Labor Day 2011

I have had a wonderful day today with my family.  We went camping this weekend and had a marvelous time with Grandma and Grandpa Petersen and Uncle Kyle up near Hourglass lake.  We decided to come home early and spend today unpacking and preparing for the coming week without making Michelle have to do all of the work.

This morning Donovan woke us up at 7:45 am! Holy Cow...I haven't been able to sleep in that late in a long time.  We got up and simply had some cold cereal so we could get going for the day.  We had our scripture reading after breakfast, a little break in tradition but not completely disruptive to the harmony of our home.  After breakfast we finished getting dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, etc.

We had a brief family council and talked about helping to do chores because we had just had a fun vacation/camping trip to the mountains with lots of fun activities.  We all pitched in and started with putting camping gear away and sorting a huge pile of laundry.  Once the laundry was sorted and the first load in the washer we hit some of the other chores around the house.  David mowed the lawn, Donovan washed windows and a few other chores.  Michael, Aleky and Quinten were done helping with chores and were content to play.

I started loading pictures to this blog and deleting unneeded files to clear space for the camping trip photos and videos that we took this weekend.  While this activity is time consuming I don't have a lot to show for it yet, but it's coming.  (For those of you who follow this blog I would recommend an RSS feed or you'll miss most of the post that will be coming!)  Donovan played on the computer and David and Michael were exited to watch.

We took a break from the computer to have a family movie with carmel popcorn.  David read "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and we promised to watched the movie together.  Michelle and I made the popcorn and the arranged the living room into a theater.  We enjoyed the movie together.

Michelle surprised me with a cheese ball for my birthday which she must have made while I was down working on the computer.  She slipped out during the movie with Gidean and never returned!  Once again she surprised me with one of my favorite cakes!  She managed to get two great tasty morsels created without me knowing, until the very end.  What a wonderful sweetheart to do that for me.

Now the kids are in bed I thought I would get something posted to show for all the time spent on the computer today.  Again, make sure you have an RSS feed if you're interested in the various adventures of our family spanning much of this summer!

Reroofing Our House (Day 5)

Complete at last!!!  Today we finished up the last few minor details including the wishing well.  The dumpster was hauled off too.  We can finally sleep peacefully when it rains.  We still need to collect our rain collectors from the attic since they will no longer be needed! Hurray!

We want to than the Bonneville 5th Ward for all of your help this week to complete this badly needed and overdue home repair.  There is no way we could have done this without you.  THANK YOU!

(posted 10/31/11)

Reroofing Our House (Day 4)

We are finally nearing the end of the project!  Laying down the shingles is the quickest part of the process.  We start today with the front nearing completion and the back partially done.

These are the dedicated and stalwart neighbors who were there to the bitter end.  The little details sure take a lot of thought and effort to complete.  However, using the nail guns can be fun...and addicting.  We had fun rotating and shooting the nails as we got the shingles down.

(posted 10/31/11)

Reroofing Our House (Day 3)

We started off the day with the paper on the front of the house and all of the back to go.  At least the shingles were already here so we didn't have to wait to get started.  Since this was the third day of the project we did have a super start but there were a few faithful saints who gathered to keep things moving forward.

The relief society took care of water and refreshments.  They had some awesome sandwiches for lunch.  During the heat of the day we have everyone come off the roof.  It was just too hot to ask anyone to work up there.

While the rain kept threatening, the prayers of the faithful kept all but a few drops from landing on our house.  It was as if Heavenly Father was letting us know he would not destroy our house by rain.

(posted 10/31/11)

Reroofing Our House (Day 2)

Today started with another beautiful blue sky and a bare roof, at least in the front.  We have the front sheeted and the back has just a little bit of clean up and shingle removal left before we can get it sheeted.

We haven't had the number of workers today like we had yesterday.  Since we're not removing shingles it has worked out okay.  Our shingles and other roofing supplies showed up before we were expecting them.  (When we went to order the shingles we were told that they would not be delivered before Wednesday afternoon and they wouldn't be delivered until they were paid in full.)  To our surprise, the shingle delivery truck showed up at 11:00 am and started dropping shingles and supplies up on the partially sheeted roof!

Needless to say, I was a little disappointed that things hadn't worked out quite like I had anticipated.  In fact, I hadn't paid for them on purpose, so they wouldn't be delivered just yet.  Oh well, I guess we just do the best we can.

With the roof cleared in back we were able to start sheeting the back side of the roof.  We did run into some problems as we were trying to figure out how to work around the working swamp cooler.  Our idea was to remove the swamp cooler in the morning while it was cool, sheet around it and the replace it before it got too hot.  It sounds reasonable especially since we still haven't cleaned out the five layers of shingles it's attached too.  However, we haven't made it that far today so we'll figure it out tomorrow.

Reroofing Our House (Day 1)

We are lucky enough to have been chosen as our ward's service project for this year.  I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing but we certainly can use the help.  Our roof has been leaking ever since we bought our home.  This spring was exceptionally wet, setting and breaking records.  I think our hometeacher felt bad when he discovered that during these times of excessive rain our roof turned into an opened faucet inside our house.  In order to stem the waterfall we had large buckets strategically positioned to catch these flowing torrents of rain.

Upon discovering our plight, our hometeacher took the news to the Bishop and the wheels were set in motion.  Essentially, the ward agreed to provide the manpower, expertise and tools and we provide the materials.  With a little help from our experienced High Priests, we were able to find a pretty good deal on roofing supplies.  In fact, Brother Andersen helped us estimate the size of our roof and how much we needed in supplies so we could just go shopping for the needed items.

