Busy at play/work

Our rooms

Sheathing

How far we've come...

Beams & decking, first floor installed, bents upright, second floor installed, windows framed, Trusses built & up, roof sheathed, walls sheathed & wrapped in Typar and rooms upstairs have been framed.

Camp Doran

We purchased a small pop-up camper in May. We decided it would be nice to have a camp-like spot up at the land. Each week we add a little more to make it comfortable. A screen tent, chairs, Mike’s hand crafted picnic table and a few tiki torches. We spent a night up there two weekends ago with the girls and the dogs. It was amazing to be in the spot during the night. So private and lots of wildlife signs. We plan to camp out more this summer.

Other Volunteers

Bill Snow (my dad) has been coming once a week to work with Mike. Bill Doran (Mike’s dad) has been working 5 days a week now that he has retired from teaching. A few weeks ago we had a bunch of friends and family come up to the house site and help raise the bents followed by a celebratory BBQ. A speical thanks to Ed Harty (& family), Josh Rouke, Daire Gibney, Josh Nichols, Devin Gallagher, Bill Snow and Bill Doran.

Mike is amazing...

Mike has been taking most Friday’s off from his regular job. He spends Friday, Saturday and Sunday working all day on the house. He also spends most evening’s working as well, after the girls have gone to bed.

Nichols Building

We have been working with Josh Nichols of Nichols Building (Windham, VT). He has been working 5 days a week on the assembling and building. Mike and Josh are life long friends and we were so pleased to have him on our team. Josh has shown excellent craftsmanship and proficiency, as we expected.

More work on the foundation

After the foundation was complete, Mike waterproofed the walls and then he insulated the walls. He also installed radiant flooring. Butch returned and began to back fill around the basement. He and his son also spent time shaping the land and removing more stumps. It was an exciting process to watch as we could finally see what our yard would look like. We had temporary power installed as well.

Seldon Lund

Mike decided to hire Seldon Lund from Walpole, NH to install our foundation and walk out basement. Mike has known Seldon most of his life. We were happy to hire him and he proved to do an excellent job. He arrived on May 20th to pour the footings The next day he set the forms. May 27th the foundation was poured.

Parker Water Wells from Middletown Springs, VT arrived on May 18th. They began the well installation for us. Our well was over 600' deep. We had to hydrofrack. The yield was under a gallon a minute even at that depth. It now yields 5 gallons per minute. Although it wasn’t what we were hoping for we are pleased to have water.

Parker Water Wells

Butch Wilson Excavating

As Mike mentioned in an earlier post, we chose Butch Wilson Excavating from Chester, VT. He and his son arrived with their equipment on May 12, 2011. They began installing our drive way on May 17th. The next day they began digging and prepping for the basement hole.

A new beginning...

We have wonderful news! We sold our home in Andover at the end of February. Yippee! We currently live at Mike’s dad’s home. We are eternally grateful that he opened his home and his way of life to our very active life with two young girls and two dogs.