It's Official!

UPS brought it today. I guess I'm officially Master Jamin now.

Electronic Toy

At the Christmas party tonight Caleb got this present. It is called Electronic Toy, and the sticker on the side says Full Function Battery Operated Toy. I'm not really sure what it is... besides an electronic toy...

Structural Insulated Panels

The SIPS for our walls were delivered today. The roof is supposed to be here tomorrow. Basically, SIPS are a sheet of styrofoam sandwiched between two sheets of oriented strand board (chipboard). They are joined with splines and expanding adhesive. When the shell of the house is completed it is better insulated, more airtight, and more structurally sound than a standard two-by-four constructed house. A standard built SIPS home is comparable in strength to a hurricane reinforced two-by-four house, and is more energy efficient so that the house can use as little as half the energy of the same house if built with two-by-fours. If you would like to read more about it, go to the SIPS Association website.
John says he is having difficulty getting people to work, with it being the holiday season and all, so he is aiming to start erecting the SIPS after the new year.


SIPS stacked and ready to be erected


Close up detail of the SIPS

Crawlspace and Garage Floors

They finished the insulation of the crawlspace and poured the slab. So here's how it works. The pink foam is about 2 inches thick and really dense. That was glued to the block and attached to the bare ground. Then they poured a 2 inch slab over it. This will insulate the bottom of the house. It is planned to put a couple of A/C ducts down into the crawlspace to diminish the possibility of mold and mildew.


They also poured the garage floor today. It helps me to envision the final house a little better, now that I know where the floor will be. It looks really nice, and makes me wish this whole process would hurry itself along.
The floor beams and trusses were also delivered today. John says they can start installing them tomorrow. That will make it possible to put up the panels, which are supposed to be here tomorrow. The walls will be here tomorrow, and the roof on Thursday or Friday. It's starting to come together. The dream is becoming a reality!

Decorating the Tree

Since we're in this little apartment, we really don't have room for a Christmas tree. So we went over to Leah and Larry's to help decorate their tree. Due to "extenuating circumstances" they didn't get a big tree either.
The boys had a great time putting all of the ornaments on the tree. Since all of the "real" ornaments are in storage, I got the honor of making the angel for the tree.

Blockwork: Day 3

They finished the masonry yesterday. John measured everything and said that none of the measurements are off by more than 1/8 of an inch. I am very impressed with the work that the masonry crew did. The foundation insulation should be here tomorrow, and the cement crew will be working on Saturday morning to level the dirt inside and lay the insulation. After that, they will lay the slab inside the crawlspace and in the garage.

Looking into the garage


Inside the crawlspace- dining room fore, boys bedrooms in the back corner


Looking at the front of the house- The porch is in the foreground

Blockwork: Day 2

They ran short on blocks and had to order some more. The mason said they would be finished tomorrow. Right now, the only thing lacking is the garage, and 1 course on the back wall.

Looking from the driveway at the garage


Looking at the back of the boys' bedroom and the service entrance to the crawlspace

Block Work

The masons got started this morning and made an impressive effort at getting the foundation wall started. The Mason-In-Charge told me that they might even be finished tomorrow, Wednesday at the latest.

View from the back of the house into the boys' bedrooms

Outside, Caleb is standing where the french door from the living room will be.

Block Delivery

I was just out at the house and met the block delivery guy. This is the first load, and there is supposed to be one more. Our builder said he was meeting with the mason on Monday morning at 7:30 to make sure we were all on the same page. So hopefully by the end of next week we will have knee walls on which to secure a floor.
I am so happy we are making progress.

Click...

That's the sound of me starting the stopwatch. The house is supposed to be complete 120 days from the day the footings are poured. And they were poured today... That means our house should be complete before April 2nd!

Hallelujah! We've Started!

They are actually starting our house! The foundation crew came out today and rechecked the batter boards and lines to make sure everything was still level and in the right place. I stopped by after work, and the foreman said they were going to work until dark. He plans on finishing the digging tonight or in the morning. He said he expects the inspector about noon, and then they can pour the concrete. After that cures, the next step will be the block work.

Caleb's First "Official Lost Tooth"

So we finally got Caleb to play with his tooth enough to make it actually come out. The tooth behind it already came in, but the baby tooth was still in there. It's been loose for about a month now. It's the one on the bottom left. The one on the bottom right was kicked out by Moriah last summer, so even though this is his second lost tooth, it is his first "official lost tooth".

The King Lives!

So we did our annual Thanksgiving food give away at church tonight, and I got to be Elvis and sing about how much I love the turkey...

Report Cards

Caleb and Judah Got their first quarter report cards today.

Here's Caleb's:
Reading- 98 A+
Language 99 A+
Spelling 99 A+
Math 98 A+
Social Studies 97 A
Science 100 A+
PE 100 A+

DIBELS Letter Naming Fluency- 58 (with 37 minimum to pass)
DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency- 65 (with 35 minimum to pass)
DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency- 91 (with 24 minimum to pass)
STAR reading range- 1.9 to 2.9 (grade level)

Here's Judah's:
Recognizes colors- E
Recognizes own name- E
Counting 1-5- E
Recognizes numbers to 10- S
Enjoys Bible stories- E
Knows his Bible verses-E
Interacts well with others- E
Controls his temper- S
Is attentive- S
Is able to follow directions- E
Handles crayons and pencils well- E

Mrs. Mason's comment: "I enjoy teaching my future worship leader :) He loves God! Keep up the good work!"

