The beam is in

With the help of the Jackal, Rigger and W2's dad the micro laminate beam (weighing close to 1,000 lbs) is in. You can now stand on the floor in the apartment and jump up and down, AND IT DOESN'T BOUNCE!!! How exciting is that??

They had to jack up the house to get the beam in as well as installing 3 new lolly(sp?) columns along with the beam in the basement. Then on to the 2nd floor they moved. Yesterday they got everything cleared out and prepped. Beams notched, supports in place, 2 x 4 nailed in. And today they will put the beam in both the 2nd and 3rd floors!!! By the end of today, we will have a structurally sound house! What a novel concept!?

Rigger left yesterday and although we totally appreciated his help, I wasn't sad to see him go. He is not the easiest person to spend time with. So the Jackal, W2 and I had a very unromantic Valentine's dinner at the local BBQ joint and a lovely visit. I truly love the Jackal and cannot wait for he and his family to live in closer proximity. It looks like this Spring/Summer they will be moving North of the Mason Dixon Line once again and we will be within a couple two three hours of them. We are so blessed to have such good friends. It is just so very lonely as they are all so far away.

We will be able to move forward with framing out our bedroom once all of the beams are done. Then on to the kitchen. Aaaah, the kitchen!!! We cannot finish our bedroom until we install the new furnaces and duct work. We cannot install the heating system until we have some money as it is going to cost about $12k (we finally got the estimate and contract). Too bad we can't do an installment plan, huh? but anyway. So we will get to a certain point in the bedroom and then have to stop.

The Jackal gave us a great idea for the kitchen floor. We had been going back and forth as W2 wants tile, I do not. I understand tile is great for resale, but it is cold and hard. Since I am the one standing in the kitchen, I think I should have the majority of input. We had gotten to the point where I gave in and said, fine whatever, to the tile. But I wanted to pick it. So we went and looked and I showed W2 what I wanted. He agreed, liked the look, and we started pricing. Here's the problem. The main tile I chose was not all that expensive, about $450 to do the floor. But I had fallen in love with a river pebble border. These 4" x 8.5" pieces were $8.55 each. This added up to something like $800, on top of the tile cost. W2 lost his marbles. I pouted. I'm not much of a pouter, but I loved the look of the river pebbles. Anyway, so we moved on. We found a real touch laminate that looked like tile, but had backing and a pad that made it soft. It is much darker than the tile I had picked out, but it was ok. Definitely a compromise, but ok. The Jackal suggested last night that we go to the river and collect a couple buckets of stones, cut them in half with a wet saw and create our own. Hmmm?! very interesting!! So now I think we are back to tile, with an electric pad underneath for warmth (another brilliant idea of the jackal) and we'll design a pattern to incorporate the river stones. Also it'll be a great way to incorporate material from our area. We'll go to the river behind the house for the stones!

All in all there has been a ton of progress made this week, with time spent with good friends, and fabulous ideas shared!