Porch Time

We are into our really busy season at the rock yard so we don't want to get any big projects started with the building process. We have three small ones we can work on in our spare time, just need to decide which one to do first.


We decided to do the front porch next. We think that will really give us a sense of satisfaction. When we are outside and even just driving up the drive we will see that something is done.
 
Bill started off laying a course of a building stone that compliments our other rock to raise the front step. That rock is called Aztec Gold and is a super cool rock. You ultimately won't be able to see these but we will know they are there. Brynnlee is checking out Pa's handy work.

 Next he needed to float some concrete to fill the void and make the floor level. There is a five inch drop from the front door to the edge of the porch. Have to watch out for the sewer clean out it is right in front of the door. Don't understand why it placed there, but there it is.

 Wyatt is learning how to finish concrete. This kid never stops asking how to do things.

Now to decide what rocks to put on the floor of the entry. We have them spread all over the parking area to pick through.

Benefit of owning a rock yard we can scour through pallets. Customers are not allowed to do that or we would have a big mess on our hands.We found these; they have curves on their edges and are the right color and thickness. The issue we are facing is that we want a thick stone at the edge for aesthetics.This is a big area; so the edge needs to look substantial. But, the flagstone can only be an inch thick under the door and that is without any mortar. Finding thin and thick stone the same color is not an easy job. Also the thick ones are larger because the thin break during transport. We don't want just a few pieces at the front edge and then a bunch of little ones by the door.  One of the problems of retrofitting a site. We are forcing changes into an area that was made for a different purpose.

Bill doesn't see the problem with the front of the porch having big pieces and around the door having little pieces. I have a problem with it. We had one piece of flagstone that was absolutely beautiful but too large and too thick for the area. We saw that it had a fissure that appeared to go all the way through it. So we stood it on its end and used the impact hammer along the crack. It came apart wonderfully. You start the separation and then let nature take over. It just pops off. When the rock came apart it was really hot between the two pieces. The stone had obviously been soaking up the sun's rays. The interior of the stone is so pretty.

 Now doesn't that look good with all big pieces? The one we broke apart are the pieces directly under the door and the one to the left. We used the outside for one and the inside of the other.

 The flagstone has been laying on the drive for awhile. When we moved the rock we discovered that June bugs had set up housekeeping under all of them.

Now that we have all the flagstone located that we need; the next step will be laying them. Starting tomorrow we are going to have rain for the next five days so we won't be putting anything down for a while.

Sow's Ear Into a Silk Purse

In front of the West Wing there is a section of concrete that is plain ugly. The rest of the concrete is nicely done. The previous owner must have poured this himself and concrete finishing was not his forte. It has rolling hills and sharp edges in it. Probably like if we tried to do it ourselves.

 There is nothing about this area that is pretty. We see this every time we come and go down the driveway.

Mallory helped my spray paint some old metal yard decorations to use here.

 The white chairs were on my parents front porch for years.

3 parts sand to one part mortar. I am mixing small amounts since I am doing this after work. Don't want to have a huge wheelbarrow full of mortar and it be past dinner time. I am using a brown mortar since you will be seeing it instead of just plain grey. That would look like concrete and I don't want that. 

 

Such a pretty color of mortar.

 

 
 Rains were scheduled to come in over night. I forgot about covering my work with plastic until One o'clock in the morning. Got up then and laid plastic in the dark. So glad I did because we had a lot of rain.

In the dark all I could think of to hold the plastic down was metal chairs and a red wagon. Oops, forgot about the rock that will be on this wall. Shouldn't have mortared the first rock in place. It will need to be chiseled out when it is time to do the rock wall. Oh, well at least I will think to not mortar the other end rock in place.







Time to start placing placing the decor in the space. Need to figure out where the landscape rocks are going. They need to go down before I spread the Decomposed Granite around.

The area has two of these things in it. They are bolted to the concrete. The previous owner must have been thinking he was going to cover the area and these would have been post holders. This will be a job for Bill. I have tried and do not have the strength to budge the bolts.











