04:00

Our steppers and pavers were delivered this week too.
One word....awesome!

We were thinking of going a different route on the steppers due to the high cost of natural stone, but we got a great deal from Jones & Sons....so we couldn't pass it up.

These steppers are 18" deep, 48" wide and 11" tall. They are super heavy. We'll be using these for a walkway that comes up the hill from the walkout. We're both really pumped about them. They are sweet! At least, I think they are until I have to move them.

These are the pavers for our porch that comes out of the walkout. It will be a 200 square foot porch. We had to order right at 2 1/4 tons of it. It is a natural blue stone that has varying shapes and thickness and it looks awesome too.

I wish I could say that we got as good of a deal on these!

Not So Happy Friday!

2011-09-02T17:32:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday!

Well.....not for this guy.....

I couldn't help but stop and take a few pics of this truck on my way in to work this morning. It was parked on US 150 on the side of the road. Water was still dripping off of it from where the fire department had put it out.

So, whatever Friday you had today...just remember...it could have been worse....you could have been this guy. The only good to come of this for me is that we didn't receive a claim call from this guy, so he must not have been one of our insureds.

What do you think started it? Squirrels chewing on the wiring? Mobile meth lab? Cigarette thrown on the carpet? Molotov cocktail?

The Framers Have Arrived

2011-09-02T17:14:00.000-04:00

Part of the building material package was delivered over the last few days. We were short on a few boards, but overall, everything looks okay. I have a feeling that we'll be returning some 2x4'x that don't look too good, but we'll deal with that shortly.

It's sad to think that these few piles of lumber cost so much!

The Framers showed up yesterday to begin squaring up the house and laying the treated lumber.

Sarah showed up yesterday evening and I think I heard her say, "Did they work out here today". They did get it started and there was a lot of progress they made that was hard to notice.

They have a full crew out working today, so I'm excited to make it home and see the progress.

Worst Job Ever!

2011-08-31T18:00:00.001-04:00

Put this on your list of worst jobs ever......core drilling concrete. I'll explain.....our basement walls are poured concrete that is 10" thick. In order to get water, power, and gas in, and get waste water out, you have to drill through the walls....leaving an opening to run pipe through.

The picture above shows a few of the 4" holes that were drilled.
Basically, you take a giant drill (with a giant concrete bit) that is hooked up to a water feed and then start drilling. It's messy because of all of water and concrete sludge and your arms are shot after about 10 minutes. Luckily, I'm built like the Incredible Hulk; otherwise, my arms may have gotten tired.

It is a crazy hard thing to do and it now ranks on my top 8 worst jobs list. The pics above and below show what the concrete looks like after you pull it out. This is a 5" diameter piece shown below. I missed drilling this one, but they said it took them over an hour.

Let me know if you need any paper weights!

Nice Ride

2011-08-31T14:01:00.000-04:00

India has really started to get good at riding her bike. It's crazy to think that 2 months ago she struggled with reaching the pedals on it.
She's so crazy sometimes. A lot of her actions and the things that she says remind me of myself. I'll be the first to admit that I struggled pretty bad the first few years, but I think I'm starting to get better at this whole dad thing. Sometimes I even think that she likes me. Sure, we have our disagreements on whether or not she can eat fruit snacks for breakfast, but I love her to death!

Let's just hope that this bike can hold out for 4 or 5 more years so dad doesn't have to spring for a new one. I mean, she's not Lance Armstrong, so I can see why we would spend any more money on a bigger bike.

In typical India fashion, she accessorized by adding a matching set of sunglasses and her juice in her drink holder.

Concrete......Finished!

2011-08-29T15:51:00.000-04:00

The concrete work for the basement and garage is totally finished.

The sealed shiny appearance looks pretty cool. Seams were cut into the concrete on Saturday (after this picture was taken).

The only concrete we have left is the elevated porch coming out of the dining area. The remainder is will be concrete pavers. How long will it take someone to lay down 2600 square feet of pavers?

This pic shows the poured base of the pillars that will support the portico.
Framing is scheduled to start this Thursday!

India's Creations

2011-08-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

India showing off some of her fancy Play-Doh art....

She was really proud of it.

Mom may have helped a little......

