Deck and porch

Bob Goodman (who was the lead guy building our house) came back from Oregon to work with Sean on our deck and covered porch. These come off the south side of the house, and a few weeks ago we placed three multi-ton boulders as footers for the support posts. Cheaper than concrete!

They have the frame and joists of the deck in, and by tomorrow afternoon we should be enjoying a beer in the sun on the completed deck. After that, they will work on the covered porch, which will be a 10 foot extension of the existing roof line. We're excited to see this done as the south side of the house looks pretty chopped off.

Sean drilling footer bolder for the post anchor bolt.



View of deck from the west.



View of deck and boulder retaining wall from the east.

Plumbing and electric

Finally, after lots of preparation, planning, and purchasing, we finally got our hands dirty with the plumbing and electric. Sara's done some plumbing before but there was still lots to figure out, and Chris has been connecting wires since before he could walk but has never done any residential wiring. So far it's going well but we're just getting started.

Our water line finally got connected to the well, so hopefully we can backfill the trench soon. It will be nice to not have piles of dirt everywhere for once.

Early in the week we had a very successful trip to the big city. Our good friend Jack loaned us his truck and horse trailer, and we proceeded to raid a couple second hand building material stores, craigslist, and Home Depot. We returned home victorious with a used refrigerator, clawfoot bath tub, shower pan, kitchen sink, a few plumbing fixtures, all our light fixtures, and our plumbing and electric supplies.

The backyard

We took a break from house stuff today and went up into our backyard. A 2.5 hour hike from the house took us to one of our favorite spots in the Sawtooths...Goat Lake. Overcast skies and cooler temps provided nice conditions for a walk, and the exercise felt great.

Off the river and on the job

Due to the economy our river season ended a few trips early in the third week in August. Since then we've been recuperating from the summer and getting to work on the house.

For the past month, nothing had happened on the house, until last week when our well went in - 108 feet deep. The trench is dug to the well, and our pump and water line should be installed next week.

Well and water line trench

We've been mostly planning and laying out the plumbing and electric, which we plan to do ourselves. Not very rewarding since most of the work is in your head, but needs to be done. Monday and Tuesday we head to Boise for a major supply run, so things will get more hands on next week.

The excavator came back to do some grading around the house and began the boulder retaining wall on the south side of the house. We will eventually extend a porch off this end of the house, and we place some very large boulders as footers for the support posts. While placing 5000 pound boulders is far from an exact science, it seems to be turning out quite well.

Placing the first boulder - probably 3 tons or more.



The boulder wall is partiall complete.