The hearth rock

When Dad built his house up the road, he came across a big boulder that had nice color and good striations. Chris had a rock chisel and a 5lb sledge, so I grabbed both and gave that boulder a good whacking. Off slid a near perfect slab that I designated my hearth rock. It sat on the side of our road for three years and it's now about to go into the new house. Cue the inspirational music of choice!

The triumphant ride up the road

Big rock!

Now, to move the rock into the house, you first park the tractor as close to the wall as possible. Bonus points for once again parking it on the porch. Double bonus points for keeping it from rolling off the porch edge since the tractor is longer than the porch.

Back tire hanging over porch edge

Then you use Dad's $30 Home Depot dolly and a few 2x6's to carefully position the rock for removal from the bucket.

No pictures of the transition from bucket to dolly as I was busy helping. But we got it done surprisingly easily and no fingers or toes were crushed, the walls were not hit, and the dolly actually held the weight.

Sliding...

Rolling...

More sliding...

There!

We were all amazed at how smoothly this transition went. It all just worked. So we have the rock in the house and it will be centered on that wall later in the process. For now we kept it to the side to keep it out of the way. This is going to look so cool and it's great that it's actually from the property.

Not positioned yet

Note that Chris liked this so much that he bought me more rock chiseling / shaping tools. I see stone work in my future.

From fortress to wedding cake

The house looks more and more like a fortress the farther along we get. We're starting to make survivalist jokes about adding shooting slits in the facade.

Forbidding South wall

It's much better with the windows cut out. Adding the Tyvek completed the transformation from fortress to cake.

Does Tyvek work upside down?

Just needs a little bride & groom to complete the look

Chris for scale

Next is cutting the house wrap around the windows and doors and then doing all the taping.

Adding windows

Yup, it was indeed a swing. And we swung! Chris was a bit surprised that I got right on, but it was awesome.

Chris checking the drop

Matt threatening to send me soaring

The guys got all the walls and sheathing completed so it was time to cut out the windows and doors. Matt and I had two reciprocating saws going and we managed to get most everything cut out in a day.

My first window

See Mom? Safety gear!

 The South wall has the carport to garage door, then two living room windows that are quite large, the big French entry door, and then two kitchen windows (not cut out yet in this photo).

South wall

The huge blank space above will have window cutouts too. At the moment it's still sporting the fortress look.

The East wall has four windows - two in the kitchen and two in the pantry.

South and East walls

Once we got all the upstairs windows cut out, it looked much more welcoming. Hard to look less welcoming as a big blank wall though. The super high windows will make much more sense once the trusses are on.

All the windows are cut out

 We're loving the huge East-facing bedroom windows. I'm already thinking window seats!

Enormous bedroom windows

The buffet rock still looks huge and I still think it's awesome. The stone patio around it is going to look so nice!

East and North walls

It's not all work

My nephew turned 12 this year and he wanted to go on the Adirondack Adventure tree course to celebrate.  It's a great place and a great time was had by all.

Filling out the "what happens if you fall" forms

Putting on the harness

Looks high, doesn't it?

 They start you on training course that's just a few feet off the ground. It's got several of the typical obstacles and lets you get a feel for what's ahead.

The first real obstacle

The courses get progressively more difficult and the obstacles more challenging. Pretty cool stuff.

Goofing off again

Log swings

Tarzan swing

Getting higher

And more difficult

Cool log swings

Combat crawl

And, goofing again!

Massive zip line is the final reward

Way cool

We have walls!

Now those are windows! These are the East facing bedroom windows. Do they look huge? That's because they are. Truly - huge. And awesome. Rumor has it that I put these windows in so that my night-owl hubby would never sleep in again. Lies! However, I am confident that since I am a morning person (is there a bird name for us too? And don't even think of mentioning worms), these windows will help me get up, make coffee, and start the morning fire before Chris even thinks of waking up.

East windows

Garage with the Bridge open above

 We were racing to get the second floor walls up before Hurricane Sandy was forecast to hit. High winds were predicted for the area so we wanted to get a full rectangle of counter force erected.

West, North, and East walls up

 We're using a decking product that sheds water through downpour slots. Great to avoid standing water that could ruin your flooring. However, it means that any rain that comes down is poured into the first floor. Argh. So we moved the screen room inside so it couldn't blow away and we have the added bonus of a roof for the tools.

Extreme measures to protect the tools 

We didn't quite manage to get all of the South wall on. Once section was left and we decided to call it quits as the winds were picking up.

End of day

 We nailed bracing boards to the walls and deck to help support the walls. Then we settled into the Nest to see what the night would bring. Fortunately, we had a fairly quiet night. Quite a bit of rain and some strong gusts, but no sustained winds and no damage.

Hurricane bracing

 Work resumed the next day and the last wall section was quickly raised.

Then it was time to start on the interior walls.

Interior wall

Stretching over the stairwell opening

And...they're up!

 Once the walls were all up, the guys went around and put the rest of the sheathing on the building.

Finishing the wall sheathing

On the wall, two stories up

 I drove up Friday to night to see this - the Bridge walls were up! And is that a swing???

The Bridge. And a swing?

A sense of humor sure helps make the work go faster.