Idaho, June 2010

OK, so because I can't say no to my wife about anything (heh), I agreed to spend the month of June this summer in Sandpoint, Idaho helping my father-in-law build his retirement house.

I'm not entirely sure he'd like for me to call it his "retirement house," but whatev.

Lauren is not here with me, though she did join me for the drive out and will come out at the end of June for the drive back to Nebraska.

Truth be told (and isn't that the point of blogging, after all) I was not really looking forward to this trip. There were a few things I was looking forward to, not the least of which was learning about building a house in the first place. Dick is very good at building stuff from houses to airplanes and I'm...well... I'm learning. Let's leave it at that.

Though some of the things I was not looking forward to are still kind of a bummer (not having Lauren here, for instance), the rest of the trip is going just fine so far. The weather has not really cooperated; it's been rainy as often as not. Still, a lot has been accomplished already. And I'm getting better at this building thing. I've got pictures to prove it.

This first one proves nothing except that I have been practicing tuba in a construction zone. One of the things I LOVE about summer is playing tuba outdoors.

My "practice room."

The view from outside my camper. It's not too easy to see in this shot, but there is still some snow on the mountains.

This shot is taken from the front corner of the house. The wall in the left of the photo is the front. Towards the right is where we will be building the garage once the cement guy comes and pours the pad. In the few good work days we've had since I've been here we have put all of the OSB (plywood) up. The house was only framed when I got here. Also, we did the flashing at the bottom of the house today, as a soil/moisture barrier. That stuff is a PAIN to wrangle into place.

The rear of the house. Notice that it has a basement which will be totally finished, perfect for the summers here.

The West side of the house. Note the walk-out for the basement and the opening for double doors coming off the master bedroom and living room. Soon they will open onto a deck.

Interior shot looking from the rear of the house towards the front door.

Here's the not-yet-poured garage pad and the camper which is my home for the rest of June. The large building to the right of the camper is Dick's workshop.

The basement so far.