Rose Cottage Goin' Up Like a House A'fire ----- (FIGURATIVELY, of course!)

Things have progressed so quickly on my studio I can hardly believe it. Between Seth and our friend Andrew of Salamnader Construction and various sub contractors we already have walls and a roof!

STEP 8:
When the form is ready:

 have these guys

come and do this:

.

Then, with a stick,  scrape something meaningful into the concrete.

O-kay, so it was still 2013, but the building wouldn't be done until 2014, so I post-dated it!

STEP 9:

When the concrete dries and the snow all melts again, draw the stairs in on form to be sure they will line up with walls properly.

STEP 10: Have Pete of Sunstone Hardscapes go to the quarry with his big ol' truck and get a bunch of rocks so you can start landscaping (by "you" I do actually mean I helped, though Seth and Pete of course handled the ginormous ones!)

Golly gee. I haven't taken any pictures of the landscaping?! I actually helped with it! Sheesh.

Anyhow…

STEP 11: Get a lumber order figured out and delivered.

STEP 12: Build 3 walls all on top of each other flat on the ground so you can see if they line up with the stairs.  Be sure you build them in the right order as this will be important later!

Ah-ha! Seth had some pictures of Bumbles looking for opportunities which show the walkway at least. 

NOW FOR SOME REAL EXCITEMENT!

STEP 13: Get as many big strapping men as you can roust up on a weekday morning to come a push the walls into place!  Just like the barn raising in Witness! But with fewer Amish people and no intrigue. We did have a cute little 2 year old girl and a dog at least.

 The 2 year old exclaims, "It's a HOUSE!"



Then later, in awe, "It's a Biig House!"

She was very helpful in keeping the dog out of the way.

view from Seth's shop

STEP 14- oh, about  STEP 22:
Finish the sheathing. Get it inspected. Build the roof framing. Tar paper the roof. Get a bunch of windows you ordered months ago delivered. Put them in. Wrap the whole thing in Tyvek.  Get Brett from Baxter's Plumbing to come and do a bunch of plumbing (duh). Do a bunch of framing inside for the loft.  Seriously, this all happened in like a week!  I hardly did any of this (though I did take all the packaging off the windows!) and I'm exhausted just typing about it!

As my scientist housemate in college would often say when she had to write a paper, "Well begun is half done!"