The journey of building our new home!

Monday, June 2, 2025

6.2.2025

Mailbox repair continues - Jim put a coat of Rustoleum on the front...

This credenza was in the metal shop with my fire school material, but we wanted to move it into the wood shop to create more room for the elliptical. Jim got it loaded into the Bobcat...

It's new home...

Jim had been charging up the excavator battery and got it installed. After sitting all winter, it started up first thing!

Jim drove it down to the end of the driveway to straighten out the post...

Straightening...

Post is straight! Jim moved a little bit of built-up dirt to try to fill in the ditch...

He ended up going to the upper driveway and scraping up the run-off on part of the driveway from the storm a couple weeks ago...

Filling in the area...

A little hand work...

Tamping down the loose dirt around the post...

Driving over the area with the Bobcat to compact...

Mission accomplished and it looks great!

High 69.9/Low 45.2

Sunday, June 1, 2025

It's the first day of June, although the temperatures are only in the 50s, which is fine by us! Yesterday, it was an all-day rain day, so it was an inside day. Jim did some rearranging in the metal shop so that we can fit the treadmill in. He ordered it today so it will be on its way soon.

Jim ordered a new size hole saw that would create the perfect size for our soffit vents for the shed...

Then we headed out to see Mom and go to church. However, we discovered this when we were leaving - someone had hit our mailbox post and completely bent it, tearing off the box. Unbelievable.

The poor mailbox...

So today we went down to investigate more. We thought at first it might have been the FedEx driver because we had a Friday evening delivery and we thought it had to be a bigger/higher vehicle. Since it had rained all day yesterday, tracks were hard to see, especially since there has been erosion on the side of the road since they repaved. But on closer inspection, they did hit the telephone pole close by, so the fact that they hit our mailbox first probably saved them from a more serious accident...

Then we found all kinds of vehicle parts and pieces...

But we'll go back in time to see just how fast they must have been going and how hard they hit the post to end up with this completely bent and twisted post...

This is the huge structural steel post that Jim made for the mailbox to attach to!

This was Jim putting the post in the hole - you can see how much of it is below ground, plus the foot at the bottom was to keep the post from twisting...

Here's what it looked like when first installed and painted...

All the parts and pieces we collected...

This wasn't on the agenda for sure, but now it's time to try and salvage the mailbox. This is a great mailbox - it's locking, so we never have to worry about our mail. Just the box, I guess! Jim straightened the box so that the doors opened, but the front door hinge was bent, so the door came off...

Back down to the crooked post to take off the bottom piece that the mailbox slides onto. It's really bent...

Jim put it in the press and kept pressing a little bit at a time until he got it straightened out...

Now the mailbox slides on...

Using the grinder to clean up the box...

We also did a little more rearranging in the metal shop to accommodate the elliptical. We'll be doing lots of sorting and purging soon as we start transitioning all our stored items up to the shop space (we're calling it the grattic - garage attic).

5/31 - High 59.1/Low 46 - rainy
6/1 - High 59/Low 44

Friday, May 30, 2025

5.30.2025

Yesterday was kind of a strange day. Jim had to get blood work done in the morning and we had Holy Day services in the afternoon. In between, we got some things done around here and visited Mom.

Today, Jim's first task was to meld the drip edge connections at the ridge on both the front and back sides. They turned out nice...

Then it was back to shingles...

Doing some distressing...

Working on the top row - hard to get good pictures on this side because of the trees and the slope.

All done!

The birds-eye view!

Jim still has to do the ridge vent and shingles, but those shingles haven't come in yet. He went up in the pole barn attic to see what kind of vent material he had left...