4.14.2014

I'm still totally amazed at the soil here. After all the snow and a recent rainy night, temps were close to 80 degrees today and the ground was dry enough that Jim got the equipment down into the foundation.

One of the last things Jim did in the fall was put extra dirt on the areas where the footers will go just for extra weight and compacting purposes.  So today, he moved all that extra dirt out of the foundation area.

He was even able to use the excavator and expand the foundation area some more.  He has decided to add a frost wall most of the way around just for extra precaution so he needed a little more room in some areas.

 

Then he cleaned everything up.  So in one day's work, he got the foundation area cleaned up and in good shape!  Obviously still lots of work to be done.  We have to get down there and take some elevation measurements, but then it will be digging down for the footers.

 

Definitely a good day's work!  Jim said it was so fun working this time - the last time he was in the foundation digging, the ground was frozen and so was he!

 

4.13.2014

Definitely time for an update.  Although it's later than back in Ohio, spring finally feels like it's come to upstate New York.  It's still chilly at night and I still bundle up on our walks but we've had some really nice days and this weekend has been so pretty. 

I've posted some pictures previously of the big ice chunks breaking loose and coming down the Hudson River.  All of those ice chunks make for a high water level and lots of water crashing over the dam area near us.  The lady at the post office said that not too far upriver, it's still solid ice from bank to bank so there will definitely be more to come.

As the old saying goes...Man makes plans; God laughs.  Now that the spring weather seems to be settling in and Jim is so anxious to get things started...he has to have a procedure done on his knee.  He started having some pain with certain movements but didn't know of anything he did to injure it, so he blamed it on getting back to running a little too quickly this winter.  But the normal cure of resting it didn't seem to help.  And we've been walking 5 miles a day with really no issues so he didn't think anything too bad could be wrong.  I finally got him to an orthopedic doctor who did an MRI and found torn cartilage.  So this week he'll have it scoped and cleaned out.  The doctor said the recovery is pretty quick - he has to stay off it the first 24 hours but the doctor said he should be on the elliptical in a week and could run in 2 weeks.  So as much as the timing could have been better, it's good to get it taken care of and we're so happy that it's a relatively easy fix.  He's going to be very physical as soon as building really starts so he needs to be in tip top shape!  The doctor said that everything else looked great - no signs of arthritis, so that was great news. 

Plus we got some bad news from back home - Jim's uncle passed away suddenly on Thursday.  His aunt and uncle were extremely close with his family so this is a big blow.  Jerry had worked in the construction field operating the big machinery, so Jim always enjoyed sharing plans and picking his brain on all things machines.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Aunt Sandy.

Meanwhile, with the arrival of nice weather Jim has headed up to the lot the last few days.  He's gotten all that brush and huge piles of sticks and branches that we pulled out of the woods in the fall all chipped up.  He's moved some big trunks over to where we are piling them and just generally getting the site cleaned up.

We had rain overnight but you would have hardly known it today.  Back in Ohio, we had so much clay in the soil - here it's sand.  So things dry up pretty quickly.  Today was my first day to visit the lot and I was amazed.  To think that just a couple of weeks ago there was a foot of snow on the land and today we could walk around without even leaving a footprint!  Jim doesn't want to create big ruts in the land so he doesn't want to get too much machinery out but it won't be long.

We had planned to do a little more cleanup work today.  But as we just pulled into the driveway, our next door neighbors were out for a walk with their dogs.  We had met her last year but had never met him.  They are so nice and really make us feel good that we are going to have such wonderful neighbors.  They told us that they've been keeping an eye on things just to make sure no one was there who shouldn't be.  We had a great conversation and I'm sure it was the first of many!

4.3.2014

Well, even know the calendar says spring it's still not really looking like it around here!  Jim went up to the property yesterday and this is what he found.  Still lots of snow up there!  However, it's going away quickly - we've had a couple warmer days and a little rain too.  Won't be long!

On Thursday, we went down to Albany for a couple parts field trips.  Our first stop was to the Pella Distributor there.  It was nice because we were able to get a color sample of the windows we are interested in.  Eventually, we'll probably match the color of the carriage house to the window to get the look we want.  We really liked the color so it was good info.  Also good info was the difference between brown hardware and oil-rubbed bronze.  We had wanted oil-rubbed bronze but they are similar in appearance and the cost difference is about $60 per window!  So definitely brown is fine for the carriage house.  The other interesting thing was the screens.  They have a new, super-fine mesh half screen that is really incredible.  It's like not looking through a screen.  Again, though, we are talking the carriage house right now.  We may get them in certain key windows but the normal screen will be fine for the rest of the windows.  But it's all good information.  We have to go over all the quotes and compare apples to apples to make sure we get the best price.  We also have to figure out storage options possibly.  With Lowe's, where it appears the price is the best, they have a 15% sale going on but you have to order the windows now.  They may be able to keep them in the store for awhile but not as long as we'll need.  Just another thing to figure out.

