We had a bit of a relaxing morning on Friday and then Kyle and Jim headed out to the property for a little bit while Julia and I worked on dinner.
Even though they were only there a couple hours, they got lots of good things done. They were able to get all the steel unloaded from the back of the truck! Here's just a few of the pieces - you can see that these two really long ones would never have gone up the stairwell. They were able to put them into the apartment through the open window. Some of the steel went into the downstairs shop to be used for ceiling joists in the auto bay. That was a huge job to get done.
Once all the steel was unloaded, they got the upstairs window boarded up (no more plastic!). We don't want to install this window because we hope to be able to have the drywall boomed into this window for the apartment.
After all that work, they were hungry for our Thanksgiving dinner. A selfie with the turkey...
And gathered around the table...
Everyone pitched in to clean up and made short work of that job! Once the kitchen was back to normal, we all headed out for a walk to make room for dessert!
This morning, we headed out to the property. The big job we wanted to get done was the scaffolding off the roof of the auto bay. The forecast was for rain and snow so we weren't sure how much we would be able to do.
First step was to start dismantling the top section of scaffolding. Jim handing Kyle the cross braces...
And the next set of braces...
Then Kyle handed the 3' section in through the window to Jim...
Next was the really crazy part - Julia couldn't bear to watch! These frames had feet that were attached to wood blocks on the roof. Jim had to undo the cross braces and basically lay on the roof with the frame while Kyle removed the feet. Then they were able to get the frame over to the other scaffolding tower.
The next side was even worse. Lifting the frame up...
taking the feet off...
and then trying to maneuver the frame over the roof to the other side so they could get it to the scaffolding tower. It was beyond scary to watch but they talked everything through and it went really well.
Once the pieces were off the top of the roof, then they had to be removed from the top of the tower.
Look how incredible the west wall looks with no scaffolding hiding it!
Once the frames were down, Jim had to dismantle the planks that bridged the tower to the roof.
After the pieces as well as the hard workers came back down to solid ground, they used those frames to rebuild scaffolding inside the auto bay. Jim will use this to put in ceiling joists in the auto bay.
Trying out our new light. However, once we did, we think we want one that mounts a little higher. Once we got home, I did a little research and found one we think we like even better that will fit better in this area. So a little bit of a pain to send this one back and reorder new ones, but I think in the long run we'll be happier.
After the huge scaffolding job was done, the next job on the agenda was to work on the trench. Jim was hoping to get sand on top of the wire. The trench has been open awhile and a few rocks had fallen into it from erosion and weather. Kyle and Julia walked the trench picking out rocks while Jim went to get a bucket of sand.
Practicing their American Gothic poses (with shovels instead of pitchforks!)
Kyle and Julia had an amazing shoveling synchronization thing going!
Once we got a nice layer of sand over the top of the electric and cable lines, Jim started backfilling. We again had to pick out the biggest rocks.
Once the trench was about a foot from the top, we rolled out our red "Caution - Electric Line Buried Below" tape and then backfilled on top of that.
A good team working hard...
Wow - looking incredible!
Found just a little rock...
We stopped for a rock break - these are some of the rocks we pulled out as Jim was backfilling.
A good view of all the different layers...electric and cable lines covered with sand, dirt, tape and more dirt!
The birds-eye view from the scaffolding!
I didn't get final pictures so I will definitely do that tomorrow. We were beyond thrilled with how much we were able to get done with Kyle & Julia here. The scaffolding is off the roof and rebuilt in the auto bay, the steel is unloaded, and the trench is totally filled in and graded!
We were so lucky with the weather - after a rain and snow forecast, the weather was great and we even had sunshine in the afternoon.
We loved having Kyle and Julia here for a visit and appreciated all their help as always. They headed back to the city late afternoon to try and avoid the mad rush of people heading back on Sunday.
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