The House Is Set

The house was set yesterday.   They got started early while I was doing other things and got one section in before I got there.   Here's what it looked like when I got there.  the roof is shipped flat and then raised up by the crane after the section is set on the foundation.

 

I wondered how the roof wasn't wider then the house when it is laying down.  Here's why.  The last 4' or so is raised up and over to form the peak. 

 

Here's the other half  its way up the hill.  I didn't appreciate the size of these until I saw one moving.  The trailers are 70' long.   slight technical difficulties here, the back end of the trailer grounded out.

  

Here's how you get a house unstuck.  The dozer had to help all the way up the hill. 

A very tight squeeze but they made it. This section was harder than the other, since the eaves weren't sticking out on this side.

It made it to the top of the hill.  They are getting ready for the crane.  They are doing all the unwrapping.

Here's the crane.  The operator said it will lift 90 tons, but you've gotta have that weight really close to the base.

 Here's why it can lift a house and not fall over.  That's 30 tons of weight sitting there behind the cab.

Here's how they lift it.  There are 4 cables, run under the house through holes drilled in the band joists.

Here's the rigging the cables get attached to. 

 

Ready to lift.

A quick time lapse video of the lift and set.  I should have decreased the interval to 2 or 3 seconds.

 I had to leave after the section was set.  When  I got back, they were setting the gable ends.  They are built at the factory and trucked in.  The smaller sections that go on each side of the window are craned into the opening in the roof before it is closed up.  Then they are set by hand.

Another quick video of one of the dormers going in.

The dried-in house.  A pan shot I took today.   There's still a lot to do, the upstairs needs to be built out, HVAC installed, well, septic, etc.  As you can see the porch is missing as well.

Deliverance

Hmmm, that's probably not the best title.  How about Delivery, or Delivered?  Anyway, the house was delivered today.  It was supposed to be set as well but there was some more grading that needed to be done on driveway up the hill.  By the time they got the equipment in to do it it was too late to start setting the house.

Here are the two main sections.  The roof is hinged.  The sections will be picked up off the trailers and craned onto the foundation, then the roof is raised. 

Here's a shot from further away.  The truck with the dormers, the gable ends and some other assorted pieces had just shown up.

The crane is ready to go.  The house will be set in the morning.  I'm amazed they got that flat bed in there, the space is really tight for a 50' trailer.

Still Waiting

The house was supposed to arrive from the factory and be set last week.  Last week the builder told us it had slipped a week due to delays at the factory.  As of this morning it was confirmed for today and they would set it tomorrow. An hour ago I got a text from the builder that it would be delivered tomorrow.  Needless to say we are disappointed.  This new delay is not supposed to affect them setting it tomorrow, but we shall see.

The House Factory Tour

We toured the factory today and got to see our house.  It was pretty far along in the process - the walls inside had all been rocked, insulation was in, plumbing was in.  They haven't gotten sheathing on the outside yet.  I am told they do that at the same time they are doing all the taping.  They do as much as they can in parallel.  So they have a crew building the floors complete with all electrical and plumbing at the same time other crews are building walls.  All the interior walls go on starting from the center of the house out, they also install water heaters, bathtubs, etc.  After each house section is built and dried in (including siding) they tow it to another building to do all the finish interior work - trim, painting etc. 



The biggest dust collector I've ever seen.

Because precision matters.  cut to 1/8".   I've seen rough framing where 1/4" is good enough.

Here's a floor being built - most of these  pictures are not my house.  It's sitting on a jig.  The decking is glued and nailed after all wiring, plumbing, etc is pulled.  This factory builds the house off-frame.  The jig is perfectly flat, and the dollies can be adjusted for any imperfections in the floor.   You can't do this with a frame. 

Dead center, and a doubled band joist.  Over 30' of house every joist was dead on.

Here's how they lift the floor to set it on dollies:

And here are the dollies.  The house will roll on these until it is lifted onto the frame.

Interior walls being built.

Here's one half of my roof.  At the same time they are doing interior walls, insulating and doing sheathing they are building a roof. The roof is lifted and the house is moved under it. The house section it goes to is off to the left.  Notice the drywall on it already.

Moving a house, this is half of my house.  It's all manpower (lots of it).

Here's a closeup of the roof hinge system.  The house is shipped with the roof down.  After the house section is set on the foundation, the roof is craned up into place.  They will sheath and mostly shingle the roof at the factory.

 

Here's a jack they use to lift the house off the dollies to get the frame under it.  Once it's on the frame they put sheathing and siding on the outside, shingle the roof and then it goes to final finishing. 

 

The Foundation Is Complete

 The foundation is finished.  The color coat is on, mud plate is on.   I am told that the house will be delivered on the 14th.  This week they are supposed to back fill everything and pour the garage floor.   The last picture is a close-up of the color coat on the foundation. 

As Christians, Are We Still Bound By The Old Testament Law?

