Is It There or Not

Bill took some time off and ran home to resize the window opening and put the window in the garage. This had to be done before we put the siding up on this wall.

 New windows are always so clear. Told Bill that the garage is his domain so it is his responsibility to keep this window the is clean. No spider webs, no dust accumulation, just clear glass that doesn't even look as if it is there.

 Love all the natural light coming in to the garage.

Moth or Butterfly

 Wonder if this guy will be a moth or butterfly. He was one fat caterpillar.

The colors on his side were so pretty. When I picked him up to move him aside so he wouldn't get crushed you could really see the greens and mauve. Yes, I am the one that picks up the bugs and spiders to move them; not my big strong husband. Those things creep him out. Yet, he will put a worm on a hook and there is no way I will do that.

Good Customers Reap Rewards

We went to Lowe's to buy a metal bending tool to do the siding. They didn't have one to buy and I jokingly said, "Can we just borrow this one for the weekend, we'll bring it back on Monday." "Okay, you guys are such good customers we'll let you borrow it. Just don't forget to bring it back"  This is a big chain store with local store customer service.

The tool we "borrowed" is the flat edged one next to the hammer. It pays to be nice to people who work at the places you frequent.

This was a had to have tool for repurposing or the J-channels that bent while being taken down would not have been useable.

No Bugs Allowed

We are assuming the roofers are not going to bug proof the roof. The ridges on the metal roof will let creepy crawlies and flying stingers into the garage and they are not invited.

My job was to spray the foam that expands and fill the cracks. I sprayed and sprayed. Then went inside to check for any sunlight. I think all the openings are filled. I  even filled some that probably won't be accessible but overkill is a good thing with this project.

Oops, somehow some of that foam got into my hair. It is permanently stuck straight out from my head. My hair color and the foam are the exact same color. I had one glob on my back hair line that I had to cut out. All the way to the scalp! This one I was able to comb and wash out of my hair.

 

The picture in the background is one my Grandmother painted of my Mom.

Repurposing Again

Bill and I have a difficult time throwing good things away. We reuse to save money and to save our landfills. It may take a little more work on our part, but most of the time we enjoy the work.

Need to get the siding up on the back garage wall so the gutters can go up. The garage roof is still not finished but it's close enough for the next steps to continue.

 First thing to do is take the J-channel down from the front of the building. This is the channel that your metal or vinyl siding sets in. We are putting metal siding up on the back of the garage so it matches the West Wing and the back of the Residence, You see all three buildings together when you pull around back to go into the garage; so we want them to be the same.

 Once the green J-channels are down they are wiped off and then spray painted to match the siding.  I found that a 2x4 was the exact height I needed to prop these guys up to get them off the ground. Couldn't believe that Oklahoma had a still non-windy day to do this project when we wanted to and didn't have to wait.

 If you are doing a spray paint job and you want a really good finish and so your trigger finger doesn't go numb or lock up you need to get one of these guys.It snaps onto your can and is very comfortable. You can spray so evenly with it, it is a great invention.

 Then off to the back of the garage and start nailing the J-channels on.

 It got really hot so we stopped before we began putting up the siding. See Bill's new hat? I  got each of us one. The flap comes down over our necks, and the bill is really wide. Lots of sun protection. Bill's even works so that the ear muffs he wears while mowing fit right in between the brim and the flap.

Window to the World

Time to put the back window into the garage. 

 Off to our storage of windows to find the right one. Bought all of our windows before the end of the year in case the energy efficiency tax credit goes away. Our garage is going to have lots of natural light coming in. We love windows.

Either the wrong window was delivered or the framers didn't follow the plans. The window doesn't fit. When the framers left we talked about how we must have ordered a really big window for that space. Looked at our notes, right size window, wrong size opening. Window won't be going in today. Too many other projects on our list.

It's Pool Time

We told the grand kids we would be putting in a pool at the new place. They loved our old house where they got to swim in the Koi pond with the fish. The fish loved it also. Koi are such friendly social fish. Considering how long it is taking to get the silly garage done we may never have things to the point where we can put in a pool. So on to Craiglsist to see what we can do.

Found a great above ground pool in Ponca City. That is about an hour and a half north of us. Called and talked with them. Had the print out of the ad and my questions and  their answers written on it. Main question; does it come with a pump and filter? Girl had to go ask Mary and came back saying yes. This is a great price now to find the time to go to Ponca to get it. A customer from Ponca calls to say she is sending her guys down to pick up some lava rock. I ask if they will go by and pick up the pool and shse says yes. Perfect. Pool shows up the next morning, everything is great. Oh, there is no pump, no filter. They must have been missed being picked up. Gave the store a call and am now told it doesn't come with pump and filter. I asked and was told it did. They then told me to look at the ad on Craigslist and it says no pump or filter. They have changed their ad, and tell me my copy didn't fully print off if it didn't have that sentence in it. Right, that happens.

Oh well, we can deal with that it's still a pretty good price.

 Marking out the spot. We have no level areas in our yard. This is the best spot for the pool because half will be shaded all afternoon long.

 We have my Daddy's transit while building so this should make it easier.

 Luckily, this is the most level spot of the yard and it's where we want the pool. The manual suggested digging down not building up but that would have required way too much manual labor. We will build up

 Bill is doing the math to figure out how much sand we are going to need to level this baby.

 That's a lot of sand for two old people to move.

 After spreading; it's time to scrim it level.

 Even with this rock wall it still isn't level.

 Mallory helped so much.

 It's level!

 Couldn't wait for the water to fill. She probably had more fun doing this than she will actually swimming.

