June 2009 -

Summer came late this year. There was lots of rain so we got a late start to building.

We finally got to put in a french drain all around the house. We were using a sump pump to drain the water out of the house, but no more. It's working great.

We rented a mini-excavator and took turns running it. Steve is digging the trench on the south side to a minimum of 18 inches deep.

We extended the plastic down the tirebales and into the trench. Then we put about 2-3 inches of 3/4 inch gravel over the plastic at the bottom, then the drain pipe, followed by more rock to about 3-4 inches from the top. A layer of landscape fabric over that and then fill to the top of the trench with more gravel.

With the french drain done, we moved on to the middle tunnel door. This took some time to figure out since we're not carpenters. We're pleased that it turned out so well. It's an air lock/mudroom type thing with a storm door on the outside and a solid door on the inside end.

September 2009 -

We were able to get the storm door in, the half round window installed above the door, the two round windows (one on each side), and one coat of stucco on before the first hard freeze.

In preparation for the stucco, we needed to get the garage floor poured and the garage door framed.

April 2010-

We contacted Al Juliano of Juliano Concrete L.L.C. in Ridgway, CO to pour the concrete garage floor. (He and his crew poured the bond beam for us.) Steve hauled some rock to the garage in our skid steer loader and Al (the boss) and T.J. spread it around to get a slight angle outward so any water will drain out. Then, they laid down a layer of six mil plastic and the rebar.

That's Al (the boss) Juliano spreading the concrete as T.J. moves the chute around.

All done! Al will come back in a few hours and apply a sealer to the concrete

While we were framing the garage door, we called four stucco contractors in the area. The first one gave us an estimate of over $21,000. No way! The next one came out to look but never gave us an estimate (he said his computer broke). The third one never returned our call. The fourth one was referred to us by the building contractor working on the house next door. We called him, he came out and looked the house over and gave us an acceptable bid. He started work on June 14.

The guys are hard at work on the west side. They used a foam board cut to size and rounded on the top and front of the parapet walls to give it a more rounded look, then covered it with felt, stucco wire, and stucco. It worked well.

We're not too pleased with the way the south side is turning out. The top of the bond beam has the required blue board on it and it makes a very smooth surface. The transition to the tire bales below in front is rather ugly. We are going to try and figure out some way to cover this.

July 2010 -

The stucco is finished. We're considering a couple of options concerning the rework in front of the tire bales but winter will soon be here and we have some other priorities to work on first.

 __________