It's COLD here. It got down below freezing last night, which means that it was below freezing in our house. Pretty much all day. It warmed up outside, but not in here. It's supposed to get down into the teens tonight, which means it'll be even more fun around the rat-hole tomorrow. Thing is, I think it'll actually be WARMER when we knock out the exterior walls for reframing. The other bummer is that with the time change, it gets dark even earlier. Considering we ripped out all the electrical in the dining room yesterday, we only have a couple of places to run lights from. *sigh* We're currently living in that scene in E.T. where all the plastic's up all over the place. We've plasticked off every doorway we can, with the baseboard heater running in the nook to keep our plants from freezing (the baseboard smells like burning rat turds, which is lovely, as I'm sure you can imagine).
I think we're going to just eat all our meals in the bedroom, which DOES have heat. It's a balmy 60 degrees in there! No more of this wearing a stocking cap while eating breakfast. Oy.
But enough of my whining. We made a little bit of progress this weekend. We took out the cross-beams from the "ceiling" and started to saw out the plywood over what used to probably be a sun porch. It turns out the side of our roof is resting on the plywood up there. Lovely. Oh well, we'll fix that when we reframe that wall. We also did another dump run- 700 lbs of goodness. Yay! My brother's coming over Thanksgiving, and we're trying to convince him to stay with us over his winter break. He can make many, many dump runs. Hee hee.
So the countdown is on for Thanksgiving. Will we get windows in? Walls in? Electricity? Drywall? And, dare I say it, heat? Only time will tell. We might have some pretty miserable guests.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
Front Lot Update
Here is a photo of the monstrosity on the front lot. The guy on the motorcycle is a friend who helped us pick up the windows (and sliding door) and transport them to our house (not on his motorcycle, though).
As you can see from the photo, it’s big. A big load of... well, the guy building the house told us the other day what he was going to list it for. Guess. The house is 3300 square feet. Four bedrooms, 3 baths, and a 3 car garage. Come on... guess. $750,000.
I checked on Zillow.com and there isn’t a house in a 2 mile radius that is valued at that price. The highest I found was $669K. And the market is softening. And the house is ugly. And it’s poorly built.
A our friend said (the one on the motorcycle), "That house is all about screwing somebody over."
As you can see in the photo, fences have been built on the north and south property lines. The annoying guy and his posse built the fences themselves (no cheap, under-paid sub-contractor for the fence). We don’t think they’ve ever built a fence before. They screwed the fence slats in place and left an approximately 2 inch gap in each section. The slats are 5 and a half inches wide. They are filling the gaps by cutting little 2 inch filler slats. This approach, combined with the fact that the gaps are uneven from top to bottom and that the tops of the slats have chamfered corners, looks quite bad. We’re even afraid that the fence might fall over onto our driveway!
Just to have some fun, we’re going to put some blue tarps and tires on the roof of our house.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Come See the Amazing Tilling Machine!
Here are some photos of the tilling process. As mentioned before, this was a lot of fun. My spouse did most of the tilling. I shoveled. We both sifted. Imagine 30 foot by 30 foot area. Imagine it 4 to 6 inches deep. Imagine lifting that amount of soil 4 feet in the air. That's basically what we did. Fun.
The first time...
The rototiller action is kind of like walking a large dog.
A photo of the first tilled and sifted patch (about 128 sq ft).
Tilling on the last day. Here you can see the rock.
Here's 30 x 30 foot area. Not so big.
We sifted out a lot of big rocks. We are starting to dump them in the driveway. We call the patches of rocks our little accidents because it looks like someone spilled a wheel barrow. They'll make a good base for when we can afford to put down a real driveway surface (most likely 5/8 minus crushed gravel).
Here are some photos of the beam transport process.
The first time...
The rototiller action is kind of like walking a large dog.
A photo of the first tilled and sifted patch (about 128 sq ft).
Tilling on the last day. Here you can see the rock.
Here's 30 x 30 foot area. Not so big.
We sifted out a lot of big rocks. We are starting to dump them in the driveway. We call the patches of rocks our little accidents because it looks like someone spilled a wheel barrow. They'll make a good base for when we can afford to put down a real driveway surface (most likely 5/8 minus crushed gravel).
