Al B's House rework

[AlanB]

Well, I hope they leave this up, as I really enjoy posting it, and I love the input I get from others as to what I should, or often should not do............

No direct contact yet, so I think I will just proceede on until directed otherwise by management.

You know how hard it is too take an effective picture of a dirt hole????? I think next time, I need to get the dipperstick in there so there is something to relate too.

So today, I went out and got cracking on it a bit more. The air was still so I fired off my burn pile. Pic 2342 so I could stoke it a bit throughout the day.

Pulled the form boards off the steps, and cleaned them off.
Cut a fill board to go under the threshold to hold it supported till I get the tile laid under there.
Cut off a leaking hose and put a new hose end on it that has been aggravating the stuffing out of me.
Cleaned up some, it seems to be a never ending job.
Hanna, Mingo and I hung several more sheets of drywall, pulled some more outlets, recentered the basement door and nailed the frame in.
We have one more sheet to hang (and we ran out )
Cutting out the outlet boxes with the Rotozip is terrible with the metal box....
Hung a new outside porch light.
Mingo cut out the brick, and hung a new outlet box inside the brick beside the new door.
Put a new chain on the chainsaw and ran it a bit to clean the back burn pile up a bit.
Put the new light switch in the bathroom, and mounted the two covers.
Put up a new set of shelves in the basement, and started rapidly filling them.
Went round and round, and round and round about how to install the stove vent power and stove vent stack and where..........
We went down and played with the basement concrete some. We were debating how thick and deep the concrete was.... Took a pry bar and pried off a big chunk... There is not much there.. We keep looking at different ways to do it, I think at present we will dig and hand mix.... Might change our mind as we get going.

Got to go eat now... Will post the pics later.

2343 is the pile of scrap steel from the area you see cleared.

2345, from my hole, back towards the house, after I swaled out the ditch a bit. Still needs a lot of work, but one step closer.

2347 My collection hole. It is about 6 or 7 feet deep. Needs to get substantially bigger, but it should make a good start.

 

[AlanB]

Lets see, last couple days we have been busy and working it so that is good.

Mingo and I got the lintle cut in and glued in over the new door last night. Have to go back in and grout etc, but should keep any more bricks from cracking I hope.

Got the last sheet of drywall hung with Hanna a night or two ago.

Got some more of the back yard debris cleared away and burned. It is almost useable at this point.

Fixed the nail in the tire that comes from all the crap wood and nails that are out there in the back yard...

Hanna and Mingo mudded up the new drywall, not sure how far they got, but they made a bunch of progress.

Dug some more on my front pond in training.

Mingo and I started working on the foundation repair at the garage entrance. On the center post we pulled out the little bitty entry slab then dug below the post, and we put three rebar up into the post and down below into the hole we dug below the concrete, then we mixed and poured a pad there. I think Mingo is going out with Dean today, knocking some holes in the block, and then pouring the post blocks full with concrete.

I got aggravated last night with Mingo, he decided to go ahead and cut the concrete in the basement. I had planned on cutting it wet, or at least opening the door and putting a fan in to blow everything outside.... He just did it dry after I went out to change back hoe buckets................... My entire shop, along with probably 5K worth of welders and electronic meters, and electronic welding helmets.... and grease guns and heck, everything in my basement shop,,, is now covered in about 1/4" of concrete dust. I will probably have 20 hours cleanup time now, and god knows what will go bad, be scratched etc............... I love having help, but when stuff like this happens it drives me nuts.

Went to put the 12" backhoe bucket on, and it is for an older style ford with the 1.5" pins and I have the 1.750" pins............ Dropped it at the machine shop last night,,, Hoping to pull in a favor and get it bored today so I can use it in the morning.

Might try and get moved in this weekend (me) so I can spend some more time there without the additional drive.

Jim came over yesterday and finished putting in the drain pipe into the CI piece. Took a while to work out how to do it, but we got it in the end.

Life is good, although sometimes frustrating, we are moving along albeit much slower then I would like.

Hanna and Mingo did a beautifull patio for a customer yesterday and the day before. One of our competitors had done it and had built it on about 12" of sand.................. The customer was NOT happy, and heck, it looked goofy as all get out, the prior builder would run a pattern in the brick, then they would change patterns and then it would change back,,,, Not sure what they were thinking. Hanna, Mingo and Karin pulled out all the sand, then filled with tamped crusher run in about 2" lifts, then gravel sand base, then random patterned the pavers, and used Pave lock sand. First time for us with the pave lock sand, and at $22 for 50 lbs it is not exactly cheap.... Hope it is worth it.

