Well I am getting caught up.  You are almost getting real time updates.  Hopefully, next week I’ll catch up and just do weekly updates from now on.  After the cement pour the garage/workshop was started on Monday,  August 5th.

Larry and Elder started framing the new garage on the 5th and by Aug 7th they were ready to start placing the rafters.

No small task to get the rafters in place.  At the end of the day, 3 rafters were hung.  Each rafter was over 100 lbs, had to be cut to match the angle of the existing rafters on the house to tie in and needed to be cut at the other end to fit into the new exterior wall.  Then a second rafter had to be fitted the same way so that each ‘rafter’ was really 2 rafters each.  Raising and lowering the boards by hand was quite a task.  The next day Bob joined them and they had a better 3 person system for hoisting the rafters and on Aug 8th they completed all 18 double rafters!

On Friday, Aug 9th they tied in the new garage to the existing house roof and started putting in the steel fasteners.

On Saturday, Stephen Corrales known as Stevo came back to continue to work on the rough electrical.

It’s amazing how you live in a house and you have enough light but the minute you open up the walls you want more lights, more electrical outlets and changes!  Stevo has been great and very patient with all my ideas.  Stevo worked all day Saturday drilling holes, pulling electrical wires, and installing the fixtures in the walls so that we can install the fixtures you will see!  He will have many days helping us before this project is done.

Bob and Jim LaBarge, Tricia’s husband, also worked all day Saturday. Jim put in Cat5 cables and Coaxial cables for TV’s and computer equipment in every floor of the house!  Who could ask for a better son-in-law.  Instead of spending one of their rare free weekends having fun; Tricia & Jim came up to give us a hand on whatever needed being done.  I have to say Jim had the most work to do!  Tricia & I even took off to the pool for a couple of hours.

The past week had been Tricia & Jim’s wedding anniversary.  So when they said they would come up for the weekend the least we could do was take them to dinner for a late celebration.  We found a great place.  Lake Mary’s dinners are a yearly tradition that are prepared in a small cabin and diners are seated on a meandering deck over looking St. Mary’s Lake.  This private lake has homes surrounding it and the lake is used for Sugar Bowl snow making during the winter.  It is a beautiful setting with beautiful grounds and the food and staff were excellent.  If you ever get the chance, make a reservation and enjoy this setting for dinner.

By the way, those mountains are much higher than they look in this photo!

Much has been done for the electrical but my favorites are new can lighting in the kitchen, living room and hallway to 2nd floor bedroom and 4 new outdoor lights on the deck and exterior electrical outlets!  I won’t be able to complain about the dark main living area much longer!