Here are some photos of the beam transport process.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Anniversary
We just realized that it was exactly a year ago we first got an agent and took a look at the rat hole. A whole year! It's hard to believe. It's even more difficult to believe that it actually looks WORSE than when we first looked at it! Aaa ha ha ha ha! But it's better and stronger, and it will someday be a beautiful, cozy home.
Here's to the past year!
Here's to the past year!
Beam Me Up
We got our beams last weekend!
We were actually going to break one of the windows that we're pulling out to get the long beams inside. Then we remembered how cold it is in our house. Granted, the windows already have bb holes in them that aren't helping the insulation value of the glass, but they're better than nothing. Sort of, at least. So, we decided to take it in through the kitchen window. Worked like a charm! So now our beams are sitting in their new home, waiting to be installed.
We also got our lawn tilled. We ran some calculation, and figure that we tilled, sifted, shoveled, and raked around 10 tons of dirt. We both loathe shoveling. Only about a 30' by 30' patch got tilled. We're going to leave the rest for next year, since the rest of it is rock- and garbage-hell. It's supposed to be nice outside this weekend, so we'll probably till in compost and maybe even plant seed. That would be VERY nice to have done. ^_^ We also borrowed the trusty jackhammer to attack the humongous rock. We're going to see if we can break it into pieces. We'll see how that goes- I'm not optimistic.
Once the yard is done, it's time to work on the inside. I'm looking forward to it. I hope we can get drywall up by Thanksgiving. I'm not holding my breath, although our Thanksgiving guests might have to. Heh heh.
We were actually going to break one of the windows that we're pulling out to get the long beams inside. Then we remembered how cold it is in our house. Granted, the windows already have bb holes in them that aren't helping the insulation value of the glass, but they're better than nothing. Sort of, at least. So, we decided to take it in through the kitchen window. Worked like a charm! So now our beams are sitting in their new home, waiting to be installed.
We also got our lawn tilled. We ran some calculation, and figure that we tilled, sifted, shoveled, and raked around 10 tons of dirt. We both loathe shoveling. Only about a 30' by 30' patch got tilled. We're going to leave the rest for next year, since the rest of it is rock- and garbage-hell. It's supposed to be nice outside this weekend, so we'll probably till in compost and maybe even plant seed. That would be VERY nice to have done. ^_^ We also borrowed the trusty jackhammer to attack the humongous rock. We're going to see if we can break it into pieces. We'll see how that goes- I'm not optimistic.
Once the yard is done, it's time to work on the inside. I'm looking forward to it. I hope we can get drywall up by Thanksgiving. I'm not holding my breath, although our Thanksgiving guests might have to. Heh heh.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Tillin' and Toilin'
Not much new has been going on around here. We're still plugging away with the rototiller. We do about 128 square feet at a time, and to till and sift it takes us about 2.5 hours. Oy. But we're getting lots of big rocks out. Unfortunately, we pull most of them out by jamming up the rototiller. Oh well, it's working. It's really hard to make ourselves go out there after a long day of regular work, but at least the weather's been nice. That makes it a bit easier. Anyway, as soul-sucking as it is, and as long as it's taking us, we can already see a big difference in the topography of our yard, which is gratifying. We probably have about 2-3 weeks of tilling left to go, should we so decide. We'll see if it's still gratifying by the time we're finished.
In other news, the front lot guy is almost done with his house. They put in gravel for RV parking (thereby reducing the "yard" size even further) and are starting to put in a fence along the property line that borders our driveway. I'm looking forward to having him out of our hair. I hope we get decent neighbors, although I pity them for buying such a poorly-constructed house. (This from someone who bought a rat hole...oy...)
Anyway, when we're tired of tilling, we can go play with our latest discovery, the cousin of the rock of Gibraltar. It's in our backyard, just a few inches from where we put in the drain. It's HUGE. We thought at first it was a two-person rock, then a four-person rock, and since we've excavated it a bit more I'm not even sure my truck could pull it out. It's only an inch or two below grade, so we don't know what to do with it. It's nice and flat on top, perfect for use in landscaping, but it's so huge we'll probably just bury it again. *sigh*
We also should get our windows and beams this week. Hooray! It's going to be nice to start work on the actual house. I can see the room in my mind's eye. Hopefully we'll have some real progress to show off in the months to come.
