Making progress

Thank God for friends. Erik came this morning to help with the
demolition.

What a character!

Erin's New Toy

Literally, Erin couldn't resist when in the toy aisle for a birthday party Emma is going to next week....


And then Marlee says, "Cool Mom! I can't believe you're into that type of thing."

Emma's wardrobe...

I just came upstairs to find Emma had laid out her clothes for
tomorrow. Note the placement of the hairbrush, hair things, and
necklace even. How come this side of Hurricane Emma only comes out
every once in a blue moon?

Can't Get Enough

So, after spending a lovely week working on someone else's house, what better idea could one come up with than get home Sunday night and start demolishing one's own bathroom Monday morning? That's right, the one in question apparently couldn't come up with anything better.

SUCKER!

Luckily there was sense enough in the household to only demolish half of the bath and take the afternoon off to recover. We'll save the old-fashioned wire lathe shower for when reinforcements volunteer this coming weekend. Any takers?

Canopy Cravings

I hauled my climbing harness and spider rope with me to MT, hoping to have a little time to climb while out there. Turned out there was too much work to do for such frivolity. But I couldn't help drooling over the upper branches of this oak tree while at a stop light recently. Like a giant jungle gym.

Montana Finished

Time for some after pictures:

Here is that front room with one of the windows that required major reconstructive surgery on the front of the house. Not too bad....


Here is little Miss Judy's bedroom.


The laundry room with a new plumbing hookup.


Front of the house, including new storm door.


Back of the house, note that all of the trim still needs to be painted.


Remember Spuds McKenzie? My grandparents won this for me in Reno way back in the day. It sat in my room for years, and somehow got hauled to Debbie's house with all the other stuff that came up.

Emma & Ribs

We have a couple hours to kill on Dallas, so Emma wanted ribs and
nachos. My girl...

Speedway Construction

We arrived Saturday night. Sunday we unloaded a ton of stuff including a piano that dad had brought up to Debs. Then we assessed the situation. the tile around the tub/shower had failed and the drywall behind was rotted out. The washer drain and supply was seriously jury rigged and had failed at one point this winter. Of course there was the window replacement which is the main reason we were there, but they weren't being delivered until the next morning.

So we started by running a new drain for the laundry under the house and installing a new shower...

This is Dave with his new tie-in to the existing plumbing.


And this is Charlie, coming back from the other side of the crawl space where the washer line started.


This is bringing the new one piece shower in. Trying to get back out was a bit tough, but I made it.

Charlie and Dad on the other side of the shower.


The first several windows went fine. Then we hit four that had been switched with height and width. Two were close to square and easy to reframe. Two weren't even close and needed some major remodeling. Getting new custom windows in time wasn't a possiblity.


Remember, there were two that required this level or destruction.


Emma got into it by helping fix a loose bracket on their mailbox....


Here is the new sliding door coming in.


And finally, happy homeowners helping to prime.

I'll post the finished pictures later. Today is the last day, then we leave. Hope we get everything done. I hurt.

Montana, Emma, and Judy

Well, we've made it to Missoula, Montana. Work on the house has a few stories and a lot of pics that are on sister Debbie's camera. I'll try to post another entry tonight with some of those pictures and a little narrative. But in the meantime, here are some pictures of the little niece.

Judy has this little yellow guitar she likes to carry around occasionally. She's a bit shy and really hasn't taken to anyone, except maybe Charlie.


Give grandpa a couple beers, and look what happens...


The looks on Judy's face are just unbelievable. Pictures don't do it justice, we need to take a bit of video. She looks at you like you're just a joke and can't believe you have the nerve to talk to her. Other times it turns to a "how can you not understand what I'm grunting about?"


Emma and Dixie in the front yard. Emma has been great. Helping out, playing with Judy, and enjoying not having older sisters complicating her life.


Here's breakfast!

Montana or Bust

Emma and I are officially enroute to Missoula. Here is Emma pulling
her own weight as we arrive in Cleveland.

Mother's Day in the Trees

I'm sensing a tree theme with this blog. Maybe I have a problem? Well if I do, it's starting to spread through the family.


Erin had requested a taller tree without any annoying low branches. This is zoomed in and she's about 45' or so, trying out my new grigri ascender/descender. Happy Mother's Day!


This is Marlee getting ready to go up the tree. I really like this shot. And the tree for that matter, it's a good healthy oak right out the front door.


Marlee watching the others climb. This Wednesday I think she gets her braces. She's trying to decide on the color.

I think the video needs little explaining. Swinging on a 50' rope is fun though.


Some friends came over to enjoy the fun. Here I'm helping Cailin's friend Meredith come back down.


Finally, here is that dive instructor guy.... Also the guy who owns the fire truck as an aside. You can see he is a poster child for how to relax. Actually, the first time you do it, the first few feet take a lot of getting used to. He eventually found the groove and cruised up the tree. But it was fun to be on the other side of the instructor/student divide.

Little Big Town

There were all these other bands at the concert, but Little Big Town was what made it memorable. Check 'em out if you've got a minute. I could post a link, but you can Google and have more fun.

Could This Be The Problem

My dive instructor buddy's compressor wouldn't work, so I took a look Saturday afternoon. I think I found the problem. This guy's job is to make me safe under water. But the most important thing I've gotten from diving with him is not to panic....

Emma Cranked

Emma was having a bad day last Friday. I found her tantrum so unbelievably funny, that I had to take her picture at a stop light. She didn't like my idea and tried to block the shot.

Tree Videos...

Here comes the first tree. J had already climbed it to attach the pull rope and take some weight out of the top. The wind was blowing fairly hard against it and it sat down on the back cut. Finally got some wedges in and then all the sudden the wind let up and down it came. Kaboom.


Dropping the second pine. I love my new saw. Of course now J is thinking about getting the next size up, a MS660. Of course I think he should just go for broke and get the MS880....


The video of me taking the top out is cooler, but will take forever to upload. Here's a shorter clip of part of one spar coming down. The tree split part way up, and we pieced down the half on the house side before falling the rest. Good times.

Ok, I'll stop bothering everyone with obsessive hobby photos for awhile....

More Treework

Last Friday and Saturday I was in Ashland, VA with Sawyer J at his parents' house to destroy some trees. I was told it was one limb over the barn and 6 small pine trees. When we showed up the pines were upgraded to medium, but still didn't seem that big of a deal. HAH! Turns out trees seem smaller when still standing.

This tree was safe, but I wonder now if it got the heebie-jeebies with all this tree equipment piled at its base?


Jason is up about 40ft in the first pine. The "small" pines turned out to be quite big, with 5 of the 6 measuring over 80ft. The base of the biggest measured 28" (not counting bark). Three of them had to be climbed. Jason's mom took tons of pictures and Jason even left a camcorder rolling for some of the action. When I get copies I'll try to post better pictures.


I got the honor of removing the offending oak branch that hung over the barn. You can see the saw hanging below me. At this point half of the branch has been taken down on rope in sections. The branch was about 45ft long, 10" diameter at the trunk. Thunderstorms were rolling through, and although we never got any on top of us, the wind was gusting like crazy. Like being in a carnival ride.....


A final look at the carnage of the pines Saturday morning. That's a lot of wood.

Eyeball

Closet Closure

Just a little closure on the closet saga. It was finished last week, and Erin immediately filled it up and decided I had to find my own closet.

Cooking Styles?

So, it turns out my wife and I have different cooking styles. Here is what Erin decided to do for Teacher Appreciation Day (or Week, whatever):


Then here is what Dave decided to do for self appreciation evening:


I'm wondering, what would y'all choose?

I miss my truck...