Some of the pictures I posted fill in a bit I guess. Been going to the HS football home games on Fridays. My Aunt and Uncle had a surprise 25th anniversary party thrown by my cousin Jamie on Oct 11th. And that night I went with
dodgeman25, sara_beth_03, and mandajo_03 which was great. Afterwards, we stopped by our new place on the lake for kicks. Good times. :POtherwise, it's been a blur of problems, solutions, and work.
During a lot of these days, I was in Lansing helping my ex-boss move from his old house to his new house. It's a blur on what days though. Went to Jade Apple (I think that was the name) Chinese Restaurant in Frandor one day, and Panera's another day. Found out Alicia Britton, who I graduated with, works at the lab I used to work at too. A lot of moving happened.
At first, they were telling us we couldn't add on or do work on our new place, or even put a deck on the back side which faces the lake because they said it wasn't far enough from the "road". We went through that crap for a week or two, until finally dad got fed up and filed an objection, since our place isn't even on the road... it's on our own private drive, and that we were more than 50ft from it... we're 165ft from it. And they said he was right... the road ends where our property starts, and we can build up to our driveway all we want. It just has to stay clear so that our one neighbors farther down can use it also still since they have a legal easement.
Once that was resolved, work got underway. The pole barns were started, and as of today the frames are up, roofs on and shingled, sand is packed down on the floors, and awaiting concrete now, which should happen tomorrow most likely.
I cleaned my "room" downstairs 2 weeks ago or so. Shampooed the shag carpets and cleaned them well, wiped down all surfaces with Lysol spray, etc. Took down the ratty old curtains and burned them, and then took down the curtain rods and such. Probably put blinds on the giant pictures windows or something. At some point, we moved all the tools, shelves, etc from the attached garage over to the other garage. Radial arm saw, band saw, etc included. Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue helped at various times move work benches and the saws and such.
One day, I don't remember when, Tony and Wes stopped over there after getting back from buying fireworks in Indiana. Buster nipped/bit Tony's leg. No more Tony near Buster or vice versa. Set off a few bottle rockets. I had been pulling quarter inch plywood off the walls that day, and burning it. Wes helped rip down shelves and sheetrock. Tony left, but Wes stayed, and we found some metal rods, a large slab of steel, and framing hammers, and heated the rods to glowing red in the bottom bunghole of the 55-gal drum we were burning all the scrap wood in. Then we were pounding the rods flat. The idea now is to actually buy fire bricks, build a small forge, and make some things. Would be awesome.
At some point, we cut the hole in the bedroom wall where the new hallway will be, and framed it in.
We got a big dumpster dropped off last Monday for construction junk. I stopped by and got a dolly and our trailer and drove into Lansing to help Dean move again. Moved tons of furniture, fridges, washing machines, etc at various times. Picked up old carpet of his and some bike frames, etc to dump. Accidentally left the dolly there. Visited Mom at work, and picked up a ton of moving boxes there from her for our stuff. Unloaded the carpet and junk into the dumpster and went home. Monday night Mom and Dad went over there and met up with Aunt Sue and Uncle Save and they dumped all the garbage cans from the garage into the big dumpster. I stayed here for my TS meeting on Realms of Despair.
Tuesday I went into Lansing again without the trailer, I had left the dolly there the day before. Picked that up, helped move more. Got it all wrapped up basically. Went to visit mom again, then went to B&N in the mall and got a tasty beverage, and then went to Babbages (GameStop) and bought Final Fantasy Tactics for GBA since my brother let me borrow his GBA SP. Also bought Matrix Reloaded DVD at FYE. Not sure what we did Tuesday night though.
Wednesday evening, dad and I were using post hole diggers to make holes for the covered porch on the lake side. The holes had to be 16"x16" by 42" deep... after about 12-15 inches, we hit solid grey clay. We got down 30" in two holes before we gave up rather than killing ourselves.
