Basic Framing Monday

Today the crew began the framing for the back door deck/stairs and the pergola. Early on this morning one of the crew sledgehammered the old porch & steps with blows that made the house shudder. But it was all cleanly removed, as you can see in the first photo. Deck & steps will come out to the corner pillar. (All photos are enlargeable.)

The following photo shows the front framing for the pergola, including 3 of the brackets at the right corner:

Here is a detail of the corner:
One more shot, this time of the west side of the garage:
More Wednesday!

A Day of Rest?

This afternoon, Sunday, after lunch, we got to work on cleaning up our back yard, where the most limbs had fallen around the tree near the pond. Some of the limbs were 6" thick and more. We spent 2 1/2 hours out there cutting them up and dragging them to the curb. Leslie used the loppers out front, to where I dragged the limbs from the back yard. I used the hand saw to cut up the biggest branches.

Cleaning up the mess revealed a tragic scene in the pond, which we had not been able to get to for nearly 3 weeks. Dead goldfish were floating on the surface. In all, 7 were scooped out dead, including the biggest one we had had for a few years. Leslie rescued one goldfish. There were 10-11 in the pond before, so we don't know what happened to the other 2-3. Maybe they will float up later.

The cleanup spread to the back yard, where we removed the remaining shrub close to the house, and Leslie pulled all the vines off the stone foundation.

The workers are going to be impressed tomorrow morning. We are, but we are also very tired. We are going to take it easy tonight.

Set in Concrete

Today, Saturday, all the concrete is poured and curing. The concrete for the two driveways, plus the sidewalk fill-in, was poured the past three days. The driveway for the new garage was poured on Wedmesday, spent the night under plastic cover, then spent the night Thursday under hay. Even though it was below freezing those nights, the first night after pouring the concrete is warm enough (60 degrees) that it doesn't need to be insulated. The second night the workers put hay over the concrete to keep the water in it from freezing.

The old driveway replacement and the sidewalk sections were poured on Friday. Sometime between 7 and 8 Friday night, the two guys working on smoothing the old driveway went home, after coming in at 6 in the morning. Today they came back sometime and put hay over it. The following photos show the state of the project as of this morning early:

We can't wait for the driveways to cure so that we can drive a car up (or down) one. Of course, we will have to clean out the original garage before we can park the Honda there. But that's the plan. No more ice & snow scraping!

Exciting new photos

Our team has been working long days in horrible conditions, and here are the results as of mid-day. Notice that one of the arbor posts is up on the front left side of the garage. [Try clicking on the individual photos for enlargements.]

Christmas whizzed by

Here are some photos we took while Mike, Kelly, Dominick, and Noel were visiting us. They arrived on the Friday before Christmas and left Christmas morning. We had a great time, although Kelly was still battling the aftermath of her illness, and Noel was feeling miserable. Kelly found a swelling on his gums, so she determined that he was suffering from a molar attempting to emerge. Dom made his first salt dough ornaments--a tradition in our house.

This was our first Christmas without Hannah, so that was kind of sad. We talked to her on Christmas day. She was having a good time with Steve's family in Bloomington IN.




The day after Christmas....our 37th anniversary! I took the day off so we could celebrate. We didn't get to sleep in, as the work crew was back at our house making lots of noise at 6 a.m. My mom left for Forrest City AR to stay for a week or so. The Yarberrys came to get her. While she's gone, Dale is planning to attend to the cleanup and repairs at her house. He just hasn't had a chance to deal with all that. We went to see the new Will Smith movie, "I Am Legend," and ate at Mythos.



The latest on the yard project: The guys shoved gravel and dirt back in behind the new retaining walls, so we now have a level yard. (See photos below) Today they will be pouring the concrete driveways.

Progress...on several fronts

Our wonderful work crew poured concrete in the forms yesterday; this morning they removed the forms, so I got my first glimpse of what we're going to have when this is done. Of course this is all rough--they'll put a skim finish coat on top to gussy it all up. It's looking quite nice. I guess when the walls are completed, they'll go ahead and pour the driveways.

This whole corner will be backfilled with some of the displaced dirt so we'll have a level yard in the area between the new driveway/garage and the house.

As to family matters, things are improving. My mom moved back to her house yesterday and began the arduous and heartbreaking task of throwing out a refrigerator/freezer full of ruined food and cleaning up. Although that saddened her, she was so happy to be back home again. She was without electricity for 9 days. She still doesn't have phone or cable service, but I was assured that they would get to it as soon as possible. Obviously there aren't enough repairmen to handle all the damage.