In other news, the front lot guy is almost done with his house. They put in gravel for RV parking (thereby reducing the "yard" size even further) and are starting to put in a fence along the property line that borders our driveway. I'm looking forward to having him out of our hair. I hope we get decent neighbors, although I pity them for buying such a poorly-constructed house. (This from someone who bought a rat hole...oy...)
Anyway, when we're tired of tilling, we can go play with our latest discovery, the cousin of the rock of Gibraltar. It's in our backyard, just a few inches from where we put in the drain. It's HUGE. We thought at first it was a two-person rock, then a four-person rock, and since we've excavated it a bit more I'm not even sure my truck could pull it out. It's only an inch or two below grade, so we don't know what to do with it. It's nice and flat on top, perfect for use in landscaping, but it's so huge we'll probably just bury it again. *sigh*
We also should get our windows and beams this week. Hooray! It's going to be nice to start work on the actual house. I can see the room in my mind's eye. Hopefully we'll have some real progress to show off in the months to come.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
How to get a rototiller airborne
So my wonderful mother-in-law sent us a rototiller, which arrived on our wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, I was concussed, and then we left on vacation (during which we had a very lovely time). We didn't have time to put it together. That changed this weekend.
The rototiller was really easy to put together, and we eagerly took it outside. Neither of us has ever used a rototiller before. It's a Mantis, and it was brand-spanking-new. We put in the gas, fired it up, and immediately decided that it was the scariest piece of machinery we've used thus far. Granted, it's not quite as deadly as a chainsaw (although almost), and it's not quite as big and capable of dealing head injuries as the backhoe, but good heavens, it's scary. The upper body strength required to control it is pretty surprising. It's not that big of a machine! As soon as we got it started, though, it was dragging me across the yard. It was much like walking a large, very eager dog. I managed to get it under control and began to till a patch of yard. It was doing fine until I gave it some more gas to speed up the process.
The thing actually jumped off the ground. I don't know if we're using it wrong, or it's because our soil is so rocky, or what, but that thing's like wrestling a greased pig! Or at least what I imagine wresting a greased pig must be like. I've never done that, even though I grew up in MT. *shrug* Anyway, the thing twisted and bucked like nobody's business. It was just BARELY under control the entire time.
Thing is, it WORKS! It works incredibly well! It churns up the soil perfectly, making it fine and lovely, and it's so easy to shovel and rake. We're picking out the big rocks as we go, too. Although it exhausted us to use (we got abot 128 square feet done today), it was totally worth it. We look forward to tilling the entire yard. If we can do a little each night, it's totally plausible we'll be able to plant grass seed before mid-October. We will have jungle and dust bowl no more. A reasonably-tame yard finally seems like it actually is in our future.
The rototiller was really easy to put together, and we eagerly took it outside. Neither of us has ever used a rototiller before. It's a Mantis, and it was brand-spanking-new. We put in the gas, fired it up, and immediately decided that it was the scariest piece of machinery we've used thus far. Granted, it's not quite as deadly as a chainsaw (although almost), and it's not quite as big and capable of dealing head injuries as the backhoe, but good heavens, it's scary. The upper body strength required to control it is pretty surprising. It's not that big of a machine! As soon as we got it started, though, it was dragging me across the yard. It was much like walking a large, very eager dog. I managed to get it under control and began to till a patch of yard. It was doing fine until I gave it some more gas to speed up the process.
The thing actually jumped off the ground. I don't know if we're using it wrong, or it's because our soil is so rocky, or what, but that thing's like wrestling a greased pig! Or at least what I imagine wresting a greased pig must be like. I've never done that, even though I grew up in MT. *shrug* Anyway, the thing twisted and bucked like nobody's business. It was just BARELY under control the entire time.
Thing is, it WORKS! It works incredibly well! It churns up the soil perfectly, making it fine and lovely, and it's so easy to shovel and rake. We're picking out the big rocks as we go, too. Although it exhausted us to use (we got abot 128 square feet done today), it was totally worth it. We look forward to tilling the entire yard. If we can do a little each night, it's totally plausible we'll be able to plant grass seed before mid-October. We will have jungle and dust bowl no more. A reasonably-tame yard finally seems like it actually is in our future.
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