Thursday, dad started ripping shingles off the attached garage, and I did the same. Then we got the pole barn guys to use the auger on their Bobcat to drill the porch post holes like they had for the pole barns' posts. So much easier with a beast machine to do the work. :P
Friday, I took the shingles off the other side of the garage roof. Grandpa came over and helped me pick up shingles off the ground and throw them in the dumpster. A stout garden hoe is your best friend for ripping up shingles, ice guard, and tar paper... before I discovered that, we had been using hammers, and floor scraper-like tool, and crowbars... but man, the garden hoe whooped all over them. It slid right underneath everything, and usually the increased surface area under the shingles meant they held together and even pulled out nails with them when they were pulled up, instead of breaking into little pieces with crowbars and hammers. Mom and Dad got there after work, and then Nicole, and we pulled the roof planks off that night. No OSB plywood... 1x8 planks... on the walls too. With 4+ nails at every intersection with a roof truss... this guy was insane and loved nails we've found. I think Friday morning might have also been when I ran into Charlotte and got an oil change in the truck, and bought Golden Sun 2 for GBA at Wal-Mart. And then watched Reloaded that night.
Saturday, it sprinkled off and on. Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave came out to help again. We tore down the roof trusses (i.e. chainsaw and sawzall) and pulled lots of nails. And then that evening went to a family/friends bonfire/hayride thing we go to every year just about. Mmm, free food. We didn't stay all that late though. Not sure what else we did Sat. night. I had a strange dream involving someone I know here on LJ. I don't remember how it started, but I remember being upset about something and storming about, and ending up in the upstairs of this house, though I don't know who's house. She was upstairs in a room too and was unhappy too, crying I think. I ended up plopping down on a couch in a common room or something to cool off, and she came out and sat next to me and leaned her head on my shoulder, and we just sat there together, and I remember thinking of the possibilities and potential, and nothing else happened... a strange calmness came over me, and it was like a realization of a perfect moment. What I find most interesting is that it was apparently clear exactly who she was, but I can't figure out why I would have dreamed of her... i.e. what might have triggered it. If any of the girls on my friends list dreamed about me Saturday night, let me know or something. :D I can't guarantee it was you I dreamed of, but if it was, that'd be really really weird. :P
Sunday we pulled planks off the walls of the garage. Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave helped again. The roofing people finished the first roof. We cut up a ton of planks to use in bonfires. Our neighbor Mike gave us a big 36" or so circular section of galvanized steel culvert to use as a fire pit. At some point in the week I met some of neighbors, Harold and Jane. Sunday though, we got all the wall planks off, and called it a day around 2:30. Uncle Shawn and Aunt Pam came out to see how we were doing. Then everyone took off.
Yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart and bought some thin leather hunting gloves to wear while working. I'm pleased with purchase, as my hands were/are really raw and dry from working without gloves all last week and washing my hands all the time to get construction gunk off. Then I spent the day unbolting the walls from the cement pad, and trimming trees. Dad showed up around 3:30PM and we took the walls down and tore them apart. I then cut up two cedar-like bushes into burnable logs and brush and took care of it. Dad cut up some 2x4's and I moved some of them too. I swept the cement pad. Mom showed up briefly, but because of DST it gets dark much too soon for us, and we all went home at like 6:30PM. I had my TS meeting on Realms like usual.
Today it was sprinkling, but I took our power washer over there and power washed the cement pad. I guess the construction materials to rebuild it into M&D's and Nicole's rooms will be dropped off Thursday. I moved the rest of the cut up 2x4 and plank wood to the burning pile. Made an omelette and 8 pieces of toast for lunch/breakfast, walked around outside in the rain a bit, and then came home shortly before 2PM since it started drizzling even more.
In between all this, been playing Golden Sun 2 mostly. Watching Family Guy, Futurama, etc at night, and not a whole lot more. There's obviously big gaps and more that happened and was worked on, etc, but bleh... it's all a blur, I'm surprised I've remembered this much. Thursday and through the weekend, it's supposed to get back up to 60 and be nice again for a bit, so M&D have Friday off, and Dad has all next week off to work on the new place. Yay.