Framing-Sunday

On Sunday, the progress for most of the day was less dramatic as workers installed floor joists and sub-floor for the loft, and some of the exterior sheeting.

We did get some dramatic moments near the end of the day, though, when they raised the two dormers. Check it out.

 

Here's Jason, the crew foreman, waving from the dormer window.

Here's how the place looked at the end of the day.

Framing-Saturday

The crew arrived around 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, and raised the first wall before the sun was up.

Here's the front view.

By mid-day, all the lower walls were up and the workers were making measurements along the top for the next level.

About 1 p.m., clouds rolled in and we heard a loud crack of thunder. Gerald and I said, "thunder," and we could hear the workers say the same thing in unison, only in Spanish.

A few rain drops fell, and I thought it would pass. Instead, the rain was hard enough to run me inside. Pretty soon, it was pouring. The construction crew took cover in the garage. It probably rained for the better part of an hour.

At the end, the campsite was a soggy mess, but the workers got back to work. J.C. Campbell went to work digging a trench for a pipe to bring the well water into the house.

CAA artist Bill Owen, who lives in phase 1 of Ruger Ranch, had his sneak preview party on Saturday. Gerald's manager Dave, his wife Rose and their daughter Bryanna, came up to see the land on the way to the party. We took them on a drive and took a turn around the pond.

When we got back, the whole driveway was torn up and muddy. We changed our clothes for the party and had to hike through rocks and bushes to get to the truck. That wasn't so bad. What was worse was that we had to do it again coming back--in the dark, with only a penlight flashlight.

The construction crew was gone by then, but J.C. worked until well past dark.

Framing-Friday

On Friday, the framing crew arrived around 8 a.m. The crew foreman was an amiable guy named Jason. Not much happened for a while, as Jason and his crew reviewed the plans, took measurements and surveyed the materials.

It wasn't long before the problems started. Jason discovered that the window that had been ordered for our living room was a foot shorter than the plans called for. There were other changes, too. Gerald remembered discussing some of them with Paul Russell, but no one ever make the changes to the plans since we thought Paul would be here to oversee the building. The living room window, however, was just a mistake. I didn't want a smaller window. I already thought it too small, but it seemed we couldn't return this one.

Twelve, 2x12's appeared to be missing, but were later found. Then we realized the materials for the loft had not been ordered at all. We were also short of sheeting material. Gerald spent most of the morning on the phone with Paul and various suppliers to try to round up the missing materials and get them delivered. Jason needed the 2x12s for the loft by the morning. Gerald eventually arranged for Old Santa Fe Lumber to deliver them that night. The situation got very tense. Gerald wasn't happy.

Meanwhile, the crew got busy installing the floor joists in the part of the floor that was not already done.

Then the rest of the sub-floor went down.

We had to drive to Prescott to get several changes to the plans approved, pick up some additional materials and see about ordering a new living room window. We decided to use the window that was the wrong size in the dining room, so it wouldn't be wasted. That made me happy, as I don't think you can have too many windows. Gerald, however, is always loathe to give up wall space for art. 

On our way out, we saw these horses. They were outside the ranch gate but before the highway.

Paul had talked to the Yavapai County Planning Office about the changes to the plans. The person he spoke with said we just needed to bring in our stamped plans and they could approve the changes in a few minutes. When we got there, they told Gerald they needed two sets of plans and that it would take 6 or 7 hours once they had them. The rules are the rules, they said.

Gerald called Paul, who remembered who he had spoken with. Once Gerald got to the right person, and he remembered having that conversation, it took just a few minutes to approve the changes.

Materials delivery

On Wednesday, Miller Wholesale delivered the framing materials. They arrived on a semi, which parked at the ranch entrance. The materials were then transferred to a 10-wheeler to make the additional two miles over the ranch's narrow and twisting roads to our parcel. It took three trips.

Here's the 10-wheeler being unloaded.

Once unloaded, the site looked like this.

The temperatures were cooler on Wednesday, with highs in the mid-80s, so I took a walk about 5 p.m. I was taken by the late-afternoon sun on the meadow. It occurred to me that this was the time of year we had first seen the ranch, and that this was the scene I first fell in love with.

I fell in love all over again.

The plot thickens

This building project is starting to feel like it has more plot twists than a Bond movie.

While we were waiting for the revised bid from Dennis, our original contractor called with a plan to salvage his original contract. The job would still be done under the terms we had agreed to, but he wouldn't be here to oversee it. He had a large crew that could start on Friday and finish framing the house in two consecutive weekends.