Meanwhile Dale is in St. Louis taking care of his mom as she recovers from pnemonia. She's doing some better but is still very weak. He's hoping to come home Thurs. after he takes her to the doctor. He's busy there running errands for her, cleaning house, doing odd jobs that she can't do.

We're excited that Kelly, Mike, and the boys are coming Friday. But Kelly and Noel have been sick and it looks like Dom might be getting it, too. So I'm praying that they'll be okay.

You CAN Go Home Again!

Here it is Saturday evening, and we have had power at the house since just before 1:00 PM today. It was a chilly 42 degrees in the house before power came on. It's nearing normal now. So we moved everything back, including Marie, whose power is still not on. Nothing has been done in her neighborhood. They will have to remove some very heavy limbs in order to get to the power lines underneath them, however.

Having had it up to here and facing yet another night of Marie's sleeping in a cold dark house, we set aside our pride and I called Barry & Barbara Williamson, who live in Loma Linda estates about 12 miles southwest of Joplin, and asked if they would put us up for the night. Of course they said yes, and Barry cooked us a fabulous breakfast this morning. It was nice to be in some comfort and sleep in real beds last night. We are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight.

I am planning to leave for St. Louis tomorrow afternoon, behind the snow line, to take care of my mother, who was in a hospital with pneumonia through Friday. They released her too soon, I think. I had called her new doctor, who didn't even know she was in the hospital. He sounded concerned, and he called her to see how she's doing. She had to fend for herself Friday and Saturday, but by tomorrow evening I should be there. I plan to stay until about Wednesday, or perhaps Thursday. Well, Kelly & Mike, maybe Friday. Maybe I will come back along with you.

Next on the agenda is getting power back to Marie's house, including lighting her furnace, which apparently needs an electrical current to stay on. Someone else will have to do that.

Well, I have to go now and see to some other tasks. We will post more later, focusing again on the construction project.

Still homeless

Six days without electricity and not much hope that we'll get it restored today. I'm getting kind of used to living in the back room of the Post Library. However, I did get in trouble with the JPL director today. When I returned from the Y, I found a notice on my car that it was going to be towed. It said that it was illegal to leave a car parked on the lot when the library was not open. So I had to apologize profusely to the director for not having reported our living arrangements. She said that JPL employees could not stay in the building because of liability issues. I guess I win on a technicality (not a JPL employee) so we can stay.

Here's a picture of Dale in his temporary office over at Columbia Traders. He was able to use their free wireless to do his schoolwork until he could go to his real office. That's Gingy Laas, history professor, at the table behind him. She lives 2 blocks north of us on Sergeant, so she was in the same boat. She's been living in Jane Wyman's law office downtown and showering at the Y like we have.


This is what we did Wednesday night. Columbia Traders has been preparing thousands of meals to deliver to the Empire District workers, staying up late at night preparing them So rather than just sit around the Post Library Wed. night, we went over to help. It was kind of fun. Bob & Crystal Harrington, their daughters and sons-in-law, were all there helping. Our friends Joe and Diana Earhart came, too. We worked for almost 4 hours and bagged up over 700 meals & snacks. Bob & Crystal are at this end; that's me on the right side of the table.

Here's Jeff Neal after he's loaded the U-Haul to deliver the meals to Hammons Center, where all the out-of-town workers are headquartered. We went out last night to look at the setup. We must get a photo of that. Amazing! Row after row after row of bucket trucks. Looked almost like one of those battle scenes from Star Wars.

Back at our house, the construction continues. They've insulated the garage and put up sheetrock. They're building the forms for the poured concrete retaining walls. Jeff bought a generator so they could have electricity for their tools. They also brought in a heater so the garage would be warm while they were working.

Dedication!

I took the photo from the earlier post, cropped & lightened it so that you could see our team better.

Is it ONLY Wednesday?!!!

Home sweet home at the Post Library! Reminded me of the days of yore when Kelly and Hannah were little. Whenever they were too sick to go to school, I'd fix up a bed in the backroom for them to hang out on.

This post will be more of a diary entry, just to record what we've been doing. It's probably boring for anyone else to read.

Yesterday before work, Dale and I went off to Garage Door Brokers to order our garage doors. It will take 3 weeks or so to get them, so we should have done this sooner. There was no electricity there either, but they were open for business anyway. Dale dropped me off at the library and went back to our house to survey the damage--lots of limbs down. Meanwhile, Mama got a call on our cell phone (we'd given it to her so we'd have a way to communicate with her when she's at her house overnight) from Life Line in St. Louis. Ruth had gone to the hospital at 2:00 Mon. afternoon, and Life Line hadn't been able to reach us. As soon as Dale found out, he called the hospital and talked to his mom. She has pneumonia and is very weak. He plans to go to St. Louis later in the week.

