Two Guys, Six Days and No Alcohol

I like my beer in the evening.  Especially during the summer.  But I can tell you this - the two guys building this house are not drinking after work.  I can say that for sure without even knowing it.  It shows in these photos!

Remember, when they started this project there were pipes to remove, ditches to bury, a pad to level, supplies to be delivered, tons of rocks in the way, holes to be dug, and 'extra' work involving renting an excavator and one more tree to remove.  Oh, and a backhoe in the way.

This was last Monday.  Today, I received these pictures from Grady.  It is amazing how fast our house is going up!  Keith and his partner really seem to know what they are doing, we are lucky to have them.

I cannot get over how straight and true the lumber is in lumber country.  We have lived in Nevada for so long, it doesn't seem possible.  When we built our log home in 1982, there were several logs that twisted within a few days of delivery. Several had to be cut in half to get them to lay down and others the log home company had to replace.  We've had that problem with any type of lumber we have purchased ever since in Nevada.

When were were last in Washington, we checked the prices of lumber (for finish work) and could not believe the good fortune of building in lumber country.  We can expect to pay one third of the price that we pay for lumber here in Nevada.  This will make it easier to put a lot of wood in the interior of our new home.  In Nevada, we used knotty pine ship-lap wood for many of our walls because we like that country look.  Don also made our kitchen cabinets out of knotty pine plywood.  Although the wood is very soft and you have to be careful, it looks beautiful.  So we plan to use knotty pine as much as possible in Washington.


 The upstairs looks like a tunnel in this picture and I guess it qualifies.  This area is 17 feet wide and 54 feet long and will comprise two rooms and a bath.  One of those rooms will be the master bedroom.  The windows will be placed at each end and the bathroom is in the center, so there are no windows in the bathroom.  Today I ordered a solar tube from Tru-Lite for the upstairs bathroom.  I think it will be cool to have natural light in the bathroom since we won't have a window there.

I want to once again say thanks to Grady for taking these pictures.  I don't know if he is taking more and only sending me the best ones or if all the pictures he takes are this good, but I sure am grateful to him for bringing me 'home' every evening as I sit here in Nevada!  It's people like Grady and his wife Gail that make us glad we decided to live this area of Washington.

On a side note, I want to show you a picture of
our Cedar Creek.  When we were looking for property, I insisted on running water.  Don thought I was crazy, but there is something about it.  It is so peaceful and inviting.  Cedar Creek runs the entire length of our property on the west side.  It comes out of Cedar Lake about 2 miles south (where we kayak) and dumps into the Pend Oreille River just north of the US/Canadian border.  As creeks go, it isn't very long, but it sure is neat to listen to from anywhere on our property.