Went up to Rathdrum this morning to deliver a check to our builder and see whether construction on our modules was underway. Our designer, Mike Tinsley, was a bit late, so I took the opportunity to give Pepper his morning walk in an unfamiliar setting. Lots of new smells for him. Fortunately, we were nearly done and back at the truck when the heavens opened up.
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| Pepper loves riding in our 4-Runner |
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The small square space in the middle of the joists
is our entry to the crawl space beneath the house |
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| Mike Tinsley, our designer, took this shot of me inspecting the floor assembly of the first module under construction. |
After Mike arrived and I gave him the check, we went into the factory - there it was. The first-floor module that will include the kitchen, laundry room, bathroom and stairs. The floor joists and crawlspace entry were framed, and the PEX water tubing was being readied for insertion. Once this module floor is done, it will be hoisted, insulated, sealed, and moved up the line to make space for the first-floor module that will include the living room, dining room, and Karen's study. The module currently being worked on will be shifted to the side on rollers and readied for wall studs, sheetrock, cabinets, and more. The factory work should take fewer than 21 days; crane set for all four modules on our site is scheduled for July 10.
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| PEX water lines |
Wednesday was a really busy day for house-building preparation. Kootenai Electric Cooperative swung by early, about 7:15 a.m., to disconnect our electricity so Spokane Rock Products' dump trucks could bring in 29 tons of gravel to strengthen the culvert over Cable Creek and build a sweeping connector from the county road to our driveway, skirting three large sentinel trees flanking the head of the drive. I was surprised that the process of disconnecting power was so quick and easy - no more than 15 minutes. Since I had no notion of how long the power would be off, I'd packed some freezer packs around my insulin in the refrigerator. Three hours later, my meds were still cold, and the food was still safe to eat.
Spokane Rock Products arrived a bit before 8 with a dump truck and trailer, one filled with 5/8" gravel and a trailer with 1 1/4" stone. With the electric power line down, the dump truck was able to raise its bed and spill its load on the culvert - 10" deep, 12 feet on either side of the culvert's center line. Then, as the gravel supervisor, our construction manager, and I worked with shovels and rakes to spread the gravel on the culvert, the dump truck went out to the county road to load up more gravel for the sweeping connector. Seventeen tons was not enough, so he went back to the pit in nearby Pleasentview to pick up another 52 tons to build up the connector. To appropriate the Georgetown University cheer, Hoya Saxa - What Rocks!