We're in Serious Trouble

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Sarah and I went to the first home Colt's preseason game last Friday. Two words after watching Curtis Painter and trying to fathom him as our starting quarterback.....Serious Trouble. His performance was worse that Johnnie Cochran's during the O.J. trial.

Let's be honest....the guy went to Purdue. Purdue! Nothing good ever came out of Purdue.

Now I hear that we signed Kerry Collins. Sure, he's 37, but there's no question that he'll outplay Painter.

We did have great seats on the 50 yard line and had a great time. It's going to be hard going back to our seats after sitting in the Baker Daniels club seats. It's ridiculous down there.....private food stations, bathrooms right behind the seats and giant multi-screen TV's. We're never going back to our original seats!

Isn't it Ironic

2011-08-25T12:03:00.000-04:00

It's ironic that rebel fighters take a few moments (during their pillaging) to pose for a photo while flashing the "Peace" sign.

Gadhafi would be ticked if he saw this picture.....no one sits on his little mermaid couch made of solid gold.....NO ONE!

Concrete....Almost Done

2011-08-24T17:24:00.000-04:00

The basement concrete is finished! It looks pretty good!

The garage floor should be poured this Friday (assuming we have favorable weather).

We had to bring in an additional 201 tons of pea gravel to backfill the interior of the garage area and bring it up to grade. Do you know how long it takes to move that much pea gravel using rakes and a shovel? Me either. I started moving it and quit after about 3 hours and a broken rake.

Here is the finished product. Thank the good Lord for powered equipment that can move gravel a lot quicker than me.

We added three floor drains in the garage. One will be set up for Dax's bath bay (that way Dax won't freeze in the winter when he is muddy and needs bathed before he comes back in --- so we can wash him in the garage and then escort him right inside). The other two are for run off from our vehicles.

Fawns Look Delicious

2011-08-19T15:45:00.000-04:00

Can you spot the hidden fawn? Click on the photo to increase the size.

Here's a little help....look for the eyes in the center of the picture below....

Bow season is only a couple of short months away!

More Concrete

2011-08-18T10:13:00.000-04:00

The concrete floors got started yesterday. Everything looks good so far.

It looks like they will be finishing up the basement pad tomorrow and then moving onto the garage floor early next week.

We're bringing in another 60 ton of pea gravel for fill in the garage. (let's hope that's enough!)

2nd Annual Winery Trip

2011-08-16T12:04:00.001-04:00

The Second Annual Winery Trip went pretty good. Good food...good drinks....mediocre company.

The Colts Bus came through beautifully (thanks again Rich and Jayme!). Our journey started at the rendezvous point in the sprawling Town of West Terre Haute. What other place to meet than the local hot spot......the IGA.

From there, we made the hour long trek to Oliver Winery in Bloomington. It was really loud on the drive there. Imagine 15 ladies in a small spot having drinks and talking about who knows what (probably the hot driver???).

Oliver Winery is always good, and the staff are really great! Jones and I took the winery tour and learned a small amount about how to perfect our home brews. Who knows, we may be starting our own winery here shortly. For lunch, we headed over to Upland Brewery. It was a so/so lunch. Nothing too spectacular. Some of the food was good...some was just mediocre.

The bus ride home proved to be even more exciting. Motor boat anyone???

Does everyone remember the first rule of Fight Club? Well, that applies to our trips too. What happens on the winery trip stays on the winery trip. For that reason, I can't disclose what actually happened on the drive home, or who was posing for these provocative photos.

My co-pilot for the day. He provided a killer cheese dip and entertainment for the ladies.
Nice 'stache. And....is that a Taco Casita shirt?

Who's in for next year?

The Basement is Almost Done

2011-08-13T06:00:00.013-04:00

The waterproofing and foam insulation was put on over the last few days.

Also, the perimeter drain installation and pea gravel backfill got started. The basement rough plumbing will be finished this weekend to make way for the floor concrete.

Next up is the backfilling of dirt around the foundation and finishing up the pea gravel on the floor (where concrete slabs will be poured).

Should be a good weekend!

Ninja Skills

2011-08-12T06:00:00.003-04:00

If there was one good thing that came out of the latest clean up on the rental, it was that I got to practice my ninja skills....and I got a new gi compliments of the prior tenants. Thanks. Now the $1,000 in damage you did to the apartment doesn't seem so bad! Look at how sweet I look in it.....

