No Going Back: Construction Update #1

I brush a cobweb from my hair and bag up remnants of old insulation bats.  They are damp from a week of rain and no roof.  I pull the trash bag behind me, through the shallow space, under what is left of the original house.  A giant spider scurries up a wooden post.  I pause to watch.

Last Picture of the Old House! 

After the frantic final boxing up of everything we own, the roof came off and the walls came down (courtesy of Heritage Timber), and we relocated into 200 square feet (?) of a school bus.  It seems sudden, but years of planning and saving might just be reality.

Decon in Process

There is no going back now.

We are a month and a half into our remodel/rebuild and the walls are going back up.  I dance around the a space that looked good on paper, and feels even better.

The walls of the Laundry Room, open space of the dining room, viewed from the kitchen.  

I'm wishing I had remembered to put on sunscreen. The tops of my feet are burning and the sandal strap tan I try and mitigate all summer long is a sure thing.

It is hot.

I score and snap apart another piece of blue foam insulation. It pops. It is satisfying. The insulation in old crawl space is finished and we puzzle the pieces of blue foam into the spaces between the first floor joists hanging from the new foundation.

The floor joist for the second story are being placed.

I call the plumber, touch base with the electrician.  "Walk me through this process", I say to the Northwestern Energy phone operator. A vision that started to take form, initially in a model constructed out of cereal boxes, and then was revised and revised and revised again in google sketch up, is taking form.

Piles of wood and metal, windows and doors, the claw foot tub, stashed away light fixtures and drawer pulls, the hand thrown sink I bought my first week in Missoula (long before I even owned a house) - a combination of found things, craigslist scores, warehouse sales, crazy road trip pick ups, work trades - are and will become a unified structure.

The kids ride bikes through the neighborhood.
They pick strawberries in the little bit of undisturbed yard.
They move between our yard and the neighbor's and down the street as we rebuild our house with a village behind us, a whole lot of faith, and a little crazy.