Trusses are on!!!

It's starting to take shape!  Now that the trusses are on, there's a lot of bracing that needs to be done then the plywood and so on.  We're too excited!  It's a true relief just to see these trusses go on the house.  It's starting to look like a true house.

Truck has arrived, where do we want them?

Here is good, setting up the truck...

The wheels roll forward and the trusses start to slip off.

They are bending!  That's normal, they tell me.



How did they survive the drop?  Perfect!

Getting ready for the first truss to go up!!!

The workers showed up early!  I'm making note of that one!!



Setting up the crane and prepping the pile

Wedging the two sizes apart for the crane.

The crane measuring where it needs to reach

First of the trusses going into place!
Pretty exciting stuff.




Second truss being added. 



The main house is done, here comes the garage trusses.

Lunch time.  The fog has lifted, it's a sunny day but not too hot.  Going along very well.

The crane truck takes off for his next adventure



The small trusses for the craft room are set on top, no crane needed for them

Done!  Well, except all the bracing and stuff.

View from the front.  They look pretty straight to me!!!

Almost forgot... my sewing machine

I almost forgot to post pics of this.  It is a sewing machine I found in an "antique store" here right after we moved here.  I picked it up for $45, I think it is a good deal.  It's old, but research hasn't proven helpful in finding any information on it.  It's a treadle machine called "Favorite".  It's quite dirty, will need some cleaning up for it to get ready to display in the house.  Of course, I've got all kinds of time before that happens...LOL

Treadle Machine

Up Close of the back-side

Drawers and the cover for the Treadle Machine

Finally! Some progress...

I know it's been a LONG time since I posted; well, that's because NOTHING has been done in over three weeks.  Talk about frustrating!!!  We have been waiting on the trusses.  They need the roof to start doing other work, but the trusses took what seems forever to get here.  Then finally arrived yesterday!!  In the meantime, although the contractor and his crew have not been able to do anything, Larry has been hard at work.  We discovered that we have a drainage issue since we are downslope from quite a bit of our property and the rain that doesn't soak into the ground heads right for the house. 

Well, to fix that, Larry put two 6" pipes across the front of the house, creating a mini front yard for us.  There is one pipe above the slope and one at the base of the slope and they work great!  So, in order to not have to hand mow the slope, we decided to put a retaining wall there.  We, I say we, but it was all Larry... some of these rocks weigh well in excess of 100 pounds.  We gathered large and medium and smaller shale rocks from around our property and some of the really big ones from our neighbor's property.  Yes, he gave us the OK, said we could have all we want... PA is good at growing rocks, mostly flat shale which is really nice.  The wall is about 3' high and 45' long.  We're going to add some more smaller rocks at the top to shape it how we want it to be, but it's almost done.  Here are some pics of putting in the pipe and building the wall.  Of course, Jake does the inspections...

 
 

 

 

Of course, I have been busy too.  I am growing an avocado tree!!! LOL. Hard work, I know.  I've also been doing a lot of sewing and getting to know the neighbors. 

 



We went exploring in the ranger on our neighbor's property looking for rocks.  We found more than just rocks.  It was sooo cool back in the wooded area, then when we emerged from that, we found this...

 

 

Talk about cool!!! He ran from us a bit, turned and looked at us then scampered off into the wooded area just behind our neighbor's house.  He was about 1/2 mile from our property.  Haven't seen him again, but I know there is a mother with cubs around somewhere so we are very cautious.

 

We also took the grandkids to Knoebels, which is a theme park about 1 1/2 hours from here.  We had a good time, we even took Jake, our dog.  They allow all dogs if they are on a leash and you clean up after them.  He's not used to such large crowds but did great.  Among lots of other things, they have a pair of bald eagles that have been injured and cannot survive in the wild so they are raising them there at Knoebels.  Had a great day!

 

 

 

By tomorrow, we should have a roof, at least the structure of a roof, don't know when the shingles will be done.  I will post pictures in the next few days of that progress.  Hopefully now that we will have a roof there will be no more big or even small delays.

 

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