Nickel Farm

Russ and I ripped out the wall between the kitchen and dining room to open up the area for large family gatherings.  I will fabricate and install an 11’ long beam to carry the overhead rafter load.

Supervised the construction of the west 3-car parking lot.  This area will provide winter parking for visitors wanting to enter the house through the solarium, which will be constructed adjacent to and south of the winter parlor.  Unfortunately, the unskilled tractor operator I was supervising spent three hours (at $40/hr) in accomplishing what I could have done in half that time had I been on the tractor (brag, brag!).

I got up early and proceeded to wake everyone up pulling wood siding off the west end of the house, revealing a beautifully chiseled limestone wall.  The sound of screeching rusty nails isn’t quite as charming as hearing a rooster crow in the distance.

Lara arranged for me to pick up a quality king-sized bed for free from a family with the provision that we deliver a single box spring to them in return.  Lara located one for $20, which I picked up and delivered to the former king bed owner.

Spent several hours during this period drafting up the measured rooms up at a scale of  1/4 “=1’.  I drafted up the 1.06-acre site at a scale of 1”=20’.

Because of the size of the frig, I had to rip some of the frame off the outside laundry door to get it inside the house. The laundry is absolutely putrid and odoriferous from years of overflowing washing machines, etc.  Probably best to tear it of completely.  Measured some elevation points in the front yard and street right-of-way.  Purchased some red metal bunk beds for $75 at a garage sale in a nearby town.  Trying to be as frugal as possible in my expenditures so I love finding bargains!

Loaded and transported a large fridge from the front porch of my small house to Nickel Farm.  It works fine.  Mowed the grass, cleaned up debris, and took some laser level shots after it turned dark.

June 4, 2011

Sketched house plan revisions.

Spent a few hours during this period measuring and computing distances and plotting elevations as I prepared a topographic map of the site for future grading plans.

I was up at 6:00 am shooting elevations with my laser level.  The rest of the day was spent cleaning up site debris, moving large stones, and supervising a neighbor man in mowing the front yard.  Returned home later in the day