continued progress

Progress continues.

Trim is coming along nicely and should be finished this week.

The garage doors finally made it and although a few adjustments are still needed they are installed.

And finally, the stone has arrived. Each pallet (of which only a few are pictured) weighs about 4,000 pounds. The first load was about 40,000 pounds of wall stone and about 12,000 pounds of porch floor stone. Initial estimates called for about 30 to 35 tons of stone, or 60,000 to 70,000 pounds. This will be interesting to watch!

quick update

Well, a quick (and now that I see it somewhat fuzzy) picture of some of the interior trim. And a picture of the area outside the garage after the rough grading. The trees next to the old driveway that didn't burn up in the fire died as a result of the fire, so we had them removed last week and the low area filled, which leaves a much bigger area to park and turn around.

the trim man cometh!!!

Well, not only did the trim man come and start to work, the loader guy came and finished the rough grading. Unfortunately, while the garage doors alledgedly left Mars and came to Atlanta, the installers were unable to make it to Marietta. Hopefully, they will be able to load up their truck and make the trek up the hill to Marietta (also known as the land of the big chicken as evidenced by the attached).

I don't have any usable pictures of the trim or the grading since I waited until it was too dark to take any so I will try to post some tomorrow.

The trim man is hoping to finish this week which means paint can start the week of Memorial Day. Raul the stone man never did find us; he apparently did not know his right from left in english which made it hard to give directions. So, hopefully we will meet with another stone man this week.

more progress but not much to show

Regular readers may recall the sheetrock was hung week before last. They spent the week finishing the sheetrock and completed it yesterday. So, much accomplished although, from a blog picture perspective, not much to show.

We did visit a stone yard and discovered our first choice is Tennessee Medium Fieldstone. Stone work is both complex and a little primitive, when you really think about it. I was surprised at how little a ton of stone can cover. For our application, a ton of stone is normally used every 40 to 45 square feet. So, before it is all said and done, we could easily end up using 40 to 50 tons of stone. That's a lot of stone.

This week will be a big week. Trim and interior doors are to be delivered tomorrow; the trim man is to start on Tuesday, the loader will return on Tuesday to do some more grading and I am to meet with the mason on Tuesday as well. The garage doors were apparently shipped to Mars and have now been promised to be delivered and installed on Friday. Hopefully by week's end we will be able to lock the house.

The power of sheetrock

There is a book entitled Praying for Sheetrock that recounts the sad but true story of life and politics in a backwoods county in south Georgia in the 1970’s. One of the stories told is how the local sheriff, anytime there was a big truck accident, would oversee the looting and then the distribution of the freight to the poor and oppressed, in an attempt to win their vote in the next election.

The author tells of speaking with an old woman who’d lived a hard and difficult life who added a small room on her house to care for a disabled adult child. She’d run out of money and was “praying for sheetrock, praying hard for sheetrock”, hoping a sheetrock truck would wreck so she could finish the room. Sure enough, a sheetrock truck did wreck and the sheriff made sure she got the sheetrock she needed.

We’re not poor and were not oppressed, for which I am very thankful. And we’re a paying customer, not a truck wreck beneficiary, for which I am also very thankful. But I think I’ve learned just a small bit of how she felt.

There’s power in sheetrock. Sheetrock turns sticks into walls and walls into rooms and rooms into a house. Sheetrock is a tipping point, where you know it’s really going to happen, where you can see what it’s going to look like.

We’ve got sheetrock. And it feels good.

Workers insulated the house early in the week and then the sheetrock came. Actually, it came twice, as the first time the truck was too heavy to make it up the driveway, so it had to go back and be reloaded on two trucks instead of one. Then the sheetrock hangers started. They wasted no time and hung it a day and a half. Then the finishers started. They should finish this week, at which time the trim guy can start. So, much progress. This has been a good week and in more ways than one.

Some may remember after the fire Leo the cat was missing and was one of our prayer concerns. He showed up about a week later, prompting my brother-in-law to refer to him as the “most prayed for cat in the history of mankind”. We brought him to where we are staying but he took off the first chance he got, only to turn up back at the old house five days later. We brought him back again and he seemed to adjust to indoor living a little.

Where we are staying is about a mile or so with four or five major subdivisions and one heavily travel road in between. I figure he is about five percent of my size, so a mile or so to me would be 20 or 40 miles to him.

Leo found an open door week before last and took off again. This time he made it back in three days. A neighbor called to said they had seen him in their backyard.

He’s back with us now, although clearly not his first choice. He’s reminded us that he is not our cat as much as we are his people. He likes the outdoors and living in a one bedroom apartment is just alittle much for him. Hopefully, he can stay put another six or eight weeks until we can move.

And one more point; we obviously live in the age of technology and the power of the internet is upon us. Although I don’t know who all reads this I must admit I was alittle surprised to read comments last week left by Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, Zig Zigular and Hurley, also known as Hugo from the television series Lost, all in the same week. What are the odds?