We hired the guy who framed our house to do the rafters, plywood under roof, and to put the siding on. When we left today this is how it looked. They will start putting the siding on tomorrow, we are planning on painting the outside next week and hopefully having the roof put on.

We also had started putting the plywood on the sides. Mike stayed down there for two days this last week and the result was amazing.

We had walls standing on the upper floor last week when we left on Sunday.

We had walls standing on the upper floor last week when we left on Sunday.

She also installed the joist ties on the upper porch floor joist. She is using all of her newly acquired building skills in her tech theater class in school. Her teacher was really impressed that she could cut a board to proper length with a chopsaw this week.

Mo took over the job of hurricane strap installer on Sunday.

Looking up at the upper floor from the lower porch

This was last weekend on Sunday.

Mike and Mo on the front porch

Our new front porch.

Remodeling the old house

I thought I would show everyone the transformation that is happening at the old house. Mike is almost finished with the trim work and then all we have to do is get it painted, put on the backsplash, clean the house and sell it.

Keep the hurricane's away

My job was to install all of the hurricane brackets on the first floor.

Love is in the Air

Really just a whole bunch of love bugs!!!!! They crawled on us all weekend. Yuck!

Moving Up

We got all the ceiling joists and the plywood floor down for the second floor done. Then it rained again. So we worked on the underground electrical.

Bringing in the heavy equipment

We rented a manlift to help get the floor plywood for the second floor lifted. Mike got on it as soon as we got there Saturday morning and within 10 minutes has it stuck in the mud. Good thing we didn't need it until later in the afternoon. He pushed it out with the excavator that was still on the property.

Rain again

If it rained this much at home, I would never have to water.

Before we left last Sunday

So this was the progress when we finished last Sunday.

Cattle Drive .....really?

I went to get us some breakfast yesterday and on the way back I got stuck behind a cattle drive. I followed them for about 20 minutes. It was really pretty cool, it kind of reminded me of my childhood only we didn't have horses, we were the horses. Pictures of this weekends progress are coming. The camera is in the truck and at the other house. I will also be posting photos of the kitchen remodel at the old house. See you soon.

Is the sky more beautiful . . . .

Is the sky more beautiful when you are on the water or is it that we just take the time to notice it when we are down by the bay. We watched this plane make all these circles in the sky last weekend all afternoon. Morgan found out on Monday that NASA was doing some testing and that was the plane that was doing the circles.

Fishing too

We work and then we fish. Sheila and the kids came down on Sunday and fished off the community pier. They filled an ice chest. Mom spent the whole weekend with us and she actually caught two drums this size. The fishing is great!

Excellent Helpers!

We got so much done last weekend, mostly because we had such excellent help. Our nephew Braden came down with Big E (Mike's Brother) and Marty to help use raise some walls. The got the whole first floor framed.

The first floor is going up

So since my last post we have made lots of progress. The floor for the first floor is down and we stood up the first wall last weekend. Very Exciting.

Angry Skies

But at about 11:00 a.m. we were run into the truck by this nasty storm. We are hoping that by the end of next weekend, the rest of the floor joists will be installed, the plywood will be on the ground floor and we will have some walls standing. Stay tuned.

The weekends progress

We got almost half of the floor joists for the first floor installed.

All work and no play doesn't make Morgan or Me very happy

We fished in front of the property until Dad and Granny decided that they were ready to shower and sleep. Me and Mo dropped them off and went back to the pier and fished until 12:30 a.m.

Cookout!

We brought the grill and made some stuffed jalopenos and burgers. They were really delicious.

This weekends work

We worked so hard yesterday that we forgot to take pictures. Mike has found some workers from the area to help us and boy did we get a lot done this weekend. The only documentation that we have from Saturday's work is still to come. We did witness another really beautiful sunset.

Lots and lots of work

By the time we left on Wednesday, we had completely worn out a chainsaw blade. Every post had to be cut so that the support beams sat on them. Putting those big boards up there was hard work.

Our New Friends

We were also greeted by these two awesome pelicans.

Amazing rainbows

Mike and I left very early last Wednesday morning and headed down to actually begin construction. We got down to the bay at about 7:30 and were greeted by the most amazing DOUBLE rainbow I have ever seen. It was truly awesome!

new construction

Construction on the new bayhouse began a couple of weeks ago. Before we could actually start, we build scaffolding all the way around the outside so that we could work off of it instead of having to move ladders.