 Filled it with water and not happy so Wyatt helped us unload a tom of rock to raise one side .

 Best part of helping is to get to ride along.

 Wyatt having the first real swim. You only need about 18 inches of water to swim.

 Bill's fancy plumbing for the pump and filter we had to get.

 Ladder put in, not really installed until we get a little deck built for it to be attached to.

 Sutton  diving for dive rings. These two guys are my water guys. They would both rather be in the water than on dry land.

These three plan on spending a lot of time in the pool. Brynnlee got in the first night and thought it was pretty grand.

Signs of Life

Okay, so the roofers left. Roof is not finished. I get a call asking for payment. Asked the guy; what about the leaks, what about the insulation, what about the gutters? Oh, are they not done. Well, as a matter of fact they are not. The owners of the company come out and agree it's not finished. No one comes out to finish it. It's now three days later and finally we sees some signs of life. No people just materials.

There are boxes of stuff on the floor of the garage. Additional Flex Seal and clean up rags. We are assuming the long flexible black things are going up to stop the leaks. I don't see how that will work. The water will just run over it. If only the guys who came out could speak English, maybe we would feel better about this happening.

It Smells So Good

Yesterday when I got home from work Bill took me to the garage. Doesn't he take me to romantic places? He said,"smell". Nothing smells as good as Cedar. He had put  the Cedar wood up around the garage door openings.

 Next step for this is to hang ourselves a garage door and we can start parking in our garage. After we cut the doorway going into the future kitchen so we have a way to get out of the garage. Nothing with this project is ever just done we always have 1 or 2 or 3 steps more than usual before we can get things finished. In fact nothing is finished and we have been working on this place since last November.

See our fancy third car door? It will stay like this until almost the very end of construction. Its door will be left on the Residence so we can get the scissor lift in and out and any other tall equipment needed for the build out.

Dismanteling

The garage roof is quasi finished so it is time to start taking apart the Residence interior walls. These first walls coming down will be used on the garage exterior walls where the big doors go.

 This is the outside of the circular wall of the existing family room.

This arc will be kept and the wall will be rocked. The stairs going to the second level go against this wall. The previous owner didn't want the sheet rock to come away from this circle so each panel has screws going down it every two inches. Could be overkill or he knew what he was doing on this particular part of the building process. We have strapped my clothes rods to the wall now so the earthquakes won't keep throwing everything around.

We will need to continue the wall up to the ceiling for the final elevation of the new family room. The left side will be taken straight across and a small closet will be built at the stair landing. We need to decide if that will be the audio/video closet or a place for extra throw blankets and fireplace stuff.. We are not wireless with our television at the moment but we probably will be in the near future. Will need to get a guy out to do that for us since we are Baby Boomers and not Gen Xers.

No More Cold Nights

Twice this winter we ran out of propane. We are on a monthly service but our tank was only 250 gallons which when it is super cold doesn't go very far. We grill at least 4 times a week even in the winter and we are hardlined to the propane tank for grilling plus the furnace. The wall between the apartment and the residence is not insulated so we are not energy efficient  at the moment. Plus we still keep finding little holes going into the attic where we lose heat. We haven't filled our tank; waiting for it to get completely empty this summer hoping that would happen when it's hot ant propane is cheap. Last week halfway through grilling chicken we ran out of fuel. Now what to do with the old little tank? Good old Craigslist to the rescue. One day of posting and it is sold. 

 

Bill and Sutton used the delivery forklift to take the tank over to the new owners trailer for them to take it away. Love to see that 7 year old driving equipment. This makes special times between Grandpa and Grandson.

 Oops, the chains are too close the back of the forks. Need to move them forward.

Bill said it was great having a guy that knew his chains there to help him position everything for loading. Does that mean he thinks I don't know chains? I thought it was great that I didn't have to think like a guy to hook up the chains. So we were both happy.

 

 

Love it that a young couple with their first house will be using our propane tank for heat now.

A-a-a-a-a-ah (screaming voice)

Not too excited with the latest addition to our zoo.

Yes, that is a Water Moccasin. We are putting a pool up for the summer so there is new water. Bill was walking out to the pool and I was following him. Suddenly, he screams, jumps 3 feet in the air all the while back pedaling as fast as he can. When he landed I said, "that had to be a snake scream." He said, "yeah, and it is a big one."

We followed it and tried to kill it but it was too fast. We are getting a snake pistol with big rat pellets to take care of this problem. This guy won't be back he was way too scared and slithered away very very fast. He had just smelled the fresh water and came to investigate. Hopefully, he is sending out the snake smoke signals and letting his friends know they are not welcome.

Slow and Steady

Well, slow and not too steady. We were told the garage roof would take 2-3 days. We are now going on a week and a half and it still isn't finished. Our last house we built the entire thing in less than ten months. I am beginning to think this garage may take ten months.

 One roof metal is done!!! The entry tower copper is on and is gorgeous. So excited about it. After the roofers leave we will put the soffit on and we will have one project completed. The only building project completed, but it is a start.

The garage may not be finished but we are already using it. Much easier to get the lawn mower, go-kart and golf Kart out of this space rather than the Residence.

It's Bigger

Most of the garage roof is now on. The space looks and feels much bigger with the roof on. It should feel smaller since you no longer see all the way to the blue sky. It must have something to do with the white ceiling. The lines of sunshine you see will be covered with the ridge caps.

    

See, it looks huge and cavernous!

Looks like it could be a cathedral.

 Here they are putting the snow and ice shield on the entry tower. I can't wait to see the copper go on here.