I am so proud of my little guys!

Fall is Here

...and with it come the falling of the leaves. You may not realize it, but pine trees shed their leaves, too. And they're so slick, that on a hill, they make a great sledding surface.
A couple of cardboard boxes, and we've got a fun-filled afternoon!

House Update

Well, it looks like the ball is rolling again.
We have a quote from a new SIPS company, SureTight (www.suretight.com), and we will be signing the contract and delivering the deposit on Monday or Tuesday. They are supposed to create panel drawings for us to approve, and once they are approved, they will have the panels to us within 3 to 4 weeks.
In the meantime, the foundation should start being built, and once that is complete, the first floor framing will be put in. After that is done, the panels can be put up, and hopefully with about a week's worth of work, we will have a "dried in" house.
Once some real work starts, I'll start posting pictures for all to see.

What is it?

The beginning of eternity,

The end of time and space,

The beginning of every end,

The end of every place.

The letter e

USPS's Finest

This is a fun one! We got home tonight and checked our mail. Here is what it looked like.
Oh, how I love the apartment life!

House Update

We will be closing our loan Thursday afternoon. Everything is ready to go, and our builder is anxious to get started. So are we!
If you want to see our plans, go to http://www.panelstar.com/panelpartners/drawings.htm and click on Ellis Plans.

Hangin' in the ATL

What a crazy coincidence. Mel came in from the UK at 4:15. Jimmy, Mark, and Jennifer came in from LA at 5:30. They all flew in to ATL, so I went to pick them up. We rode around and got a "tour" of GA Tech and the GA Dome. Then we figured out what we were doing.
After that we ate dinner at a mediocre sports bar and hung out at their hotel till about 10:30, then we came on back home. Here are some pics of our night:


Of course, the Abbey Road thing... kinda


Jimmy, pumping some serious iron in the hotel gym... it's like 18 pounds!


Mark, our host this evening for "Classic Film Theater"


Chillin' on Peachtree Street...


And we closed out the evening as many fine, upstanding young men do... hanging out in a parking garage...

Plans!

Oh, Happy Day!
Mark has finished our plans and we are ready to get started building the house!
John is having them printed this morning and I'll be taking them to the bank this afternoon. I am so excited, I could scream. We've been waiting for this day for a long time.
If you want to see the plans, here is the link:

http://www.panelstar.com/panelpartners/drawings.htm

Hopefully I can start putting up pictures of the progress so that you can share in our excitement and see our house going up.

Vacation!

We just got back from a week of travel. We went to the conference in Hot Springs with Mom and Dad. The boys had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa.





We left there on Wednesday and spent some time in Gulf Shores at the beach. Caleb got to do some body boarding and Judah got to play in the sand. We all had a great time.

Clearing the Land

Our land was cleared today. John, our builder, had the crew come out this morning and rip out the trees and grade it. It's very exciting to see progress being made. It feels like such a long time coming, but there's a lot left to do.
The door to the garage will be right about where the grass ends in the foreground of the first picture. The house will stretch almost back to where the trees are behind the people.
The second two pictures are a great action sequence of a pine coming down.
I hope to be able to report on more progress very soon.

Road Trip

The choir was invited to sing at the Georgia campmeeting. That's how we spent our 4th of July. It's a 90 mile drive. Judah fell asleep on the way up there and we got this wonderful picture. Isn't he cute with his upside down "blasses"!

Our Anniversary

Last night was our 11th anniversary. It doesn't seem like that long...
So we pawned the kids off on Leah and Larry and went shopping. I got this fab new shirt and Mel got this great new dress. Then I made a great gourmet dinner. Very nice night.

Oma and Opa's 60th

Oma and Opa Celebrated their 60th Anniversary this afternoon. Melinda had Sis. Sims make their cakes (which tasted great!). Mel, Leah and Cheri picked out the roses, and Leah's friend from church arranged them. Everything was really nice.

New House

So we're trying to start building this new house... After many hold-ups, we are finally starting to see some progress. Our driveway has been made wider, it isn't finished yet, but it is driveable. Some of the trees have been cleared along the line to get an idea of where the house will be sitting. We got our plan for the septic system. We applied for a new water meter to be installed.

Update on Judah

Judah had his 3 year Dr. appointment today. He weighs 33 pounds and is just at 3 feet tall. The Dr. said he is a "stereotypical boy". He does have an ear infection and will have to take antibiotics for a while, but this is the first one he's had in over a year.

Saturday Night

We just finished eating after grilling out, and the boys just got their baths... Judah's been making this funny face lately, and I've tried to catch it on film.

1st Update!

Here are some other pictures of the boys.