Getting ready to go up.....................

Haven't had an update in awhile so I just thought there should be one even though not much visibly has been done to the new kitchen. The structural engineering has been done, structural beams ordered. The glass wall has not arrived yet nor have the skylights. We have gotten bids on the framing and, once all the ordered materials arrive, we will have the kitchen framed and have new architectural shingles put on the house.

Here is a picture showing how far the pond is down. The water is usually almost up to the tree trucks.

The foundation has been backfilled by hand and the inside is being dug out to create a little storage for yard tools and fishing/boat stuff.

A view from the upper deck. You can see the sand (that used to be in the drivewayand was hauled down wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow by Jonathan) is down by the bank of the pond creating a beachy look. Also notice the vibrant red berry in the 50' tall holly tree.

Took a break this weekend

Koty and Tyler came down from NC to attend the South Carolina State Fair. They met up with their 2nd cousin Christopher for the fun.

Riding the Tilt-a-Whirl

Koty, Tyler and their mother Leslie went to view the fair from that of a bird's eye.

Jackie, after her mama and I got home from the fair, decided to catch a quick nap on her mama's shoulders.

Ready for framing / Happy b'day Megan

The masons don't have to go without a warm meal / all they need is their microwave oven and my electricity.

All piers are in place

Just alittle more veneer to finish and we are ready to get it on with the framing.

Today, I believe was productive; Jose, I and several of the boys went to Lowes to pickup 115 blocks. As it turned out Lowes had exactly 115 blocks (am I living right or what?) Santos, another associate of Jesus, stopped by today to give me a bid on the framing and roofing. He has crews available within several days and is very competative; we will see.....

We are planning/heavily to go to Atlanta for our anniversary on Monday to look at cabinets at the IKEA store. These plans are not, at this point firm, but may very well end up being carried out. Obviously there will be another post to this blog should that happen.

More Progress / More Block needed

Today the concrete company delivered the two cubes of block and bags of mortar that I paid for yesterday. All of the block was used and we now are still 115 blocks short just to get to the point of framing. Others would start to get very irritated at this point (expend negative energy) but what value would that add. Jose, the foreman for this portion of the job (oh, by the way this crew is from Vera Cruz) is feeling abit sheepish. I believe that they are doing a good job and they are working hard and not complaining. The only issue is that they like their mariachi music loud.

Looks like Tuesday completion is out of the question as we will be getting more block tomorrow

Foundation rising / Happy B'day Eleri

All of the remaining block that was on site was laid today. I ordered another two cubes as well as 20 bags of mortar to be delivered tomorrow (an unexpected expense). Block will be used for the peers inside of the foundation walls as well as to finish the foundation. The brick veneer does not match the existing to our liking so we are, at the moment, thinking of painting the brick on the back, bottom of the house. Yesterday we ordered the glass pond front from Home Depot and all of the sky lights (4 for the kitchen and two for the screened 3 seasons room on the upper deck.

Foundation starts to rise

Four masons showed up on Saturday pulling a mixer and tools.

The mortar started mixing

Jose and some of his crew laid out the walls and started marking levels

Cleaning the junk and dirt off the footings needed to be done.

Once the lines were established block started to be laid.

It was humid but cool for South Carolina, only about 83 degrees F.

Rumor is that these guys will be done on Tuesday. (We'll see...)

It was fun to see our new kitchen start coming out of the ground.

Masonry sand arrives

This might look like more sand than we need..... Well it is. The thought was that we would dump most of it by the pond shore and have a little beach area. It will still get to the shore, just needs to travel wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow to get there.
Our neighbor graciously gave us permission to drive through her yard to our back yard. The truck driver thought that he (and his 38 ton truck) would crush the culvert going into the pond and rip up the neighbors yard so a command decision was made to dump in the driveway on Hans' car's side.