We'll Figure It Out Later

In the barn, that will be the house, we could only get half the lights to turn on. The other half had bulbs but we searched and searched and searched and could not find a light switch to turn them on. We found two switches that do not seem to turn anything on and we simply assumed one of them was to work these lights and just hadn't been hooked up for some reason. We both really thought that we had seen the lights on during one of our look sees for the property but must not have. When we pull the ceiling down we will trace the wires and figure things out then. Too many other things to do to worry about this right now.

Ever since we have lived out here this door has been standing open.  Bill has been working with the electrical most days so he left it open. Usually, the panel above is also open for furnace work. All that has been done for now so it's time to close the door.                                                                                                   

Oh, look there are light switches!!

 Flip these switches and voila! We have lights everywhere.

Finding Its Own Level

It is pretty incredible what a concrete layer can do. We know that liquid finds its own level right? Well how in the world do concrete guys get the concrete to be higher in one place, lower in another and seamlessly flow into each other so that when you are looking at it or walking on it you can't tell the difference in elevations.

By the way; those of you following this blog that do not live in Oklahoma , yes that is the color of this part of Oklahoma's dirt. It is red, so now you know the red brick on your home comes from our clay soil.

Look at that!  The water runs to the middle of the turnaround and then flows off to the east just like it's suppose to. I don't understand how they can get it to do that but they can. None of the water flows off the other end either including the run off from the southeast part of the West Wings roof. Of course this means that in heavy rains we will have a rushing torrent off the apartment's patio but that's okay; the original owner did a great job of water control and it all flows into what will be our pond when we get that project fixed. And during big rains we can enjoy our very own personal river.

What a View

Even on cold dismal days we have one of the most beautiful views in central Oklahoma!

Look At Those Curves

We are using curves throughout the building process. No straight lines if they can be avoided.

 Even the drive behind the new garage is curved

Oops concrete guys forgot to do the curve on the far side of the turn around. Stuff happens when you have to be at work and not standing over people who are not living your dream. This one is fixable. When we add Granite Gems on the outside we will make a beautiful curve.

Smith Family Memorial

Quick, quick, the concrete is drying; take off  work, check kids out of school,come home from business trips, get to the garage for handprints.

The concrete was super dry when the family could get out to do their handprints. So it we had to trace our hands  not press them into wet cement.                                                                                                           

     Mallory got her hand done, we had to reach way over; so the front wall won't be built over our hands.

Then came Sutton he is getting so tall he almost didn't need help

Wyatt and his crazy pretend glasses that are held together with black tape over the bridge. Love that boy.

Darrick was in the Panhandle on business and couldn't be there so Tiffany did their initials inside a heart.

 A-a-a-h how sweet is that!                                                                                                                           

Even Brynlee the four month old got into the spirit of things and did a footprint. 

Christel left surgery, ran out to the house, traced her hand, and then went back to surgery. Love the sacrifices our family will make for each other.                                                                               

Bill was there when the concrete was still a little damp and got to do his handprint, I had to trace mine. 

There's our whole family including Otis' dog print and this is what we will walk on and see each and every time we walk from the house into the West Wing. You had better believe that it will make us smile and our hearts swell with love.                                                                                                                               

Can We Park There Yet

The day has finally arrived. We have concrete. And we have a lot of concrete. The drive is being poured tomorrow.

 I was only gone for 2 hours to meet with the kitchen designer and look what they accomplished. They waited until I was gone to do anything. I hung around for an hour and a half with nothing happening. The concrete truck must have shown up just as I left; probably sitting at the corner waiting for me to be gone.

 Two guys walk that board back and forth to smooth everything and get any bubbles out.Then there are two guys behind or I guess they are really in front of them but they face their back sides. They work the rakes and hoe to put the concrete where they need it

Can You Here Me Now?

Our house is a metal building. The metal is two skins around insulation, the beams are metal, everything is metal. Radio waves have a difficult time going through metal. Because of this our cell phones have been useless to us at home. 

So AT&T to the rescue and they said we need to get a 3G Microcell and that will boost the signal. Great, oh we forgot to tell you that you have to have internet at the house. We don't have a computer at home so we didn't have internet. Call and ordered internet, router came and nothing, 2 hour and a half calls with them and still no internet. So the router must be bad, sent us a new one. Hooked it up, no internet. 2 hour and a half phone calls later, fine just send a tech out and I will pay the service call. He came out couldn't figure it out, everything seemed to be fine, Oh AT&T had never registered our router with our phone number.

We have phones that work!!!!  If you come to visit us and want to use your phone I will need to register your phone with my own personal cell tower.

It's Happening

The floor of the garage is taking shape. Oh boy it still looks huge.

