More progress 12/24/08

The outside apartment 12/14/08

We finally started on the outside apartment this week. Rick assembled the beams inside the shop this week, and we started putting them up on Saturday. As is always the case when we start a major construction project outdoors, it was quite windy this weekend. Saturday wasn't too bad, but Sunday was very brown with 60+mph winds.

Minx and I are helping.

Trees and grass

August 2, 2005: The day we purchased the land.

October 2005: The fun begins.

Watering the old-fashioned way (before the well).

Winter 2005/early Spring 2006: The water line. We put a water line 2 foot deep around the perimeter of the property. You can see the "windbreak" trees if you look closely. This is the future site of the pipe fence on the west side of the property.

Finishing the well house in October 2006 just before the first big freeze.

A light winter ice storm in early 2007 bent several of the trees nearly to the ground. This live oak didn't straighten back up completely until the summer of 2008.

Spring 2007: The grass plugs planted along windbreak trees late in summer of 2006 were starting to spread. The desert pines were still tiny but surviving.

Early August 2008: the grass was doing well. A huge area had been sprayed and weeded. I spent countless days and weeks putting grass plugs in the remaining area to the west of the driveway.

Late September 2008: the grass plugs (and weeds) were spreading . The ongoing driveway project is in the background.

Something to make life a little easier....

Mid-December 2008: Just about everything is dormant for winter, but the grass plugs have grown well and will fill in quickly in spring. Several of the desert pines are now about 5 foot tall.

Minx

The Driveway

We started the driveway on September 20. We poured 32 feet (14 feet wide) the first day. Chris, Tracy, and Randy helped.

The second pour was on September 27. We poured 62 feet (10 yards). We had the same crew, plus Tim, Tyler, and Chris' friend Jim.






The third pour was October 4. We went all the way to the street, including the gutter/drainage ditch. We ordered 11 1/2 yards. We also poured a small pad in front of the well house. We had the original crew plus Chris' friend Jim, Chris' cousin, and Jim's son.

We poured 8 more yards on Oct. 11th. Randy & Tracy helped. There was rain in the forecast, and we got lots of raindrops. We decided to risk it and it worked out OK. We finished the west side of the driveway in front of the shop plus the apron area in front. We had a forecast for lots of rain all week, so Rickey, Randy & I did the levelling work on the FINAL part of the driveway (east side of the driveway in front of the shop). We hope to finish it next weekend!!!

We had a delay on Oct. 18th weekend due to heavy rains during the week. We finally got to finish up the driveway on October 25 with help from Randy, Tracy and Michael. It was a cold start but turned out to be a beautiful day. It feels great to finally be through with the driveway!!

We're going to be working on the loft inside the shop over the next few weeks and will be starting on the outside phase of the apartment very soon. Rick will have a lot of time to work on the apartment and shop for the next few months and will alternate between indoor and outdoor projects depending on the weather. Stay tuned......................................................................................