How's Everything Since the Stimulus?!

I can't say that the stimulus saved my life... just my week. And it possibly saved this weekend too - since I'll be able to get my hands on some materials.

But first let me rewind back to last weekend. This has been such a crazy week that I've barely had time to breath out, let alone blog anything! Saturday we were even so busy that we didn't manage to start the footings until 4 or 5 in the afternoon! At at that point we were so wiped - it was really hard work.

We had to get it done, though. We had rented the cement mixer for the weekend only.

So we got out the hose and the cement and started just mixing away. The actual pouring into the sonotubes turned out to be a little difficult too. Mostly because we've had so much rain that the sonotubes were moist and the cardboard layers kept peeling off of the edges. Not so much to compromise the structural integrity of the tube - just enough to be a pain in the butt while pouring in cement.


Mike tilted the mixer as I kneeled down by the hole with a piece of plywood that I used to direct the pouring cement into the hole. The system worked relatively well. And, it turned out we had nearly the exact correct amount of cement. We only had two bags left over. Very cool. I love a day that I don't have to run back to the DeepHo for some stupid thing.

After each tube was full, we put a bracket into the cement at the exact tube center. These will later hold the posts of the porch. We had a problem with the footing nearest to the house. Somehow, it had gotten off center! I don't know whether we were just off on our calculations initially, or whether all the rain settled the soil in some weird way - the world may never know. But on that one we had to offset the bracket so that it would line up with the other footings. I was pretty nervous about that, but Mike assured me that we'd be able to make it work.

We finished the footings around nightfall and just crapped out. Sunday morning was even more hectic and the weather was terrible! But we managed to make it to the blessing of the bikes anyway, and then enjoyed lunch with some friends over at The All American... soaked mind you. By the time we made it home from that we totally just wanted to poop out. And we did!

That was our last weekend.

And if you were thinking we'd start building the porch this weekend - well, you'd be absolutely... WRONG. Nope - we still have some other stuff to catch up on first - plus, the weather's going to be terrible. Again. But no worries, cause we've got so much stuff to get a jump on.

Number A - We've got a scrap metal run to make on Saturday morning - and then, hopefully, a dump run.

Number B - We need to install that new dryer vent, especially with all this rain heading our way.

Number C - (Cause I like numbering my letters.) We have to nail up the exterior window trim we cut and painted like a million years ago.

Number D - We have to pull back the siding on the front of the house, fix any rot, and install plywood in prep for the new siding.

Number E - If I get any time to myself, I need to scrape and repaint some peeling areas of the current window trim.

Number F - We need to get up into the attic and figure out where the mudroom track light wire goes so we can get that fixed and/or hooked up.

Number G - We NEED need need need need to reinstall the french doors. Yes, we just got the glass fixed and all that - but the thing is, we need to caulk the whole thing and install some flashing at the bottom. That's been missing from the start and if nothing else but this gets done this weekend - I will be a happy happy camper because I've been complaining about this since the beginning.

So I think that's plenty enough to keep us busy this weekend, if the rain holds off.