Thank you for asking. (I was waiting on some pix to post along with the narrative.)
The roof is on, all the 5/8 plywood sheathing is up, the house wrap is on, and (as of Saturday) about 1/8 of the house was sided. These guys are GOOD! They do so many things in the old craftsman style. Wonderful joinery, very little caulking will be needed. A while back they set an old toilet on the slab so no porta-can is needed on the site. We've been cleaning every time we go out. They are treating the area very nicely. Last trip, the primary task was to burn the bigger of the 2 scrap piles. We got there and discovered they had done it that morning! (It's as if they read our minds.) The electrician has set the boxes and pulled wire into the eave areas that are now closed in. We will be trenching in the electrical conduit and the water line between the barn and the house.
It's a bit overwhelming at times, along with all the other daily tasks to complete. When we are home, we spend time fixing and painting- getting it ready to sell. So far, we are surviving all of this. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
I now know why God created things to ride on: it's so people over 40 can still do work. Mow the grass? Riding mower. Plow the garden? Tractor. Dig a trench? NOT a walk-behind trencher.
So, how did I come upon this revelation? 120 feet of trench and 6 hours later I asked myself: when was the last time you did this, you fool? And the answer was- over 20 years ago! But back then I did this kind of thing all the time. Now I sit at a desk all day long and move electrons around.
The worst part of this episode wasn't the whiplash when I hit the huge root, or the agony of cutting through the unknown extra sewer line going out to the septic tank. The greatest pain was seeing my poor wife down on her knees trying to get the mud out of the bottom of the trench.
When we were done, and both looked like we had been culled from the mud wrestling championships, I asked her why she let me do this. She said she asked me if I was sure we could tackle the project. (I guess I said I was sure.) I requested that whenever I got another of these hare-brained ideas for her to stop me and ask, "Bret, when was the last time you did this?" (She said she also asked me that before we started this one.)
When we raked the last of the dirt back into the end of the trench, I turned to Douglas (the builder) and said, 'At least we saved a bunch of money, right?' He just smiled.
Keep up your humor and keep posting...Kyle
BTW, we have sold our house (finally) and have moved into a tiny apartment in Giddings. Yes, our stuff is crammed into it, our 12 x 20 barn and another 10x 10 storage unit....Kyle
Kool, Kyle! Now you get to change your personal information (removing the Cedar Park portion).
I'm looking forward to the day when I can remove all memory of Houston from my mind.
We visited with Kenneth on Friday and started the cabinet decisions, went to the cultured marble factory (on Hwy 71 just north of Columbus) and visited the flooring store. When we left our home, the insulators were more than half done. The dry wallers should be out there today.
Your temporary digs should bring new meaning to the term closeness.
I'm glad you're having good luck! Our neighbour built their house this spring and managed to dig up our property, build their house in our right of way, $%& in our woods and not clean one ounce of it up, throw all garbage to the wind for us to pick up out of the feilds and trees, dumped a can of nails in our field and they pulled out our survey stake.
And believe it or not we are good friends! We weren't impressed with their contractor at all though.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote