Ellen was confirmed April 21.
Christy, Ellen's friend and sponsor-Vickie, Ellen, and Frank

Taylor, Sam, and I laid the blocks - 87 of them. They came out OK. I'll get a real mason to lay the bricks. Brian and I framed the floor joists. Santa came early and brought me a set of four nail guns and a compressor. It's hard to find straight lumber these days...

Taylor and I poured the footer. It was right at 2 cubic yards. They put fiber in it for reinforcement. We had to wheel it in from the truck on the driveway.

We had to dig down and tie into the existing footer. Funny thing is the existing footer is about 8" thick and the new footer has to be 12" thick per the building code. I guess the bathroom is going to end up holding up the house...

We're working on the house again. After all the fun we had last year converting some attic space to Ellen's bedroom we're adding a master bath off the back of the house this year. We tore all the brick off and most of the deck. Taylor and I dug the footer. Someone asked if we dug it by hand and I said, "Heck no, we used shovels." :-)