That really floored me...

Lots of work done since last time. Got the concrete floor in the belltower poured. Not the best concrete I've ever done, but it was a confined space. Oh well. Put up new walls on the concrete as a base for the floor we put in level with the "main hall". Then Jim and I pulled out the decaying doorway to the front and replaced it with a treated lumber and Hardipanel wall. This will be home to my new electrical meter and breaker box.

Other end- Kathy pulled the tiles in the NW corner basement room, getting it ready for a cement floor. I tore out the floor/ceiling of the NE basement. I've now replaced the joists and taken out the corroded plumbing. The tiles still have to come out of there, then we'll be ready to concrete the floors of the back three rooms. Progress!

Concrete ideas and abstract platts

What a day! Started out to concrete the floor of the belltower readying it for a new floor a level above. After buying materials, went to pay the water bill. Not a big deal, right? While I was there, I decided to check into the procedure for getting the city to close and legally abandon the unkept, unused dead-end road between my neighbor's property and mine. In theory, they're fine with it... just need owners of all abutting properties to sign off on the deal. Since my neighbor first suggested it, no problem. Au contrar, mon frer!

Turns out a wedge of property I was told belonged to the city, doesn't. It's an unusable postage stamp of land between me and the creek. It took me fully three hours to find the owner's name (both at the city and the county tax assessor) and to find out he's in Dallas. This isn't going to be fun.

Needless to say, no concrete today. Tomorrow, I'll pull up the dirt-mounted tile in the belltower and put up the forms. It's cool in the basement so I'll pour in the afternoon when it's too hot to work outside. "Plan? There ain't no plan!" - PigKiller from the last Mad Max movie Beyond the Thunderdome.

Just another brick in the wall...

For a few who have asked, this is the condition of the bricks in the back. As I said, apparently the repairs done 100 years ago after the fire were done inccorrectly, whether by design or by mistake. The hole is actually much bigger than that now. It must all be rebricked above and repointed below. Then the whole wall must be stuccoed to protect the friable bricks. BIG job! but I'm up to it.

Countdown to construction... 3...2...1...

Five more days until I can get started as the general contractor, plumber, electrician, carpenter, landscaper, decorator, and day laborer on the Nickel Church Project. We've come to start calling it "the Manor" so that people don't think I'm actually going to use it as a church. My plan is to commit to 30 hours per week as a minimum in order to get things moving. However, it's summer in Texas which means HOT. HOTTER! HOTTEST!! Afternoon tempuratures around here run from 97 degrees F (36.1 C) now to about 103 degrees F (39.5 C) by August. Early starts and a siesta in the afternoon. We mzungu can't take too much heat 'til we adjust halfway through the summer. Probably won't post anything else here until I've started again.