I guess most of my "updates and progress" have been on Facebook this summer so I haven't posted much on here. If you're my friend on there, drop by to look at the photos there. If you're not a friend there yet, drop me a note and I'd be happy to hook you up there.
You can also try these links to some of the pix there.
Barn beginnings pix
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=459346&id=587870580&l=1985fdac44
Barn progress pix
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=468767&id=587870580&l=7bd0ced37f
General Summer pics
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=436545&id=587870580&l=6340b5fc07
In summary, this summer has seen a good bit of progress. There has been a further "taming" of the grounds around the house. I built, wired, insulated, drywalled and painted an office in the barn where we can run the rest of the project from. Sal has her desk and papers strung out along one wall, and I have the other side with the "house project" computer set up. In between are the computer for my school stuff and some large bookcases with building info stacked up on them. And a table large enough to spread blueprints out on.
I've done a lot of work in the yard to beat up rocks that had been beating up my mowing equipment. It's been oddly therapeutic to take a sledgehammer and make little rocks out of big rocks. I have a lovely rock "infill" going near the trailer in the back of the property, the foundations of a roadbed to the back part of the land. I've learned that the rocks have a particular grain to them and if you whack them just right what seems like an immovable object will often shatter into gravel a lot sooner than you might expect. Something of a life lesson there, for me at least.
The latest amusing aspect of things has been our continuing quest to get Internet access to the property. Since I finished the office and got the computers set up I'd decided to go with a Comcast connection. There's no DSL out our way, so the only other alternative was wireless and I wasn't fond of that option. After a month of dealing with some VERY nice people, none of whom seemed able to talk to one another or understand my need to hook up to the BARN, not the HOUSE, I cancelled the order. I'm not sure what I'll do now, but I was hugely disappointed that they just couldn't seem to pull it together. The right hand (installers) never could get it together with the left hand (construction) and neither seemed to be talking to the head (customer relations). Ugh.
In the "amazing answers to long awaited prayers" dept. we had a crew of fellows come through who wanted to clear the phone lines in front of our house. I had cut down 30+ trees (with the help of friends) which had grown up around these lines, but there were seven that had grown -between- the lines and I couldn't cut them with the equipment I had on hand. These guys had a bucket truck and a chipper. Yeeha! They cleared the lines and cut down stuff that they didn't strictly have to, as a favor to us. We let them dump three truckloads of chips in our yard and we were glad to get it. They told me that the company often has to pay to get rid of them. Yikes! (This morning I went out to feed the dogs and the piles were steaming. I put my hand on top and it was actually hot on top of the pile. There is an opportunity in this if I can figure out how to exploit it. :) So, the "top" line is that we got about $700 worth of tree work done for free. As they were leaving I learned that they will be back in a few weeks to install a FIOS line down our street and expect it to be operational sometime before Christmas. So I'm going to wait and see what develops on that score. If I understand the options rightly, they'll give us TV, Internet and phone bundled for about what Comcast would have done for just Internet. Not a bad deal if it works.
The big push now is to get the permits all squared away so I can get the addition up and closed in before the snow flies...
Well, that's about it for now. Back to work at school.