I forgot how ridiculously good I am at karate chops and roundhouse kicks. But, a few seconds into the gi and I transformed into a natural born killer. I must have roundhouse kicked at least 5 people in the face....and that was before lunch!

No kidding! I was like Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse. It was ridiculous. I think at one point I actually ripped a guys throat out with my bare hands and I picked up the neighbors cats and used them as nunchucks. The cops came by and told me to shut it down. I guess my hands are deadly weapons.

Lucky for the neighbors I had to go home to watch Barney with India, otherwise, the beatings would have continued. This is just a courtesy warning to everyone --- I'm keeping the gi in my truck, so you had better think twice before you start something.

I Don't Understand why I Don't get my Deposit Back???

2011-08-12T06:00:00.002-04:00

Zach and I have wrapped up a few days of cleaning an apartment (where a tenant recently moved out). To say that the place was left in bad shape would be an understatement. We hauled out at least 6 bags of trash and had to paint everything. Sarah got in a few work hours too! Her painting skills were much needed.

If you've never owned rentals, it would be hard for you to understand the amount of damage that can be done to your once nice place and the amount of personal belongings and trash that people leave. Sure, you can take a deposit from someone, but that usually doesn't cover the cost of fixing everything.

In this place, every wall had been colored or painted on, the carpets were destroyed, clothes, medicine and beds were left, there were holes in walls, and the doors were destroyed. I could go on....

Can someone tell me how you get crayon all over the inside of the fridge? What exactly happened? Did they lock their kid in there with a crayon for timeout?

Also, has anyone ever had to replace a fan because the blades were broke off from a kid jumping rope in the house? Who lets their kid jump rope in a room with an 8' ceiling and fan overhead?

On a "high" note.....I should thank the prior tenant for leaving half a joint in the freezer. Does anyone know why you would keep your stash in the freezer? Maybe because it's so close to the munchies???

New Hardwoods

2011-08-11T06:30:00.002-04:00

Sarah and I made a big decision the other night and finally picked out the hardwood flooring that will go in the new house.

It's a hickory hand sculpted 3/4" hardwood with 4" wide planks --- and I think we both love it. This pic will give you an idea of the style. I'm glad hardwood flooring is so cheap! (if only you could hear my sarcasm).

The Wing Wall is Up

2011-08-10T10:38:00.001-04:00

The 15' wing wall that comes off the side of the walk out is now complete.

The pic below gives a good view of the garage too. The house is really starting to look bigger now.

All that's left with the basement now is to have the floors poured and the waterproofing and drain tile done.

My two favorite ladies standing in front of the new house!

India Time

2011-08-09T11:32:00.000-04:00

Trent and Deniese got to experience India for the whole day last Sunday. Sarah was out of town and Zach and I had to do a ridiculous amount of cleanup at a rental house that is becoming available (more on that later).

India had a blast.....she got to swim, play with Sadie and Makayla all day, eat lunch in the living room (on the carpet!), and she finished the day off with a Jonah Fish Fry. Thank you Trent, Deniese, Makayla and Sadie. India can't wait to do it again!

Happy Friday

2011-08-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

I thought this was true....but all that I got afterwards was a slap in the face.

Ridiculous...

Who would have thought?

DuPont......always on the cutting edge!

Another Nice Contribution

2011-08-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

Our readers are really stepping up lately. This contribution came from Jeff. Nice work! This was on a gas pump near Chicago.

Whatever message they are trying to convey is totally lost because of the picture.
You tell me what's going on here? From the look of the picture, the message above should say, "Ow".

The Shake Weight

2011-08-04T16:33:00.000-04:00

It might just be the most erotic piece of workout equipment on the market.

At first I thought Sarah had wasted $20....but then I saw her using it to workout. Best $20 ever spent.

Look at the gun show!

No More Forms

2011-08-02T17:48:00.000-04:00

The forms are now off of the basement walls and we can see the concrete.

Things are starting to move now!

My tent will be up in the basement tonight and I'm moving in tomorrow!

It's About Time

2011-08-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

My dads John Deere tractor is finally free. For those of you that don't know, it's been buried frame deep for the last year on the property where we are building our new home. It got buried when dad and Isaac drove it back to go fishing on Green Valley.

Everything has been used to try to get it loose, but nothing worked. We've hooked up trucks, tractors, some odd chain to tree contraption around the wheel, a skid steer, etc. Nothing worked.

