We Need an Ark...

Last week we finished the sheet rock in the main dining hall and Monday brought a flood. I was ready to head into town Monday morning but Trey came by and said ‘It’s raining, do you need anything from town?’ I was quite aware of the fact that it was raining but what he really meant was ‘The river crossing is probably washed out and you may be stuck here for a while’. We told him we could always use milk. I’m new to this area and I didn’t realize that heavy rain means you stay home. That’s crazy to a curb and gutter boy. They even sent the kids home early from school. You see, there is a lot of people like us around here who live a fair distance from a paved road and have to ford a few creeks before reaching their residence. Those creeks rise and you can’t get home. If the kids and teachers can’t get home, they have to spend the night together when they really didn’t want to spend the day together in the first place. Heavy rain = free time, but it was good because I was able to get my taxes done. I called Trey and asked him to get some coffee too.

Tuesday we went in and everyone on the sheet rock crew had a flood story. Ray said he let a sow pig go from a trap he had by the river because it just seemed cruel and unusual to leave it in the trap to drown. Personally, I think shooting the pig, dragging it to higher ground, gutting it and throwing it on the pit might seem unusual to some, but it’s certainly not cruel…it’s dinner!

As I mentioned earlier, we have a slope problem in the back as all of the dirt moves towards the building. We had pulled most of the old wood off the exterior in the back and as you can guess, we had a water situation inside the building. It just came right on in the walls. There were a few drip spots in the sheet rock, but we believe that may have been from the turbine vents on the roof. An emergency call was made to the dirt guy (since we haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks) and he came out and pulled some dirt from the walls and made a little improvement on the slope situation. A temporary fix, I guess he’ll be back to finish later.

We wrapped the cedar beams to protect them from the texture spray, put a door in the side, tore out a window and vacuumed up some water. Our Hardie Plank siding arrived yesterday, so we’ll start putting that up this week too. We’re expecting more rain tomorrow and Friday so Trey and I wrapped the turbine vents in plastic and we’ll see if things stay dry. The turbine vents will be removed soon.

I hear thunder.

Rock My World, or at Least the Ceiling and Bathrooms.

I haven’t posted in a while because last week went fairly uneventful, except we found a new plumber and bought some benches. We mostly got things ready for the sheet rockers to show up this week. We also had some friends from out of town come in Friday for the weekend, so there really weren’t any pictures to show a lot of progress.

Funny thing about those benches. We went to lunch one day, and as we came back there was a couple looking around the building. We talked with them and found out they are fairly new to the area and are building a house north of Barksdale. Turns out he was the Chief of Police in Addison for 17 years and they used to live Plano. Small world. In any case, he mentioned he had some benches he purchased from the Kelly Air Force Base Officers Club he wouldn’t mind selling. We went and looked at them with our interior decorators (Shelli and Frances) and promptly purchased most of his inventory. We now have benches from Kelly Air Force base in a building that was once an American Legion Hall, built with wood from the barracks from the old Air Force base in Hondo. Hmmm…maybe we should consider a name change, something military.

The plumber came by last Friday and we started laying out the plan for the kitchen. There was one drain in the kitchen area we wanted to utilize, so we were going to build the janitor closet around it so that we could use it to drain the mop sink. However, some squirrel that was getting into the building had been stashing pecans in there for some time. It wouldn’t work. The pecans weren’t so much the problem as it was old cast iron 1¼” pipe and time had just taken its toll. It wouldn’t work.

We needed a solution to drain all of the kitchen equipment anyway, so we decided that we would tap into the sewer line between the 2 bathrooms to handle all of the draining. That meant we would need to bust a hole in the slab under the stage. That was accomplished Friday and things started to happen.

Yesterday (Monday) we began to hang the insulation in the ceiling. Ray Ross came by and said he would have the sheet rock delivered this morning. Also, the plumbers came back today and our new front windows were delivered. Needless to say, it was a bustle of activity today. We were bumping into each other, but to me that’s a good thing. It means things are happening.

We finished hanging insulation today and about ¼ (maybe less) of the sheet rock has been hung. I’m rather pleased with the way the sheet rock is going up. Much like anything else that is 60 or so years old, there are a few sags in this roof, but they don’t really show with the sheet rock in place. It’s like spandex that way. As long as we don’t add any sheen to the ceiling no one will notice.

The pictures are of the benches, window and sheet rock delivery, new drain under the slab, bustle of activity and the new windows installed (one still needs to be framed). I’m starting to see a restaurant in this building.

The Blues are Gone

I took Monday and Tuesday off this week, as I had to visit the Doctor and get back on my BP medicine. Trey and Phil also needed to do some work on the cabins and horse pens as there are going to be 22 people from a horse riding club visiting the ranch next week. The girls also had to go to the Orthodontist and the dog needed grooming.

This week we removed the blue paneling from the front of the building, all of the siding from the south side of the building, and most of the siding in the back. Underneath the blue paneling was some siding that was popular in the 50's . Underneath that was some tar paper with a brick pattern, like asphalt shingles (popular in the 40's). Underneath that we found Noah's Ark, and underneath that we found a few Jurasic fossils. We also tore out the windows in the front and reframed for some larger windows. The siding and wood on the sides and back will be replaced with Hardie Board. We are going to save as much of the wood on the front as we can, but the sides and back are in pretty poor shape. We are going to put an awning/porch on the front, so that will help protect the wood underneath it, but above that, we will need to use Hardie Board as well. Just too many holes and gaps to keep the water out.

The plumber was supposed to show up Thursday, he didn’t show but called and said he would be there Friday morning @ 9:00. He didn’t show. We are now shopping for a new plumber.

Our electrician, John Morey, had to go to Mississippi last weekend to visit a sick relative, but came back today to help us finish the wiring in the dining area. John is doing this job on the side, so he can only give us attention on the weekends. I like John, but he has a tendency to talk over my head. He might as well be speaking German. At one point he said something like, “John, take the 12/3 back to the dilly whopper, pull the 18/23 685 over to the 110, and get the 220 homerun and we’ll pull it back to the panel loop.” I think he saw the glazed look in my eyes and said very slowly, “John, take the 12/3 back to the dilly whopper, pull the 18/23 685 over to the 110, and get the 220 homerun and well pull it back to the panel loop.” I advised John Morey that if he would talk to me like a kindergartener, I could keep up. He still uttered a bunch of google-de-bloop, but I just figured I could pull wire and punch holes until reprimanded.

Next week we plan on hanging the insulation in the dining area so that it can be sheet rocked. I hope an Artic cold front passes Monday morning, as it can get quite warm 16’ up next to that tin roof. I included some pictures of the building front during tear down and John Morey striping the metal clad from the 12/3 on the homerun to the panel loop. I have no idea what I just said.