A whole lot of nothing...

As far as taking pictures of stuff, there is a whole lot of nothing to take pictures of. The weather has not cooperated on the weekends( it rained all day Saturday). So, we spent the day at a building material auction, again, and had to pick some of it up Sunday because of the rain. We were able to get several light fixtures,2x4s, locks and door handles,interior doors, and some ceiling joists. There were other things here and there but we only spent $1000, and had two 16 foot trailer loads plus two trucks loaded down twice. We are really hoping the weather will be better this weekend and we can get more done.

Finally the concrete is done!

Thankfully, we are blessed with a few good friends who are willing to pitch in and help along with Chris' brothers and dad. The concrete started coming at 7 am and 4 trucks later we were done. It still took all day to finish it with a power trowel but we are so very thankful it is done!!

This time we rented a power screet and it made the job much easier. It was a well spent $60 rental. As well as $60 for the power trowel.

The back half of the floor.

Finishing up pouring the front half.

Ta-da! The front of the house.

The back of the house. We figured it all out and after the gravel ,rebar, radient floor tubing and concrete 2400 square foot of concrete floor cost us less than $3 a square foot. 

Getting ready for concrete pour #2

My mom , Hannah and I spent the last two days tying and laying out all the rebar between the grain bins and in the area behind the bins.

This is a view of the holes that were cut out of the second grain bin. The hole on the right will be the stairwell upstairs. The hole on the left will be part of the utility room.

This is the opening for the stairs and you can see the wall for the utility room.
Work on the house has been going kind of slow lately. Chris has got so much going on at work and the weekends have been so hot. We are hoping to really start working on the structure in between soon. It will seem like more is getting done then. Chris did end up at a building material auction over the weekend and bought more building material. He spent about $3000 and bought $12,000 worth of material, so it was well worth it!

Cutting out the big doorways

Well, this weekend did not go quite as planned so we didn't get as much done as we would have liked it too. It has been really hot around here and Saturday was around 100 degrees. Working in the grain bins was too hot that day. The next day was a bit cooler so we were able to get the framing in for the second level and then cut out the large holes that will lead to the rest of the house. 

The hole on the right will be the opening into the living room. The hole on the left will be another opening into the living room and also hold the stairwell leading upstairs. The I beams that make up the framing for the upstairs floor we were able to buy at an auction for 17 cents a foot. We were able to buy most of what we needed for both grain bins for a few hundred dollars. You can also see the beams over the doorways that Chris built. He had to cut strips of plywood and glue them together and screw them to make it fit the curve of the wall. We had to buy 6 sheets of plywood to do the headers for both grain bins and that cost $200. He then bolted it with lag bolts from the outside through the boards. We were not going to frame the floor for the upstairs yet but after talking about cutting away so much of the ground level support we thought it would play it safe and frame that first.

The window in the second bin and some of the framing in there got done.

One of the doorways has a header now.

The sunset looking out what will be the front of the house.

No turning back now...

An update on the storm shelter. The retaining walls are almost done and the concrete has been poured in the entry and a drain was added. We trenched a run of 100 feet so that the rain will never collect in front of the shelter. The stairs into it and a door is still to be added.

This is Chris starting the framing in the kitchen area. These studs we have carried around for years. They were taken down from a temporary wall at work and we cut all of the screws that had been used in them. 

The tall studs will be where the stairs will be located.

Chris cutting out the windows. There is no turning back now!

The windows from the outside.

The window on the right is over the kitchen sink.

The bulkheads over the large doorways were something Chris had to come up with. He took 3/4 in plywood and cut it into strips that he had to laminate together as he bent them into the curve of the wall.

We have concrete!

The first pour of concrete was done over the weekend. Chris has started to mark out where the windows will go and the doorway openings to the living room from each bin. The spray paint boxes are the areas that will be cut out of the grain bin. 

The box in this picture will be the kitchen window over the sink.

This is where the cut out for the stair well leading up to the girls' rooms will be

The door area will be cut out for access to the rest of the house. And the will be a window on the side too.

This is bin number two. This cut out will be for the stair well to the master bedroom/bath.

Where the second cut out starts there will be a wall and that area will be the laundry/utility room.
 

Our youngest daughter thinks the concrete is great. She has her own skating rink any time she wants!!

Before and after tin tiles

This will be the tile on the wall of the kitchen( subject to change , but that is the plan)

After cleaning one time with oven cleaner. Oven cleaner is what I read on the internet to be the best at removing some paint and not damaging the tin underneath. 

After cleaning twice with oven cleaner. I did not think there was yellow under all that green. I'm not sure I like the yellow but we will figure it out later. At least all of the loose paint is off.

Two of the other kinds of tile. The white one is the same as the one underneath it. The long white piece is crown moulding.

This type of tin cleaned up after one spray of oven cleaner.It looks like at some point the ceiling was in a fire because of the soot on it and the change of colors. These will be the backsplash in the kitchen.

The orange will be a ceiling but haven't yet decided where to put it. The white crown moulding goes with it.  

After one round of oven cleaner.

After the second cleaning. Now just a few hundred more pieces to clean!  We are still figuring out if we will end up painting over them or just clear coating them.