 We tend to overthink things and plan for every possible scenario. How many times have you wanted to run a line of some type under your driveway? Not many people have but just in case we ever want to we will have conduit under the garage drive for just such an instance. At our last house 6 months after we had built we did run invisible fencing under the drive through the conduit we had put in. The only problem was we had marked the drive with little arrows drawn in the concrete and they weren't big enough for us to find easily when we needed to so this time we actually have the conduit coming up out of the ground with a cap on it at both ends. It will be hidden from view by the buildings so we are the only ones who will know it's there.

 

Got to tamp the dickens out of that sand so there are no cavities that would crack the floor.

Laying the forms around the outer edge of the drive against Bill's incredible retaining wall.

 Lots and lots of rebar, you can never have too much metal in your floor with Oklahoma's freeze thaw causing ground shifts. And especially now that we are in the middle of earthquake country.

 These little guys help make the slope of the floor so all liquid runs out the door and no anywhere else.

Every 18 inches we drilled rebar into the existing foundation of the two building to tie the garage floor in with the house and the West Wing.  Concrete being poured in the morning.

Christmas Came Early

For years we have talked about getting air nailers but couldn't bring ourselves to spend the money. We have the air compressors to run them but thought they would be very expensive. Went to pawnshops and shopped for some and then discovered that we could get new ones for just $20 more and they came with a warranty and weren't beat up and were extremely affordable..

Bill got a framing nailer and a finishing nailer. Thinking back on all of our rent house projects we should have spent the money 20 years ago. They are so much fun to use.

We have discovered that our favorite action movies have been lying to us. All those scenes were the good guys kill off the bad guys by shooting nails at them are an impossibility, way too many safety features on these things. Still can't figure out how the guys you see on the internet shoot themselves in the head with these.

Strong Man

In the West Wing the previous had several pieces of equipment bolted to the floor. These bolts stuck 2 1/2 inches up and were always tripping us up. We knew they were there and we would be high stepping with boxes and still find them with our toes.

Two of the bolts are in the right place for Bill's table saw and there is electricity hanging down to hard wire it. But how to get rid of these stupid, toe stubbing, foot tripping bolts.

First idea; use a grinder and grind them off at floor level and knock them out with a hammer. Took forever with sparks flying and safety glasses needed.

Aha-a-a! a sledge hammer.

With a mighty swing; actually four mighty swings per bolt and those babies are pushed down into the floor, out of the way and Bill feels like Hercules.

Free!!!

We have left over smaller rock from our retaining wall; they would still be considered large rock for any other project, they weigh several hundred pounds each.. We keep finding all kinds of places to put it. This wall around the well house helps level out the driveway and turn around for the garbage and propane trucks coming in and getting out. After making the wall we back filled with left over dirt from what was cut out for the retaining wall. So we have a great wall and cost us nothing. zilch, nada, love those kind of projects.

Jumping the Gun

Bill has been so hard at work organizing the West Wing so we can start building the rooms that Sunday he decided that he needed a pat on the back. I came home from visiting Mom and Dad and found some animals on the wall. There was the American Bison, Eddy the Elk from his first big game hunt in Alberta and one of his African animals that I can't remember the name of. It's a good thing he has organized as much as he has because these guys take up a lot of room. The Bison sticks out almost 3 feet.This wall will be part of his trophy room. The room is no where near ready for things to be hung but this was very important to him that we will work around these guys

The garage door will be taken out, the walls will be plywood with texture so we don't have to hunt for studs to hang the trophies. If anyone has a trick to make drywall texture stick to the plywood we would love to know it.

Unfortunately, when he started working with the animals it was discovered that the extreme heat and cold of three years in a storage unit dried a lot of the glue and the skin split. Once everything is in conditioned air hopefully we can do some repair work. Of course his plan for fixing the problem is for us to go back on safaris and just replace the trophies that are damaged. Sorry Bill we are getting too old to be climbing and  hiking the Southern Alps in New Zealand, we've seen the African countries and there are  many more places to explore. I think we can just fix the problems and those that can't be fixed can be hung high out of close inspections.

Disappointment Into Elation

Bill and I were disappointed that  more work hadn't happened on our garage The concrete isn't being poured until next Tuesday but we want to see progress every day.

Then the grand kids came and they were super excited over Pa's wall they get to climb on and the pile of fill sand just waiting for them to jump into.

Sutton is our dare devil and was the first to make the leap.

