Projaholics…We’re Baaaaack!

A 5 year project is nearly at an end.  We originally started with building a garage.  When we bought the house it had a carport….and hubby waited years till we could build one. 

Well, 2 months after the garage was built we found there was a bunch of air pockets in the floor, and in the end they ripped it out and re-poured it

. Which left us with 22 yards of concrete slabs in our front yard which, we called “yard art”.  With that we built a courtyard/patio 40ft long between the house and garage which ends with the 6ft wall you see in the photo.

Because, What else would we do with it!

So, for the past few years we’ve had a mini mountain of rubble (as in solid, it ain’t going no where pile of concrete) that we would rabbit up and down to get to the back property. We needed steps.

  We’d looked at various plans and designs for steps but everything was just to formal for us.  Backed up to the wooded area, we wanted something that would blend into the surroundings.  We’d visited quite a few quarry’s looking at rocks but they were pricy to say the least.  So we started stashing and saving.  It seemed crazy to us to pay so much for rock to finish a project that (other than the garage) was less than $500.00!

Then a few weeks after one of our quarry visits, Larry got a call saying (one we visited a few times) the company was going out of business…come get which ever rock we wanted….free!. SCORE!!!

Each stone is 6-8 inches thick and at least 4 ft. across and 300-500 lbs.…we wanted nice wide steps.  We have folks of all ages in and out here at our house and well, we’re no spring chickens ourselves any more. 

We wanted steps wide and safe for all ages.

The stones have sat in back of the house for a few years while we built the addition & all the while we’ve discussed what we wanted to do/could do with them

Last night Larry came home and said “wanna play with rocks”?  Ahhh!  Be still my beating heart!

Prep work and planning done was done last night so this morning at 7:30 we started in with overcast skies that thankfully stayed to shade us all day.

I’m pretty sure our family thinks we’re nuts.

I know they think we’re weird!

2 popped in to “see what we were up to this time”

FYI….Crowbars break under 500 lb. stones.   Just a fact I thought I’d share..but you need them to arm-strong the stones

So do shovels…I think I’ll paint it and use it for yard art of some kind

We used Big Red to place the stones in general locations

Moving those suckers manually 4-8 ft. up the hill was not an option.

I learned all kinds of new things .  How to drive the tractor, maneuvering stones pushing them into place with the blade

Isaiah has been a part of this entire project for the past 5 yrs.  He said he was going to be here to help finish it & boy was he was a major help today

The last stone.  We weren’t sure there was enough energy in us to finish but, by 5pm we were done!

Isaiah hosed off the gravel

We are done!

The stones are brown and blue, I wish I could capture the colors.

Supper was a big salad cause that’s all we had the energy for…as in energy to chew.

Fire in the fire pit with s’mores for dessert.

Our next project?

I think I’d like it to be something that does not involve rocks!!

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,projaholics,repurposing,yardart
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Projaholics…on the home stretch!

It’s been a while but after a lot of thought,I’m sticking my toe back in the blogging waters. Thank you to those who emailed offering encouragement to start back up.   Let see, where to start!

The addition is nearly  done!  We’re down to the finishing work.

My work room needs: the closet door track & doors installed and trim painted.   It’s the only room that had unpainted trim. We got a little ahead of ourselves on that one. (yes, we were to excited to wait)  After all the fussing I did about wanting color in my home, the paint color I chose is “Alpaca”.  A neutral cream-ish.  I thought I want a vibrant & bold color in here but after a lot of thought I went with something I could make bold and vibrant!  I’ve yet to find cabinets & counters I want or, am willing to pay for.   We’ve quite a few peddlers malls in the area I’ve been watching for counters & cabinets to repurpose. I think I’ll post on the local Free-cycle also.  It’s the time of year when a lot of home remodeling is going on & with any luck someone will be redoing their kitchen!

The laundry room is done.  The construction portion any way. Again I need to find a cabinet to go under the window. We have a repurposed counter stashed just waiting to be installed.

The Bathroom is painted (no trim yet) and has lights up.   Larry just created this beautiful tile floor, pretty darn good for his first tile work I think! The shower needs tiled next & once that is complete the vanity, sink & commode can be installed. 

The hall/entry area:    As this is the main entry area to the other rooms we’ve already bumped & nicked the walls a few times carrying things in. For now It’s painted, the temporary flooring is in and the closet door is up but to avoid re-doing work, we will finish this area last.

It’s been a long road getting here but we’re on the home stretch now!

Technorati Tags: Katidids,projaholics,addition,do it your selfers

Projaholics Are Back!

We started the addition!

And it’s been….. interesting . We found out the hard way a few years ago the original owner took all kinds of short cuts when he built the house. Minor details (not)little things like water pipes plumed straight through without emergency shut off valves..you know **ahem** minor details…. So I’m not sure why I was so surprised when we started construction that NOTHING in the space where we are working in is square. Not the floor to the walls, not the outer edge, the support poles? Bah Not even the existing walls or ceiling!! So it’s been a challenge for Mr. Fix~It framing. He had the first section done (the longest area) completed last night.

This first photo is for my children, for posterity sake…I don’t think they have EVER seen this momentous event…Your Dad is actually READING THE DIRECTIONS for the new tool!!!

He claims he was just looking at photosThe wall was done & ready to go up.  We hoisted it on the pulley we rigged, were tapping it into place….& the pulley broke and down the wall went…over Mr. Fix~It!  Thankfully he was able to quickly turn to have his feet turned the length of the wall.  As it was going down I had these visions of an emergency room visit with 2 crushed feet….. Rebuilt, we called Danielle and she came over to help support the wall as we wedged it in.  This section with the framing up will be my STUDIO!!!!!!

RAHHHH! The crowd roars!!!!

Or, is that my family happy knowing the yarn will be out of the living room soon?

Technorati Tags: Projaholics,construction