8/8/2013 More Visual Progress

8/8/2013

If more of the folks working on our house had been like todays crew, this whole process would have been way less stressful.  We hired a new concrete crew after giving up on our previous one ever coming back to finish what they started.  The men from Jaenke Concrete were professional, courteous, and good at what they do.  In two days we went from dirt floor and muddy hillside, to fabulous new patio, a flawless garage floor, and a perfect new sidewalk.  When we have people like this working on the place, I have no qualms about walking away and not having to supervise and worry about what type of work is being done.  So, along that line, I was able to get the shelves and hanging brackets mounted in our walk-in closet, finish grouting the tile in the main bathroom, and start laying out the design of the tile in our master bath, instead of shadowing the guys working on cement.  Although I did take breaks for pictures and to admire the way they were making the house look. :)

Pouring the garage floor at last.
 

In the space of 2 days, we went from this.....

 

...to this....

 

...and ultimately this. 
No more mud spattering all the lower windows every time it rains.  We also have the materials set aside for building a retaining wall on both sides of the patio at a later date.

Another little side job our concrete crew helped us with.  Our well was supposed to be drilled at the back of the clearing you see in the picture, but the well driller showed up on a day we weren't there and drilled it right on the edge of our driveway, where any errant delivery truck or visitor would likely smash it trying to turn around at the top of our driveway.  Their fix was to drop off these four large steel pipes, which our crew set and filled with concrete for us today.  Hopefully this will forestall any potential damage.

 

The visual illusion is that the sidewalk ramps up to the deck, when in reality, it merely flares out as it gets closer, giving us a nice big base on which to place the stairs (which I plan on building this weekend).  Notice the system we installed to run the downspout under the sidewalk instead of having it flow over.  This will prevent ice and other unpleasantness where we have to walk when the weather gets cold.



 

The first of the shelves and hanging brackets for our walk-in closet.  After we get settled, I plan on building modules for shoe storage, and other shelving needs.