We have had this rock set aside at the rock yard for almost two years now. We think it is just too cool to sell. Didn't know where it would go .It needed to be close to foot traffic because you really should to see the top of the rock. This area is perfect for it. Loaded it on a little trailer and off to its new home.

What else could possibly go into this area that  says Bill and MaryBeth?  Of course, a fire pit. But not just any fire pit. The fire pit is made from Granite that would ordinarily be thrown in the landfill, we are such environmentalists. This granite company takes the scraps from jobs, use a press to make the correct shape and they stack beautifully into a fire pit. One man's trash another man's treasure. When this gets home it will take about 15 minutes to get it set up.

This fire pit will probably never be used for its intended purpose, it will just be for looking at.


These are our two moss boulders to add interest to the project.

Look at the cool heart in this one. There was iron in the ground and these shapes were made.

 Finished patio. Took the equivalent of three Sundays to get it all done. Had to be careful and not get ahead of myself with mortaring because of rain coming in. Had to get product brought into the middle before mortaring the east side. You need to use your imagination now. Imagine a six foot window in the wall behind this. A three foot rock wainscoting and then siding above the rock. It is really going to look good when it is finished.

A-A-A-A-A-A Professionals

Four nights ago we had a brown out in the Apartment. No big deal, sometimes they happen. The next morning we still had a problem.I had to move my make up mirror into the dining room to get dressed.  Bill went home in the afternoon and with his trusty little testing gadget and he found that we had full power at the OG&E box but half our breaker box was only showing half power.
 
Our clocks started doing this. Blinking the time. Lights were glowing orange instead of a white light.

 

A call into the electricians, who are wonderful, got them out the next day. They have a cool little tool that tracks leaking electricity in the ground. That's better than standing in the rain and sticking a metal rod in the ground. They found the leak of course it was under the new slab for the garage. The Residence and Apartment had no problem with power before the concrete work was done.

Time to dig under that slab. We know exactly where the lines come in and around the buildings and that made the electricians job much easier.

The power line was knicked when the concrete guys were digging the footing for the foundation. No one mentioned it, they just threw dirt on top of it and then the concrete. Over time as electric wire is exposed to water; the line actually turns to powder. Hard to conduct electricity through powder. The reason the problem was worsening is that more and more of the wires were being compromised. The decision was made that the electricians would come back out the first of the week and do a temporary fix that may hold for 20 years or for two days. No guarantees. That should give Bill enough time to splice into the wire and then run it over head in the garage.

Nope, that temporary fix won't work. Bill will have to do this work over the weekend. We woke up to no hot water this morning. We had been feeling lucky that the hot water heater, dishwasher, washer and dryer were doing okay. The television was okay as long as the kitchen lights weren't turned on. Gotta have hot water. Everything else can be worked around. I really don't want to come in to work to shower.

So, he was off to Locke Supply bright and early this morning to get his supplies. He won't do the work until Sunday afternoon. We ARE goipng to the lake after work nothing will stop us. With moving Mom and Dad and other family obligations we haven't been to the lake since Christmas. In the winter we rarely miss a weekend going. Need to be sure the house wintered alright and get the A/C turned on.

Fixing the Pros Mistakes Again

We seem to spend a lot of time fixing things the professionals have done for us. While I was doing all the piddly stuff, Bill was working on our concrete.

When the concrete guys laid the garage floor and drive they didn't do it quite right. They said it was because we didn't have plans and we couldn't tell them exactly where the garage doors were going to be. Well, if that was the case how did they know where to do a floor finish and where to do a drive finish? After many phone calls to them Bill just decided to fix it himself. We didn't notice the problem until we had paid them their complete bill.So we had no leverage to get them back out.

Your garage floor should sit slightly higher than your drive to stop rain water from coming into your garage and that missing from our job. So what Bill do? He got out his circular saw and start making cuts where this transition should be.The garage door will sit down in this trough and stop the water from coming in.


To keep the concrete dust out of the garage we set fans up to blow it outside. As he would move along the length we would move the fans down to his work area. He was also wearing a respirator. Fortunately, the wind was blowing the right direction also.

