My day started out at Superior Door and Trim. I got there even before Dave was in... but the guys in the back helped me out. They loaded up the truck with - get this -
100 more lineal feet than I had ordered!! At no extra charge, Dave's friend at the mill decided to use what she had on hand, which included a lot of 16' boards instead of the 10-footers that I had ordered. What's amazing is I actually need three 15-foot boards to do the porch! Yes, I'm very grateful. Roscoe on the other hand, wondered where the heck he was going to sit -- these boards shot straight through the truck cab into the windshield so I wouldn't drop them all over the interstate.
AND to my surprise, Dave was thoughtful enough to ask his friend to take some pictures of their machines actually milling the lumber! I couldn't believe it - here I am obsessing over getting enough pictures to entertain my seven blog readers and he had the forethought to humor me like that. This is the shot of the cypress "blank" going into the machine...
And this is the finished piece of siding coming out the other side. Remember, they actually manufactured a blade to match the sample piece that I pried off the house weeks ago. Isn't it fun to see something actually get done!? It will be really fun when the siding goes up on the wall - I'm hoping that Steven will be available next Thursday to help me with just that.
Steven and I kicked the day off right away with the most 'difficult' wiring problem. But with his help, it all worked out. This photo may look like a mess, but not to me - it's tremendous progress. We took the two switches and GFI outlet out of the wall right by the back door. Then we figured out where each one went, and re-wired right through this box to the new overhead lights I am going to put in. Steven was a real trooper and wouldn't let me move on to the next one until we finished what we started (I was ready at one point to give up and wait for Jake to help me figure it out). He has a real aptitude for this sort of thing, which is good since he's going to school to be an electrical engineer. He told me that once he invents a room-temperature superconductor, none of this wiring will be necessary any more.
We did some other wiring that I needed two people for, and he helped me identify all the wires in the kitchen and their associated circuit breakers. Aside from one small
pop when testing one of the hot wires,
a little soot on the fingers and one melted probe on the tester.... no problems at all!! Managed to do it all without setting the place on fire.
While we were working inside, a lot was going on outside. The guys were working away on the back yard and driveway. This is a shot of one of them on a "skid steer loader" that you actually stand on. Pretty cool - looked like fun. Anyway, they finished excavating that retaining wall, and they'll be back on Saturday to lay the block and rebar and pour in the concrete. The "fence" project is turning out to be about twice the cost that I had anticipated but I think what I'm going to end up with is so much better than I had imagined. If it means postponing a little of something else, then so be it.
My only regret today is that I failed to get a picture of my son Steven at work with me. He's 20 years old, and it's rare that I get to spend the whole day with him. He did a lot of muscly work... unloaded all that wood, and at the end of the day loaded up the old AC unit and some really heavy old wooden doors I took out of the kitchen (what I'm going to do with those is a surprise, you'll just have to wait for that one).
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