5.29.2014

Today Jim started getting ready for the foundation of the meter pedestal he is going to make for the electric meters.  He made the frame for the concrete base and marked out where it will go.

Then he flattened out the area with the excavator.

And put the frame in.  He wants to rent an auger attachment for the Bobcat in the next few days to dig holes for the pylons that will go into the ground for support.  This is just getting ready - when we eventually do concrete in the insulated concrete forms, we will get some to make this pedestal.

At lunchtime, we got brave and decided to call the town building department again to check on the status of our building permit - it's been over 3 weeks!  I talked to the secretary who said he's trying to catch up and there is one house in front of ours.  Ugh - so it hasn't even been touched yet.

Then we went back to grading and cleaning up rocks.  There are a few different stone walls on the property and we would like to eventually restore them all.  So Jim used the excavator and dug a little crevice for the rocks to sit in nicely to repair one of the stone walls that was bulldozed at some point when they cleared the top area.

Then we brought some big rocks that we had for the base. 

Then we just continued picking up the rocks along the edge again - we got that whole area rock free and cleaned up now.  It looks so good!

As I was leaving, one of the wild turkeys on the land was leading the way down the driveway!

Jim met a brick supplier in Saratoga.  We had ordered samples of one of the bricks we are considering for the foundation.  We had a sample board that we picked up when we were down in Albany but the sample is in the bigger utility-size brick that we are looking for.  However, when we compared them, they aren't even close to the same color.  The sample board - and what we liked - is a pretty consistent gray color.  The samples he brought were definitely in the brown family which is what we want to stay away from.  So Jim will call him tomorrow and chat about that.  We seem to be hitting...sorry...brick walls with trying to find this brick.  The other sample we like was from Belden Brick in Amish country, Ohio - we used them on our other house.  We have a contact here and she was getting more samples for us - they were supposed to ship directly to us.  I called and asked about them because it had been awhile - she checked and said they tried to deliver them and couldn't, so they sent them back.  Kind of frustrating!  Hopefully they are trying again and we'll eventually get good samples.