Our next stop was to find some brick distributors.  We need monarch brick (bigger sized) on the foundation of the carriage house.  Seems far away but it can take 8 weeks to get in so it's definitely something that needs to be planned out.  We want a more solid dark gray that will eventually carry over to the house and coordinate with the brick fascia for the house.  We were used to having Belden Brick in Amish country where you can wander through their showroom and they make the bricks on site.  Not here.  Apparently there are no more brick companies around at all so everything has to be ordered.  We have a couple websites to investigate now - we brought a couple sample boards home and they can send us more.

On our walk later on, we noticed that ice from up river must have broken up and was floating along downstream through Corinth.  It was quite the sight!

Also loved this contrast....girls' softball team was practicing at the elementary school by us.  Half of the girls were in shorts with all the snow on the ground surrounding them!

But we did see our first little spring flowers...right in front of the Catholic church here in Corinth.

3.27.2014

Things are inching towards spring and the building season - although if you look outside, you'd never guess it!  We still have at least a foot of snow on the ground and it's been really cold at night especially.

We got a couple quotes back on our Pella windows...we think that's the direction we will go because of the quality and they have the exterior color and features we want.  We still have things to work out and have to wait for the right time to order.  Unfortunately, we have no place to store them right now.

Jim contacted the septic system person we had out to the property last summer.  Things work differently here than they did in Ohio - you have to have a designer for the system and he is the one that inspects the system after it is installed, rather than the Health Department like in Ohio.  Jim really liked this guy when we talked to him before - he's the one who even offered Jim a job if he wanted!  But he said it was doable to have one system for both structures, which is exactly what we wanted to hear.  Jim is going to meet with him next week to discuss plans.

On our walk last night, we again ran into the heating guy.  So he stopped and chatted for awhile.  Jim is going to go to his office soon - this guy wants him to meet the president of the company.  That way they can talk about different options.  Jim doesn't want to have them do the work but is hoping that he can purchase equipment through them.

Meanwhile, Jim keeps moving forward on all the plans and drawings.  Before long, all of these plans will have to go to the zoning/building department for permit approval.  Because we are doing things so radically different from a normal house construction model, that will probably be interesting.

Also on our walks, we've noticed a weird snow phenomena...looks kind of stalagmite snow!  Again, pictures don't quite tell the whole story but trust me - it's a weird look!

3.19.2014

Today was a day of little "coincidences"...aka little miracles as we like to say!  We were trying to figure out the best time to go to Vermont so that Jim could take his plans to his contact for the insulated concrete forms to talk over a couple things and give the plans to him to prepare a quote for us.  Jim got a call around lunchtime that the guy was in Saratoga and wanted to meet with Jim here!  So Jim finished up a few things and went off to meet him at TGIFridays.  Jim said it was a good meeting - he got some questions answered and the guy was impressed with Jim's plans and all the work he had put into them (even asked if he could send work Jim's way some time!).  So Jim accomplished all of that without a trip to Vermont!

We got our Pella quote in the mail today - we have to do a little deciphering and comparing.  We had gotten a quote on a couple different Anderson lines and there's another line that the lumberyard here carries that Jim wants to look into also.  Windows are pricey but we spent so much time and effort making our windows in our Ohio home look the way we wanted that we don't want to repeat that.  We want to have a gray window that matches the siding - it gives a more period look than the typical white window.  But of course that comes at a price.  We have a little more investigating to make sure we get what we want.

But then the really crazy part of the day.  Jim and I have developed a route for our walks that's about 5 miles - we walk over the bridge across the Hudson River and go down a little road that has houses along the river.  There's even a house there that has the same cement shake siding that we are going to use on the carriage house, so we always stop and look at that one a little longer.  We were coming down the hill and we saw a man with a dog.  We are still on high alert after the dog bite and this dog came over and started growling.  The man was yelling that he was friendly (hmm...we have heard that before!) and he came over and got the dog.  It turned out to be a nice dog but we stood there talking to the owner about dogs and the reason why we were a little skittish.  Everyone we meet here is always so positive about the area and tell us the reasons they love it.  This man had lived here all his life but had traveled all over and just said it was the best place to live.  It came out that this guy works for a big heating/cooling company.  He and Jim got into this long discussion about the various heating options and Jim picked his brain about the outdoor wood furnaces that we are considering.  New York has lots of regulations on these type of furnaces so some things aren't real clear cut.  But this guy has one of the models of outdoor furnaces that Jim likes that he uses to heat his house.  It was a great conversation and he gave Jim his card to contact him for any more questions or to use him to buy product.

So how crazy is that?  We walk about 5 miles a day and rarely see too many other people out.  What are the chances that we would strike up a conversation with this random person and he would turn out to be a great resource for our heating system?  It was quite exciting.

