8.3.2016

It was nice to get back to brick work today.  However, it was one of those days where things were just a little on the frustrating side.  No big issues - just lots of little challenges. 

We brought up another cube of bricks!

Time for the first batch...

Jim started in the front with one of the challenging spots - working around the electric box.

And corners are always Jim's least favorite!

But this was a bigger issue - because of the rain we had over the last couple days, there was water in some of holes in the bricks.  When Jim put mortar and the bricks on top, it caused water (now mixed with the dyed mortar) to spill all down the front of the bricks!  There was nothing we could do at the moment but press on and hope that it wasn't going to stain.

 

More bricks and more water down the front...

So...lesson learned.  Jim dropped his air compressor hose out the window and blew air into the holes to blow the water out.    These couple front areas were the only place that water had built up.

Another electric box to brick around...

Then we brought mortar around back to finish off the last row of full bricks back here!



Last full brick!

Working in the front again...

Jointing...

Once we were finished, Jim carefully power sprayed the front - avoiding the top row he just put on.  Thankfully, once it dried it seemed just fine.

After lunch, prep time for the next batch.  Jim made flashing to cover the wires leading to the electric box for the lights.

This channel is bigger - Jim is going to do the flashing in two pieces.

Time to cut more bricks...

...and put more brick ties on.

We're finally ready...batch number 2!

Putting the brick over the flashing...

Working on brick over the electric box and flashing on the other side...

Another challenge...working on this hill.  It makes everything hard - Jim has to work on a slope, in/out of scaffolding.  It's more difficult to get bricks and mortar to him too.

But at the end of the day - all's good!  The back is all finished with full bricks.

And the front is really looking amazing as Jim does the final jointing of the day!

Last clean up...

 

Since the ground was soft from the rain, Jim did a little grading work on the bottom of the upper driveway.

 

High 81/Low 57

 

8.2.2016

This ended up being kind of a discombobulated day - Jim stayed home to do paperwork this morning because he had an appointment with the urologist around noon.  Unfortunately, we still don't know anything about the kidney stone status - he has to have an ultrasound Thursday evening and we'll go from there.

By the time we got back from the doctor and ate lunch, it was a little drizzly out.  Jim took my car back to the property and did some maintenance work on it - changed the oil, put a new battery in, and even vacuumed it out!  This was the first time Jim has used the ShopVac since we finally found the right filter for it.  When he put it all together, he discovered that mice must have made it a home while it was at the barn, so it took some work to get everything cleaned out.

Then he did some stair work - he made a new template for the upper stair run.

Then started building the stringers out of the steel...

 

Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get back to brick work!

 

High 76/Low 57

 

8.1.2016

The forecast showed some rain for today - although we didn't get a drop!  But we had already decided that it wouldn't be a brick day.  Jim wanted to press on with a few of the projects he started yesterday.

He got the first stringer for the metal shop stairs in place this morning - very exciting to start to envision stairs down here!  Jim is going to order a few more pieces of steel angle that he wants to use to make a better connection to the landing.

 

Most of the rest of the day was spent on wiring and overhang work.  Jim got the channel cut and the wires for the outside light on the other side of the garage door in place.

 

Then he used his hot knife to cut the channel for the other light - this one will go between the second garage door and the man door.

The hot knife is such a cool tool - it just makes easy work out of cutting a pretty channel in the foam!

All cut!

 

The Jim got wire run to the box as well as the wires run from all the lights to the inside through our conduit piece that we put in the wall last year!

After that, it was overhang work.  We had decided that we wanted to extend the overhang one more section.  That required Jim to make new steel pieces and mount them.  He also had to take the front fascia backing piece off and rework that.  But, we are happier with the shape of the overhang now.

 

High 73/Low 61

 

7.31.2016

This was a rare rainy day and was much cooler, which was a very nice change.  Besides the fact that we want to continue with the brick work, now there is so many other things that Jim wants to do that a rainy day is almost welcome.

Jim's been anxious to get back to stair work so this was a good opportunity.  Here he has almost all of the clip angles welded on...

The new stringers are all finished and you can see the old ones on the floor!  If you remember, Jim is using the old ones on the lower staircase in the metal shop.

The stairwell looks empty now with no lower stairs!

Ta  da!  New stairs all installed!

 

Looks like it will be another rainy day tomorrow so Jim has lots on his to-do list!

 

High 68/Low 63 - on/off rain

 

7.30.2016

Prep work takes longer now that we are finished with long runs in the back and have more complicated issues to address.  So we had already decided that today would just be a one batch day in the afternoon.  Jim spent the morning doing lots of tasks...

He took apart the sawhorse scaffolding from the back and brought it around to the front so that he is able to work higher.

Then he built a scaffolding tower on the other side of the garage door to enable him to work on the brick in this corner as well as the roof eventually.

This back section looks even more amazing with all the scaffolding gone!

Jim is using the hammer drill to install the electric box for the outdoor lighting...

At lunch, we checked the weather forecast.  It called for some showers in the afternoon so we decided not to try and force in a batch of mortar.

We turned our attention to finishing up all of the membrane and brick flashing on the front.

This brick flashing is complicated to put on but we have a good system - Jim gives me the measurements and we have a specific way to cut the pieces so that overlaps perfectly to keep any water out.

All done!

We kept checking the weather and it kept showing the possibility of showers so we definitely scrapped brick work.  Instead, Jim started working on the stairs again.  He got all the end pieces made and welded on.  Then he started welding the clip angles on.  Won't be long before this stair run can be installed - very exciting! 

We have the most interesting frogs on Angel.  I was cleaning up in the back of the building, putting scaffolding pieces away and getting rid of some block we had back there.  This frog definitely looks alien - look at its eyes!  Plus, we definitely have chameleon frogs that blend in with their background!

 

At the end of the day, we still had gotten no raindrops.  But that's okay - we still made lots of progress.  There are so many places that Jim can work now - sometimes it's good to turn attention to something else for awhile!

High 80/Low 61