7.4.2016

Hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe July 4th weekend!  We celebrated by doing two more batches of mortar! 

Jim cut some bricks to get ready for the first batch...

Mortar's ready!

Since Jim got the guide board on the other garage door opening, he was able to continue the bottom course on the front...

Working up higher requires Jim to use some inventive platforms!

Working down the side...

Jointing the front...

...and the side.

End of the first batch picture!

After cleaning up from the first batch and eating lunch, time to get ready for the next batch.  Doing more marking in the back...

Jim had just started to mix this batch when we had another visitor - the guy who bought the steel decking pieces was driving by on his motorcycle and decided to stop.  He only stayed a few minutes since Jim had to finish the mortar.

Doing another row on the front...

Then working on building up the back corner...

...and down the side.

All done with this batch - jointing time.

End-of-the-day picture...lots of good progress!

Clean up time...

 

After everything was cleaned up for the day, we went into Lowe's to buy more mortar mix as well as some Portland cement to fill the cores of our knee wall.

 

High 83/Low 61

 

7.3.2016

A little bit of a disjointed day - but still lots of progress!

Yesterday, when we were working on the bricks, our neighbor came over.  He's having a structural issue in his house with a sagging floor and wanted Jim to come and look at it.  So while I headed out to pick up fire school printing and run a few errands, Jim stopped over at the neighbor's house before heading to work.  That, of course, ended up taking awhile.

Jim first worked on getting all the brick guides in place on both of the other garage doors.  This requires a lot of work to make sure everything is square and plumb so that the brickwork turns out square and plumb!

Getting ready for tomorrow's work, Jim built up a higher work area and did more marking on the wall.

Then he installed some of the steel overhang pieces that he's been working on - really changes the look of the front and I really like it!

 

After a late start, it was an early end to the day so that we could go to church.  But lots of good steps and we'll be ready for brickwork tomorrow!

 

High 78/Low 55

 

7.2.2016

What a gorgeous day this was - beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s.  Perfect for doing brickwork!

These are some of the pieces for the overhang that Jim got made yesterday...



Jim got some prep work done early...figured out the design he wanted for the front corner.

He built up a riser to reach the next section and got it all marked.

Drilling through the concrete for the hurricane ties...

Mortar is made for the first batch...

Jim wanted to do just the bottom course for this corner.  He wants it to be really set before he starts attaching brick ties.

First course done...



Moving around to the side...

 

Jim also did work on the back side...little bit of tight working conditions trying to work behind the scaffolding.

First batch done...jointing the front.

...and the side.

End of the first batch picture...

 

Putting on more brick ties getting ready for the next batch.

Mortar time!

Continuing along the side wall...

Building up...

These long stretches of full brick go a little quicker...time for jointing.

Jim got through another step in the back section - doing the jointing.

End-of-the-day picture from the front...

Even though it's not supposed to rain, we went ahead and covered it.

 

Jim spent a little more time in the workshop making some more overhang pieces and then cut the grass on top of the hill.  Making good progress!

 

High 73/Low 54

 

7.1.2016

Time just keeps flying by...hard to believe it's July already!  We just keep working hard every day...

This was another day where we were supposed to get some possible heavy rain, but it wasn't supposed to start until later in the afternoon.  So morning saw us getting ready for another round of brickwork.

Jim is marking the next lines on the wall...

The bag of mortar we split yesterday was our last bag from doing block work last year.  Jim noticed it had some chunks in it, so he decided to use the sifter.  However, there were so many hard pieces in it that we finally decided it wasn't worth it and opened up a new bag.

Making the mortar...

Starting on the front...Jim has to use a block to stand on now.

Jim also started building up the back corner...

Once the corners were built, Jim worked in between.

Jointing...

A great day's work.  Both front and back corners are built up, so tomorrow Jim can just work on the middle.  That will go a little more quickly since they are all full pieces.

Clean up time!

Anticipating those afternoon showers, we covered all the new brick work.  In fact, once we saw that heavy winds were in the forecast, we later went back and added more bricks on top of the plastic to make sure everything stayed in place to keep the bricks dry.

After lunch, we did a little clean up of rocks.  Jim has uncovered quite a few big rocks grading the driveway - we took 2 big bucketsful of rocks down to our pile.

More clean up...we have this leftover wire mesh that Jim wants to advertise.  A pretty little wildflower garden was growing in it so Jim had to use the Bobcat forks to lift the wire.

All ready to put on Craig's List!

Moving the wire uncovered the decking that we will use for our lower staircase landing.  So Jim moved it down the hill so that it will be ready to go.

Another item that is going to go on Craig's List...the dozer blade.  Jim used it when initially doing the grading but now it doesn't have much utility.  So he got it all cleaned up and we took some pictures.

 

Then Jim worked on various other projects in the afternoon.  Before the rains came, he figured out the brick pattern he wanted to use for the next front corner section.  Then he moved his attention to steel work - he got 14 pieces made for the overhang on the front!

 

The rain did come through late afternoon, so we were thankful that the brickwork was all covered.  It didn't last too long, and as I write this the sun is shining!

 

High 80/Low 57