As we continued on our walk, it started snowing...more like that weird combination of snow and sleet.  You can't quite see it in this picture but you can see that we still have lots of snow on the ground - and tomorrow's the first day of spring!  The forecast is calling for some snow even through the weekend.  Which is fine by us!

A couple days late to say Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We walked up to Dango's for corned beef and cabbage. 

3.16.2014

Hmm...apartment living has its ups and downs.  This morning was kind of a down!  I came out in the kitchen about 6:00 am to grab my Diet Coke.  I heard lots of scrambling under the washer/dryer and saw a mouse...or maybe two!  After I nearly had a heart attack, I scrambled back into the safety of my office - surely they wouldn't dare to come in there!

When Jim got up we explored - although we didn't see any evidence of any little rodent friends at first, apparently the mice like sweet potatoes as much as we do!

 

I told Jim that we lived in the middle of the woods in Ohio and never had a creature inside the house.  But after really having this part of the apartment building to ourselves since we've been here, we have an upstairs neighbor now and they've been remodeling the vacant doctor's office below us for the last month or so.  As far as we know, that office area has been empty for quite awhile so there could have been mice down there going undetected.  Now that they are working there, maybe they chased them upstairs.  No matter...on our walk today we are stopping to buy traps.  Eww....

 



3.12.2014 - update

Kind of due for an update, so here goes!

Jim and I are probably the only ones who were sad to see Daylight Savings Time come around where we had to spring forward.  No more darker, cozy evenings.  We have continued our daily long walks - we used to enjoy the setting sun and all the colors it presented through the trees...now it's still bright out when we are finished.

Speaking of walks, we are still enjoying our daily adventures.  Although about a week ago, I got bit by a bulldog on our walk - with the owner standing right there with his 3 bulldogs yelling to us how friendly they are!  Thank goodness for heavy coats and wool sweaters...because I still got a nasty bite that swelled up like a goose egg with distinct teeth marks.  He didn't puncture the skin, mostly just scraped it.  So now Jim carries a stick while we walk and dog repellent has been ordered and is on its way!

And although the temperatures were creeping up a bit, the nights are still cold so the snow has stayed around.  Jim went up to Angel over the weekend and while you can now see the Honda a bit, the snow was still too high to allow the doors to be opened and for him to start it up.  But on a good note, all the vehicles started up.  While he was there, he took the Bobcat and plowed down to the chain so that future walks will be a little bit easier than trudging through knee-high snow.

Things are getting exciting on the building preparation front too.  Jim is still working diligently on all the construction drawings.  In addition, he has to "build" the foundation on paper with those Nudura insulated concrete forms so he knows exactly what he needs and what to order.  He is trying to get that done this week and then wants to go back to Vermont to meet with his rep and give him these drawings to get a quote.

 

But other quotes have started coming in!  The first was for all the structural steel we will need - this is for the heavy-duty steel that will hold up the floors and reinforce the concrete walls and floors.  We are talking I-beams that weigh 2500 pounds, steel trusses for the 2nd story that weigh a total of 2700 pounds, 1300 square feet of steel decking for the concrete floor, and 6500 feet (or 1.2 miles!) of rebar - that weighs about 5700 pounds!   So this is BIG steel!  He found a place in Glens Falls and they came through with the first quote.  It was actually very close to what Jim had estimated, so that was good news.  Jim also sent off the same quote request to a steel place in Albany.  On some of the things, they came back with a lower price so that was even better!  

We are going to use a lighter-weight steel for wall and roof framing instead of wood but that will come from a different supplier so will be a quote for another day.

 

Then we should get our Pella window quote back any day too.  They had a question about screens - apparently you can get half screens for double-hung windows which I think only makes sense.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have kind of a dirt phobia...never liked the windows open to bring all the outside inside to my clean house!  But on Angel it will be different.  The breezes we get up there are pretty incredible and we will want to have the windows open a lot more.  So half screens sound nice!

 

Yesterday, the temps got to about 50 degrees!  It was really amazing on our walk to not be totally bundled up.  It makes walking a bit easier too - the snow and ice compacted in so many places is thawing out.  Of course, here they use tons of sand on the roads and sidewalks so as the snow melts, it's kind of muddy.  I told Jim that we definitely need a mudroom in our new house plans!  That sand in your shoes would do a number on hardwood floors!

Even with the warm temps yesterday, you can see below that Angel holds onto her snow!  This was the path that Jim had made previously with the Bobcat.  He went up yesterday to see if a part he had ordered for the excavator would fit.  Sadly, it didn't so he'll be heading back to the Bobcat store soon. 

 

But today, Mother Nature has sent us back into a winter wonderland!  They are predicting anywhere from 12-20" of snow!  It's been snowing most of the morning and everything is beautiful pristine white again.  It will be a fun walk this afternoon!