Ted found it confusing that I took the pictures on Thursday but labelled the blog entry, Friday, so I have changed it to Thursday, and named this one Friday, which is the day he took the pictures.
He had to drive out to Modjeska to meet the shipping company driver who had our 10,000 gallon water bag. The first driver arrived at the head of the canyon on Tuesday but refused to drive his truck down to our house, despite being told that cement trucks and cranes were all able to back out of our driveway or turn around at Tucker WIldlife just a few hundred yards before our house. So Ted arranged to pick up our pickup from our construction site and drive to meet the driver just outside the canyon. The water bag is still in our truck back at the house.
He was, however, able to get some photos of more work on the two retaining walls. Photo 1 is of the wall just behind the house of the East side. The workers have put up forms to allow cement to be poured over the foundation. Photo 2 is farther along the back of the house and ends at the middle of the house where there is dirt where the bridge from the second story of the house to the backyard will be. At the right edge of the photo, you can see one of the brackets which will support the bridge.
We are thrilled that this work, which was originally going to be done late last fall and then in January (and, in Ted’s mind, really should have been done last summer) is finally getting done, since it needs to be completed before the doors and windows can be installed. This is because, prior to doing that installation, scaffolding needs to be erected around the house and that requires the level ground that these retaining walls will provide.
The good news about the doors and windows is that they will be delivered next Tuesday. Unfortunately, the most hopeful estimate is that the concrete for these walls will be poured on Wednesday — if the possible rain predicted for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday does not interfere. They will then have to back fill soil behind the walls, put up the scaffolding, and then apply a sealant coating to the cement before the windows can be installed. So, after waiting so long for the windows to get here, the windows will be sitting around for at least a week before their installation can begin. That process should take 10 days to 2 weeks. Once that is done, the insulation and stucco can be applied to the outside of the house, which will probably require another two weeks. Still it is progress!
Photo 4 shows the debris wall. On Thursday it was one block high, but the workers worked steadily adding blocks and gluing them together with cement out of a bag. There probably will need to be one, or possibly even two more courses of cement blocks on the far end of the wall. Once all the blocks are in place, pour cement into their interiors to fill them.
Photos 6 and 7 show some of the work the electricians completed in the great room on Thursday. This was the one room in the main house that had the most of their work left to do. The wiring in Photo 6, has been routed through the new, additional stud wall that was built on the west side of the great room to provide a way to run wiring and plumbing past the steel beam in the ceiling.
Previously, we showed a photo of a garden bed Pete built under the solar panels. This placement means that it catches the runoff from rain that lands on the solar panels. Also, the wall provides a place to stand while cleaning the dust off of the solar panels. Pete planted this bed with cauliflower, strawberries, sugar snap peas, and kohlrabi. However, because he left to go back to New Mexico in the middle of April, he is not here to enjoy the fruits of his labors — he should return in a week to 10 days.
Photo 10: This bunch of bananas in the gully bed formed last fall before it got cool. They have been hanging on the plant ever since. As soon as it gets warm enough again, they should ripen quickly!