Day 166 - Remember Us?

Sorry it's been so long since a new post.......I offer no excuses but do offer an apology for not sharing pictures sooner!!!!

Water Collection System

The second tank is in place and we are now waiting for three more steps to be completed before capturing rain:  trenching to lay the pipes to the house, placing and connecting the pipes, and hanging the gutters to catch the rain off of the roof.  Here are some shots of the second tank.

James Riley and helper building the first ring

Joining ring pieces together

Completed first ring

Both tanks hidden in trees

James Riley Avenue

Beauty shot of the two tanks

Critters

As you have seen, we are building on an old ranch and there are lots of critters in the country.  Some of them appear in multitudes unlike anything I have ever seen in the suburbs or city!!  If you are scared of spiders, beware of next picture!!!

Daddy Longleg spiders on patio wall

One of the things I love about our location is listening and watching the many birds.  Apparently the birds like us because a mother bird made her nest inside the house and laid eggs.  When Jose was doing some preparation for hanging sheetrock, he found a nest in one of the kitchen walls.  We had to remove the nest and Aaron placed it outside away from the house.  It was sad to move the nest knowing the mother would come looking for her eggs.....but it had to go.

Doomed eggs in kitchen wall nest

Sheetrock Preparation

Jose from the sheetrock company came one day with spools of pink string.  He was dropping and stringing plumb lines to check out the angles before hanging the sheetrock.  He didn't expect to be a  bird nest explorer, but said he has seen nests in walls on other jobs.

Nest was in wall in front of Jose

Climbing wall to get to kitchen ceiling

Insulation

It can be hotter than blazes in the Hill Country and good insulation is imperative to be comfortable in your house.......and to have money for something other paying the Pedernales Electric Cooperative.  We were advised to use several different kinds of materials to insulate our house.

The material used for the most coverage was foam insulation.  The foam is sprayed directly on some surfaces and sprayed inside a fabric sheathing in other areas.

The Foam Truck

Piping the foam into the house

HOT, HOT job spraying foam in attic

Garage Ceiling

Second story ceiling

The crew attached sheets of fabric to some of the walls and then sprayed the foam inside.  As the fabric was cut and staged in the house, it looked ghostly.

Measuring fabric for wall

Hope our house is not haunted!!

Fabric wall

Foamed wall with fabric sheating

The common wall between Bruce's study and the master bedroom needed heavy insulation to provide a really good sound barrier because his TV will go on the study wall and the bed on the bedroom wall.  Not a good arrangement if he is watching football late at night!!!!  A material made of recycled blue jeans should do the trick to keep everybody happy.

Maybe your old blue jeans are in our wall!!!!

 And the last material used was the regular batting type of insulation.

Regular batting type insulation

I remember insulation being pink and scratchy... it's been fun to learn about different kinds of insulation materials!!!