Long Time, No Write

"Oh, hey there! It's been a while. How have you been? Us? We're great! We now have a room full of drywall so things have been going pretty well."

Yep, you've read that right. We have been busy installing drywall. It's surreal to be at this point. But it's been a long time since I've updated so plenty more has been done too. Let's start where we last left off.

Last time we spoke we failed our electrical inspection. Then we failed it again. So I'm sure you can imagine what a welcomed sight this green sticker was!

HVAC, plumbing, septic, and framing have all been completed and all inspections have all passed as well.

Our doors now have their hardware.

The screened porch has been sided and trimmed out and the front door finally has the correct size trim on it.

The screened porch got a little back deck. This was a pleasant surprise. I assumed it would just be a set of stairs leading up to the screened porch door but I'll always take a cute little deck over a boring set of stairs. I imagine it won't be too long until I'm standing on what I'll lovingly refer to as the Juliet balcony and shout "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" And then Scott will ask "What light through yonder window breaks?" Or something to that effect. If you are our people, you know I will most certainly partake in the above scenario, however, you also know that instead of Scott playing along, he'll roll his eyes as far back into his head as he can and ignore the insanely nerdy antics of his wife. In any case, the back deck is adorable. Just like me, right?

Now lets head inside the house. Some very big changes are happening in there. It all started when the insulation guy showed up.

You know what comes after insulation? Drywall. Hundreds of sheets of heavy, messy, dusty drywall. On the rainiest and coldest of days, we managed to gather this group of suckers, I mean willing participants, which included my Dad Jim, my brother Matt, and my brother in law Andy. They showed up and unloaded the giant stack of drywall that Scott and I loaded into the truck earlier that morning. To do so, they had to wade through the muddy lake that was once our front yard. But they didn't complain. They didn't even complain too much after my daughter locked us out of Scott's parent's cottage, cutting off our access to food and indoor plumbing. Well Matt complained. He didn't get his sausage sandwich. They didn't complain when Matt lost his contact lens, couldn't see out of his one eye, and wasted time while Rylee fashioned him an eye patch out of duct tape that never quite worked out. There were not even any complaints when the drywall lift came crashing down on Andy's head. The day did not go as planned and was much harder than it needed to be, but these three guys didn't complain one bit. In fact, dare I say they might have even had a bit of fun? The times I was there, there was laughing, joking, and razzing Matt for being the "cranker". And after all that, we had an entire second floor ceiling covered in drywall. We are grateful for these suckers!

I appreciate those three guys even more so after I experienced hanging drywall myself. It's a tough job. Last weekend Scott and I worked for about 9 hours hanging drywall with only 45 minutes for lunch. It was a grueling day and we barely made a dent in the progress of the house but it was very fulfilling. At the end of the day I stood there, staring at the finished bedroom, in awe of what we just accomplished. Our bodies were sore and beaten, but like Scott said, it was a good kind of pain, the type that reminds you that you are alive. I'm still riding on a high knowing now what I'm capable of. I am capable of creating this bedroom where my guests will sleep comfortably, literally from the walls up. I'm capable of building my own house. That's something I'd never thought I'd say.