Wrestling with the Pex

1500 feet of red tubing, 54 sheets of foam, 930 zip strips, 6 very sore fingers and we're finally ready for cement.

This past week was a full one. I didn't have any time to update the blog because, HELLO, look....the countdown clock shows only 17 days!

The exterior pictures here are from a week ago. The front and west sides are now complete but I didn't get pictures because it is currently snowcovered and we pulled off the roof to get ready for the concrete.


Putting tubing down is definately a team effort. It's not very pliable and comes in rolls of 900 feet. It's not rubbery like garden hose, but a hard plastic that can twist itself into a spaghetti knot like nobody's business. I wish I had gotten a video of the Pex kicking Jeremy's butt.

A little sidestep to the ER Monday night warrented 9 stitches in Glenn's head after the framing nailer fell off the roof and clocked him, but good. This after I cut up my hand with Jer's hook blade while doing hip cap. We have to finish this house soon. Our bodies can't take much more.

Shingling...well, started at least.

Me and Jeremy after working more than half a day on building this stupid dormer. We had eagerly thought we might get most of the front shingled, but we only got a start after monkeying with this framing most of the day.

Trying to get the house dry. That's why the roof over the garage remains unfinished.

Roof and electric - two big accomplishments!

These were taken around 6pm on Monday night. I didn't make it there tonight to see what was accomplished. Too cold and dark by the time I got home. Shingles coming Thursday so I know what I'll be doing Saturday.

Finally getting power tomorrow too. We've had the service on since we were framing the basement, but when Consumers came out to hook it up, they told us we had to put it on the other side of the house because they no longer cross the front lawn with their wire. HUH? So we now have a breaker box in the garage after calling the electrician to move the service, having it re-inspected and then getting back in queue with Consumers to get on the list for hook up. I hope it's cold for whoever has to dig it. I'll feel better about paying the winter charge that way.

Under 40 days.....

...and this is where we're at. Pretty good progress, but not fast enough for our timeline. And now we've got some more weather coming, that will surely hinder our shingling days. Any one know of a place in the Dorr/Moline area we could rent for a month?

Saturday

Well, I can hardly lift my arms to type this post but we're still going to pack some stuff and haul it to storage today. Here's a few pictures from Saturdays work. Starting to see the shape now.

Truss Day!

Truss day is finally here. Here we are holding the tallest truss. Glenn is holding the truss and I am holding the piggyback. They're too large to haul down the road so they come in two pieces. The little one I'm holding will go on top of the big one. We started at noon and finished at 2:30pm. Record time for us. Jeremy was on the roof with me while Glenn sorted the maze on the ground and hooked them up to the crane. Heidi brought pop and snacks and both Heidi and Molly came to take pictures for me. Holy cow, can you say "sore"!

Just one picture

Glenn ran out of plywood today. A delivery tomorrow should mean the rest gets finished tomorrow. At least this shot makes it look complete.