Anti-Kerby (sorry mom)

For months now Kay has been saying that she wants me to buy her a Kerby. for some reason there was a door to door salesman that came around and got Kay all excited about the mighty Kerby.........$1200.00 for the basics? i don't think so! well i met her somewhere in the middle. i finally caved in and got her a new Hoover Wind tunnel II. It was around $300 once taxes and shipping were added into it. I must say....if I've got to pay more than $100 on a dirt sucking machine, this is a good one. here are some pictures. the carpet had been vacuumed before it arrived, and this was done after we had "cleaned" the carpet with our old vacuum. it has a hepa filter that cleans it's self every 6 seconds. that is the very very fine dirt on my fingers. it was finer than sawdust. then everything else collects in a Handy dandy bag less compartment.

NO BITING!

MY SON BIT ME! AND I HAVE THE MARK TO PROVE IT!

OK, SO MAYBE I ASKED FOR IT...WE WERE ROUGH HOUSING, AND PLAYIN', I PRETENDED THAT I WAS EATING HIS LEG, AND SAID, THAT IT TASTED LIKE CHICKEN YUMM....WELL, HE WANTED TO SEE IF I TASTED LIKE CHICKEN TOO I GUESS. HE BIT ME. ON THE BACK. IT BROKE THE SKIN. THAT MARK IS ABOUT THE SIZE OF A QUARTER. IT HURTS. I DONT PLAY LIKE I AM EATING ANYTHING ANYMORE.

PART 19 (November 11, 07)

Well, the windows are in, 1/2 the roof is complete, the hot water heater and water softener is in, the electrical has been started, and all the leftovers have been moved into the basement. the plan is to finish the electrical, and start on stucco the coming two weeks. It's getting there!

Part 18

OK OK OK.....here are a few updates... we got the roof on and blacked in. The plumbing has also been completed. Anson is helping as much as he can, and chases the cat with sticks as much as he can. The cat hasn't been seriously hurt YET....

Part 17 (September 15)

Well, another successful day! John and Robert came over for a fun filled day of buildin'. all the framing is done on the inside, and the roof looks like a roof. all the in between work from part 16 was sheeting on the outside, the rest of the framing with the bathroom, and windows; we had to drill 6 1/2 inch bolts from our bottom plate down into the concrete every 24 inches. those bolts got a 3 inch square washer along with them. the heat is on now....not really, summer is over, and there is a change in the air. all i can hope is to have all the outside done before it gets too cold out.

Part 16 (August 23, 2007)

Well, with the help of John and Tom, I now have walls! It took us the better part of the last two days. mainly because our existing house only has 8 foot ceilings, and our addition has 9 foot ceilings. I had to rip off the over-hang where our addition sits. that was not easy nor was it fun. but its done of the most part. the picture from the inside is looking from the play room into the master bedroom and bath.

Part 15

OK so i need to bring you up to speed. we got the basement floor poured, then came the floor joists, and then the rest of the floor on the main level. the floor joists and flooring really didn't take all that long, and feels good to finally see it taking shape.

Part 14

Time to get rid of the over-head lines. The city requires a 30 inch deep trench dug. I did the ground level trench with a back hoe, up the hill, and on top of the hill had to be done by hand......what joy that was.... after the digging came 4 inches of "SAND" because most of the stuff that came out from where we are doing the addition was sand, and i do everything i can to save some money on it, we sifted all our sand. this consisted of making a wood frame with a wire screen on bottom that had 1/4 inch holes in it. that was placed on top of a wheelbarrow and the sand that had a TON of rocks in it got sifted into nice rock free sand. sounds easy right? no. 4 inches of sand in a 2 foot wide trench that was 150 feet long took forever! but we got it in, and the 2 inch pipe got put on top of the 4 inches of sand. the next fun part....12 inches of sand on top of the pipe.

