Last Saturday, after Ken and Ian finished digging footers and it got too dark to do any more painting, we decided to dispose of all those weeds we pulled last month that were still sitting on the trailer:
What better way to do this than to burn it?
The wind finally died down and the stuff was still fairly moist from the rain we've had recently, so the conditions were perfect
Have no fear; I took a class on prescribed burning during undergrad, so we had it all under control
Not to mention, we kept a water hose nearby
We weren't as prepared as we would have liked, so while Ken fed the fire, I ran to Publix to buy a six pack.
Unfortunately, I forgot marshmellows (I was not a happy camper).
We ended up burning about half the pile...
...and nearly killed the entire six pack.
At one point, we heard sirens in the distance. Ken will tell you he wasn't nervous, but I've never seen someone run to the hose so fast.
I'm not going to lie...I was terrified! Luckily, they were headed in a different direction.
This weekend was nice and warm- the warmest weekend we've seen this year! It hit 80 degrees both Saturday and Sunday, so that made for a nice time working outdoors. I guess the Sandhill cranes also thought it was warm enough to be active, because they flew over the neighborhood for about an hour. Here are a few more photos of the cranes:
And here is a video I shot, just so you can get a taste of how loud they can get:
While I was photographing the wildlife, Ken and his nephew, Ian, were busy digging footers. An average of 12-20" had to be dug around the perimeter of the house. Steel will eventually be laid in it.
Here is Ian, taking the first dig
This is what it looked like after awhile...
The hole got longer and longer. And the boys grew more and more tired. That's a whole lot of earth to move...
While they dug, I had the very important job of painting the shed. We picked out what we had hoped to be the future house colors and wanted to see what it looked like in "real life". I think we saw a house with similar in St Augustine, so that's where the idea came from.
Before pic
Paint Colors are: Sockeye, Almond, and Dive In. Coral was actually the color we were aiming for, not pink. I should have figured that with a name like "Sockeye", it would turn out to be salmon!
Before I could paint the shed, I had to pressure wash it first:
Here is a serious photo of me washing
Next, I painted the shutters pink... err, I mean salmon:
Then came the fun stuff: climbing up and down the ladder to paint the parts I couldn't reach
Ken couldn't believe how long it took for me to paint this dang shed. I painted for about 10 hours this weekend, and I'm still not 100% finished!
I forgot my paint cup, so I had to improvise
Before you think our choice of paint colors is totally wacky, check out the rest of the neighborhood:
See? The aqua may actually look pretty good against the dark green house next door!
Next came the salmon door:
Seeing that much of the color all at once confirmed we needed to repaint it- it's a real eyesore. It looks like something straight out of Miami Beach, circa 1995. I guess it's better we experimented with the shed than on the actual house!
All in all, it was a long, productive, tiring day. We arrived around 10am and didn't leave until about 9:30pm, just to return the next day and do it all over again. More photos and video to come!
On Sunday we returned to the lot to check the accuracy of the string we laid last weekend. This process is called "squaring up the lines". This was done by each of us standing in a corner (diagonally) of the square, taking the measurement, then moving to the two opposite corners to make sure the 2nd measurement was the same as the first.
Here is the view from my corner. That tape had to be pulled extra tight. There is Ken diagonally across not cutting me any slack while pulling his end of the tape. A couple times I nearly fell over :)
One of our measurements was off by a couple inches. This is obviously no good, so we had to go back and check our measurements on all strings involved. We ended up moving one of the strings 1/2" to straighten it up.
Ken, getting ready to mark up those boards
Since those strings won't always be in place, we had to go around and indicate on the board where the nail/string line up.
The string comes down when the block is laid, along with all those boards
I look really excited to be making these marks
This was probably the easiest day spent at the lot so far. We weren't there very long, nor was there a lot of bending down/squatting going on. I was able to take lots of pictures!
This will be the view in the front of the house. I am standing at the future front porch. (Hopefully Ken will dock the cruise ship in the driveway...)
One of the last projects will be laying out our portion of this brick sidewalk.
Sharon, our future neighbor, was busy painting the deck next door
Here is the view of the lot from inside the green house next door
There was a huge flock of Sandhill cranes flying overhead. They migrate south this time of the year, and Paynes Prairie happens to be a major stop for them, so they can often be heard in the area.
That's all I got for now! We are still waiting on the permit to start doing anything serious. A few ideas for this weekend are: digging footers, painting the shed, or lighting that pile of vegetation stacked on the trailer on fire. I will be sure to film video if anything cool goes down (like lighting something on fire).
On Sunday, we returned and did even more sawing, measuring, hammering, and stringing, It rained again but made for nice working weather. This time around, I came prepared:
I learned my lesson the day before wearing these:
They obviously were not cutting it, especially when we had to trek around in this all day:
Wisest $25 I've spent in a long time! Don't I look serious in them?
(Now I know why I have a wrinkle on my forehead)
Meanwhile, Ken continued to drive stakes into the ground:
He was swinging that sledgehammer so fast, it turned into a blur
I attempted it again, and I wasn't too successful
But at least I was decent at cutting them!
From the street, this is what the view looks like:
I took a picture/trail mix break, while Ken continued in deep thought
Not sure when we will get any more work in. We are currently waiting on the permit, then comes the fun stuff! I'll keep you posted :)
