3.29.2015

Just a few spring-time pictures taken at the land today!

This is from the carriage house looking out...

...and this one looking toward the carriage house.  You can see there's still lots of snow!

 

Jim hadn't started the truck in awhile and when he tried, the battery was dead.  He used the Bobcat to charge it and let it run for awhile.  It's been a tough winter for draining batteries!

 

High 44/Low 27

 

3.27.2015

Jim had put a quote request in last week for the two garage doors that will be on the carriage house - both at Home Depot and Lowe's.  Home Depot carries Clopay and we picked a carriage house-style door design.  Their quote came in a couple of days ago.  But this morning, Jim got an email from his Lowe's rep.  They carry Pella doors, which we figured would be much pricier.  Jim had 4 windows on his request also - 3 are needed to replace ones we ordered that have to be different because of egress requirements, and the 4th one we will use in the house later on.  When he looked at the quote, he was thrilled - getting a top-quality Pella insulated door will cost less than the Home Depot one!  So he set off this morning to get all that finalized.  He came home really happy - they went through the quote more at the store and his rep was able to get the price down quite a bit lower!  So we have carriage doors and some more windows in the works!

In the afternoon, he went to order some parts he will need for brick work - the ties that will anchor the brick to the wall and some flashing.



High 45/Low 24

3.25.2015

We still haven't had any big warm ups as far as temperature goes - but the sun is doing it's work and melting some snow.  Unfortunately, it's leaving mud in its wake until the ground really starts thawing out.

In fact, as we were coming home from the gym tonight, it snowed!  You really can't tell much in this picture but the flakes were flying!



High 39/Low 34

3.20.2015 - First Day of Spring!

Spring has finally arrived!  Well...sort of.  We had snowflakes in the air this afternoon and there is still lots of snow on the ground, so it doesn't feel too much like spring.  The ground is still frozen and when we have had warmer days, it melts the snow and top layer of dirt but it can't soak in the ground - leaving a muddy mess.  Pretty soon we won't be able to make it up the driveway because of mud, not snow!  I guess that's progress.  One thing that's kind of funny now - there's probably still 12 inches of snow on the ground, but now it's pretty much compressed - so you can walk on top of it without sinking in!

Jim did get all the remaining snow on the deck shoveled off but you can see a few flurries in the air in this picture!

Jim has been making progress or at least becoming frustrated on new fronts lately.  He met with the concrete guy that was recommended to him by the septic designer.  Since Jim has some sections of the scaffolding in place that will hold up the concrete, he needed to run it by a concrete person to see if it was workable from their vantage point.  Jim really liked this guy and he was impressed by the design and Jim's work.  Although it will be hard for Jim to turn over the concrete to someone else, this is definitely something we can't do on our own.  It's too big of a job for two or three people and we don't have the tools necessary.  However, Jim will do all of the work getting it ready - all of the Pex waterlines in place, all the shoring, etc. - their crew will just have to show up and pour concrete.  The guy left promising Jim a quote.  Which hasn't come nor has he answered the phone when Jim called him recently.

Jim is also still trying to track down an auger attachment for the Bobcat.  The one he is interested in is listed for sale by a Bobcat store - and even after leaving messages and emails, no one has called.  We shake our heads and the responsiveness of so many people who are in business to make money but don't return calls.

So...hope "springs" eternal that we will be on the property working before too long!

 

3.9.2015 - road trip!

Jim has been spending time trolling Craig's List looking for a brake (a tool that allows you to bend flashing, siding, etc.) as well as an auger for the Bobcat.  This morning, one of those listings led to a quickly-organized road trip to Massachusetts to look at a brake.

It was a pretty ride - the area that we went to was about the same distance as it would have been to go to Boston, but instead was north and in the middle of the state.  They didn't have near the snow that we do.

We did see a few interesting things...like this innovative building for a bank ATM.

 

 

We met this guy in a pizza place parking lot.  Jim was happy with the condition of the brake and they loaded it into the back of our 4Runner doing double duty as a pick up truck.  Jim had taken the passenger side seats out so I sat behind him for the trip.  The brake is really big so it stuck out the back and Jim had to tie down the hatch.  Which meant for a little bit of a chilly ride home. 

 

 

 

It was late when we got back into town, so we stopped at our favorite nacho place.  And Jim found the perfect heart-shaped nacho for me!  True love!

 

This morning we headed to the storage unit to unload the brake.

It's in really nice condition and will be a big help in the future.  Jim does a great job anticipating what we will need and trying to get it before it's needed.  There won't be time for road trips this summer!

 

All tucked away in the storage unit.

3.8.2015

Jim headed out late morning to go do some more scaffolding work at the site.  I headed up later in the afternoon to check out all the progress!

As I go to the site, I loved all of Jim's little shoveled trails to get around!  That's a lot of work just doing that.  As you can see, lots of snow still on Angel!

Wow!  I was really impressed with Jim's design for the scaffolding to hold up all the cement.  As you can see, he's basically made another beam in the middle of the two beams to support the weight.

A better view of the whole new "beam" structure.

Jim needed some wood blocking - which of course is buried under feet of snow.  All you see are big mounds in the snow and you have to rack your brain to try and remember where we stashed things at the end of the building season.  And then take the shovel and try to unearth what you are looking for.

We both took turns doing some shoveling to try and find where things are buried.

As I was leaving, what a gorgeous view...all that pristine snow with the brilliant blue sky peeking through the trees!

 

High 40/Low 10

 

3.4.2015

Today was a "warm" day - with temps above freezing!  Although tomorrow the lows dip down below freezing so it was kind of "enjoy it while it lasts"!

Jim worked today on the scaffolding, which will hold up all the incredible weight from the concrete when it is poured.  You can see he put cold-formed steel pieces on top of steel pieces on top of scaffolding - and then was able to use the screw jacks to get everything flush to the bottom of the deck.  Obviously this took a lot of work!

 

High 39/Low 27

 

3.3.2015 - Update

Well...March is officially here.  February was definitely one for the record books in a lot of the country, between the cold temperatures and all the snow.  Here in upstate New York, we broke a record for the coldest average daily temperate at a whopping 7.3 degrees for the month of February.  In addition, we had 20 days with lows below zero.  Of those 20, 13 were double-digit below zero lows!  That's some cold weather! 

Jim's starting to get things moving a bit in anticipation of warmer days to come.  He spent some time with his Lowe's rep yesterday giving her parts and pieces to try and track down.  She also showed him our siding and our Advan-Tech, the decking plywood Jim will use.  It's all tucked away nicely in the rafters of Lowe's.

Yesterday, Jim went to the barn to try and find his planer - which somehow he managed to.  In all this snow, just getting to the barn is no easy task, let alone finding random tools now that all the stored cars are blocking access.  He needed it to plane a bit of the doorframe off to fit the new door.

Today, he went up to the land for a bit in the afternoon.  It took him over 30 minutes to walk up to the temporary electric pole because the snow was thigh-deep!  You can see how much the yard hydrant is buried.

Then he worked on planing a bit off of the door jamb - here is the door set in temporarily to see how it fits.  Looks good!

 

High 26/Low 3