1.30.2015

Hard to believe the month of January is just about over - spring is getting closer and closer! 

Jim continues to work on things and we are back in our routine of alternating long walks around the village with going to the gym.  Last year at this time, Jim was having trouble with his knee.  It's so wonderful that he has no pain and is able to get back to running.

Our custom steel door and all of our siding came in to Lowe's this week - exciting!  And more exciting is that our rep is storing all of the siding until we need it.  We have to get on the delivery schedule for the door - we are hoping for Wednesday but if not, it may be Monday of the next week.

One of the things that Jim has been working on is scaffolding - he'll use it now to build shoring for the concrete deck pour.  However, it's not as easy as just ordering scaffolding - all the new parts and pieces have to fit with our old scaffolding.  You would think everything would just work but that's not the case.  He had to have a sample shipped first of some connections to make sure they would mate. 

So today was the scheduled delivery day.  As these things always go, we had a messy snowfall overnight into this morning.  I had a doctor appointment at 11:30 and Jim really didn't want me driving in by myself if I didn't have to.  But the scaffolding was coming on a big semi truck and they were supposed to call an hour before - but last time they didn't.  Anyway, we finally got them to give us a window of time - Jim dropped me off at the doctor and headed to the property to get the forks on the Bobcat and get the Bobcat down the hill.

Patiently waiting for the truck to come!

Timing actually worked out really well - Jim didn't have to wait at the bottom of the hill too long before the truck came.

The forks work great - took him no time to get the scaffolding off the back of the truck.  Then he just had to get back up the hill.

 

We went back up after lunch to unload the scaffolding and put it inside the carriage house.  I hadn't been up in awhile so it was good to visit!  Everything looks great inside.  It's supposed to get bitter cold tonight - there is a wind chill advisory out tonight and the actual temperature will be well below zero - so it's always scary worrying about the building.

 

It's also amazing that Jim is able to get both the truck and the Bobcat up the hill.  Underneath all this beautiful fluffy snow is still an incredibly thick layer of smooth ice!

 

High 28/Low -4

 

1.19.2015

It's been cold here in upstate New York - not really getting much snow, but the snow stays on the ground nice and white since the temps stay cold.  That's the way Jim & I like it - much better than the freeze/thaw cycles that leave you with slushy puddles, gray and dirty snow.

Jim spent a couple hours yesterday and a couple more today working on installing the power steering assembly back into the box truck.  That required laying under the truck in the snow but things went together well and he said it is now working better than it ever has - so it was all worth it!

Not the best truck repair conditions!

Jim continues to research, order and plan.  In his spare time, he's been reading all about Pex tubing.  He'll use that for the radiant floor heating in the concrete slabs for the carriage house.  I love all the new techniques and products we are using - makes things exciting.

We keep checking in with Lowe's, giving our rep there more products to research.  We are still waiting for the steel door to come in.  The date keeps being shoved back and she said hopefully next week.  I know Jim is anxious to get that up temporarily.  She's also looking into a masonry gypsum board to use in the shop - like drywall except masonry.  It's much more rugged and impervious to moisture and mold.  All good things for shops.

Everyone stay warm!

 

1.11.2015

Winter settles in...

Happy New Year 2015!

I'm definitely behind on posting anything but needed to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy New Year!  Hope that everyone had a very blessed Christmas with family and friends!

We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed Kyle & Julia's visit immensely!  We're already looking forward to seeing them when they come up for Chowder Fest at the end of the month.

Jim continues to work on project management while winter sets in here in upstate New York.  He and Kyle worked a little bit on some metal shoring projects over Christmas.  Jim continues to find suppliers, track down supplies, and work on plans while we wait for spring.

Here we are continuing the tradition of the Saratoga Peppermint Pig - taking time to be thankful for all of the many blessings of the last year.

Our special pouch and hammer for the breaking of the pig is in some box in some location so we had to improvise!  But our thanks were sincere!

12.19.2014

We've been keeping busy even though we aren't actually building. 