After sawing the cuts he then used a hammer and chisel to knock the concrete out. Then he used the saw again to grind away all the bumps.  He then cut what look like expansion joints into the drive to help carry the water away from the building. You can see the difference  of a floor finish and a drive finish in this picture. So how did they not know where the doors would be?

 You can't tell from this picture but the floor is dry and there is a big blowing rainstorm going on. We don't have ceiling lights in the garage yet, They will come when we hang the ceiling panels.

Piddly Stuff

Since January we have extremely busy moving my parents to the Edmond, where my sister and I live. Then when that was over; my brother came to town, you will notice he waited until the moved. That is a me giving him a hard time; there was no good time for him to come during the moving process we girls just jumped in and did it. Then Easter came, then another family duty and a weekend we just wanted to sit and do nothing. The last 4 months have been tough ones. Because of this; we haven't done anything on the house. Every spare minute has been spent at the family farm getting them moved out and that house ready for a renter. A couple of weekends ago was our weekend to do nothing. Well, in case you haven't figured it out we have trouble sitting still. So, we just spent the weekend doing piddly stuff.

In moving Mom and Dad I found a roll of insulation. We can always use insulation. It was not the R rating we wanted but I was able to double layer it which brought it up to the correct R value. Where there is a will there is a way.

So up on the scissor lift with my roll of insulation. Getting the outside wall above the front door insulated.

 I had to crawl out of the lift across that little bitty board to get to the wall. Bill had laid some boards on the far edge to sit on. I discovered they weren't nailed down when I scooted back on one and it slid off the support joist. Just keeps life exciting.









 Insulated wall, no more winter winds or summer heat.





Bill laughed at me. I was doing the insulation and crawling around on the second level joists in my housedress and house shoes. I wasn't planning on doing this work, so I wasn't dressed appropriately, it  just happened.  Good thing OSHA didn't show up or there would have been some fines levied.













The next thing I worked on that day was organizing the Residence. I can't stand a messy work area. Drives my husband crazy. He leaves everything out for the next job, I put away and then get out what I need for the next job. The big thing that has been bugging me was all the ceiling panels we are taking down from the Residence ceiling and will be putting into the garage for its ceiling. They were stacked neatly on pallets but they were in the middle of the floor. So I cleaned up an area and moved them over so they are out of the way and much closer to the garage where they will be used.

See, they are just totally in the way.

Handy dandy dolly that can stand up or lay down makes this quick work.

Neatly stacked out of the way and ready for install.

The it was time for a glass of wine, the couch and tv.

There Goes the Neighborhood

We moved out to the country. Love being close in for the amenities, love being far enough out to see the stars at night. Look what is going in one mile away

A Dollar General store. It is on land right next to a very nice building that houses a pet groomer, my hairdresser, a fancy welder and a two offices. Perfect use of the corner and we will probably frequent it. It was just a shock to see our country home to be so close to something that usually just goes in with dense population. Bill has already contacted their headquarters about getting a Red Box put into this location.If they were pretty stores we could be excited, but they are really ugly metal buildings. Said by a woman who lives in two ugly metal buildings at the moment.

Who Wants a Drumstick

 I have missed our huge flock of turkeys ever since we  moved. We have all kinds of other wild life but my traffic jam when going to work everyday used to be waiting for our flock of turkeys to cross the road. Now for the last year and a half there have been no turkeys in my way.

Well, last night as I am making dinner Bill hears a shreak and unintelligible gibberish coming from the kitchen. He quickly figured out what I was saying and came sneaking up to look at our TURKEY!!!!



Yes we had a single turkey lady out looking for a Tom. She was so brazen that she even walked up on the back patio.

Nope, no guy here, guess I need to continue looking.

Now if she will just tell her family and friends about our very tasty cracked corn. She was eating the corn and then set off to eat stuff from the ground. Good by grubs, fleas, ticks, ants and anything else crawling through the grass. Our cracked corn feeds deer, all kinds of birds, bunny rabbits, and now turkeys. This is a food bill I will have no trouble paying for.