Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Roofed

Here's the garage, so far. Z is standing in L's garage door for perspective. All the grass in front of the garage will soon be driveway. Unfortunately, our second apple tree will have to be cut, so I can get the truck in the garage.
The contractors got our metal roof on today. It's actually dark brown, but I couldn't get a picture without the reflection off the roof. This is the back door to the garage. Note the big honkin' window to the right of the door.

The electrician was on site last week. It looks like wiring the garage will be cheaper than we thought. He said he would start wiring as soon as the roof was on. We're ready for him. We've been cutting all the brush and weeds away from the power pole. I also transplanted the hostas that were located where the wiring trench will run. Z has been busy picking up the scraps when the workers leave for the day.

Our work will start in earnest when the carpenters and electrician are finished. Our to-do list is rather overwhelming. We hope to have the house, garage, and shed painted before winter sets in. We also hope to have most of the backyard landscaped by then too.
We'll just breathe deeply and take one step at a time.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Welcome to Our Lumberyard!

Here it is folks...our life savings, all stacked up on our front lawn! I think that it's all there, with the exception of the metal roofing, doors, and windows.
His and Hers garage doors. My door is on the left.
Here's our first wall, complete with entrance door and window.
WATCH THAT FIRST STEP; IT'S A DOOZY! For 20 years, we've stepped through our shed door onto the ramp(that gray thing in the front, surrounded by weeds). For the last week, we've had to remember to step DOWN 12 inches, when exiting the shed. We'll all be happy when the footings have cured, and they lower the shed down again.
Our contractor's brother made this cool little ramp out of the leftover concrete.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Wish You Were HERE!

Here's the first piece to our garage: 24 cubic yards of class 5 gravel.

The brown area, to the right, is the site of our former woodpile. It took the 3 of us, 3 days to cut the weeds and brush, and dig the rotted leftover firewood out of the ground. We cut the small trees to the left, as they would be too close to the back wall of the garage.
This is the 1/4th of our back yard, where we tie the dog out. I had the brilliant? idea that the contractor should dump the topsoil he scraped off the garage site back here. This is the lowest area in our yard. Whenever it rains, there's 3 inches of standing water back here. Now we need to rototill this dirt and rake it out so the yard slopes down to the back corner of the yard. Hopefully we'll get this done before the grass starts growing on the topsoil.
Here's the nice level gravel pad for our garage floor. The apple tree in the foreground is history. I cut it down and grubbed out the stump. I set aside the wood, which will be cut up for BBQ smoke.
Here's our floor; all formed, rerodded, and ready for concrete, hopefully TODAY.

I soooooo want one of these!! This machine beats the hell out of my wheelbarrow, shovel, and rake!