A little more work

Even with the holiday weekend, Tim was able to fit in a few hours on Thursday. 

As I said earlier, the rock wall took one more day of work.

It is 90% finished on both sides, making a square-ish shaped wall where there was once so much dirt.

 View:  Standing at the house, looking north towards neighbors house

 View:  Standing at corner of rock wall, facing west, towards driveway

View:  Standing at corner of rock wall, facing south towards house

Pictures truly don't do justice in showing the changes that are occuring to the area.

We'll have to post before and after pictures but even then, we think you may just need to visit us.

We are continuing to wait for the county to come out and adjust the gas line.  Once that occurs, Tim can grate and gravel the top of the driveway.

Love, Us 3

A Big Ol' Stump

Today's Project:  Stump Removal 101

As you recall, six trees were cut down at the beginning of this project.  Today, Tim dealt with two of the stumps.

Removing the one at the top of the driveway was a rather simple.  He covered it with dirt. 

The hammerhead is just about level with one days' work remaining on the rock wall.

We're starting to realize that there will be space for at least three or four cars, not to mention the two car garage.  It won't be so difficult for our guests to find parking during summer parties next year!

Stump #2 was a little more difficult.  It is located at the end of the driveway, where a five inch water concrete main runs.  Thus, they had to look for the water main before they pulled the stump.

They dug...

and dug...

and dug...

They never found the water main.

But they did find a big ol'stump.

while clearing out the entrance of our driveway.

Love,

Us 3

Biggest best helper

Alex and I decided since it was so nice out to work in the yard. There are a lot of sticker bushes coming up, so we wanted to get a head start on them before they really took off this spring. Here is the area below our retaining wall before we started.

And here it is after all of Alex's hard work. Who knew he was a genius with the chainsaw, and pretty cute in overalls.

We have a bit more work to do but it got to be nap time. Maybe after nap time, or tomorrow, or maybe mommy should do some work. Neighbor lady was also clearing the hill, and was nice enough to help drag the tree trunk up. And we got to go down and look at her chickens.

Sixty dollars worth of rock

If you have been by our house in the past five years. You might recall a rather large pils of rock under our deck. This was from when we removed the fireplace. Today, some of Michelle's ex-students came over to help me move it to the driveway for Tim to dispose. We figured it would be a really big pain to get rid of once the garage was in.


Here the boys stand with the mountain of rock they moved.


Took the three of us two hours to move all the rock, but it sure looks nice under the deck now.

In unrelated news, it appears our order got lost in the system somehow to have the gas line relocated, so I'm guessing sometime next year at this point.

The Second Wall

What's better than one rock wall? 

Two rock walls! 

Tim started the second wall yesterday. 

This remains the view from our front porch. 

You wouldn't know much is happening until...

 ...you walk around to the front of the wall.

There is a four foot difference between the two walls. 

Nope, this isn't a giant rock pile,

It's the view if you are standing directly in front of the wall.

 View from Driveway

We're pleased with the progress.  There is much less mud in the front, too. 

The best part is discovering how much parking we will be gaining in this area. 

We will no longer need to require carpooling for summer parties!

Love, Us 3

A Whole Lotta...

Dirt.    

Yesterday's work adventure involved moving a lot of dirt and gravel. 

This is the current view from my front porch.  I'm standing on the bottom step.

Before

After 

Pushing all that dirt around didn't make a noticable difference to me.

Eric tells me the ground is more level and allows for them to determine if they are going to need to put in the second rock wall.  I trust he is correct.  He is pretty smart about this house stuff.

Eric helped out and moved the front pavers and the black grass.  I think he likes having projects.

Instead of leaving piles of rock at the end of the work day, this time Tim left piles of gravel.

Fortuantely, he spread a lot of gravel over the dirt in the driveway.  The piles are what he had left in the dump truck.

Which is now dumped in our driveway.



Unfortunately, we do have some mud spots, where Tim had parked the dump truck.

So, be careful driving up the driveway.

I'm simply curious as to how long until all this dirt turns to mud. 

I give it less than a week.  Just in time for Tim to return.

And so it continues...

Love, Us 3

Keep on Rockin'

Tim returned today to continue the work on the rock wall.

We're at a bit of a crossroads.  If we build the rock wall any higher, we will have to apply for a permit.  Needless to say, we'd like to avoid that path since it creates further delay.  The solution may be an additional retaining wall about 4 feet back from the current wall.  I like the idea because it means I would have a little flower bed between the two walls to putter in (picture hydrangeas and ground azaleas). 

That decision remain for another day.

