blogging our home building process

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Mudfest 2011!!

I felt like I was wearing platform shoes in a mudslide carrying a 65 lb. hunk of cement!  The reality was almost 2 inches of mud caked on the bottom of my Asics as I carried 65 lb. chimney blocks down the side of our house which had turned into a mud slide!  Thanks to yet more rain in East Tennessee, Deeradise was like Mudfest 2011 more than once this last week!  Jason also carried the blocks - it sure wasn't easy but we got them all carried to the footer holes around the house in preparation for their transformation into piers for the wrap around porch.  (Unfortunately, we didn't get any mud pics...maybe next time.)

All 15 piers were completed this week with rebar and concrete.  The concrete pouring was pretty labor intensive as Ron and Jason used the rented concrete mixer to mix the concrete and then poured the mix into buckets only to then climb the ladder to pour the concrete into the pier.  Jason and Ron both looked like they had survived a bombing when they returned home that evening.  Concrete is some nasty stuff.



rebar inside the pier


the 2 tallest piers are for the front entrance

completed front piers

side piers

rear piers

Headway was made on the garage floor as the poly, rebar and mesh wiring was laid in preparation for pouring this coming week.  Fortunately for the guys, the truck can just back in and pour on this round of concrete. 
garage prepped for pouring

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Old Glory

Monday started on a high note as we got back to it at full speed.  The 3 week sabbatical was much needed but now it's full steam ahead.  Monday and Tuesday we finished the zip roof sheathing and taping all of the seams, which was awesome because Wednesday we got almost 2 inches of rain!  We then moved indoors to do a few small framing details and regrouped.  Thursday we picked up all the plumbing parts and I laid out and boxed all the electrical.

The rains continued Friday and Saturday but between the rains, we got the porch piers started.  This wrap around porch is going to be the biggest and most spectacular in the county if I do say so myself!  The master bath tub was delivered as well as the water heater.  I sure hope the 80 gallon water heater is big enough because this thing is the size of a small swimming pool!



front porch piers





our 6x4 tub


The first thing I did Saturday was hang Old Glory out front.  She was a gift from our good friends Lori & Ron which without, Deeradise would not be possible.  Thanks Lori & Ron!




I picked the season's first crop of blackberries off the property.  They were tasty!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Another off week

We started the week on a strong note Sunday as Dad and I worked about 4 hours or so in exhausting heat!  (Dad even suffered through keeping his shirt on - he wanted to make sure to not be censored out of the blog this time!)  We installed the hurricane strapping in the basement and finished digging a small ditch out back to extend the water/electrical lines so we can have a hose for the garden.  Home Depot was kind enough to donate two Ridgid palm air nailers and it made the job a breeze.

Monday morning, I woke up in pain as gout was doing a number on my big toe again.  This happens every few months but not usually this bad.  I could take gout medicine to prevent the attacks; however, the gout medicine is bad on the kidneys so I'd rather suffer in pain a few days every so often and save putting more damage on my kidneys.  Cristi must have caught a bug in L.A because she has been in bed most of the week and she was kind enough to share, so now I am sick too. :(  (thanks honey!)  Oh well, that's the way it goes.

We did make it to Lowe's on Monday to pick out our 3 bathtubs (one is 72" x 48" so it's more like a mini pool) and order our shingles.  We also bought our fireplace from Hearthside Distributors and it's already been delivered and is sitting in the garage.

The weather here has been brutal for our area so I guess that is the bright side of not being able to work this week.  The mercury in my truck read 99 degrees yesterday.  Typically, July and August have about 20 days of 90 degree heat so this is insanely hot for this time of year.  I think we went straight from winter to summer!!






(It was pretty dark in the basement so the pics are pretty bad, plus I was using the camera on my phone.)
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