This is an update on the progress of our container home. Hope you enjoy it!
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Today, Mel is busy working on caulking around doors and windows (see below).
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Today, Mel decided to power-wash the deck and get it ready to waterseal.
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Today, Mel is applying the BEHR Waterproofing Wood Finish to the deck.
The deck sure looks pretty now with the waterseal second coat finished!
And now the work begins to get the air conditioner outside unit raised up and secured on the back of the container home (see below).
Skeeter helped Mel get the air conditioning unit loaded into the bucket on his tractor, which would make getting it into place up high on the back of the container home easier.
Loading and moving the unit and Mel in the bucket was quite the process.
Shown above and below, with Skeeter's help, Mel gets the air conditioner unit in place on the bracket.
Final steps, and the air conditioner unit is now in place (see above and below).
Friday, May 10, 2024
Today was our 7th trip to Home Depot. We got two carts full of supplies including the pocket door frame, liquid nails, sheetrock joint compound (also known as mud), an assortment of drywall hand tools, and several rolls of fiberglass insulation.
After Mel got the truck all loaded, we ran a couple more errands in town including a stop at Whataburger before heading home.
In the afternoon, Mel worked on getting the air conditioner unit wired up to the breaker box.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Happy Mothers Day!
Today at church we celebrated the eighth grader and 12th graders graduation as well as Mother's Day. Each mother at the church service received a rose (see the rose I got below).
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of a family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in May. It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day, Siblings Day, and Grandparents' Day.
In the 19th century in the British Isles, "Mothering Sunday" was celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent. On this day, clerics and curates were encouraged to use the time at their disposal to visit their original mother churches.
While other countries also have a multi-century history of a day to celebrate mothers, the modern American version of the holiday began in the United States in the early 20th century (1907) at the initiative of Anna Jarvis. She organized the first Mother's Day service of worship and celebration at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which serves as the International Mother's Day Shrine today.
Her campaign to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. She and another peace activist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe had been urging for the creation of a "Mother's Day For Peace" where mothers would ask that their husbands and sons were no longer killed in wars. 40 years before it became an official holiday, Ward Howe had made her Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870, which called upon mothers of all nationalities to band together to promote the "amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace." Anna Jarvis wanted to honor this and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world".
In 1908, the U.S. Congress rejected a proposal to make Mother's Day an official holiday, joking that they would also have to proclaim a "Mother-in-law's Day". However, owing to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, by 1911 all U.S. states observed the holiday, with some of them officially recognizing Mother's Day as a local holiday. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
I went to Colorado Springs to play bingo with Debbie Griffin. I never seem to tire of seeing the beautiful Colorado Rockies covered with snow on our drive in to Colorado Springs (see below).
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Today, Mel and Skeeter decided to run to Home Depot to get sheetrock. This was our 8th trip there and here's what they came home with (lots and lots of sheetrock as you can see below):
This afternoon, Mel also got the tie-downs put on the container home (see below). Tie-downs consist of a system of heavy-duty straps and anchors designed to stabilize a manufactured or container home during high winds.
Today, JF Insulation came out and spray foamed insulation into the container home. They gave us a $300 discount for paying cash, so it cost us a little over $4,000 to have the whole container home done as well as the underneath side.
It took the "white suited" man (shown below) most of the day to complete the job.
In the meantime, while the container home was being spray foamed, Mel helped Skeeter work on his trailer (see below).
Shown above and below are some of the first views of the spray foaming inside the container home.
It is quite the process, the spray is a liquid when it is sprayed on. This light-density open-cell SPF (spray polyurethane foam) is commonly known as half-pound foam. It is a semi-rigid material with a sponge-like appearance that expands during installation and creates small, open cells that are filled with carbon dioxide. Due to its ability to expand during the application process, it fills cracks, crevices and voids and adheres to irregular surfaces or substrates to form an air sealing insulation.
The man spraying the polyurethane foam takes a short break (see above).
It was truly amazing how much this spray foam insulation also cut down on the echo sound within the container home.
After the man doing the spray foaming left, Mel backed Skeeter's truck to the deck and began unloading the sheetrock into the container home (see below).
Two sheets of sheetrock come stacked front to front, so Mel had to break them apart into singular sheets as he unloaded them. Each sheet weighed between 50 and 60 pounds.
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Today, Mel works at scraping off the excess foam before he begins to put up the sheetrock (see below).
Below, Mel installs the first sheet of sheetrock on the bedroom wall.
Next, Mel and Skeeter lift up and get ready to install a sheet of sheetrock on the bedroom ceiling.
Mels uses drywall screws when installing the gypsum sheetrock boards to wood studs because they have a sharp point to pierce through drywall.
The back side of the bedroom is now finished being sheetrocked and Mel moves on to the bathroom area.
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Mel continues working on putting up sheetrock in the container home. He now has the frontside of the bedroom and closet finished (see below).
As you can see above and below, Mel has a lot of prep work to do before putting up another sheet of sheetrock.
Mel has to roll out the fiberglass insulation and cut it to the right length before inserting it into the ceiling rafters (see below).
Once Mel got enough of the fiberglass insulation into the ceiling rafters, he had Skeeter come out and help him hang some more of the sheetrock on the ceiling.
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Today, we made our 9th trip to Home Depot. We bought only a small cart of supplies including more liquid nails and a door knob and security lock set for the side door to the container home (see below).
When we got home from Home Depot, Mel tried to perform a check on how the MRCOOL heating and air conditioner system would work in the container home.