Didn't take Wyatt long to follow 

Even Mallory got into the fun

How To Plan a Garage

Bill and I had spent over an hour trying to figure out what size the garage actually needed to be. Moving the lines this way and that. Knowing that the storm shelter would be in it, the pantry is going into it, our cars, with the possibility of when we are older needing a handicap van, a walkway to get into the West Wing, the big lawn mower, the golf cart, and the push mower. The size just kept growing and growing until it had become the size of a medium sized home. And it's ridiculous to have a garage that big. 

Finally had the idea to park what belonged in the garage and see how much room we actually needed. Sometimes a visual is really all it takes. We were able to cut a whole bunch of excess space and still kept it where when we are older and our reflexes aren't as sharp we won't run into each others car. For every foot we cut off we said; this is a bathroom faucet we can afford now, this foot is another square of shingles, and so on. Made cutting the size down much easier.

New Pets

We love animals, whether domesticated or wild. We are feeding the deer to keep them coming onto the property, I am thinking about going to the South Bend house and kidnapping my flock of turkeys. I really miss those birds. 

We want to live with animals all around us. Except MOLES and we have moles everywhere. Every day there are new mole hills. When they say you are making a mountain out of a mole hill they are wrong. Mole Hills are mountains. We have put down grub killer to kill their food supply and are baiting the  hills. And they just keep coming. 

The previous owner would take his car out and run a hose from his exhaust down into the tunnels. I can't do that but haven't found a natural deterrent to use yet. They are tearing up the yard like crazy.

We're Having a Beach Party

The concrete guys have leveled the ground.

 Laid the sand, ready for a little water and we can have a party.

Oops, they didn't get very far on the forms and they left really early. We were scratching our heads on what was going on. We thought forms and iron were going to be finished.

 Oh, now we see a broken fan belt so nothing can move until the equipment is fixed. We are reliant on the equipment working. Today they should get everything back on schedule/

It's Begun

Finally, all the prep work is done and the building process has begun.

Yesterday the concrete guy brought in his equipment and the fill sand was delivered. Today the garage is being started. This is super exciting.

 Digging out the excess dirt

Smoothing, smoothing, smoothing

Started to dig the trench for the stemwall and then left. Hopefully they will be back after lunch.

He's a Country Dog

We share custody of Otis, the Shih Tzu, with Christel. We are the custodials and she gets visitation and all the bills. Her life right now is not conducive to being a dog owner during the week and he loves going to work every day and playing with our customers. Then spends the weekends with Mom. He is a large Shih Tzu and thinks he is a big dog because he grew up around big retreivers. Otis has come to love the country life. We have lost him several times on the 7 and a half acres. He just takes off with his nose to the ground and we have no idea where he has gone.

Decorating the Trophy Room

One of the reasons we bought this property is that it would give Bill a trophy room for all of his animals and fish. He is a big game hunters and loves to deep sea fish. I was tired of his trophies being in the main part of the house and having to look at them all the time. Love the places in the world his hunting has taken us, tired of my decorating being around animals.

For his 60th birthday this year the girls gave him their favorite pictures of them hunting with him. He immediately put them up on the wall in the future trophy room.

.

The top one is Tiffany  and Bill on her 21st birthday with their matching Blesbocks in South Africa. Her first big game trophy animal

The bottom one is Bill & Christel looking through the bino's (binoculars, gotta use the lingo) together. They spent a lot of time with him showing her things through the glasses (lingo again). He wears them on a harness and she slips between him and the binoculars to use them.

Wrong Order

When you build a house; the building process has an order. The order is in place so things go logically and smoothly. Not when the Smith's do things. Landscaping should be the very last thing done. But we are jumping the gun by building a line of sight berm now. We want to block the line of sight from a portion of the property. There is a small berm there now and we want to raise it 4 feet. Kubota is moving in down the road from the rock yard and are needing to move 10-15,000 yards of dirt. So we gave them a place to put 20 truck loads and didn't even charge them a drop fee, we really are nice people. The rest of the dirt they are taking to the rock yard and we will make money off of it. Bill had to learn how to grade dirt really well because we want a gentle slope for easy mowing. Once we get a sprinkler system we will be planting lots of colorful bushes on the berm. Wrong time in the process but saved a bunch of money by doing it now.

We Can See Floor

Every time one of us has a spare hour or two we work on organizing the West Wing. Our plan was for it to be organized on day one.We had the West Wing labeled with rooms so the movers could group the boxes that go together in one spot. But the spider issue we had; stopped that from happening and they just piled everything in to the middle of the room so we could fumigate.

Yesterday huge headway was made. You can move the skylift around now when needed. The previous owner left it for us to use during the building process. Thank you George.

The rooms that will ultimately be our offices hold all the breakables and precious things.

These are all of our family photo albums. Now a days it would be a very small box filled with flash drives and not boxes and boxes of albums. I still prefer holding the album in my lap and flipping the pages.