Archive for May, 2003

foundation is poured

Thursday, May 29th, 2003

I can’t believe how quickly they can work–they put the forms up and poured the foundation in one day (Wednesday). This is significant progress any way you look at it.

Here’s some of the pics I took–I’m taking pictures at an unprecedented pace now, and just selecting from them to present a thread of how the […]

gravel under my basement and seed on my shoulder

Friday, May 23rd, 2003

We now have a bunch of gravel in the basement. Plus the county seeded the shoulder along where they graded the road.

Ever one to miss the obvious, the first thing I noticed was that chalk lines had been snapped along the footings, marking where the forms for the walls will go. I missed seeing the […]

footings done

Thursday, May 22nd, 2003

When we went out last night, the footings were poured. Things are moving along pretty quick now.

What’s a footing, you ask? Check out these pictures. They go under the basement walls.

So, as I understand it, these need to be inspected, and then the forms for the basement walls go up, and the concrete gets poured […]

more excavation

Wednesday, May 21st, 2003

How much dirt is in a hole that measures 61 feet long by 35 feet wide by 10 feet deep?

None!
Excavator Mike finished the job yesterday from what I can tell. Not a single rock in sight either. Now I have a 15 foot tall pile of dirt to climb up. some of these photos were […]

geourl now in effect

Tuesday, May 20th, 2003

I just added /casa to the GeoURL database, as much for the amusement factor as anything else.

So, once I get populated into the db, you should be able to

excavation

Monday, May 19th, 2003

Today’s the day Excavator Mike got busy. There was a lot of action on the site today as Excavator Mike started in digging for the foundation, plus the county road crews dumped a couple truck loads of gravel at the end of my drive and packed it and graded my entrance quite nicely for me. […]

call me farmer bob

Monday, May 19th, 2003

I followed the example of my friend Stan and went the “Classic” tractor route. I bought a 1952 Ford Model 8N yesterday from this guy named Homer who lives out in Holden (that’s way out in the country–an hour and a half drive from us). So now I’m a member of the tractor owners club.

Homer […]

save money with DIY excavation

Thursday, May 15th, 2003

What a hassle–we thought we’d get to dig this week, but the bureaucracy has thwarted our plans. Since the kids get such a big kick out of coming out to the place, they were as impatient as we are. So, we figured, why not let them get a head start on the digging?

We equipped them […]

information super driveway part 2

Monday, May 12th, 2003

This weekend our excavator graded our driveway and laid down gravel. Since our building permit hasn’t been issued yet, that’s about all that we can do. It’s a small amount of progress, but it’s significant. It’s starting to feel like we’re building a house. It definitely looks like we’re building a house now.

The driveway goes […]

washing machine of the gods

Tuesday, May 6th, 2003

Okay, so I’m interested in (among other things) energy efficiency. And of course, that’s a no-brainer, because you save money. To quote the Jerky Boys: “I need dough like anyone.”
So I have been looking at appliances, and it came to my attention that the washer and dryer are significant energy consumers in a typical house. […]