Winter

I got some plywood on the roof.
We a lot of rain and the mountain got some snow that we can view from the house

Dormers

The framing for the dormers in front are done, I have two more on the other side to build.

Fire uppdate

It looked like someone dropped a bomb, the hole mountain accross from us has been coverd with smoke. On thursday the fire came over the ridge to our side.
Today (sunday) they finally put a massive airsupport with super tankers and even a DC10.
By the end of the day it seems like they have most of it under control.

Fire Update

We have received a lot of e-mails and calls from friends that are concerned about us and we want you to know that we are ok.

We had a fire starting down at the intersection 79 and 371 on Sunday that spread very fast due to the high winds. It was burning on all three sides and came up about a mile from our house. We packed the necessary things and parked all our vehicles down on the graded part (future vineyard) that has no brush where they would be safe. The fire dept brought in 50+ engines and by Monday morning they had most of it under control. We were lucky that it started on Sunday because by Monday there were no resources left to fight new fires.

Today we woke up to a very dark day with fire clouds covering most of the sky. The fire closest to us is behind Palomar mountain that you can see from the sunset picture and that fire has spread increadibly over night. If the winds turn it could come down on our side of the mountain.

There are several fires burning in the Temecula area with the biggest one burning in Fallbrook about 15 miles south of my work. The whole city of Fallbrook has been evacuated and a lot of houses have burned down. The De Luz area which is the big hill behind my work has also been evacuated but I think they have most of those fires under control.

It is a terrible disaster for all of Southern California and my hart goes out to all the people that have lost their houses.

We have been very lucky so far and we thank you for your concerns.

Sunset

Sunset during the big fire on Palomar mountain.

Second Floor

Now we have all heavy beams and rafters in place, then we can start with the dormers.

Per is on top of the world.

Second Floor

Per, Lenas brother is here to help me with the second floor, today we got the first gable in place.

Logs Logs and Logs

The last log is in place, now I can start with interior walls.

Laborday weekend

We got a lot of help on laborday weekend

Swedish Craftmanship

Lenas dad came over to help us

It is growing

It is so exiting to see the walls take form.

Time for logs

The first logs are in place, it's a lot of drilling that has to be done before secure to the sill plate.

We have a slab

Ready to pour

Many thanks to Håkan and Mark, they helped me over the weekend to mix cement and fill the footings, I will have an inspection tomorrow and then I can make the slab.

First floor

I have done the rebars and ground plumbing, now I can pour cement

First Floor

Now I have done th footings for the first floor.

Next will be to do rebars and plumbing and anchorbolts for the walls.

Basement

We are now done with the walls to the basement. Will have an inspection next week and then I can fill the rest of the walls with cement and then backfill.

Filling the walls

Mixing concrete to fill the cells, half the wall is now done for the basement.

Thank you Hakan

Hakan came down two weekends to help me out, it is greatly appreciated.

The Masons

Stefan and Jack are working on the basement.
This is the last row of the large bricks and after this it should go a little easier. These bricks weigh about 60 pounds, so the guys do not need to go to the gym, they are building muscles as they are building a basement.

Now we have a slab for the basement

It is a lot of rebars

Finally, we can begin!!!

Well, the three weeks took five months with a lot of frustration. Our building engineer is not the fastest man on the planet but he finally got it done.
We have now poured the concrete for the basement slab and had great help from our friends Jack, Mark and Gil, without them it would have been impossible since Stefan was really sick with the flu.
We tried to add some pictures but this blog is not cooperating at this time but as soon as it does we'll put some in.