Baby, It's Cold Outside!

For those of you who aren't local it has been quite cold here for the last 5 or 6 days...highs in the teens & twenties and lows in the single digits...which put a bit of a damper on the progress at the farmhouse. No new vinyl siding has been installed since the last post on the 14th due to the fact that the cold temps were causing the vinyl to crack and break. The good news is that it is supposed to warm up into the upper 30s and low 40s this week and they are optimistic that they will be able to get it all up by the weeks end. Work is still progressing though and it is still looking better and better every time we check on things. I was over this afternoon to meet with an appraiser from the bank and the guys were working on running new duct work from the new air handlers and were hopping to have most of it run by the end of the day and should be completing the rest tomorrow. They are still hopping to have the 1st inspection completed this week and then they will begin installing the new insulation. Levi, Steve (Levi's dad) and I (mostly Levi though) were also quite productive over the weekend in tearing down two of the old block walls from under the back porch and digging new footers to have new walls built. The original walls were not load bearing and had begun to lean away from the house pretty bad. This made Levi and I fearful that they might fall on one of the kids, so we decided to go ahead and replace them. The new footers had to be 18" deep and 16" wide, so it took a bit of work. All in all we aren't that much further behind than we originally anticipated last week and still a lot further ahead than we anticipated in November when we started all this. The photos show the missing walls under the back porch and some of the new duct work. Hopefully there will be a new post soon with more good news to report.