Why I Oughta...

When we went with the LOW bidder (and I mean really, really low), I assumed that we'd have some difficulties with our patio installation, but I didn't think it would take *this* long. The good news, is that we're finally progressing on the installation.  After all the rains fell, they finally excavated and started to put down the paver base. They're putting down more base, then comes the sand and finally....the pavers.  Hopefully, we'll have something to walk on by Saturday.  We still don't have a pic-a-nic table (Nat hates that I call it that), so that is on the agenda this weekend.

This is what we had in mind when we decided to build the pavilion: This is where we are today.  Not too far off! Still have to wrap the bottom of the posts in cedar shingles to ground this thing, but we're getting pretty close to finishing.

The pavilion construction keeps churning along in the backyard.  We're in crunch-time.  A party is planned for 12 days from today.  EVERYTHING needs to be done.  The guys were at our house early to start roofing the structure.  We picked the same shingles as were selected for our garage. The pavilion extension blends right in with the garage.  I'm very pleased with that! And...a very special guest arrived today:  the firebox. It will have an eight foot chimney stacked on top of this when it is complete, but it should be installed enough for us to run a fire or two.  This is a wood-burning firebox with 2-channel chimney.  It burns normal wood, but doesn't have a masonry surround.  We're going to build one with stone veneer. The instructions require us to burn a few small fires - gradually growing the temperature inside the box up as we go.  Maybe this week - if the patio goes in - we'll have a smallish fire or two.

Two days ago, I d ocumented the beginnings of the installation of the backyard pavilion .  Unfortunately, after some consideration and inspection by the engineer, we've decided to take it down and restart. It now has a ledger board against the garage, reinforced legs and is lower by 12 inches. That should take out much of the sway and make it stronger. Here's where we were after the installation of the ledger board.

The guys got started erecting the pavilion in our backyard yesterday.  It is turning out a bit taller than I expected. There's some debate over whether we should attach this structure to the garage to gain some rigidity.   If the rain holds out this morning, we'll get even more done and have a sense for whether the pavilion was the right choice.  I'm skeptical as I write this on morning two.

This morning, Menards showed up with 8 skids of pavers.  675 square feet of them.  I still have to go get the rectangular pavers that will form the soldier course, but these will give us a good start. We're putting in a 100 foot plus walkway along with a patio underneath the pavilion, so it is a pretty sizeable job.  Excavation starts early next week.  Guess what I know what I'm doing with all that free time I have from school ending, eh?

The fence guys (Paramount Fence) showed up early Friday morning and got busy taking down our old fence and getting our new one up.  They moved fast, but unfortunately didn't finish.  The sunk all the posts in the concrete, but didn't attach the pickets. Here's the crew digging the holes with an auger. Leaves behind a perfect set of holes. These guys know what they're doing - as they mix their own concrete.  Portland cement+gravel+sand+water=concrete.  They mix it on site in wheel barrows and set the posts wet. The day ran long and they didn't get it all done.  Here's how it ended: posts in, rest of the materials scattered in their locations. That's our neighbor's fence on the right side of the photo.  We're putting up a 4 foot fence next to it.

Lots of construction news.  The building of our pavilion starts this week.   Here's the inspiration for that project.   Our fence is getting installed on Friday (weather permitting) and we'll start on our pavers early next week. I've also been thinking about another project of my own:  an outdoor television cabinet.  Something very similar to this . We have an old tv that I'm not that concerned about, so I always figured that will be our "outdoor" tv, but with this type of cabinet, maybe we're talking about a bigger/nicer tv?   I'm going to start shopping tongue-and-groove cedar boards and hinges and see what we come up with!

One of the next projects in our backyard - now that the garage is done - is to put in a patio and walkway (from garage to house to front parking pad).  We pulled the trigger and bought pavers over the weekend. They're getting delivered next week.  We wanted something a bit different - and this is a photo from the advertisement they were in. We brought a few home, so I'll take some photos of them in the sun to show off.   The patio should start in the next few weeks.  

The electricians (finally!) showed up and brought power to our garage.  Pay no attention to the butt crack in the photo. They trenched 18" deep and ran rigid pipe in the ground.  I also had them put in some outlets in the yard for a future project!

Today was the last day of the build.  They got it all done including the soffits, fascia, and gutters. This photo (taken earlier) doesn't include the gutters, but they're there.  Well...one of them is there.  The other will wait until after the inspection. We now wait until sometime next week when the electrician shows up.  He'll light the place up and get the overhead openers working properly.

More progress of the garage.  They finished up the shingles on the backside of the garage and started on the house side.  There has been plenty of innovations in the construction industry, but apparently the tarpaper below the shingles isn't one of them. Then got busy laying the shingles.  They're doing a nice job of staggering them so the seams don't overlap. They finished up the roof but didn't get the siding done.  They tell me that they'll finish it tomorrow.  Then on to the epoxy floor!

The carpenters showed up early Tuesday morning and got started right away.  The progress slowed a great deal today as they only sheathed the roof and began to apply the shingles to the backside.  They popped the windows in, so it has a more finished look.  Here's how it stands after two full days on the build. When they started, they said they'd have it done in 3 days.  I'm skeptical.

