Critters and Cranes

Neither one of us could sleep last night because of one design feature on the sidewalk layout.  In an effort to have the slope of the porch drain both away from the porch and away from the bedroom wall of the house, Cory proposed a porch addition that would have looked crooked in relationship with the tiled porch.  That bothered both of us, but by the time Cory left last night, it was not worth further discussion.

This morning found us both blurry-eyed but determined to find a way to solve this problem.  Out came the transit once again, and Rick took all of the measurements.  Kudos to Cory for laying out the sidewalk and porch addition with extremely precise slopes... and all just by using a level and his many years of experience.

Boards hold the plastic in place that covers were the Pest Control man
sprayed to deter termites from boring into our house.

We did discover, however, that we could solve the crooked-slope problem by just raising the boards that curve around my flower garden in the front of the house.  That will straighten out the angle in front of the porch and will still provide the required slope for water to drain away from the house.  We both are much more excited to have the porch and sidewalk completed now.

We have just a slight flair at the end of the walkway
to break up the straight lines.

Rick is not thrilled with what we have to do around our buried drainpipe, but we will work that out also.  I eventually want to build up a flower garden in front of the bedroom windows that face west, so I will let the garden "sneak" around the corner of the house to include the drainpipe. I will just fill that area in with red rock like the rest of the garden, and it will disappear into the landscape.  I also told Rick and Cory last night that if that plan did not work out, a well-placed pot of flowers in front of the drainpipe will hide any unwanted views.

The concrete will flow around the drainpipe
while still giving us access to it if we need to
repair or replace any part of it.

We worked for a while in the back yard, redistributing the dirt that Cory wheel-barrowed into a low spot that needed some fill.  Once the sidewalk is finished, we will be able to concentrate our efforts on working in the back yard.  We need to paint the back of the garage wall, and we need to plan and complete the foundation for our shed.

The Pest Control man showed up on schedule to spray for termites.  In this city, any time that concrete touches your house, you have to pay to have a pest control firm come in and spray the dirt up to two feet from the house to eliminate those little critters.  This is the only municipality in the area that has this requirement.  Thankfully, he came right after lunch and signed off on our prominently-displayed permit that he had sprayed the area.  In fact, he outdid himself by spraying the entire length of the sidewalk.  We should not have termites anywhere near this house!

After the pest control man left, we decided to go for a walk.  A little history: two blocks away from our house, a couple is building a new house.  We have watched them drive wooden pilings into the ground, then dig the foundation and add rebar.  Today we saw a huge crane that actually was a concrete pumper truck at the site.  Rick loves to watch construction, so Mr. Nosey had to go for a walk to see what they were doing.

OK, this is a concrete pumper, not a crane.  

When we got to the site, a concrete truck arrived and they started pumping the wet mix into the foundation trenches.  Suddenly a woman came up to us, introduced herself as Debbie, and told us that she and her husband were building the house.  We had a very nice conversation with her as we watched the construction continue.  Then Rick looked at his watch and realized that we had to get home.

Workers direct the hose which fills in the
foundation of the house.

He owes me a walk.  I suspended my insulin so we could do our usual 1/2 hour circuit, and we walked two blocks!  The next time we walk, I will have to make sure to start out in the opposite direction.  I don't care if we end up walking past the new construction, but I need to have my exercise first.