Who would have thought that Zach would be the one to get it all chained up and implement an excellent strategy to pull the monster out of the pit? I didn't. Maybe I don't give him enough credit?

Zach was determined to get it out the day we got the new dozer dropped off. It took us about a half an hour and a combination of lifting the back end and then hooking the dozer up too it to pull it out. It was awesome. I think Zach did about 10 cart wheels. I haven't seen him this happy since the time that he got to go backstage at the Justin Bieber concert.

The wheel has some damage and a few hydraulic hoses are gushing, but the tractor is otherwise great. It fired right up and I drove it back to mom and dads house. Unbelievable. Nothing runs like a deere!

The New Dozer

2011-08-01T11:56:00.000-04:00

So....we bought a dozer. It was dropped off on Sunday afternoon and Zach and I have already enjoyed it for about 4 hours. It's a combination of work and play when you get to run over trees, stumps and anything else in your way.

It's an older Massey Ferguson 2244. It's actually a crawler/loader/dozer combination. It rocks! You can pretty much destroy and dominate anything in your way. I think Sarah is still a little unsure about it, but I think her mind will change when she climbs aboard and feels the rumble of the beast.

Now, I just have to find an adequate name for it. Suggestions?

Nice Melons...and Great Fudge

2011-07-31T05:00:00.001-04:00

I had a chance to stop by The Melon Patch in Oaktown, Indiana. The general store side was supposed to be closed, but the person inside was super helpful and opened it up to get me a pound and a half of fudge. Mental note: it is incredibly hard to eat a pound and half of fudge by yourself on the car ride home --- don't try it again.
Thanks Melon Patch! By the way, the creamy praline that you recommended was awesome.

Did you know that the Oaktown area is known as the "Melon Capital of the World". Funny, I thought the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles area where they shoot most of the adult videos was the melon capital of the world.

John Holmes.....Really???

2011-07-30T06:50:00.000-04:00

This one is too hard to pass up (pun intended). Here's a quick tale of a fairly exciting few days for me last week.......it goes like this: I had to go to Indianapolis for some insurance continuing education classes. It was 2 1/2 days of class time involving life insurance and health insurance (try not to fall out of your chair with excitement and jealousy). So, I tried to book a hotel room downtown using Priceline. It gave me University Place at a really good price. That's great; however, University Place isn't exactly downtown. It's about a mile away and it's located on IUPUI's campus. That would be fine if classes were in and smoking hot ladies were walking around, but it's summer time and classes are out. Thanks a lot Priceline....way to screw me over this time!
Anyway, I go to check into the hotel and a very nice gentleman helps me. As we are making banter (I like that word) I notice that his name tag says John. Then, as I'm scanning his side of the desk, I notice that his full name is John Holmes. You can imagine my enthusiasm as we talked it up for the next few minutes about the issues with having a "unique" name like Pigg or John Holmes. Before we parted ways, he gave me his card....