The plan had certain merits. We wouldn't have to figure out what to do with the back hoe, as it would be part of Paul's compensation. It would also mean we would have to come up with less additional money. And that would mean we could do more work than we had planned, like the siding or the electrical work.

That part became important after our financing finally fell apart. After jumping through all the hoops for Chase Bank, Wells Fargo refused to subordinate their loan. Which means we're back to paying as we go.

While we were mulling all this over, Dennis's bid came in considerably higher than his original estimate. That made it an easy decision.

Paul e-mailed a contract and we accepted, then Gerald went to work to change the materials delivery to coincide with the schedule of our new crew.

Starting over

We got some disappointing news this week. Our builder, Paul Russell, called to say he would not be able to come back from Missouri to finish our job. His new employer told him that if he took a week or two off, he wouldn't have a job to come back to. So we were back to square one.

Gerald spent a lot of time trying to line up another contractor and got a referral from Wayne Ohland, a commercial builder and neighbor. Wayne built the addition on our primary home. He and his wife also split the original 36-acre parcel with us, so they own the 18 acres adjacent to our parcel at Ruger Ranch as well.

Gerald talked to the contractor, Dennis, and arranged for him to meet us up at the land on Saturday.

We arrived at the land on Friday. After setting up camp, we went to work rolling the final coat of masonry sealer, so J.C. Campbell could start backfilling on Saturday.

J.C. and the new contractor arrived about the same time, around 8 a.m. Gerald put them to work helping to unload a jetted tub we had bought for $160 at Stardust, a Habitat for Humanity store.

The meeting with Dennis went well, though the land was farther from his home in Queen Creek than he anticipated, and he said he had to go home to crunch some new numbers. Still, we felt fairly confident that this would all work out, and made plans to leave a day early with the expectation that we would need to come back on Monday to be on-site for a Tuesday materials delivery.

Meanwhile, J.C. got busy backfilling.

Near the site, we had a tin can graveyard, which we figured came from years of cowboys camping there during round ups. Gerald had the idea that we should round them all up and throw them in the pits that J.C. was about to fill up.

It didn't take long to fill up a wagon load. We emptied the cans in the pit, closed up camp and headed home to await word from Dennis.

Chili and roping

When we arrived on Friday, our doors and windows had been delivered and stored in the garage.

We spent Saturday sealing the rest of the masonry, which is as photogenic as it sounds.

On Saturday afternoon, we joined the Stowes for a chili and roping party. I'm happy to say that both  Gerald and I roped our respective targets and were allowed to proceed to the serving line.

Check out that form!

These were our roping instructors, Nancy and Cotton. They were great. 

On Sunday morning we got about five rain drops, but the clouds were breaking up by the time I got up for my hike. 

My thighs were sore from all the up and down from painting on Saturday, but Gerald felt fine. I wanted to know how it was that I exercise everyday, yet I'm sore and he isn't. He attributed it to the scotch keeping him limber. "You train your way, I'll train mine," he said.

I had to admit he had me beat.

The View

Now that the sub-floor was installed over the garage, it was easier to get an idea of what our views will look like from the house.

Here's the view from the master bedroom.

Here's a view from the great room.

Another view from the great room.

Looking out the back, from the kitchen.

An unexpected glimpse of the meadow from the guest suite.

Labor Day Weekend

We headed up to the land on Thursday of Labor Day weekend because the garage door was scheduled to be installed at 9:30 on Friday morning.

The gnats were back on Thursday night, so Gerald tried out his new gnat protection device, though he did not want to be photographed.

The theory behind the device is that the gnats only drive Gerald crazy when they buzz around his ears. This worked better than his previous gnat protection device, which consisted of torn pieces of dryer sheets hung over his ears. He did not want me to photograph that one, either.

I didn't like this as well. He couldn't hear the gnats, but he couldn't hear me either, or at least so he said.

The garage door installer arrived around 10 a.m. and worked all day. It was nearly 5 p.m. by the time he was finished, but the garage door was installed.

Meanwhile, I worked on waterproofing the block work so we could backfill the dirt around it.

Saturday morning, J.C. Campbell and a helper he recruited from the Bagdad mine came to work on the  floor. By 10 a.m. they had installed all the floor joists over the garage.

Then they started nailing down the sub-floor. By 3:30 that afternoon, we had a lockable garage.