KITCHEN CABINETS

The driveway is finished along with the dirt and mulch on either side.  We planted grass on the one side and it is already beautiful... It didn't take very long at all!  All we have to do is put some pavement in front of the apron at the street.

We started working on the Kitchen Cabinets last weekend.  We got the cabinet plywood, made cut lists, cut and dado'd all the pieces and then glued and assembled the carcasses.  We got a majority of them done last weekend and finished up a few during the week.  Then on Friday night Tom and his dad lined all the cabinets up outside and sprayed the inside with a clear coat sealer.  There are A LOT of cabinets!  You can't even see them all in these pictures, some are behind the stacked ones!

This weekend we are working on cutting up some of the cherry wood for the door panels.  We lined up all the cherry boards outside yesterday and started matching them up as best we could and cutting the sizes we need for the door panels.  Today Tommy is setting up the jointer so that we can fix up all the edges and be able to glue them up!  so far so good!

DIRT ALONG DRIVEWAY

This weekend Tommy worked hard outside and moved a lot of dirt.  He took the dirt from the other side of the stream to put along the sides of the driveway.  He did most of it himself...he will only let me help a little bit seeing as we are at 25 weeks!

I put grass seed and then on Monday Tom's parents came and were able to get some straw to put on the top.  Most importantly along the street and near the stream so that we don't get in trouble for making mud.

TIME LAPSE

Tommy set up his lap top to take a picture every 30 seconds on the day that we poured the concrete on the driveway pad. Pawel converted the file for us and I finally got the chance to post it... Isn't it cool!

DRIVEWAY PAVERS

We worked today on the pavers on the driveway. We picked up a yard of stone dust in the morning and Tom, his mom, and I worked on spreading out and screeding it. Tom's mom kept feeding me block as I laid them randomly in the channel. Tom's dad and him went to pick up another pallet of pavers and another yard of stone dust. By the end of the day we had all the pavers laid and the sand was spread and compacted. It looks pretty good.

Meanwhile, Tom's dad worked on installing shelves in the garage. He had previously welded some brackets together and they finally got put up. They even used a corona light cap as a washer, love it!

PAVER WALKWAY III - DAY OFF

Today we laid the pavers on the walkway. I laid them as Tommy brought them too me. It takes quite a while but we did get it done. Then we brought out the saw to cut the ones along the edge. We got some done but then a storm started to roll in. Since we weren't DONE yet we couldn't compact the pavers so that meant we didn't want it to get rained on. We just so happened to have a big roll of that cheap plastic sheet so we laid that over the walkway and called it quits.

Tom's dad worked on the gas pipe outside for the propane tank and Tom's mom took the forms off of the driveway pad.

22 YARDS of CONCRETE

Today was the big driveway pad concrete pour! We got up WAYYY before the sun to finish everything up as far as gravel and forms are concerned... The crew (Tatus, Mamusia, Ciocia, Wojcio and Pawel) got here at 8ish and we had some time to kill before the 9am truck so we had some breakfast. Well the truck turned out to be late... He eventually got here at 11am. We got 9 of the framed squares poured with the first truck. That went smoothly and everyone had a job and we finished all of them within an hour. We had lunch and the second truck was supposed to come at 2pm and didn't come until 3:30... We yelled at the dispatcher, well I should say I YELLED, but he didn't want to hear it... When the truck got here we went on to pour the other 6 squares of the driveway pad and one larger section of the driveway itself. The driver of the second truck was not that great. He poured too slowly and didn't sweep the chute as well as the first guy... but we managed! The second pour was a little more difficult to finish but we got it done and it looks great! Then we had dinner!


There were 16 sections total for the driveway pad and some of the crossways for the pavers were removeable so we could get the concrete truck to reach all of the sections.





Donald Duck? Putting on the duck shoe covers...


Guiding the truck so he straddles the form and can reach all the sections.



First load is poured and finished!



Waiting for the second truck...





Second load is poured and finished!

DRIVEWAY FORMS

Tom's parents were here all day today. They compacted the gravel that we leveled last night and then they leveled out the hill on the backside of the driveway pad.

When we got home that evening tom's parents put the cross pieces of the forms together. Tommy and I framed further down the driveway with the curved edges and put the forms in for where the driveway starts tipping down toward the street. We leveled and compacted some more gravel in that area.

We have a bit more to do tomorrow morning before the truck shows up.




Hooper before he got sick... he chewed on a scrap piece of the expansion joint (like tar paper) and then he started throwing up... pour thing was so upset!

DRIVEWAY PAD

On Sunday we got some hoses and sprinklers for the backyard. And Tommy worked on leveling out the rock on the driveway pad. I weeded the flower area along the driveway and Tommy brought some more dirt. We had a slow day because yesterday was a lot of work.

WE HAVE A/C

After work this week we have....

- Monday Tom's parents came in the evening and Tommy and them did some chipping of the trees Pawel cut down last weekend... but eventually the belt broke so that was the end of that.

- Tuesday Tom's parents and Mr. Markowski were here working on the A/C compressors, electric connections and charging the units. Yeah we have A/C!!! Then the fixed the shredder... Tom's mom worked on some mulch around a group of tress in the backyard...After they left we did some front yard clean up... picked up stones, moved the bark from the trees off the front lawn, and cleaned up some brush and the orange and black fence along the stream

- Weds we figured out the level of the driveway pad so when we get debri from the harley rake we can put that gravel as the base of the driveway pad since it needs a bit more height in the one corner. I leveled out some of the mulch around groups of trees in the backyard... Planted some marigolds that Tom's mom gave me to protect the 'patio garden'.

Hooper is doing great! He does so great by himself while we are at work and he is a 'velcro' dog... he does not leave our side when we are outside! Love him so much!