While Dav'es away......I go to Hobby Lobby!

Dave and the oldest two went to the cold Homecoming football game.  So Em and I decided to eat supper with my parents and make a trip to Hobby Lobby and look what jumped into my cart......stools!  Now all we need is our kitchen island which is coming along nicely.

Windows!!!

We picked up our windows today and have high hopes to have them installed by the end of the weekend......and he did it.  All are in and the soffit has begun.  Tomorrow the porch pad will be poured!  One step closer!

We have a ROOF!

We hired out the metal roof and after 2 days the panels are on.  We just need roof trim and we are well on our way to having a weather tight building. 

Bring on the Roof!

We are ready for the roof to start!  Dave and friends worked until dark to get the walls all sheathed and wrapped.  To say we are anxious to be water tight is an under statement.  It's all starting to come together now!

This is our fancy sewer connection from our camper to our septic!  Living the high life!

All lit up!

This is a first when I drove up our drive tonight....lights in the barn. Dave was working late working on an interior wall since the exterior is so muddy. Looks kinda cool all lit up!

We have RAISED THE ROOF!

It’s days end...for daylight anyway. We are on the move again.....full steam ahead about 40 feet! Wondering how many are jealous of our current living situation?!? We “should” be parked behind the barn now until we move the rig into the barn!!! But I’m sure in true Weiman fashion things will be an adventure!

We are planning to eat in tonight! Hamburgers and slaw are on the menu! I cook mostly in an electric skillet right now. Kale is my tricky one....he’s such a picky eater. He will have pasta after football practice. I can handle that!!!

We should be hooked back up to a “full hookup” momentarily! Woohoo.....we get to dump the shitter! That’s Dave’s terminology! I will say though after 19 years together with Dave, this is by far the craziest adventure we have been on! I figure if we can get through a cancer battle with our son and losing him, then building a house over a 2 year time period, it makes this whole adventure seem like a piece of cake! I’m waiting patiently on the icing part though!!!

Bonus tonight....Ava and I built a sidewalk!!! It’s the little things!

 

 

A Familiar Sight....Trusses at last!

Monday Barn update.....

The trusses are up and they had time for a row of sheathing on one side before the lights went out!  I’m praying extra hard tonight that everything goes as planned and the barn is one solid structure by end of the day tomorrow. It seems huge now!

We actually are eating in another night in a row....left overs but that still counts right??  I even got groceries while Em was at basketball practice. I’m making chicken pot pie soup this week. I keep thinking if I make fall foods the weather will follow suit! 

Funny story from tonight.  I haven’t payed close attention to the school calendar for October and I’ve been wanting to take a day off and just have a “me day”.  I tried last Friday and the weather was going to be horrible so I thought about this Friday, but I have a big bid so I decided on Monday. My birthday is Sunday so thought that would be a good day.  So after practice was over the coach was saying we wouldn’t have practice next Monday due to a camp that they had in the gym all day. I said in a questioning voice, “Do the kids not have school Monday?”  She said no they don’t and she offered to keep my kids if I needed her too. I said oh no that’s not it. I took the day off and thought I had it all to myself. My bubble totally got burst!!! 😂

Exterior View of THE BARN

Here is what THE BARN will eventually look like from the front.  The roof will be black metal panels and the exterior wall will be a board and batten metal wall panel.  The windows and doors are black inside and out.  There will be barn doors on the front doors and the entrance will have a covered porch with stained wood trusses and supports. 

When Life hands you "Lemons" make "Lemonade"!

We took a couple trusses down and amongst all the chaos with our trusses coming down we decided to have a little fun with our friends and have a bon fire.  It was bitter sweet to watch them burn, but we will be moving forward soon and the new trusses are due to arrive Friday, September 27.  We have a contractor lined up to set them on Monday!  The Barn will have a roof soon!

Kale's Vision

Kale has a vision of what he wants his room to look like and he can actually visualize this enough to draw it on paper.  I'm amazed and how he can draw his space in plan view.  The nut definitely doesn't fall far from the tree.  The locker in the camper is actually for his room.  He LOVES it and has already started filling it with his things!

