Truck'pdate, Smidgets, and Upcoming Electrical

At around 11pm Tuesday night, the truck arrived! (Safe and sound, I might add, much to our relief.) So here it is, Thursday, and I haven't even gotten much more then a glimpse of it. I was in bed when it arrived, rushed out of the house Wednesday morning, rushed into the house Wednesday night, crashed early to bed, and rushed out of the house this morning... not that it mattered, because the truck was gone at that point anyway. Mike drove it to work today.

How, you ask?

Turns out, he didn't need to wait 24hrs for that fuel pump. He ordered it in the AM - received it in the PM - and went straight to work as soon as he got home. I had no clue what was going on. He didn't even come in to say, "Hi what's up? Got to get to work, the fuel pump came in early." Oh well. I found out eventually. (Although I didn't know how it turned out, since I crashed early. Apparently, it turned out just fine if he's driving the thing....)

The early fuel pump pushed back my electrical plans. Honestly, I thought Mike had just plain forgot about it, but he texted me this morning, "Got to do some wiring for you tonight." Silly me, I'm imagining he's still talking about the truck. I thought, "Why the heck would that be for me??" Then it hit me - DUR. I'm the one that forgot... but only for a second.

So there's the outlets and the breaker... should probably get concrete and some sonotubes for the stair footings.... unless Mike had those at his store. Speaking of which, how bigga footings we talking about here? Do we need a hole digger? I have no clue. And if the side steps are going up the side of the house.... is that side going to need de-siding?! And if we're in the process of de-siding the side, should I be ordering a nice picture window for the kitchen, where new siding equals new window configuration because you don't want to side just to de-side and re-side?!

These are all questions I do not have the answers to.

Speaking of stuff we need, I should probably add trim for front door to that list. And speaking of the front door - where the heck is the doorbell button?! We really need to put that thing back on again.

And it's Thursday - should I be ordering materials from Morse right now?! Should I be ordering railings from Morse right now? Should I be asking you all these questions?!

Probably not. You'd probably go nuts and tell me to buy up the whole Home Depot.

OH - DOODES! I'm seriously going to return that extra steel basement support thing we've had in our basement for the last three-four years. I don't even care if I only get $2 for it. (But $1 and I'm walkin.) And no Mike is going to stop me this time. MUAH-HA-HA-HA!

But seriously, all questions aside, we need to have electrical up and running and we need to prepare for Sunday. *Was that just thunder?! Why does it rain every time we need to buy concrete?*

Switching topics - I finally remembered to take those pics for you.

Ok, so a little out of focus, but you can see the Smidget clearly here. Think it's no big deal? Doesn't look anything fancy to you? Well, just check out the wide shot:

It looks good. I mean, real good. And it's not even puttied and painted yet! (At this point I'm losing faith that I'll have the painting completed by party-time.) Another brilliant Tim-Idea.

Electrical updates due tomorrow!

Pole Wrapped

Yesterday was a perfect day for pole wrapping. Sun, fair temps, low wind... heavenly fall to say the least. And within a few short hours, the three guys had finished 4 poles!!! They would have even finished the last and final fourth pole, but this one is currently holding up our temporary steps... which, we're still in need of at the moment.

Plus, Timmy had a marvel idea. (And once I explain this, you'll see why I just love him to death!) You see, to fit the posts, the white pre-primed wood needed to be cut down by just a smidget. Obviously, that leaves us with a bunch of scrap smidgets. Trash, you ask? I would have thought so too. That is, until Timmy held one up to the ceiling where the trim meets the bead board. USE THE SMIDGETS TO TRIM THE CEILING! Oh my god, it was a revelation and it looked fabulous! So simple, but we never would have thought of it. We would have just gone out and spent hundreds of more dollars on trim, then burned the smidgets come January when burn season opens up.

Timmy, once again, saved us some big bucks. So I was so happy and excited to write him out a big check that very afternoon. (And, he never asks for any money... usually refuses it, actually. Which made me all the happier to finally be able to give him a substantial amount.)

Anyhoo - check out the new frontal view:

 

 

 Pretty swank, isn't it? (I forgot a pic of the smidget trim - I will try to grab one tomorrow.)

Once the poles were finished, the guys attempted to complete the trim up on the gambrel. (At the peak there.) However, something about having the wrong saw or no blade or something like that prevented them from completing it, and they ended for the day.

Plans for next Sunday - the steps begin! Concrete will need to be poured for the step footings, which I had never realized before. Once it cures, the steps can be built. Then - duh duh duh duh - railings. With the Halloween season upon us, I'm hoping to get an early jump on the railings. I have these crazy imaginings that I'll order them and have Mike pre-assemble all the sections so we're ready to slap them up as soon as possible.

Whether he'll be hip to that idea is another story. Hopefully, (oh please oh please) his new truck will be arriving via pro vehicle transport tomorrow. And once it's in our driveway, he's going to do nothing until he installs the needed fuel pump.

But I warned him last night! I said, I'm going to need the electrical on the porch hooked up for Halloween lighting. And I'm going to need it like, this week. On the shopping list there: all the outlets and a new breaker. With the truck arriving tomorrow, we should actually go out and purchase those like... oh, I dunno... NOW.

Halloween Party is Nov 6th.... the race to the finish is ON!