Collar Ties, Windows and a Chimney

The collar ties in the house are finally done! Dad and Andrew started them a few weeks ago but could only do above the bedrooms. To get the rest up on the ceiling meant crawling along the collar ties already there; Dad suggested to Andrew that it would be good to get some helpJ. So he selected Luke Nolt to be a “monkey” with him. Andrew was lying on his stomach doing the east side, while Luke was crawling 16 feet above the living room floor doing the west side. At times I wished Andrew was a little smaller and could maneuver betterJ. While Andrew was complaining about his size, Luke was scooting, crawling, walking, and swinging from the collar ties; Andrew’s beginning to see that sometimes being smaller is an advantageJ.

When the guys finished we took walk to the pond. It had completely frozen and we were interested to know how thick it was. Since we hadn’t been above freezing for a week it had frozen about 3 inches think, all the way across. The boys walked across but we girls only went about half way. We didn’t want to be on there without the guys, and they were already heading backJ. We should have taken the time for skating; it’s not every year that a pond in Oklahoma freezes that much!

We were also able to get all the windows in; or should I say Andrew, Dad and Luke (who helped with the upstairs) didJ. Now our future home looks more like a house! Since Andrew works in the dark as much as he can with his light, mom wasn’t able to get any pictures of the downstairs windows go in. But she got quite a few of the upstairs going in; here are a few……

And lastly Andrew and Luke put the chimney in. I wasn’t there to get any pictures but the finished product looks very nice! I can’t wait till we move our woodstove over there, then we can somewhat heat the house as we work inside. At first all the pieces looked huge but from the ground it doesn’t look that badJ, now we just have to finish painting it black. Andrew enjoyed doing the bottom already….in the windJ.

Andrew did such a nice job getting the shingles around the chimney! It took him about 30-45 minutes but the little “half moon” he cut out was almost perfect....more pictures coming later. One day we’ll have the shingling done and I can post on it. :)