If anyone from University Place happens to read this, take my advice and give this guy a promotion and raise. He provided excellent customer service!
From there things were up and down for me. I survived class that day and then headed to Indiana Live Casino in the evening. I must say that I was impressed. The place if very nice. It was the first time that I played poker in an "electronic card room" though and that was a little bit different experience. Basically, you sit at a table just like in a real game, but cards are dealt electronically and you see your cards on a screen in front of you by cupping your hands over the screen. I don't like it as much as real poker, but it was OK. I left the table up $75 after about an hour of play because I got 4 calls in a row and I thought something was wrong at home. Nope....just a coincidence that several people called back to back to back to back. Anyway, I got to watch the horses at the track for a few minutes too and that was cool. If I was a horse, my track name would probably be Ranger Danger Dan.
I roll back into the parking garage of my hotel that night around 11pm. Life's good until I step out of my truck and realize that my front tire was bleeding air from a screw that I just ran over in the parking garage. (Thanks again Priceline...I blame this on you!). I panicked when I realized that if I didn't plug it really quick, my truck would be stuck in the garage under someone with a big jack could fix it. So, I jumped back in my truck and sped out of the garage in pursuit of a tire plug kit. Do you know how many places are open to buy tire plugs at 11pm on a Wednesday night in downtown Indy? Not many. After a few unsuccessful stops, I lucked out when the Speedway next to Lucas Oil Stadium had a kit for only $5.99. I would have paid way more that than....suckers! I race back out of the store and do everything I can to pull the screw out and then force a plug back in. 10 minutes later the job is done and I'm covered in grease and dirt. At this point, I'm really glad that I have nice clothes on. As I get up from fixing my truck, two gentlemen in Cadillac ghetto cruisers walk by and say to each other, "Now that's a truck". I feel pretty good about myself at that point and just give them a smile. To say that I didn't fit in at this time of night at this gas station would be an understatement. So the tire is plugged and and I check the pressure.....10 pounds of pressure left. That's not good considering my tires take 45 lbs. No problem, I'll just use the air compressor machine at the gas station......wrong! The machine is broke (and it looks like it's been broke a while). I have a feeling that it probably gets broke pretty regularly at this particular station. At this point, I decide to limp back to the hotel on 10 lbs of air and get up early to air it up. I was back in my room around midnight. I got up around 5 am the next morning to find air and make sure the tire plug held. Things went smoothly and although I was super tired, I was pretty happy. It was a good thing. Then I sat through 8 more hours of continuing education involving life insurance. It was a bad thing. I told you all that that was an up and down type of story, right?
One funny note from the class....halfway through the morning session an older guys phone starts ringing really loud and the ringtone is Welcome to the Jungle. Everyone cracked up!
Fast forward to later that next afternoon when Sarah got into town. We went out and had a great lunch, look at a few home stores and talked about the house. It was a pretty good time. That night we went to see the movie Bad Teacher downtown. Darn funny! It was then that we realized that staying at the University Place was actually a blessing. Why? It was the weekend for Black Expo and downtown was packed! (thank you Priceline) Half of the people were there for the expo and the other half were law enforcement officers. I've never seen so many officers in one location that didn't have Krispy Kreme in the name. We're talking 10 officers on the corner of each side of every block. We're talking horse patrol, atv's, officers on roof's. It was crazy. I was a little concerned at first, but once I threw my Tupac shirt on everyone was cool with me. It was an experience!

The Walls are Poured

2011-07-29T10:17:00.000-04:00

The walls to the basement are now done. We're pretty anxious to see things once the forms come off.

Next up is the basement floor, the garage foundation and floor, and a 15' wing wall on the walkout portion.
I'm ready to get more site work done this weekend. It looks like I might have to do an anti-rain dance this evening!

Possibly the Next Michael Phelps???

2011-07-27T08:26:00.000-04:00

India is has started to crank it out in the swimming pool. She does a great job of jumping off of the the side and floating around on her own (with the assistance of Tweedy Bird floaties).

Who knows, with some training she might be the next female Michael Phelps. I can see the dollar signs in my head already. I'll finally have enough money to buy the replica house from the movie Up......as long as she doesn't waste all of her endorsement money on weed (sorry Michael Phelps, but I had to throw that in there).

She already has the superstar look down. Starting tomorrow, we're getting up at 5 a.m. for swim practice.

More Happy Birthdays!

2011-07-26T15:01:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to DeAnna and Randy. I think DeAnna turned 32 and Randy is approaching 40!
We had some good food and marginal company last night to celebrate. Also, I had 3 helpings of cake and ice cream.

Once again, I have no pictures of the birthday boy and girl. It's my fault for sitting the camera down and ignoring the opportunities for blog worthy pics. So, you'll get the random pictures that I choose. Enjoy!

The Sewage Pit is In

2011-07-23T19:14:00.000-04:00

Almost all of the walls are erect and it looks like the concrete will be poured on Tuesday or Wednesday.

This is the view from where the walkout portion of the basement will be. Actually, this point of view shows a guest bedroom that's located in the basement. You might be sleeping over in this room in the next year or so when we're done.

Most of the progress this weekend was the installation of the sewage ejector pit that will tie into the plumbing that runs underneath the basement concrete slab. We went with the Little Giant pump and pit. The reviews on it were great and I hope it does a good job. It's job is to pump the liquids and solids up to 2" (assuming you ate Mexican food) up to the main sewer line that will then run it out to the septic/finger system.

I also worked several hours clearing brush and several more trees that needed to be taken down in order to open up the view of the house (since we changed the angle and position of the house slightly). It's hot and exhausting work....but it's great to see the progress!