Early Monday morning, our lumber and carpenters showed up to get started on the framing of our new garage.  I had to work, so I'm glad Nat was there to chronicle the progress.  They say that they'll be done by Wednesday - but I'm skeptical.  Every contractor we've dealt with has always under-delivered time-wise. But if someone is going to get the job done on time, it seems to be these guys.  They said they'd get to my house before 7 am, and they were there ready to work by 6:30.  I like that.  Here they are showing up with the material. They unloaded some of the materials, then dumped the rest right from the truck.  It had to have woken up the neighbors. These carpenters meant business and got going framing up the walls. These two guys lifted each section into place. They tied them together pretty quickly.   The covered the whole thing in plywood. Here it is all closed up.  Windows will be cut on this side. Like this! Because the spans are pretty big abov

Monday night I got home late (after class) so I wasn't able to fully inspect all the newly poured concrete, but I was able to give it a good soak with our garden hose.  They say that we're supposed to "keep it wet" for a few days to slow the curing process.   Tuesday morning I had to head into the office early, so I was relying on Nat and my dad to steer the process/answer the issues/questions.  The contractors showed up early to finish the garage and pour our new driveway. Here they were finishing up our "apron" that approaches the alley and they poured the slab to the north (on the right hand side) where we'll be doing some cool things with bricks! (can you say Pompeii-style brick pizza oven!) They quickly finished in back and moved to finish up the driveway in front.  We're getting a "California Finish" on the driveway - here they are cutting expansion joints. I'll soak it once again, then it is time to apply the concrete sealer.

Early this morning, the City of Elmhurst building inspector showed up and gave his blessing to our footings.  The process allows for the City's inspectors to make a "pre-pour" inspection to ensure that the contractor has complied with the code and requirements.  Thankfully, we passed the inspection. About 15 minutes after the inspector signed off, this guy showed up. They got busy right away filling in the perimeter footings.    They had to cart the concrete by hand to the far edges of the garage.  Once they filled the footings (16" deep), they moved on to filling the entire frame with concrete.  I had to run to work, so Nat kept me up-to-speed with her iPhone.   They smoothed it to a nice, level surface - using a piece of lumber as a screed board. They moved on to more sophisticated equipment when they wanted to get the surface real smooth. They filled the main garage, then moved on to the little 3X6 foot framed area adjacent to the garage.  We're going to bu

Wednesday and Thursday were spent clearing and prepping the site of our garage and driveway/slab, but Friday was for actual construction:  framing of the foundations. They put together the woodwork quickly, then dug some-more and filled in with wire, plastic and plenty of stone.  The plastic is a vapor barrier.   The garage takes up 3/4 of the width of our yard.  Makes me nervous to see our yard shrink so much.  We're also putting in a "driveway".  I put "driveway" in quotes because it isn't a typical driveway that leads to our garage.  Instead, we've put our garage backwards to face our alley and our driveway starts at the street and goes for 35 feet and stops.  It is more of a "parking pad" than driveway, but we're still calling it a driveway.  It was previously made of some pretty ratty asphalt and was mostly broken up into little pieces.  We're pouring concrete at the same time of the garage.  We've also made it 2 feet wider -

Early yesterday morning our garage contractor showed up at our front door.  In his hand was this: We had received our permits and we could start to move some earth!  Finally. They walked around the yard for an hour or so scoping things out then got to work.  The first thing to go was our back fence.  We had a ratty chain-link fence along our property line facing our alley.  The guys backed their Bobcat right off of their trailer and started to knock it down.  Clearly this wasn't his first fence take-down.  He figured out a way to bend the posts down then use the shovel of the machine to act as a fulcrum and pop the post out - concrete and all - in one easy move.  Pretty cool. As part of our garage construction, we're getting a new front driveway (not attached to the garage) and they're removing a lot of old cracked concrete from our yard.  You can see an old patio/slab in the photo above.   After they took the fence down, they got busy excavating the garage floor.  He

The plans for the garage are moving forward fast.  The topographic surveys are done, the blueprints are in with the city, and the permits are applied for.  Hopefully, we'll hear from the city this week with the go-ahead.  We've come this/close to settling on a garage builder - and hope to sign a contract within the week.  Once the permits are approved, we'll break ground! In addition to the fence (from earlier this week), we're also going to put in some pavers for a patio, a new driveway, and a bunch of landscaping.  There's also this "pavilion" that I want built above the patio.  Pavilion you say?  Yep.  You got that right.  See the picture below for what we're looking for.   Nat HATES the idea, but I want shade.  We're facing straight west (in our backyard) and the sun makes the yard **almost** unusable on a hot day.  With this free-standing structure up against the garage, I think we'll have a really comfortable area to have a nice aftern

I've chronicled our quest to build a garage (we have finished drawings!  and topography surveys!), but there are a few other companion projects going on at the same time.  We currently have a VERY ratty chainlink fence circling our backyard.  When the garage is done, that will change.  I've been getting bids from various fence companies on this style of fence:  board on batten.  It will be 6 feet high! I took this picture at my sister's new house.  I'll post some photos when ours is going up.  I'm pretty excited to get the fence put up - almost as excited as the garage.  In my sister's yard, the fence looks great and has a very clean look to it.   You're probably wondering why it'll be 6 feet high.  No...we don't hate our neighbors.  They're actually very nice.  We just wanted something high - for privacy and to keep the coyotes out!  Srsly.