      Before we start, one note.  Scripture quoted in this and other posts is from the NIV, unless otherwise noted.

      I've recently had several people (both believers and non-believers) ask me if we are still bound by the Old Testament law.  Others simply quote half-remembered rules from the Old Testament without really taking time to discern whether they still apply.

     This post will be the first in what I hope/intend to be a series of at least a few posts.   How long the series becomes remains to be determined, mostly by the response/interest I receive.

   Exodus 19:5 states that the Israelites were God's chosen people:

"Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine"

As does 2 Samuel 7:23:
"And who is like your people Israel--the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt?"

These are but two of a plethora of verses in the Old Testament establishing Israel as God's chosen people, with the caveat that they needed to obey God.  But why was the Law given in the first place?  Galatians 3:19 tells us:

"Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator."


The above means that we are a sinful people.  God gave the Israelites the law until such time as Jesus came.  This verse also tells us that the law would be superseded by Jesus.


Back in Genesis we see as part of God's covenant with Abraham God tells Abraham about Jesus in Genesis 22:18:

"and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Note that God tells Abraham that because Abraham obeyed God, all nations will be blessed, not just the Israelites.  That is different from what we see in Exodus and the other books in the Pentateuch.  

So, if  Israelites are God's chosen,  since we were born thousands of years later, and not Jewish, how could we possibly be bound by the Old Testament Law (given in the form of the covenants) without converting to Judaism? This question of course presumes that Jesus wasn't who he and the Bible says he was.  If you believe that Jesus was the Savior, then this argument is somewhat moot.   We already see God's assurance to Abraham that all nations would be blessed. 

Matthew 1:1 confirms this assurance:

"This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:"


So we can see that even from the beginning with the covenant with Abraham, God was working to send us a Redeemer.  In the verse from Exodus above, God tells the Israelites that so long as they obey Him,  they will be his chosen.  This changed when Jesus died on the cross for us.

Jesus says in John 14:6

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

We can no longer be redeemed through our works.  God sent Jesus to be our savior and it is only through Him that we find redemption.

Paul tells us in Romans 7:4-6 that we are no longer bound by the Old Testament (meaning we can't save ourselves through our own works). 

"4.  Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter."

    All throughout his writings Paul expresses the same sentiment.  2 Colossians 14-17, 2 Corinthians 3 5-6 and Hebrews 7:11 asks:

"If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood--and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood--why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?"


So, we have seen that  part of God's covenant to Abraham  was the promise of a blessing to all nations.  We see in the first verse of the New Testament that God did send the blessing, his name was Jesus.  Both Jesus and Paul are clear that we can no longer save ourselves simply by our own works.  

 The next post we will examine what Jesus meant by the word 'law' in Matthew 5:18.  It was not simply the 250-odd rules God gave the Israelites.   People often quote that verse to prove that we are still bound by the Old Testament, but I hope to show that the verse is being misunderstood.
 

Peanut Butter and Jelly

I learned recently that I had failed to do one important job as a father.  I had not yet imparted the proper way (and there is a proper way) to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Some people, if not most, may view peanut butter and jelly as the hated lunch item you smooshed when you found it in your lunch bag at school.  However, if the construction of the sandwich is executed correctly it can rival some of the finest meals. 

So, we will begin our discussion where any sandwich starts, with the bread.  The bread should be preferably home-made (or at least freshly baked) and cut to no thinner than 1/2" thick slices.  If you must use store bought bread, never, ever use Wonder Bread.  It's only good for smooshing.  Or fish bait.  The bread doesn't need to be white bread, but from experience any strongly seasoned bread doesn't mesh well with the peanut butter or jelly. It's best to stick with a white or wheat bread.

Now that we have our 2 slices of bread, we need to put something on them.  I won't get into a discussion on the merits of creamy vs crunchy peanut butter, that's possibly another blog post so I will just let the reader choose his or her favorite.  The jelly should either be strawberry or grape, or possibly blackberry.  If you use something like orange marmalade then it isn't really a jelly sandwich. 

Spread the jelly on the bread thickly enough so that if you hold the bread vertically jelly starts to slide off.  You aren't doing it correctly if all the jelly stays on the bread.  The peanut butter should be at least 1/8" thick, but that's really just a start.  I aim for about as thick as the nuts in the crunchy peanut butter. 

To assemble the sandwich, place the bread with the peanut butter on top of the jelly side.  This way the jelly doesn't slide off the bread - peanut butter sticks to bread. Once the two halves are together, the jelly will have a harder time falling off. 

To eat the sandwich, you have to eat it jelly side up, or all that peanut butter will stick to the roof of your mouth.  If you eat it jelly side down and it isn't sticking, you did something wrong and there isn't enough peanut butter on the sandwich.

Now that you know the correct way to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Happy Eating!  I am certain that if you follow these directions carefully, your next sandwich will be much more enjoyable than your last one.,