On the one window of perfect timing, it was warm enough for Jim to get the truck started and still have the snow firm enough to drive on.  So we used it to pick up some scaffolding that was in storage and then took the plates off and turned them in so that we could suspend the insurance for the winter.

Now that the truck is parked, Jim started investigating the power steering that he knows needs replacing.  He anticipates this being a big job because of where it is located.  But yesterday, he worked on it and made quite a bit of progress.  Unfortunately, working on it at this point means laying on cardboard on the snow and working underneath the truck and without a full compliment of tools.  Only Jim.  Today, he got the power steering pump off - yay!  He has to send it off to be rebuilt - obviously time is not a factor at this point since won't be using it until spring.

Jim has spent a lot of time working on exact specs for a commercial steel people door for the carriage house.  After finding one online, he took the specs into his Lowe's rep to see if they could get it for him.  That ended up being quite the project - their price initially was more than double of the online price!  But because of their matching policy for most things, the rep went to work.  Lowe's is not making a penny on us but they finally got corporate to approve the price match.  So our door is on order.  Jim hopes to get it installed temporarily as soon as it comes in.

The sewer pipe that we ordered almost a month ago was another project.  Somehow it got processed incorrectly at Home Depot and they returned it.  So I worked with a rep there who canceled that order, refunded our money, and reordered it at no cost to us.  Unfortunately, these are 10' pieces and don't easily fit in the back of the car.  Since we no longer have the truck option, once the pieces came in it required two trips to Home Depot.

Jim also ordered a new gas tank for the vibrator.  After he took it apart and cleaned the carburetor, he investigated the gas tank and found it all corroded.  It must have taken water in at some point in its life.  We tried power spraying it at the car wash but he eventually broke down and bought a new one on eBay.  So that's another project he'll be working on.

12.13.2014 - Update

It's been awhile since I posted, so I figured an update was due.  Although it's not officially winter, winter weather has been knocking on our door and we are slowly accepting that we are coming to an end of building season.  Jim keeps working on lots of project management projects - tracking down commercial doors, figuring out what happened to our sewer pipe order - as well as continuing to go out to the land to check up on things.

On Thursday, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!  Amazing how time flies - it's really hard to believe that it's been that long.  We are very blessed indeed.  We had a good snowfall the night before and it left the area definitely feeling like a winter wonderland.  We went for a walk in the afternoon to help counteract the calories we knew we would be eating later.  The river area looked so quiet and peaceful.



In the late afternoon, we went down to Saratoga Springs and took in some of the Christmas sights, of course stopping for a chocolate treat at Kilwin's while we were there!  Then we went to dinner at the Wishing Well - using up the rest of the gift certificate that Kyle and Julia had gotten us last year!

 

Yesterday, Jim headed to the land to check things out.  As you can see from this picture, the snowplows had left quite the big pile of snow in front of the driveway - no way the car was going up over that.  So Jim had to hike up the hill.

There was probably 16" of snow on the deck.  Although Jim said he's sure that the deck could hold three times that safely, he knew that there was a first layer of thick frozen slush underneath the snow, adding to the weight.  So he decided to shovel...10 feet in the air on top of extremely slippery metal decking.  Yikes!  But he got the first section done, which is the thinnest gauge metal.  He'll probably do more later on today.

He also got the Bobcat going and plowed some of the hill to make walking up and down a tad easier.

Late this morning, Jim headed back to the land.  He brought the Bobcat back down the hill and worked for about an hour clearing all the snow that the plows had piled up at the end of the driveway.

Then it was back to work shoveling the deck...

Another section all clean!

 

 

High 32/Low 18

12.4.2014

Even though it's cold and sloppy and we can't do much at the land right now, project management jobs continue.  Today, Jim was able to get the truck started and down (and then back up!) the hill so that we could go pick up the rest of our cold-formed steel order.  This will be used for shoring up the deck when we pour concrete and will also be used for the roof down the road.

 

 

High 33/Low 13