The MRCOOL system can be run by a remote control or a smartphone, but Mel was unable to get it to work.
So Mel being a little frustrated, went on to work on the shower installing the blue board drywall -- which works great in bathroom areas or places that come in contact with water because it has great mold and water resistant qualities (see below).
Come to find out, the reason why Mel couldn't get the test done on the MRCOOL system was because the 50 amp breaker box had burned up. So Mel had to take a late evening trip to Home Depot to get a new breaker box, along with new breakers so he could get this fixed tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
With a new breaker box and breakers put in, Mel was able to get the MRCOOL system up and running (see picture below) with the temperature set at 62 degrees.
Now Mel set his sights at getting more of the insulation put into the ceiling rafters (see above and below).
And then again, Mel summoned Skeeter's help to get the sheetrock for the ceiling set up.
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Today, Mel started the drywall mud and taping process. Butting together multiple sheets of drywall creates seams or “joints” because the edges of drywall sheets are beveled. If these joints aren’t covered properly, they’ll show through the paint.
So Mel first prepared the drywall joint compound, or “mud” and then applied a layer of mud to the drywall joints using a trowel. He then smoothed this line of mud about an inch wide over the joints, while using the scraping tool to remove any excess mud. He also filled in the nail holes with mud as he went.
He then installed the drywall tape over the mudded joints by smoothing the tape with his hand as he went to eliminate any air bubbles and to ensure the tape made good contact with the mud. Once he'd taped an entire joint, he used a putty knife to press the tape firmly onto the mud. He then repeated thisprocess until all the joints have been covered with tape (see below).
Shown above and below, Mel is mudding over the nail holes in the shower/bathroom area.
Friday, May 24, 2024
Today, Mel continued the mudding and taping process. As shown below, you can see his progress at the ceiling joint area.
Using the same procedure as for joints, Mel applied mud to the inside corners of the drywall and wiped away any excess. He then creased the drywall tape so it fit snugly into the corners and applied the mud. He then used his putty knife to ensure proper contact and smoothed away any air bubbles.
It was quite the process and was fun to watch.
Not finished with all the mudding and taping yet, Mel calls it a day.
Monday, May 27, 2024
Today is Memorial Day and I want to wish a "Happy Memorial Day" to everyone as we honor and remember all those that have gone before us!
For every Memorial Day that I can remember as I was growing up as a child, my mom would cut flowers and ferns from around our house including peonies, iris and lily of the valley and together with dad's help, we would arrange these in glass jars or tin cans filled with water and put them in a box to take to the cemetery. Once at the cemetery, we would find the graves of our loved ones -- such as a grandpa or grandma -- and then dad would dig a little hole in the ground by the headstone that we could set the jar or can with the flowers in.
This time of the year also reminds me of a song by Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the USA."
The lyrics of Lee Greenwood's signature and famous song are shown below:
If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife
I'd thank my lucky stars to be livin' here today
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away.
And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA.
From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea
From Detroit down to Houston and New York to L.A.
Well, there's pride in every American heart
And it's time we stand and say.
That I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land (I love this land)
God bless the USA.
And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land (I love this land)
God bless the USA.
I just bet that you sang along with me to the above lyrics too!
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is one of the federal holidays in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day is also considered the unofficial beginning of summer in the United States.
It is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty. Volunteers place American flags on the graves of those military personnel in national cemeteries. Others such as family and friends will also come to lay flowers and grieve on the graves of those who died in the US military.
The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868. Then known as Decoration Day and observed on May 30th, the holiday was proclaimed by Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic to honor the Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War. This national observance followed many local observances which were inaugurated between the end of the Civil War and Logan's declaration.
Official recognition as a holiday spread among the states, beginning with New York in 1873. By 1890, every Union state had adopted it. The world wars turned it into a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service. In 1971, Congress standardized the holiday as "Memorial Day" and changed its observance to the last Monday in May.
On this holiday, Mel continued his mudding and taping process.
He worked on the bathroom and washer/dryer area.
He finished up the second coat of mud on the drywall and called it a night.
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
We made another trip to Home Depot (trip #10) and filled one cart full of a couple more buckets of drywall mud, a RYOBI compound miter saw, and some miscellaneous items (see below).
We had other errands to run today including a stop at Wells Fargo in Colorado Springs, and Great Clips and King Soopers in Falcon. We then went to Taco Bell for a late lunch.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Today, Mel continued to mud the drywall. Using a wide trowel, he applied a final coat of mud over the second coat that would mask any imperfections from the previous coat. However, once again Mel ran out of mud, and had to drive to Home Depot again around 3 p.m.
The last step was to sand the final coat of mud until completely smooth. Mel then used a wet sponge to wipe away any dust after sanding. He was now ready to put on the paint primer, which he will start tomorrow after everything is dry.
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Today, Mel began the process of putting paint primer on the walls in the container home. The paint primer will act as a base coat and create a foundation for a flawless paint job.
Tomorrow he will finish up priming all the walls in the container.
Friday, May 31, 2024
Today Mel finished putting primer on all the walls in the container.
With all the walls primed, Mel took a break for lunch. After lunch, he began painting the walls with Glidden Diamond Eggshell Interior paint.
With a coat of paint, the rooms look really good.
Mel is now working on getting the living room area painted.
And as you can, our container home is now really beginning to look like a "home, sweet home!" Kudos to Mel!
Shirley & Mel