Our HOME on WHEELS!

So thought I would share my thoughts on living on wheels full time tonight! We originally had planned on having plenty of time to finish our barn and then we would concentrate on selling our house. Well, things didn’t work out as planned and we weren’t as far along as we thought we would be when we got an offer so the decision had to be made to rent or live on wheels. After analyzing everything with all of our animals and how that would work in a rental we ultimately decided camper life was our choice.....not the best decision we have ever made!

Now some of us love living on wheels. Kale and Dave think this is great! They aren’t as bothered by not having everything just so like Ava and I are. Kale loves the outdoor space almost as much as Siloh does. The outdoor oasis is my only saving grace. I love sitting down in the woods under my lights. We’ve had a couple parties down there and the space is perfect....all except for the walk back to the camper bathroom. My friend Jennie is right...we need an outhouse!

While we were packing up from our 4000 sf house we made plans on how we were going to fit in our tiny home. I know everyone watches the shows and it looks oh so cool and adventurous all up until you are actually doing it!! This is how we are making things work.....we removed the camper couch and put it in storage. I kept the camper table but brought our sitting room chairs so it would feel a little bit like home. We sit in that corner every night. Up until two weeks ago all we had was a cell phone watching tv off of a WiFi hotspot, but now we actually have WiFi setup in our outdoor kitchen. We watch Hulu and Netflix through our PlayStation. It seems to work for now! We actually have a line running from the telephone box across the road by the donkeys across the yard to our barn and then to our camper. It’s all temporary until they run the permanent box and line.

Food and storage was our other big consideration. We have a full size fridge and a very large pantry so we actually don’t lack for too much food space. We only have the necessities when it comes to pots and pans though and my once having 2 dishwashers is now down to a camper size kitchen sink. We eat off of paper plates and plastic utensils so not too many things need to actually be washed. I do miss my full size oven and counter space. I can’t wait to make my cookies again.

Clothing was an even bigger issue. Just Sunday I went shopping for dress pants because it was easier than finding them in storage. I have mostly summer tops and jeans for work here now, but will soon go to my parents to switch clothes out. We have a large closet and drawers in our bedroom and we even put our actual queen size mattress in our bedroom. Other than almost hitting our heads when we get up every morning it works out pretty good. The kids will need to get their fall clothes out soon too. They all have plastic storage units with drawers and that’s all they have. We hang our shoes on the back of the pantry door. All book bags go on hooks by the door and homework has its place in the metal racks on the wall.

The bathroom....oh how I miss a full size shower and a normal toilet that doesn’t flush with a foot lever. I do however love my laundry arrangement. My parents get my laundry at least twice a week and we swap dirty clothes for clean clothes.

Our system is working for the most part. Yes it does get hectic when everyone is getting ready at the same time to go somewhere. Living in a tiny space though makes you really think about what you need to live. I miss all my crafty things, but they are all in storage so in good time I will have my crafting space back again.

As far as the grand plan.....we should be under roof within the next couple of weeks and we will then pull our camper into the barn. It is setup with the sewer, electric and water to service the camper. I’ve learned to have a lot more patience living in the camper, but can’t wait to have this all as just a story to tell. I think the best line thus far was when I got up one morning and Dave said to me for the first time in our 19 years together....do you have to pee? I said yes why.....the shitter is full dear! He couldn’t wait to use that line on someone!

 

 

Learning to DANCE in the RAIN!

Sometimes there are setbacks and some hurt worse than others.  We took a big blow over the weekend when a storm rolled through.  We woke up to our daughter who was scared of the rain and wind and we brought in our canopy on the camper.  I will have to update on where we are living......forgot to tell the part that we live in our fifth wheel now that our house has sold.  That's another story though.  We went back to bed and Emelia crawled in bed with me and Dave went to the back bunk to sleep.  Then around 3:00 he heard a loud crash and looked outside.  Our trusses even though they were braced came tumbling down.  Now the process of rebuilding and figuring out where to start will begin.

 The trusses looked like dominoes except all of them are busted and not saveable.  We called our insurance company so it appears we won't be getting a roof on soon after all.