The Walls are Almost Erect

2011-07-21T15:09:00.000-04:00

Almost all of the basement walls are formed up. A few more days and we'll be ready to see more concrete poured.

The heat is still horrible, but the crew seems to be doing a pretty good job of handling it.

It's pretty nice to see a dry job site where we can actually get some work done!

The Colt's bus also made a surprise appearance at our house last night (thanks to Rich and Jayme!). We're taking it down to wine country (or Bloomington) to visit a few wineries on Friday. This is the second annual trip and I think it's going to be a good one. The bus should make it an awesome trip down and back. I bet the chauffeur for tomorrows drive will be awesome too!

Another Great Contribution

2011-07-20T13:39:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if this came from Jennifer, Jill or Rick. Thank you to whomever sent it. What a great reader contribution!

I'm sure we'll have some nice comments about this......

The New House is Started

2011-07-19T13:23:00.000-04:00

It has been a crazy and long process, but I am now happy to say that we have finally broken ground on our new house. This is the look of our lot last week prior to any excavation work.

This is the how the lot looked over the weekend after a few days of digging and pushing dirt. The footers were dug out and ready to be poured.

Basements never seem to look that big when you first lay them out. Sarah keeps commenting on how it doesn't look like that much space. I think it's going to be plenty!

Yesterday the crew poured the footers. It was ridiculously hot here and they had to be miserable. I was sweating just thinking about it. They said that they had about 20 minutes before the concrete was setting pretty hard.

That's the first step in all of this....footers done! Right now they are assembling the forms for the basement walls. With decent weather, we may have the walls poured by Saturday.

Party Time

2011-07-12T11:43:00.000-04:00

Allyn had her second birthday bash at The Lakehouse a few weeks ago. I'm yet to get any pictures for the blog (no thanks to you Somer and Brian). Happy 2nd Birthday Allyn!

India being her normal self with dad on picture day. Pretty funny!

I'm not really sure what's going on in this shot...your guess is as good as mine. You've got to like the Elmo party hat though.

(Not) Guilty

2011-07-06T15:37:00.000-04:00

Just remember: When you go to court, you are trusting your fate to twelve people that weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty!

What is justice? A decision in your favor.

Family!

2011-06-30T15:39:00.000-04:00

We had another round of family pictures last weekend. The weather man predicted thunderstorms all day, but we ended up with a great (and cool) day to shoot. We started at St. Mary's and then migrated out to the property for some pics with the tractor. Mom wasn't feeling the best, so we missed her! But, I think she'll enjoy the pictures we did get.

All in all, it went pretty well. We had a few moments where the kids freaked out, but nothing too major.

One important lesson learned by Makayla on picture day: Don't touch electric fences. You'd think she would know this. No offense Makayla, but even the goats know not to touch it.

India and Lily did pretty good the entire time. And, our photographer did a great job with everyone. Thank you to her!

Check out India hamming it up. Not that it's unusual for her.

I sometimes forget how good looking we are!

Happy Wednesday???

2011-06-29T16:58:00.000-04:00

After a short absence, I'm back again. I could make the excuse that I was too busy to blog, but we'd all know that I was lying. Anyway, we're approaching a big 4th of July weekend. Can you feel the anticipation building already? Long weekends have that affect on people. My anticipation is more concentrated on the start of our basement. We are scheduled to start next Tuesday. Everyone cross your fingers and do a "no rain" dance.

This pic is an oldie, but a goodie! Check me out ~~Bush~~ Busch Gardens last year pointing out what I thought was the best part of the park. We got the meal plan and I ate my weight in food. This place served tons of barbecue and desserts and I was loving it.
Thanks to Genny, Randy and Kyle for getting this picture to me!

Wiener Finally Pulls Out

2011-06-17T14:13:00.000-04:00

As if we all didn't see it coming (pun intended). The king of Junk Mail (pun intended) has finally decided to resign.

Do you know what the true tragedy is now? We go back to the usual bland news and we will be stripped of our right to continue to make hundreds of wiener references throughout the day. The headlines won't be nearly as funny and every news station in the United States will probably stop chastising Mr. Weiner for his action. This whole thing will fade away, and we'll probably see Weiner run for the Governor or California in a few years. This whole news story has had tons of ups and downs (pun intended).