Pictures to come, tonight should be block wall building 101.

 

[rox]

Alan,
You are doing a lot of posts and sharing pics, which you know we all love. Not to many of us are giving you much feedback lately so I'll jump in and again, thank you for taking your time to share with us. I wouldn't get all up there about the cement dust. yeah your BIL did it different than you would have, but hey -he is working like heck for you and his sister, so try and look on the bright side.

 

[AlanB]

See if I can post again, it seems the pop up things are calmer at the moment.

I have done something too my camera, and all my pics are coming out fuzzy so that is a real bummer.

So we have still been hitting a good lick at it, and Mingo has been making it happen as well.

We dug under both rotted piers on the basement on either side of the garage door and poured a support pad underneath and outside of them. About a meter cubed. We also stuck 3 rebar in and ended the rebar up in the block above the pour. Then after that base would harden, we cut out holes in the blocks above, added a piece of rebar top to bottom in each core, and filled the blocks.

We also filled the crumbly block beside the personell door.

I removed the wood retaining wall beside the AC unit, and dug about a 2' footer last night, and Mingo and Christina mixed and poured a footer, then dry set the wall, then poured all the cavities solid. They also ran a rebar in each cavity I think.

The back is getting steadily cleaned up.

I got the small bucket reamed out and installed to do some of the foundation work. My error in judgement only cost me $50 so I can live with that.

Pinion bearing on the Mowing truck has decided to raise a ruckus... Needs to be changed in the next week or two... Funnnnnnnn

Thought I would show a picture of my "little" air compressor, Not many folks have an air compressor that drives itself.

Life is good, we have decided to hire out the re-finishing of the hardwood floors, so that is scheduled for the 18th or something of this month.

Think Mingo and Christina are working kitchen walls and the archway tomorrow. I think I am backfilling the wall they built today with sand, gravel, cement (I guess that would be called concrete ) mix (real light on the cement....

 

[David Ferguson]

Alan,

Your camera is likely set to a "closeup" mode. The picture-icons for that often look like a flower. See if you can get that to change to one that looks like either people ("portrait" mode), or mountains ("scenery" mode). Usually a button on the back or top will allow you to change the mode.

 

[AlanB]

WOW! Think that was it, I have to get home (so I can veiw the pictures on a big screen), but I never change the button's, but the button is where you said and noticed there was a little flower showing, so as I cycled through, it shows flower, mountain and off.

Thanks David, I think that is the problem

 

[hankus]

Your camera could be in macro mode, but its appears only the left half of the pictures is affected by whatever it is.

 

[AlanB]

I am going to have to find the book or find it online or something, it was better chaning the mt flower thing, but is still not right.

Have to look for that book, or a "macro" button I guess.

Thanks yall, it is something stupid I am sure, just scares me that it is smarter then me

Taking the day off tonight Mingo poured the garage entry this morning.

I am just run down. Had a big day today at work, and found out a close friend, Bob "Kabuki Boy" Best died earlier this week, crashed a crop duster out west, Things that are "serious" problems, not the little day in day out stuff that stresss me. It is coming for us all, but why is it still so suprising and heart wrenching when it comes?

 

[AlanB]

Well, let me post some more of my poor pictures,

I must be changing something, and not even realizing it, because I did some samples in the shop and they came in fine, yet, the ones I took at the JH house are terrible, and as was pointed out (did not even realize it) somehow the left is blurrier then the right.

So below are the pictures from Thur night.

Dug out below the garage door, and into the cut that Mingo made so we got back to solid concrete in the basement / garage.

Currently we are discussing putting down paving stones instead of concrete outside the garage.

I think Hanna and Mingo are building a mailbox (or two) today.

I am going to start clearing the house, I think, for the hardwood guy who will be here on the 20th I think.

Also need to change out the electrical outlets and switches in all the bedrooms.

Will probably also start clearing a bit in the back to move the bike trailer back from the carport.

 

[AlanB]

So, as usual, the best laid plans went awry
I ended up participating in the Mailbox building class, along with holding the How many grease guns of grease can an old worn back hoe take. (have not found the answer yet, kind of like one of those lollipops )

Whatever fooling around I did, seems to have cured the camera at least

After we poured the foundation, we then went on to work on the house a bit, Hanna has the drywall about finished out, Mingo primed up the archway betwixt the living and dining room, I mounted an exterior light by the new door and speedy mortared in the new lentil beam.

Some good customers came over and we toured the house and talked about things for a while.

2408 garage door concrete this morning

2410-2418 Mailbox pad in the offing. Yes, the tractor moved the concrete from the house to the road (375' one way)