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Pour it Baby!

The point of no return. 9 hours on the business end of a jackhammer and this is all we have to show for it?

We figured 16 truckloads of urban rubble to the landfill and two days of solid labor OR an hour and 45 minutes with a bobcat and a dump truck. It was a tossup :-) Jay and Rena kindly paid for the professional help on both ends of the project.

Here’s a shot of the compaction under the previous pad. Not much in the way of road mix (as in nothing…). It was no wonder it cracked.

Pulling out some fresh lumber from Franklin Building Supply to setup some nice clean forms. The boys loved helping when they could.

Jay the perfectionist! It was so nice to have his quality eye and expertise to give it that professional touch.

This form was as much work as anything else on the project. Not only did we have to solve the 20 inch grade problem, but we had to solve the 1/2 stake through the neighborhood cable line problem. heh heh heh….

Here we are forming up the landing as we get ready for the pour. You can see the road mix spread out and compacted. All told we shoveled 16 yards of 3/4 mix by hand. My dad lent a hand that day trying his hand out on the rotary hammer and teaching me the finer points of operating the human backhoe.

The pour was broken up into two separate days. Thursday we poured 8.5 yards of concrete: the landing, the steps and the west side of the house.


The boys were watching from the living room window. Here’s their view. If that’s not a concrete guy, I don’t know who is!

This guy had some fun in the concrete. He flew the coup and left some cute little chicken tracks through the middle of the wet cement. We also had a stray dog, a bike and a school boy all try to leave their marks. Wet cement is like a homing beacon for neighborhood mammals.

The gang staying in doors sick and not feeling well. Nana helped out a ton just keeping everyone fed, clean and entertained. Lisa and Rena had a full time job just keeping all the workers fed!

The final product drying out… 19.5 yards of concrete! The last cement truck said their wasn’t even half a wheelbarrow left in his truck. Those are some impressive calculations Jay!

Final Preparations and GRASS!

I spent 100 bucks on some railroad ties and about 6 hours digging to get a border put in so the dirt wouldn’t fall into my neighbors lawn. Six months later I would rip it all out when we replaced the fence. Lesson learned: do projects in the correct order! Live and learn.

The boys loved being dragged around on the home brew landscape rake. They were actually and indispensables resource. They were intelligent dead weight.

The first signs of life!

BLM Rocks and Brick Paver Preparations

Went down to the BLM office and purchased a landscape rock permit to quarry stone from the missile site south of Mountain Home about 20 miles (17 dollars for 2 tons of rock).

We borrowed Mike’s (Lisa’s dad) trailer to pick up the rock. Caleb and Brock helped unload some of the smaller stones.

I used my dad’s cherry picker to load and unload the larger stones. I harvested the rocks in the dessert by myself which was quite the adventure. I about crushed my leg several times.

This picture shows the prep work for the paver walkway. A 3 inch bed of 3/4 mix followed by a 3 inch bed of sand is the foundation for the walkway.

Trenching and Pouring Mud

Ripping through the backyard with a trencher is destructive and very unnerving. We laid down 6 separate circuits in the backyard. I managed to rip through our cable line while trenching. We don’t have cable, but I imagine if we tried to hook it up there wouldn’t be much to offer.

We also poured a footing for a future wall we envision. The forms were made from scrap OSB and homemade 2×4 stakes. It’s fun to be resourceful.

Brock is hanging out in the back of “the beast” with the 3/4 mix.

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For now the footing serves as a nice divider between the garden and the grass.

Tapping Into the Water Main

Our house did not come with a sprinkler system and so the first outdoor project was to get water to the backyard. This meant tapping into the water main (not a fun project there was any doubt). I decided instead of getting a Gold’s Gym membership I would hand dig the line around our house. The actual pipe which went from the water meter to the house was a good 7 feet deep by the time it was finally exposed.

After exposing the pipe and tapping into it, I had to dig a trench 35 feet long 30 inches deep to wrap around the house where my control box would be. Fun times. Grunt labor at its best.

Caleb doing the jig to celebrate a completed project!

Gutting the Pad

We had about two weeks between working at Solution Pro and starting at the church so we worked 14 hour days for 2 weeks solid to get the job done.

Working to get new trim up!

Grandma and the boys sweeping up dirt.

The bathroom vanities stripped out so we could tile the floors.

Tools everywhere!

Taking a bunch of junk to the dump. Thank goodness for dad’s big blue truck.

My first real tile experience by myself.

Priming the dark wood before the white paint goes on.

Buying Our First Home

This section documents some of the work we’ve done on our house since we bought it. This house has truly become our home.

Here’s some pictures of the house when it was still for sale.

The swing set doesn’t come with the house, but the tree stays!

Not bad, but the brown’s gotta go.

This was our first washer and dryer. Hey it works!

Gotta love the florescent blue!

This is the best it looked for a good two years! We pretty much wrecked the front yard from the day we moved in. I’m sure our neighbors loved us.

Sunflower overkill. Fence killed.