A lot was accomplished on the house this week.  It began with stress, anxiety, anger, and the full realization that this is not a job for amateurs.  At least, not for amateurs who don’t have the guidance of an experienced professional builder.  The rest of the week was fun and productive as we got some help and had some friends and family up to visit.

After a couple nights at home, Josh headed down to get started on the blocking.  This is pieces of 2×4 cut at 3 degrees to fit between each rafter in three rows.  Their purpose is to keep the rafters from moving around and force them into the straightest alignment possible.  Unfortunately it was not obvious or easy to install them.  Josh had started figuring it out when I got there on Monday afternoon with the girls.  I came and tried to help but ended up making things worse.  With just the two of us working we managed to cut and install many pieces incorrectly, causing all the rafters to become out of alignment.  He and I were not working well together at this point at all, as we realized that it all had to be yanked out.

At this point the only thing I could think of to do was to call Barry.  This was at 8 am on Tuesday July 4th.  He was just leaving his house, so he ran up to our place to see what was going on.  He spent a couple hours with us and showed us how to do it.  He also talked Josh and I both down from our emotional states.  It was becoming clear to me that the better choice of jobs for me is the one I actually get paid to do.  I should go back to my day job to make some money to pay some people to help us finish this thing.  Could Barry get some of his guys back over so we could move along?  Yes.  He and Ron would come back for the next few days to help finish the blocking and get going on the entryway addition.

On Wednesday afternoon my amazing friend Megan came with her boys to camp and my brother in law Greg came down with his camper.  This really lifted all of our spirits to have fun guests around.  We also knocked out a good piece of the blocking before quitting for the day to hang out and drink a few beers.  I made the layered eggs dish again, it’s that good.

Thursday saw a huge amount of work get done on the house.  I spent all day screwing eave boards to rafter tails with assist by water girl extraordinaire. Megan handed me boards, batteries, moved my scaffolding and entertained me as she made sure everyone working was well hydrated.  Josh and Barry finished blocking, then moved on to begin framing out the addition entryway area.  Ron was back too.  After a delivery from Walsenburg Lumber and a day’s work we had the outline of our entryway.

Friday I finished installing most of the remaining eave boards except for those that would be in the way of the addition-building.  The girls and I would go home the next day.

Building this house is really stressful.  We’ve put so much into it and it all sits open to the elements waiting until we can get the roof on.  The design requires installing the ceiling, then insulating it from the top before installing the roof.  So, it’s all going to be exposed for a while yet.  And I worry.

Saturday morning the girls and I headed over to Westcliffe to get some more ice, drinks, food and mouse traps to resupply Josh for the coming week.  He pretty much needs to stay down there until we get a roof on this place.  We took the truck so we could get a tire fixed and haul a bunch of stuff home, leaving Josh my car.

As we were driving north he texted to say the “biggest storm in history” had just hit, making mud soup and filling the house with an inch of water.  While that was a slight exaggeration, there was indeed a lot of standing water on the slab, trapped by the wall sill plates.  About the same time the storm hit my mom Carol arrived.  Later that evening she was bailing water from our soon to be living room with our camp dish buckets.  She’ll stick around for a couple days to help Josh get walls epoxied down and hopefully get the ceiling electrical rough-in ready for inspection.

Our plan all along has been to cover the house with a big 50′ x 50′ tarp at this point.  Now we are not sure.  With the rain comes horrendous wind that could just rip that thing right off and blow it to the next county.  Josh has some other ideas for protecting the ceiling as he installs it.  I am picturing standing water on top of moisture-barrier foam insulation.  This forecast is very scary.