Dale has been spending his days at Columbia Traders deli (owned by Jeff Neal, our contractor on the house project) where he can use his laptop. The place has been hopping with students and others who had to have computer access. BTW, he was there when it was announced that MSSU and OCC were cancelling finals. He said students were jumping up and down and shouting with glee. Finals have never been cancelled before.

Speaking of Columbia Traders and Jeff, he and his employees there were up until 4:30 a.m. yesterday preparing 600 breakfasts for the Empire Distric Electric crews. He only got an hour's sleep before going back to deliver the meals. Empire ordered another 700 lunches for today, so no rest for the weary. I'm happy for Columbia Traders, though. Jeff had been disappointed with how things were going with the deli business, so this should have a HUGE impact.

We were shocked to find out that our construction crew was back at work yesterday! No electricity, terrible weather (cold and rainy all day), but there they were hard at it. They finished the roof and began insulating. We went over this morning and took a picture of them (see below). They're very nice guys, hard-working, and seem to be doing a good job.

Here's tree debris on top of the wood the guys are using are using for the garage. The foreman told us today that he would cut up the limbs and haul them off for us! He's the one who, with his son, went over to Mama's house on Monday, cut some branches, covered the hole in her roof. He said that was really tough, since the roof was a sheet of ice.

The Iceman Cometh

We had thunder, lightning, and freezing rain most of the night Saturday, so awoke to a mess on Sunday. No church services because there was no power there. My mom called a little before 8:00 to tell us she had no power but planned to wait it out to see if it came back. We were enjoying our hot coffee/tea, hot oat bran, and the Sunday paper. But before we finished, our electricity went out, too. We toughed it out most of the day. Stayed warm by doing chores around the house. As it began to get dark (and colder), Dale dropped me off at the Post Library and went to get Mama. She was needing electricity to use her nebulizer. We hung out in the Post Library for a few hours-- cooked supper, watched t.v. She wanted to go back home to spend the night, so Dale took her there. He went to Walmart to buy an air mattress (we discovered the one we brought didn't hold air), so we slept here at the Post Library over night.



This morning we were going to go shower at the Y, but didn't wake up until 8, so there wasn't enough time. I'm looking and feeling pretty skanky without my shower. Meanwhile, Dale had an emergency to attend to at Mama's house. Yesterday she had lots of big limbs down. One tore the power lines from her house, so they're lying in the yard. Another took down her phone line. But the most urgent situation was caused by a limb that came down on the roof, tore off the turbine vent, and left a gaping hole. Dale went off to get someone to secure the roof (actually, some of the workers from the job site at our house, so that worked out well). He also took some photos since we'll have to file with the insurance co. Looks like she won't have power there for some time. I guess we'll probably be camping out all week at Post. With another 24 hours or so of freezing rain, the prognosis looks pretty grim.

Dale just reported that the guys covered over the roof hole with roofing and boards, so at least it's keeping rain out. They also cut some of the limbs that were hanging low over the house.



Here's some photos. The really nasty-looking one of the trunk split into 3 sections is actually in her neighbor's yard (to the east). A good portion of the tree is now lying in her yard.

End of Week 2

Omigoodness! What a week. The guys worked 40+ hours Mon.-Thurs. so they're taking the day off. So that gave me (Leslie) my first opportunity to take photos during daylight without getting in their way. (It's very muddy out there, so now I have to clean mud off my shoes.) Things are looking good, overall. We had a bit of a crisis to deal with on Wed. night, when Jeff called to tell us that Lowe's (yes, good ol' Screw-It-Up Lowe's) had messed up our materials order. Jeff had ordered a certain kind of the cement panels for the exterior walls of the garage, but Lowe's gave them the wrong ones. The work crew didn't know what had been ordered, so they just installed what they were given. Jeff stopped by to take a look at the progress and was horrified to see that it was NOT what we'd ordered. He sheepishly called us Wed. night to tell us the bad news and ask what we wanted to do. Since I was in the throes (literally) of preparing for a colonoscopy early Thurs. morning, it was NOT a good time to deal with it. We went out and looked at it with a flashlight. I didn't like it, but decided that since it's going to be hidden with trellises on the 2 sides that are visible, then it's not worth making them do it over. Obviously Lowe's wouldn't take it back anyway, since it had been cut and nailed up. The other 2 sides face the alley and the garage apartment, so I guess it doesn't matter. Jeff said he'd see if Lowe's would discount the materials any, and he would credit us for some labor and materials that were not used as a result of the screw up. (We had planned to do a board-and-batten design, which would have taken used more wood and labor). The front sidewalk is finished and is quite nice. Here are some photos.