Here we are, Day 1!  We have the old white leaky roof and the first workers are already on the scene.  We have the dumpster positioned for shingle collection and we're ready to go.  Brother Andersen showed up at 8:00 am to supervise this first stage of the process, stripping the old shingles off the roof.

We started in the North East corner of the house, the gable over our bedroom.  We were not trying to save shingles but we started carefully in the corner to try and determine just how many layers of shingles were on the roof.  We had received roof bids earlier this summer and one contractor offered to to a "roof over" job.  But, as everyone knows, you can't have more than three layers of shingles on your roof and I was pretty sure we had at least three layers already.

As more workers showed up we tried to count the layers as we went.  At this point we're pretty confident that there were at least FIVE layers of shingles.  How could this be, you may ask...?  There were three layers of shingles.  But under those three layers we found two more layers.  It appears that after the first two layers of asphalt shingles had been laid, someone laid tar paper and a new drip edge and started the first of three layer additional layers.  So, to the casual observer, there were only three layers.  But in stripping the roof we clearly went through 5 layers of shingles.

Five layers poses a real problem to the work.  First, it was taking us longer than expected to get the shingles off.  Second, our dumpster was only supposed to fit up to two layers of shingles for a roof our size.  Third, not related to shingles, we were working in a record breaking heat wave!  Our ward must really love us to go through the efforts during a heat wave!

With everyone working so hard our kids were left to fend for themselves.  Fortunately school has started (half-days) so David and Donovan are distracted by their education.  But the younger children were supposed to stay in the backyard, or (even better) in the basement.  Obviously, Quinten decided to play a supervisory roll at one point this afternoon.

Although it has been nothing but clear blue skies, it was decided that we start getting the roof resheeted.  The roof was originally done with 1x6 slats, most likely for wood shake shingles.  However, the sheeting has never been upgraded, part of the contributing problem with the roof leaks.  Once the front of the house was cleared we immediately started the sheeting process.

A small crew worked in front and the rest worked in back clearing the rest of the shingles off the roof.  We had removed all of the rain gutters from the front of the house but the back rain gutter is a seamless gutter.  Because of its length it had not been removed and we noticed this little problem about the time the shingles were starting to pour off the roof.  We immediately went to work with four guys to support the rain gutter (three to hold, one to release/remove).  The rain gutter came down quickly and we were back in business removing five layers of old shingles.

This is the mess we were able to avoid by throwing the shingles directly into the dumpster in the front.  Carrying the shingles to the dumpster from the back wasn't a realistic option.

At the end of the day we nearly had the entire roof cleared!  That was a lot of hard, hot work but we made some amazing progress.

We just have the North West corner of the house, over the boys bedroom, left to clear.  We still have the sheeting to complete before we can start putting the new shingles on the roof.  Tomorrow we should be able to get the roof sheeted and papered in preparation to start shingles on Thursday.

Uncle Kyle Graduates

We're proud to say the Uncle Kyle has graduated from BYU.  We're especially excited for Uncle Kyle because he has been a frequent dinner guest in our home these past few years.  Our boys have looked forward to those dinners with Uncle Kyle.  He even has a place at the head of the table reserved just for him.  Now that he is graduated and has a real job we won't get to have him around for dinners anymore.

Congratulations Uncle Kyle!  We're proud of your accomplishment and wish you the best as you move forward with life.  And we'll miss having you around as our frequent dinner guest.

Chores

Donovan is getting better at doing chores.  Now, instead of just washing the window from the inside, he wants to wash the windows on the outside.  This just happens to be a classic picture of Donovan washing the window in his swimsuit.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch the little dance that went with the window washing.  He was standing on the window ledge doing his little jig.  If he does it again I'll have my camera ready.

Baby Boy Jones is Here!

We're excited to announce the arrival of Baby Boy Jones!  We don't have a name yet but he is 7 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches long.  Mom and baby are doing fine.  Michelle had another quick delivery with only 3 hours of labor, almost like clockwork.

Baby had some stuff in his lungs and the respiratory therapist was called in to help clear the lungs.  It took some rubbing, thumping and sucking to get him clear but now he's doing great.

Michelle finally gets her chance to hold her precious little bundle of joy.  We were hoping that upon seeing this little cherub and name would become readily obvious; it hasn't happened yet.

Baby Boy Jones' first bath.  Getting him all clean and presentable.

My turn with my new son.

The boys get to meet their new brother.  They are very excited to finally be able to see this little boy.  Amelia and Eleanor were helping to watch the boys while we were at the hospital.  It only seemed fitting that they should come to the hospital with the boys.

David and baby.

Donovan and baby.

Michael and baby.

Aleky and baby.

Quinten and baby (with help from Mommy).

Eleanor and baby.

Here is our first complete family picture.

All the Jones boys.

There was a photographer taking professional pictures of the new babies.  The pictures should be posted online for a few weeks.  The boys thought is was amazing work, watching the photographer work her magic.

We were concerned that Quinten would be upset and losing his "baby" status to this new arrival but so far he seem to be taking the news very well.  So far he is taking very good care of his baby brother and being quite protective of him; we'll see what happens when we get home.

We're excited to have our sixth son and hope to have his name very soon.

(finally posted 9/7/11)