Drywall:Step 1-Delivery, Step 2-Get it in the house, Step 3-Place in designated room, Step 4-Hang it!

This is called a Boom Truck and can deliver drywall to the 2nd floor.

Luckily none of the drywall went Boom! :) It was all delivered safely.

We had great help to unload and put the drywall in each designated room. John did a great job of organizing the sheets by room and my sister directed them as such. It made everything go smoothly.

Yes, that is the 2nd floor. Luckily there is a roof over the porch below so it helped out!

Then we had a huge crew come up for a few days and start hanging all the drywall (almost 200 sheets!).  You will notice a yellow device in the middle of everyone. That is a drywall lift. It was very valuable during these days!

John's is using a drywall cutting tool that uses a magnet to cut both sides at the same time. It made for an easy and clean cut.

John's brother, Joel, is using a Bazooka! A Bazooka tape dispenser that is. It puts drywall mud on the tape at the same time that it goes on the wall. This tools saved hours alone!

There were a few times when all hands were on deck. There were many nights that ran late too!

The stilts that Joel brought were awesome. It allowed the person wearing them to be able to put screws in the drywall on and near the ceiling without any problem. They are by far the most used tool (and the most fun).

Even grandma got in and helped! As you can see, our house turned into a dust pile! Everything is now white.

So here is a small idea of  the madness that we have been creating this past week. We have had lots of help and it is going really well! We are so thankful for all of those that have come out and helped us. We are almost completely done muding round #1 and have started a little on the 2nd coat. Hopefully we can be done muding the 3rd coat by the end of the day tomorrow and then we sand it and prime it.  We are slowly getting there! Just in time for the baby to come which is due in about a week. Soon I'll post finished drywall pics. Thanks for your support and in interest!

Love, The Derbys

Getting Stuff Done

Sean, our brother-in-law, came and tiled two of the three bathrooms. The is the master bath

 tile.

We had a company come out and foam insulate the exterior walls. The difference is awesome from sound to holding in heat.

We successfully completed our rough plumbing inspection!

After a little hiccup with our electrical inspection, we were able to fix some things and finally passed our rough electrical inspection as well. What a blessing! The inspector failed us and then told us he would be on vacation for a week and a half and we had drywall coming in two days! Stress! But the Lord provided a different, much nicer inspector to finish the job.

We passed the rough mechanical inspections, although this is hired out to a professional company. Now we just need to get the company to finally finish their job! They seem to be dragging their feet and we've had a few issues with the furnace as a result but we are confident that it should be finished soon.

So that is the update right now. Next I will post pictures of the drywall maddness that we are currently in the middle of!

Beautiful scenes from the Farm

We've had some great scenes here at the farm. This was the best rainbow that I have ever seen! 

For now we are in crunch mode. We have plumbing and electrical almost completed and will be calling for our inspections next week. Pray those go well! We have the insulators coming on Friday and the drywall is delivered on Sat morning and away we go! John's brother, Joel, will be in town for the week to help drywall. With almost 200 sheets to cut, hang and mud, it should be quite a feat! If you have anytime from Nov 12-19 feel free to come by and help! No experience necessary :) Blessings!

Homeowners

Well today we are officially the Homeowners of the farmhouse! It has been fun watching the house change and transform.  We pulled our plumbing and electrical permits last week so we are full swing into those. We really need to find a good source for helping run the new heat ducts. We have a few leads to pursue still but the heating companies are outrageously high priced. We are scheduled to be insulated the beginning of Nov., so we are moving right along. Hopefully we will be all dry-walled by Dec. but we shall see! God is continuing to bless us through this process. After the first of the year we will begin to change our focus from house to farm. By then we will be able to get the farm into shape enough to have animals after the snow melts. We are very excited for what is to come and we thank you all for your interest and support. For those of you that we have left, we miss you all and continue to think of you often. I keep thinking that I have seen someone or their vehicle from back home but then remind myself that they don't live here and it isn't them :( But all is well with the Derbys. Hope and Grace love to sing together all the time.  They love playing with the barn cats and the tractors.  Hope is ready to get her cow, Arbelle, as she named it. She will have to wait until Spring. Baby #3 is still scheduled to arrive around the beginning to middle of December and is doing very well. Blessings!

John and Kristin

The New Deck

The deck before (what you can't see are the huge holes on the edges

 

The after (almost finished)

Caleb came for the weekend to help get the deck done

The stud behind the studs :)

 

 

 

Since this picture was taken there have been rails added

Well our first big project is complete! (The deck) No more holes to walk around or worry that your kids might fall into. We bagged 4 garbage bags full of garbage from under it! We even found a dead cat...fun.  Now it looks great and is safe to walk in and out of the house.  We are currently almost completely framed in on the inside and about to begin electrical, plumbing and heating into the walls.  Once those are complete we will be insulating and hanging drywall. The house is coming right along! If you are ever in the area, feel free to stop by and see it! We are working there everyday currently. Blessings!!  The Derbys

Demolition Derby Style

Grace got in on the demolition with Auntie Joy

There was a ton (actually about 10 ton!) of lathe, plaster and blown-in insulation.
What a mess!!!

Rebekah works in the rather dusty upstairs rooms

Brothers admiring all that dirt (well insulation)

Dad (Rick) works in the upstairs hallway

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Tearing up the carpet on the staircase

Now look at that staircase! What an improvement!





I think Seth was so tired of getting dirty that he attempted to clean off in the bathtub!
I'm not so sure that was the kind of bath he wanted!



The final product of the living room after everything was tore out of it.

THE DOWNSTAIRS

Here is a view of the living room...35ft long!

The beautiful staircase is a highlight. That is totally staying!

This is a view of the kitchen that my great grandmother made in the 60's.

This room is a den that stems off of the kitchen to the east.

The door on the left leads to the basement and breezeway to the garage.

This is a bedroom that my great grandmother made in the 60's along with the kitchen.

It is my understanding that it used to be where the old kitchen was. She added a half bath

and a large closet. I always knew this room as my grandparent's room.

This is a view of the staircase leading to the upper level.

THE UPSTAIRS

This is a view of the hallway.  There is a chimney that bumps out on the right hand side.

The first door on your left is the bathroom. Looking in, there is a tub on the right side that you can't

see and the toilet is actually inside the door. It has its own room! Behind you is the sink.

The next door on the left is the biggest bedroom measuring a whopping 25ft long!

There are two closets in this room with built in dressers.

The last door on the right is the smallest room measuring about 15ftx10ft.

It has a large closet 4ft deep!

The final room is the first door on the right. It used to be two rooms but they turned the

other door into a bookshelf. My grandpa used to practice all his square dancing calls in this room.

The door you see here leads up to the attic.

So there is a small picture tour of the old house. As of right now, it looks NOTHING like this anymore. Soon to come are the Demolition Derby pictures and pictures of the new deck!