The first one shows the garage as seen from the pond area. The side opening is where they'll put the original door from the basement garage.

As you can see, the flat roof slants to the alley. Once the pergola and trellis go up on this side, you won't be able to tell that it slants. You can get some idea of the incline of the new driveway. On either side are the footings for the new retaining walls that will be on either side of the driveway.

More footings for retaining walls

A view from the 2nd floor sunporch showing the partial roofing job.

Wed. p.s.

Dale didn't mention that I racked up some brownie points yesterday....literally. I baked a batch of brownies before I went to work and took them out to the work crew while they (the brownies) were still warm and gooey. So maybe that's why the sidewalk guy was willing to work over 13 hours for us yesterday. There had better not be cat tracks in our lovely new sidewalk. There's been a gray cat hanging around all day and night the last few weeks. In fact, I told one of the guys (who had a sledgehammer in his hand at the time), that if he had a little accident involving the sledgehammer and that cat, it would be our little secret.

Week 2, Days 1 & 2

This is just a quick update, prior to posting pictures. Monday's work included erecting the framework of the garage, doing more excavating work, and grading. Since there were still some men around the site around 5:00, we didn't get photos.

Yesterday (Tuesday) there was more work on the framing, but the big deal was more concrete work. Footings were dug and concrete was put down around the new driveway, for the retaining walls. Out front the new sidewalk was laid. When I got home about 5:55 (I worked late), two men were still out there, using their truck headlight to smooth the surface. I turned on the porchlight, which helped them. When I went back out about 7:00, one of the men was still there, smoothing out the steps. He told me he had 12 years of experience in Kansas City as a union concrete man and that we should be proud of the results. One thing, though: the railing that was out there, when pulled up, broke at the base, as it was corroded. At least for some time there will be no railing out there.

Our man worked well past 7:00 before he went home. What a long day, beginning at 6:00 AM.

Today I believe the concrete trucks come back and they will pour the replacement driveway--which will have a "box" drain running across the entry--and probably the retaining walls and the new driveway, all while continuing work on the frame. They started at 6:00 AM again, so a long day is ahead.

More later, with photos.

Garage design

I (Leslie) thought y'all might like to see what we have in mind for this new garage we're having built. Since it's going to take up most of our tiny back yard, I didn't want it to be just a honking new garage. I want it to look like a garden feature in a cozy courtyard. So I'm enclosing a photo of what we want this thing to resemble. At least the side of the garage that will face the back of the house. Instead of using French doors as shown in the photo, we're going to recycle the old wood garage doors from the basement garage. And we won't have the oval openings in the lattice. Anyway, here's the photo.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Dale here. I just finished putting up the garlands and lights, from the upstairs bedroom down the stairs and up and around the entry. I discovered in putting up the lights that two 100-light strings didn't work, one of them brand new from last year--only half the lights worked. I couldn't finish the decoration project, so since we had to make a run to Lowe's to look at stain samples and outdoor lighting for the garage, I bought 4 boxes of 100-light strands. I used one of them to finish the decoration. I did it while listening to our first Christmas music, led off, of course, by the Ray Coniff singers: "Jolly old St. Nicholas, lean your ear this way...."

The tree's not up yet. We'll wait on it. But at least we made a start.

While out today we took several bags of stuff for Goodwill, an effort to clean out the basement. When we got to Goodwill we were surprised to see their parking lot packed. I didn't know that many people shopped at Goodwill. Do they up where y'all live?

Question for Atwoods & Jefferies

We need some advice from our younger & wiser daughters & sons-in-law regarding color choices for the new garage, trellis, porch railings. Should we go with the reddish color we have on the first floor of our house for the body color of the garage? And trim color for the trellis? Or go with upper color of house for garage? Then what color for trellis and porch? Your input would be appreciated!

Saturday Review

We got out today in the cloudy daylight to survey the site. The first photo Leslie took from the upstairs sunporch, so that you would get a bird's eye view, and especially see the space to the right, which will become a patio area.

In the next photo is the same area seen from ground level. The fence has been taken down up to the right edge of the green garage apartment. In effect, we have no backyard fence now. Here is a view of the downstairs sunporch from one corner of the garage pad. There will be a deck built from the sunporch door out beyond the pillar, with steps down to the yard. This means that the current concrete steps and steel railing will be gone. Storage is planned for under the landing at the door.
Monday morning the team comes back to lay the new sidewalk out front. We are pleased so far with how much has been done in just one week's time. Monday they will also start the framing on the garage.