PART 13

OK........wow.......lets just say that was almost going to be 3rd times a charm. due to the pressure, we had a few 2x4's snap like twigs, and our 8 inch thick wall quickly turned into a 12 inch thick wall. we had to stop everything several times to let is set up before we poured anymore from fear of it all coming out again. you could hear the wood cracking, and you can see from the picture they bent like crazy.

PART 12

HERE WE GO AGAIN, EVERYONE CROSS YOUR FINGERS!

PART 11?

OK so when you are digging, chipping, and hauling out spilt concrete for a week and a half, you kinda loose track of what day your on. so i will just call my house blogs "parts". like i said, the concrete is out, i have put the tar on the out side wall, got the window wells in, and back filled for the most part.

DAY 10 THE MESS

THE DRY MESS, NOT A GOOD SIGHT, IT GOT SPREAD THIN SO WE COULD CHIP IT UP AND TAKEN OUT. KEEP IN MIND IT IS NEAR OR OVER 100 DEGREES.

DAY 7, 8 &9

WELL WE GOT THE WALL FORMS UP AND SET. THEN WE ATTEMPTED TO POUR THE WALLS. THE WEST WALL UNDER THE HOUSE GAVE US A LITTLE PROBLEM....IT DIDN'T HOLD. OUR LAST TRUCK OF 4 1/2 YARDS SPILLED OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE FORM. LETS SEE, AT $125 A YARD, THAT'S $562.50 WORTH OF CONCRETE ON THE FLOOR AND ON THE YARD THAT WE, AND WHEN I SAY, WE, I MEAN, I, HAD TO SPREAD ALL OVER THE PLACE SO IT WAS NOT JUST ONE BIG BLOB. GOOD TIMES....

DAY 6

WELL THE FOOTINGS ARE POURED. WHAT A MESS. TO SAVE MONEY, WE DID NOT RENT A CONCRETE PUMP, AND GOT TWO WHEELBARROWS WORKING TO RUN THE "MUD" ACROSS TO THE OTHER END AND DUMP IT IN THE FORMS. NOTHING LIKE CONCRETE SPLASHING IN YOUR FACE AND MOUTH, IN 100 DEGREE WEATHER.

DAY 5

THESE ARE THE FORMS FOR THE FOOTINGS. THEY ARE 10 INCHES TALL AND 24 INCHES WIDE. OUR WALLS WILL SIT ON TOP OF THEM.

DAY 4

IT MAY NOT LOOK LIKE MUCH, BUT IT TOOK 6 LONG HOURS TO JACK HAMMER THE STAIRS DOWN AND INTO SMALL ENOUGH PIECES TO BE TAKEN OUT

DAY 3

WELL THE HOLE IS DUG. AND WE NOW HAVE OUR VERY OWN MOUNTAIN IN OUR BACK YARD. WE LOST TWO TREES IN THE PROCESS. THE PEACH TREE GOT RAN OVER, AND THE APRICOT GOT BARRI ED. I NEVER IMAGINED WE WOULD HAVE SO MUCH DIRT! THANKFULLY THERE WAS A LOT OF SAND TOWARDS THE BOTTOM, I THINK I HAVE HAD ALL THE SHOVELING I CAN TAKE.

THE HOUSE DAY 2

WELL, IT IS NOW A MESS! DIRT DIRT DIRT.....THE ONLY ONE THAT THINKS IT IS COOL, IS ANSON! WE HAVE HAD A FEW CLOSE CALLS, ALMOST LOST OUR POWER LINE MANY TIMES, AND WE NOW HAVE A NICE BIG HOLE IN OUR OUTSIDE BRICK WALL. AND NO, WE DIDN'T WANT IT THERE, IT'S CALLED A BACKHOE! AT DAY TWO (OF WORK BEING DONE ON THE HOUSE) 1/2 THE HOLE HAS BEEN DUG. (NOTE, NO MORE PRITTY GREEN GRASS, LOTS OF DIRT!) DOES ANYONE NEED SOME DIRT?