Insulation, sheetrock, a birthday and a new school

The first 2 weeks of August have been action-packed. So much so, that it's hard to know how to start to explain. Everything is a process and the multitude of processes in motion at the same time has us jumping from one thing to the next before we can take a breath.

I will start with our new home which continues to take shape in spite of the oddly rainy weather. The HVAC work was completed, so insulation work was done. And even that wasn't a one-step thing…

First the batts and, in other places, sheets of insulation
for the roof and ceilings.

Next a layer of plastic sheeting to form an infiltration barrier.

Then caulk (white substance in the plastic and orange around the wires and tubes)
 to really make sure it's sealed.

 After the insulation, any soffits or build-outs for securing the sheet rock were added.

Soffits were built to conceal the HVAC units in the lower level.

On Tuesday, the sheetrock was delivered. And Wednesday the crew began hanging.

Wednesday sheetrock starts.

 And by end of day on Thursday they have everything covered and things suddenly look much cleaner!

Sheetrock is hung.

While the sheetrock was in the works on Wednesday and Thursday our son Jeremy also started his sophomore year at his new school, Basehor-Linwood High School. Until we move into our new home, we will drive him up to school in the mornings. After school he takes a bus to the farm and waits until we leave work to pick him up. Rick, our builder, jokes that the sheetrock crew that does the mudding will be moving so fast that we won't need to worry about Jeremy getting in the way. They will just mud right over him :-)

And, to top it all off, Brent turned 50 last weekend. My plan was to have a big celebration that would also be an open house. But, plans are known for changing. Rather than a big celebration, we had a small one with all of the boys and Kristin. I did manage to have the party it at the house, though.

Brent's 50th birthday dinner in the garage at the farm.

It poured down rain nearly all afternoon. So we took shelter in the garage most of the day. I cooked steaks on a little charcoal grill in the rain with help from Skylr, Jeremy and Blaine while Kristin and Brent finished insulating the Summer Kitchen. Doogle was even on hand to clean up any messes. It was good to have everyone together.

Of course, that isn't all that's happened in the last 2 weeks. There was STAGES camp at the Lyric Opera for Jeremy, multiple Shawnee house showings occurred, Skylr flew to California for a visit with his dad, tile for the bathrooms was selected, bathroom cabinets were purchased, a new roof for the Shawnee house was scheduled, and Brent and I worked our day-jobs to name just a few of the other things.

Whew! Like I said, there has been very little time to take a breath. 

But we are thrilled to see things moving again. It's gradually looking more like a house and less like a construction site. And seeing these pictures makes me smile because I know it won't be long before we can finally call Happy Apple's Farm our home :-)