Monday, August 19, 2013

Porch, Garage and Lots of Mud

***Um.  Lots of pictures in this one...

We finished the porch ... well, it has a floor.  Finished will mean screened in with a roof and all.
Ok...so we couldn't wait and this was really before the floor.
Ah.  There's the floor.  
Don't jump, Mercy!
My first company for lunch on the porch.
Happy.

And now the mud part begins...just when I about had the yard looking good.  Ah, well, it is all just temporary and now I have less to mow!
Coming down the driveway.

And around the corner.

He pushed the burn pile out of his way and was good sport
enough to let me save the little snake that was living
in there even though he is seriously afraid of snakes.
I was taking these pictures from the porch and when 
he saw it, I started yelling, "Don't kill it, don't kill it, don't kill it!" 
and running down the stairs.  It took us three tries, but
now the snake lives in the woods.



There's the box...

...let the digging begin.
I'm telling you, that thing could dig!
Reminded me of the story,
Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel.


Even though there were a few little rocks!

Big hole.

Big septic tank.
Connections to house and leech field.

Big trenches beside my house for the leech field.
But, the fire pit was safe.

Big trenches all the way down the driveway for
the underground water and electric.

Big storm the night after the trenches are dug, so....

Scooping, scooping, scooping

water out of the low corner.
The trench makes a turn here and goes to the house.
Yes, he dug up my driveway, too.

But, I can forgive a lot when he has one of these...




...to drill the remaining 10 holes for the 
garage posts.
In about 15 minutes!
Oh, yeah.
And there he is, making it all
look so easy.
He could use that giant machine
so smoothly it looked like
an extension of his arms.

Rick helping to set the posts.
And our diagonals are within 1/4 inch!
Yes.  We are that good. 
{smile}
Ack.  What do you know about planting grass?

Can you see it is going to be a two car garage?
Don't mind the glare off of the metal roof.


Ah, progress.








6 comments:

Rachel said...

This is so exciting!!! Not the part about the snake of course. You could have let the thing die. I'm terrified of the things.

Your house is coming along!! So exciting and we love the book, "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel". One of our favorites.....

Your porch is so fun there off your yellow happy house.

Donna said...

There will be a day when you and Kristen will come and sit with me on my porch, right? Some day...
I will be painting the porch white....some day. :-)
Snakes are good for rodent control and stuff like that...I didn't touch him, I just used a stick to fling him in the general direction of the woods and then guide him gently on the path he should go.
Snakes are only scary to me when they surprise you.

K said...

No reason to be terrified of a snake until you know if it's dangerous. And mercy is something that will come back some day, just when it's most needed. I'd LOVE to sit on that porch and look out at the woods. It's lookin' so GOOD!! And I do love to watch a man who knows how to use a machine like that. I used to drive a little Bobcat and got pretty dang good at it. But controlling a digging arm like that - it can be a beautiful thing. A dance. Make sure you have a fire line - just now, around here, that's turning out to be a really, really important thing. We'd be outa luck if there were a fire down here - the trees crowd the house. We love Mike Mulligan, too!

Donna said...

Round head and no shakey tail = not dangerous, right? :-)
When I complimented him on his obvious skill he was very humble.
We do have a good space between our trees and our house. Hope we never need to know if it is enough.
Oh, the day when you and Rachel get to sit on my porch with me....
Bobcat? I want to learn how to drive a bobcat!

Susan Grayson said...

Very exciting! It looks great ... we've never built a house before. I'm not sure our marriage would survive it.

Great blog. You are pretty techie, after all!

Susan

Tanna said...

I love that we share craft-impatience. ;) Sure wish you were here to share a piece of apple cake. blessings and hugs ~ tanna