Progress

Have been working on the roof all week. We were making great headway until my helper layed out the rafters wrong and 28 of them were nailed up wrong. This drives me insane, I know we all make mistakes, but what makes good carpenters is constantly checking yourself and the accurarcy of measurements. I did'nt discover this until the last board was being put-in, and I thought that the house was a little off. Going back and checking, we found that after the sixth rafter all measurements were 2" off.  This put me in a bad mood, I had just commented on what a good day we had. Now the rafters have to all be cut out and reset, this kills time, material, and attitude. I dont do mistakes well, and I hate the attitude of almost all carpenters. "Oh well, everyone makes mistakes". They sure do, and they surely do alot more with such a cavalier response. I would rather not even do the project than accept "ah shucks". Now, this morning we will be hopefully doing the short fix of this mistake, and not the long fix that it could turn into. When I owned the countertop co., we would go months without costly mistakes. It was drilled into my guys head, we are professionals, perform as such. If you want to make good money, make yourself worth good money. They knew that pushing for perfection payed off even if we were not perfect. One mistake leads to others, and before you know it, thats all you do. If you accept mistakes, then thats all you get. To eliminate mistakes is all awareness and focus. I know Richard felt horrible, hopefully this wont happen much more.

Sweet Summer

I'll be honest, I really enjoy the summer up here. It's not the kind of heat that I'm used to, and it does'nt feel oppressive until August. By that time its almost fall and I know relief is on the way. Going swimming at the end of the day cools you down so much that the cool evenings feel great being outside. The past couple of nights have been in the 60's so I have enjoyed a fire down at the site. You get to meet cool people at the river vacationing who are all very curious about how we get to live here. And there are always kids at the river for Matt to play with. If I was'nt workin so hard, I would feel like I'm on vacation. I think our family forgets how fun it is here in the summer, there havent  been many visitors to the cabin in the past couple months. I guess I will start booking friends to stay in the cabin and keep me company. Made good progress this week, but the other crew still has not shown up. I am going to act like they are not coming, and just push on. I am thinking of ways to deal with the staggering height of the roof becouse I will probably end up doing it myself. The next 2 weeks will be huge if I can stay on track. Expect pictures of the roof and deck, and the completion of the main framing. Seeing the rafters go up has been a huge emotional lift, and has given me recharged batteries. One of the biggest challenges has been to keep all of my energy focused on the house day after day, and it will be so good to have the plumber, electrition, and hvac guys to keep things rolling when the framing is done. Thankfully, I have Robyn to run the store and to do so many other things that allow me to build our house.

Roof Appears

The beams are up. We are at the top of the house with the placement of the 28' beam in the master bedroom. Thank goodness the skyfork reached the peak, I dont think I could have lifted that beam standing on scaffolding 25ft. in the air. But, we did exactly that on the 22 ft. beam in the awesome room. In two days we have placed both of the big beams with 2 people and 1 skyfork, and we are closing in on finishing out all of the rafters. The goal for this week is to have as much of the roof on as is possible, that is if the other crew does'nt show up. If they do, we want the roof decked, tar-papered, and the 1x4 pearlings on. And , the deck started on at least. I am starting to be more productive and it shows, the last 2 days  we have really got things done. We are also hitting a differant swimming hole lately, the ponca bridge. Not my favorite, but Matt has been hanging with Charles and his grandsons havin a big time.

Time to get busy

Lots of distractions this week. Spent a lot of time at the store dealing with issues,
but also got some things done. I rented a SkyTrak for a week so I could move all of the treated lumber for  the deck down to the site. We can also set the beams and use the machine for loading the roof for decking. It's a fun machine to operate, and it will speed alot of things up. I had Tim bring his backhoe over and do some backfilling around the foundation under the deck before it gets built. So, everything is set to build the deck. Piers poured, foundation backfilled, and lumber brought in. The roof is also ready to be built. Richard spent all week doing the little things that have to be done, but is hard to notice. I have to admit, I have been frustrated with my own performance. I expect so much from myself, and to be honest, I have not delivered. It may just be that this is my biggest project ever, and there are more mistakes to be made. It's not anything that affects the final result, it's just stupid, time consuming, mental errors that have to be corrected. Probably the result of my focus being diverted to other issues at the store. But things are getting better and I hope to prove that I AM WORTHY. At least I have not lost my temper, yet. Maybe it's time for a rant, or a Stuart Smalley moment. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggonnit people like me. There is a steady stream of visitors to the site, locals come down to check out the house on the bluffs that they have heard about, and I love to see thier reaction. Although I do wonder if they are all cool. Speaking of cool, everone stay that way.   Peace Out, RJ

See You at the River

        Steele Cr., mine and Matts favorite swimmin hole.

Hot Time in the Summer

Matt is out of school now, so we are getting into the summer routine. I work down at the house all day until around 4, then we load up and make a trip down to the swimming hole. Right now we have been going to Steele Cr. everyday, but there are several places we will go this summer. It's a great routine to cool down in the chilly waters of the Buffalo after being so hot during the day. It also gives Matt something to look forward to, everyone is making sacrifices to get our house done and he is too. The Osage is still making noise in the Gorge, but the hot sun is quickly drying up all the flood waters still pouring out of the hills. There are always people camping at Steele Cr. even in the middle of the week. I told Matt that it was so beautiful that people came from far away to stay there. We counted cars from Texas, Missourri, Oklahoma, and Kansas yesterday, and he was very impressed. When we were driving up the hill away from the river, he said "Dad, I love the river". I said "son, I do too". Priceless. This week has been spent laying the groundwork for the next big push. The piers for the deck are complete, and we finished piers-posts- and beam for the mudroom. This means it's time to put on the roof and deck, so big progress will happen over the next 2 weeks. I need to be finished framing with the roof on no later than 1 month from now.

Deck Time

Got the deck piers dug and poured yesterday,  its time to build the humongous deck. 1400 s.f. of pure outdoor bliss with an outdoor fireplace and outdoor kitchen. We already have all our deck furniture becouse beautiful stuff came into the store at just the right time. The gorge House has 2300 sf interior space, and 1700 sf of outdoor decks. This is becouse we love being outside in all kinds of weather. The deck is 17' off the ground at it's highest point, and is covered under 1000sf of metal roofing. It really is the escence of the house, perched on the edge of the bluff towering over the Gorge. I will be tempted to just stop working and enjoy the deck when we complete it. But the bank would not like that. I have gone overboard in the size of the piers, a lesson learned building the family cabin. The deck will not fall off the mountain. The next steps are #1- build the deck. #2-build scafolding inside the awesome room. #3-set beams and set rafters. #4-get the septic system rolling. I have a crew coming next week sometime, and I know things are fixen to happen fast.