In the meantime, we are happy with the progress.

At the start of the day, the wall looked like this:

At the end of the day, we see this:

Standing at the corner of the wall, facing the driveway

 Standing at the corner of the wall, facing the house

Tim had to leave early to rest up before hitting the roads at midnight to de-ice them.  Next weekend, he is going to level things out before he and Eric make the decision on how to proceed.

In the meantime, the yard has been winterized and we're ready for Mr. Winter.

Temperatures are dropping by the minute.  Which is exactly why there aren't many pictures from today's work. 

I don't do cold!

Day 2 - Project: Rock Wall

Since Alexander has already summited on our current rock wall, he's pretty excited about the second one being built.  And, I suspect, he likes the huge piles of dirt in the yard.  What little boy doesn't love dirt, right?

The boss man had to make sure everything was in line with the workers.

  It's a two-man job.

One guy lifts and moves the rocks with the machine.

Choosing the rocks so they look good together is VERY time consuming.

  Once the rocks are placed in spot, guided by the guy standing by the pile,

 ...the guy by the pile spreads the gravel needed between each rock.

This is where things left off at the end of the day 2.

Sunday is a day of rest so nothing is happening at our house.  Eric and Josh are busy working at my parents house to put in the giant generator.  We haven't been over to take pictures but I'm sure we will have some photos before too long.

Love, Us 3

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday, it was tree cutting.

Today, it was bulldozing!

Everyone was so excited, including our best friends who came over to watch the show.

First job: Clear the driveway of the top layer and use it as base fill for the hammerhead.

 

 Looking up the driveway from the road.

Notice the big fir on the right is gone.
Nothing has been cleared as of this point of the picture taking.

 Looking down the driveway to the road.

No more weedwacking on the left side of the driveway for me anymore!

Tomorrow, he'll tear out more of the hillside.

Second job:  Dropping off the rocks for the retaining wall.

That's $500.00 worth of rocks, people.

Final project of the day: Clear the current parking area immediately outside the front door.

 Backhoe is on the parking spot and cleaning out the overgrown bushes to the right.

 Bushes are gone and he's flattened most of it out.
This vision is what I came home to today. 
Pretty exciting stuff.

The backhoe is parked for the night.

Tomorrow, he'll clear out the rest of the driveway, start backfilling in this area, and create the retaining wall.

Alexander and I will be the project managers for the day.

Eric and Josh will be at my parents house installing the giant generator.

Supposed to be a bad winter, ya know!

Love, Us 3



And So It Begins...

Plans are drawn. Permits are approved. The house remodel has become a reality.

I decided I'd create a blog (a girl can handle three blogs, right?) for family and friends to follow our remodel adventure. 

And no one is more excited than this little guy!
 

Except for...this guy.

For those of you who unfamilar with house remodels, you often spend time waiting for the next step. Waiting and waiting. Our designs have been ready for over a year.  Just when I thought we were ready to begin, we hit a major snag.  To make a long story short, the law says a driveway longer than 150' needs to have an entire house sprinkler systemed.   Our driveway happens to be 153' long.  For over a year, we have been waiting for a fire marshall to respond to the request regarding an alternative to sprinkler systeming the ENTIRE house  That would be 2500 sq ft of our current home and 1500 sq ft of the new additon.  That's a lot of sprinkers, people. 

We asked the architect to design a plan for a hammerhead and driveway large enough for fire trucks to turn around in an emergency.  Our architect drew up a design and we decided to begin work.  Once the work is complete, the fire marshall will come out, inspect it, and sign off the work.
All of this because of three feet.  Jeez...

The shaded lines are where we are adding/widing the driveway (the driveway is 153' long), including the hammerhead. The driveway ends at the house where the garage and addition to the house will be completed. To the right of where the driveway ends is our current home. Make sense?

Sooooo, yesterday the tree man showed up and began cutting down the necessary trees.

BEFORE (view from front porch)

these are three trees at the top of the driveway where the hammerhead will be put in

AFTER (same view)

The open space makes our house look HUGE! Oh wait. It is.

Three additional trees were cut for the widening of the driveway. 
They took most of the wood away but left us a small pile for summer burning.

Eric walked around with the excavator guy today, too.

That's Eric in the middle of the picture with the excavator guy in front of him.

The bulldozer arrives tomorrow to start tearing out/widening the driveway and putting in a retaining wall.

Once this project is completed, we'll ask the fire marshall to come out and sign off that we can begin to building the house addition.

If he doesn't? 

Well, that will make for one heck of a blog post, won't it?!

Love, Us 3