IT'S HERE!

THE TRUCK IS HERE! 

We decided to go with the big concrete truck, instead of mixing and pouring the whole floor by hand.  Our friend, Norm, used his connections to get us a load and a great deal!  Thank you, Norm!!

As soon as the truck arrived, things were kicked into high gear.

Literally, the truck did a super-spin to mix up the concrete. 

Have you ever seen a cement truck this close-up??

While it was spinning, the men discussed their game plan... 

.

And Charis and Gwyn shared their thoughts...

James and Jeff wheeled several loads into the house, which looked like no small job!

Thank you, Uncle Jeff, for your hard work!

Time for CONCRETE!!

The sand is ready... Rebar is in place...

the path is clear...

the men (and the wheelbarrows) are ready...

the boots are ready...

and most importantly,

the crowd is ready. :-)

Understatement of the Week

"Daddy, there's a little cwack up there in our ceiling." -- Charis

Jana of Brown Awnings (no more)

Remember the glorious brown striped awnings?  Well, the wind took out the one on the left last month, then it left the middle one hanging half-off this month.  So I requested that our resident handyman remove them completely.  Not that we were attached to them at all, but we just hadn't gotten around to taking them off. And they were making the house look quite dilapidated -- more than necessary, I guess. :-)

Once I get an after picture, I'll get it posted here, but let me say, it's a nice update.

The Sand Box

Well, that best describes my laundry room at the moment. In preparation for pouring the floor, James removed the remaining strips of floor, leaving a giant sand box, except we don't let the girls play in it.
He was nice enough to put down a "bridge" for me, providing easy access to the dryer. :-) 

My washer is precariously perched on one of the remaining shreds of floor.  It seems to be staying put, instead of its usual jumping around -- probably scared for its life. 

More Demo

This...

is now this...

And this...

is a fantastic thing.

James installed some valves, so that when he's working on the remodeling plumbing (laundry room, guest bath, upstairs bath), he can turn off that water, but leave the rest of the house's water untouched.  YAY!  No more dirty dishes building up...

And now that most of the plumbing is in place,

it's time to fill back in the ditches with sand and prep for concrete.

That includes scraping off the remaining flooring. Ugh...

And I'm glad I got a picture of this before James scraped it off.  Yes, he's constantly mocking me for pronouncing all three syllables of the word "cabinet" -- something I didn't think was odd (and still don't) -- so when he was measuring out some things, he made a tribute to me. What a sweetie, right?

A bit too close...

Last night, while we were watching Frasier, there was a really strong smoke odor that starting drifting in through the open window.  There had been wildfires all over the metro alld ay, and we didn't hear any sirens, so neither of us got up to check on anything.  But this morning, we found this behind our backyard.

I'm standing at our fenceline, and see that giant charred patch of ground?  The smoke smell is still lingering this morning. Apparently while we were at church last night, a brush fire started. The fire marshall told me they had indeed put it out, but they're unsure of the cause.  Kinda scary stuff, but grateful they got to it quickly.  Always makes you do some serious thinking...