01.05.2015 Update on house construction

a plumb rg — On the left is Ronnie, our contractor, supervising the plumbing work yesterday morning! It passed inspection in the afternoon!!

plumbing truck — A little free advertising for Dan Wrinkles Plumbing!

We purchased all the kitchen appliances yesterday, all matching Frigidaire, to be delivered when the time is right! That will be a happy day! The storage shed parts will be delivered tomorrow and as always Roy is terribly prepared for this project. Yesterday we bought 12 concrete blocks and 8 -4×4 treated posts for the foundation and frame. Roy was up bright and early digging, measuring, leveling and getting it all in place. It’s almost 300 feet from the road to the back of our property where the culverts are. When Roy came home with almost 900 pounds in cement bags I thought he and I would be hauling it back there but smarty Roy put two bags at a time on the top of our lawnmower to make the deliveries. Finding out that wasn’t enough cement, he went back for another load. When he wasn’t doing ten other things Roy tackled clearing the multitudes of small trees, bushes, and vines from both sides of the fence line between our property and the neighbors. He was quite meticulous in getting it all and his hard work really paid off. He jumped the fence and piled it all up on our side then drug it to the burn pile. The cows came come right up to the fence and visit properly now! Roy says he knows I”m going to start naming them now, we’ll see! If ya’ll have any good cow names, please share!! Update on the culvert draining issue: Roy worked diligently for days making the ditch deeper, putting the two parts of the culvert together, securing it to the ground and putting bags of cement around the entrance to create a path for the water to flow directly through the path instead of anywhere it wanted to go to! Here’s some before, during and after pictures.

a beginning of culvert before — The entryway to the ditch from the neighbor’s property before Roy worked on it.

a beginning of culvert during rain — The heavy rainfall rushing through – and around – the culvert before Roy stopped that.

a culvert strap — One of the two straps (this one is in the middle and the other at the entrance to the culvert.

The water is finally being directed now into a full secured culvert and not going anywhere else!! We may be getting the dirt tomorrow to cover the culvert and finish off a beautiful path to the back of our property. The finishing touch will be rocks of various sizes in the bottom of the ditch between the exit of the culvert and the pond. Can’t wait to relax back there with a tall glass of sweet tea and some music playing!

I continued clearing out the bushes and vines around the pine trees and in the pictures below you can see my progress. The trees on the left are cleared out and those on the right still have a lot of bushes and vines. Since it’s my favorite view on the property I included one of the pond and pines from atop the hill. I haven’t posted a picture of our permanent RV electric pedestal/temporary house construction pedestal. This thing lived in our RV with us for three weeks taking up much of the walkway in Dora. We are so happy that it is installed.

a elec meter — Notice, we’ve used 3 Kilowatts!!

to do list practice kindness We’ve enjoyed being back to normal, having water and electricity for the last few days. Clean bodies + clean clothes + heat = two happy Chauvins! Ya’ll have a great week! I’ll post another update in a few days. Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!