Holy Crap! It's time for FINISH work?!

Sometimes a realization will settle upon you and warm you through gently, like rays of the sun. Other times, it will slap you right across the face.

So as mentioned, Saturday was the company picnic. If you could have seen this thing, you would have wanted to attend too. I'm fortunate to work for a company that is family oriented. Each year, the annual picnic, which I liken more to a carnival, is held at my office location--due to the huge outdoor grounds.

Massive tents pop up a week in advance and various rides are constructed including: ferris wheels, bungee jump swings, tea cups, bumper cars, super slides, all kinds of games, a petting zoo, arts and crafts booths, face painting, a lumber jack show, pirate ship rides around the pond, and more. Then of course there is the beer tent and the gigantic food tent. Did I mention that every last thing is free? Even the two lobsters per person?
So HECK YES we went! I even got my face painted! Because...why not?

After saying hello to friends and eating our fill, we headed back to our place. We wasted no time changing before heading out again. Run, run, run! As we arrived at my Dad's, my cousin- Jesse- and his girlfriend- Jen- pulled in too! They said they would come up and check it out some time...and here they were! I was very excited to see them and eagerly showed them around the build. My brother also had the day off from work so he came to help out as well. Although we like the idea of doing most of the work ourselves, and we have, it's nice to have a day here and there where plenty of family members are around to lend a hand.

On Saturday, since we got there around 330ish, we didn't have high hopes, but we worked continuously. I started to sand the first door while Dan and Adam worked more on the insulation. I quickly gave up on the sander because we had a detail sander with a fine grit, it just wasn't going to work...at least not in the next 3 years. I opted to go help Dan and Adam. As I began helping them, Jesse sauntered over to the door and began working away at it with the sander. My heart bloomed and I smiled broadly as I watched him pitch in. He's such a great guy. Thank you guys so much for coming! 

By the end of Saturday, we had finished just about all of the insulation. THANKFULLY. We were sick of being all itchy after every work day.  There were many odd cuts needed to fill in the remaining walls, so it took time. We then used some of the bagged insulation we got back in February to fill in all the tiny gaps. It wasn't great stuff...but we needed to rip it up anyway. I'm glad we weren't depending on using all of what we purchased, I'd say about half is useless. :/ Oh well, it was a fun road trip! 

By the end of the day, I think I was the most covered in gunk out of any of the days we worked with insulation, but, more importantly, it was also the LAST day.

Jesse was even able to work his way down through about FOUR layers of paint and reveal a BEAUTIFUL wood grain for us!!! I was about ready to just paint them again, but after seeing the bare wood, I MUST HAVE IT. Thanks again, Jesse. :) 

Insulation complete!

On Sunday, we headed to the store first to make a couple major purchases. We picked up an orbital sander and a planer. The sander for the doors we plan to use inside, and the planer for the old barn wood boards. Well, again with the damn doors, the sander only came with one piece of paper at the grit I needed. I quickly went through that and was at a stand still again. So I joined Dan in completing the finishing touches of the insulation.

Foaming all the cracks.

 We did one final pass with the pink stuff and then set about filling in every last nook and cranny with spray foam. Insulation is most effective when there is no airflow. That baby is sealed!







After that, we set off to install the door. That's right, the door! The last piece to officially seal the house! After a couple minutes of gaping shock, we adjusted to the idea that the next thing would be pine paneling inside. That meant we needed to seal the place in.


The door was a bit of a challenge, but Adam was there to help us again. That thing is huge and heavy! We now have the door in place, but it still requires a little tweaking, it catches on the top right corner.

 After about an hour of tweaking here and tweaking there, we decided to just put it away for the day. We'd been out there long enough, and our patience with the door was running thin. 

So we aren't perfect....good thing it's
a Rough opening! 

All in all- still a very productive weekend! Next up, the interior paneling! Wooohooooo!
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All sealed in!