What a Weekend

Posted on April 17, 2007 by admin

April 11-15, 2007 (Thursday – Sunday) It was time to put the roof over the new construction. Greg, Pop and Mark came up on Thursday (I still had to go to my day job) to work on setting up the roof beam and the rafters. One of the big questions had always been How are we going to hoist the 30 foot long, 600 pound paralam up 7 feet into the air? Well that was solved with a mechanical lift (whose maximum weight was 650 pounds. whew!) Thursday was very windy. So windy, that the ladders and other stuff were blown off the roof in the 40 mph gusts.

Pop and Hoist

Mark and the Paralam

Greg aligning the paralam

Thursday — This is what I saw when I drove home from work in the evening. Take a look at the palm trees in the background to see the effects of the wind.

Thursday evening work

Friday — Greg brought Buddy and we continued to put up more rafters. The front of the house is what was mostly worked on.

Friday work

Saturday — Greg decided to bring in the big guns for the rest of the roof. He recruited another of my Dad’s neighbors, Kevin, who is a general contractor specializing in roofs. God does provide. Kevin works almost as fast as Greg and got an amazing amount of work done. Our neighbor Gracie baked a cake for the working crew. The joke was that she was celebrating not having to look at a complete eyesore anymore.

Cake from Gracie

Let them eat cake

Front Roof Line

West side

Sunday — Kevin, Greg, Buddy and Mark were back again. The focus was on the back of the house. We wanted to finish the low roof over the office and get the plywood over the shed roof above the loft. We almost made it. The loft roof is finished and the rafters are in on the low office roof. We didn’t get the office roof plywood on and there is a bit of plywood missing on the east side, but all in all, it was a very productive weekend.

South West corner

North face - front of the house

North face – front of the house

Our Spring Break in Valencia

Posted on April 15, 2007 by admin

A real destination vacation! 🙂 We had our spring break with Yaya and Poppa in Valencia, mostly because Matt went to a conference in San Francisco. We had great times with them, and other friends and family that live out that way.

Bowling with fellow homeschooler Jessica and her sweet kids Justin and Julia.

The joys of Bumper Bowling

Lucy and Julia

The end of that bowling morning was pretty eventful – I locked my keys in the car! Then it began to rain, and I had only a t-shirt on. I had left the windows cracked, and I ran inside the bowling alley to see if they had any kind of tool I could use as a Slim Jim. They gave me a wire clothes hanger and I ran back outside. Jessica was hanging with the kids under the overhang of the building to stay out of the rain. Lucy is now crying, and I realize she’s probably starving. As now I am. I bend the hanger and stick it down in the window, but it just won’t catch the door lock. I’m feeling hunger shakes and a deep sense of dread that I will have to wait 45 minutes for AAA to come! And Lucy cries on. Max is next to me know, and I say, “Buddy, will you pray and ask God to help us get the car unlocked?” He clasps his hands together and bows his head, there in the parking lot and prays urgently for us. I have a revalation on how to bend the hanger a different way. I try the lock that way – and oh-my-stars – it worked! We got in our car, and Jessica in hers, and raced to McDonalds. The rain was now coming down positively sideways! And then, it began to hail! A freak hail storm in Valencia – crazy! What a day. 🙂

Hugs on a turtle in the mall-indoor-playground

Funny faces

Carousel time with Auntie Jan

Our great buds – Danny and Lizzy D’Elia

Tuckered out on the trampoline

Catching Up – January through March

Posted on April 6, 2007 by admin

Ok, it’s particularly sad that now I only blog once a quarter?! Moving on to the good pics and news! In January, Max played basketball for the first time, with the Carp Boys and Girls Club. It is safe to say he had great energy and enthusiasm, but as much skill as a…hmmmm….fish on a bicycle? He enjoyed doing great leaps down the gym floor like a gazelle, and watching his shadow on the shiny floor. But – it was fun!

Mr. Basketball and his biggest fan

Max and buddy Jack

Then we had some rain…

Lucy in a puddle

And some in-house adventures…

Pajama party

In early February, we went to Solvang for a weekend to celebrate Pop’s big 60. It was an amazingly fun weekend, with good weather and super times with the kids.

Happy group

A surrey bike for 10! Boy, we got some crazy looks.

Lucy and Pop are swingin in the park

Ah, the joys of a tire swing. I personally think I should win some award for this artsy pic.

Poppa’s special birthday dinner

Could Syl really be married to this old guy?

Pop’s big present – a hot air balloon ride

Very impressive!

The frightful and cartoon-like bump that poor Emily got in our last hour of the weekend. (she’s ok now :).

Then, Mr. Matt turned 34!

We give serious gifts around here, like yo-yos and flashlights

Could Toby really be married to this old guy? Oops – she’s older than he is.

Em and Lucy

Max and Nate

Some new snazzy shirts

Fun Pic

Posted on March 28, 2007 by admin

At the end of January the kids saw me working alot in the house. They wanted to help out.

Workin’ Kids

The picture had slipped through the cracks (pun intended), so I am glad it didn’t get lost permanently.

March 2007 Progress – Part 3

Posted on March 26, 2007 by admin

Weekend of 23/24 March 2007 Greg and Buddy came over on Friday and we worked on getting the paralams up on top of the walls to form the floor of the loft. On one of the beams, an 8 foot long 4×12, we got one end up on to the top of the wall. Then Pop controlled that end and Buddy and Mark worked to lift up the other end. I was holding Buddy’s ladder because it was a little bit wiggly. The beam end got away from Pop and pulled him off the ladder from about the 3rd step. The ladder fell over and the beam end fell onto Pop. Pop’s end of the beam hit the ladder and also hit him in the back. Because Pop’s end had fallen, Mark and Buddy lost their end, and it crashed onto the floor. When it hit, it broke the 3/4 inch plywood subfloor where it landed. Because the beam the hit the ladder first, it didn’t land with it’s full weight on Pop. But it’s full weight crushed the ladder and bent the hinges of the ladder. God was watching over us. A couple of minutes later, we got the beam in place. We put up 8 beams and that took most of the day. After Greg left, Mark and Pop and I humped a truck full of wood up to the new construction so that we were ready for Greg on Saturday. We finished about 7 pm. Saturday, John came up with Greg and Buddy. Greg’s goal for the short day (he needed to leave about 2p) was to get the TJIs (floor beams of the loft) in place and the loft sub floor sheeted with the 3/4 inch plywood and to get the second part of the stairs up to the loft. We got the basics done of the sub floor before lunch, and after lunch, Greg and Buddy got the stairs finished. Since I was to be gone for the next week, and rain was predicted, it was very important that the tarps got put back into place. John graciously agreed to stay a couple extra hours and help with the tarps. Everyone worked like demons to get the tarps back up before we had to stop work at 4p. Thanks to John for staying late.