Yesterday I brought Mom and Lesley out to “Thee Place” to see the progress on the new home.

Today the steel studs & hat channel was delivered. Mark and Bryan (his brother) came out and removed four old Hackberry trees ( before& after). Then I invited Lalenout. Carol & Shawn(her son) drove him here and while we were sitting around, I leaned in cCarol & and Shawn lose to Lalen and said “I feel like Tom Sawyer……….all these people hard at work and I’m just sitting here.”

They had to quit welding because of rain & started attaching the hat channel to the kitchen and master bath/closet areas. This is the best view I could get of the vault in the Great room.

P.S. Gary mentioned that this is his job and I was gave free advertisement to David on the entry of 8/9, so here your freebie Gary ………..Baize Construction

Gary told me this morning he would have to rent a “Skylift” for the rafter area in the Great room and asked if we wanted him to go ahead and deck and stud-out the space in the attic as an bonus room. I told him what my daddy told me, “With the right tools any job can be a pleasure” and after I showed him the area we would want enclosed, if he’d work-up a price for the bonus room then we’d talk.

As I mentioned before Paul came for a visit the week-end and after extending the sewer trench we started laying pipe. We had to keep checking the fall (angle of decline) to insure a good flow. Paul went in about 11:30 pm and I continued on to the end. Sewer line #1 come from the guest bath, #2 from the master bath and they are interconnected by a 30 foot run.

Next thing I knew the sky was getting light in the East, which is a sure sign of the coming of another day. I went in to see Pam, take a bath, and lay down.

TC and Cleedy arrived about 7:30 ‘ish followed by Thad. There was some confusion as to whether there would be any work today or not so I tried calling Gary to no avail. The two youn’uns left about 8:45 am, then David showed up. He and Thad attached weld plates to the remaining rafters, but could go no future, so by 10: 45 am they to were gone.

After several calls I put the phone on the answering machine and crashed.

It's been so hot around here that I decide to do my work (trenching for the sewer lines) at night. The ground was so hard I set the sprinkler to soak the area. It actually went pretty well though it was hard to tell how deep I was digging, till the next morning. I went in about 3 am so I could get some rest before going to Home Depot in Waco to pick up the entry door units.

I was just getting ready to leave when Charles Kasparian came back with his son (Jacob) and his big Cat backhoe. He got started straight away on the job of laying our underground electrical service. I left for Waco, but Pam told me later that he had a tough go of it all day long. About 2’ down he ran into a rock shelf with which he had to contend all day; which made the going much slower than he had anticipated.

I got to Waco about 11am and left rear 4:30 pm. All that time was spent at Home Depot just trying to get someone to get my doors (for which I had already paid) from the back of the store out to my trailer. The only reason I bring this up is because I passed Charles going home at 5:30ish and I knew he’d had a much harder day than I.

When I got home Pam told me how Jacob had worked so very hard helping out his dad all day long, and was one tired fellow at the end of the day. She said they used dishwashing detergent to help feed cable through the conduit. Now it looks like I a new roadway from the pole to the transformer.

When Cleddy and TD arrived Friday they helped off load the door unit (each weighing approx. 150#) then once the rest of the crew got here they started by running an additional C purlin across the top of the ceiling joist( a ridgebackthey called it) for added strength. I went to G’ville for some decking for them to use as a platform off of which to work (assembling the rafters).

Gary (with the shades on his hat) was back from his trip and was going strong with his sidekick David of Polk Construction. TD and Thad unloaded the wafer board then started hoisting the rafters up to David who clamped them in place while Gary and Cleddy welded them in position. With two sets of rafters in place they attached several purlinsbetween them and some angle iron to stabilize them and called it a day.

Paul Snyder came to visit and wanted to try out my four-wheeler backhoe, so I put him to work on finishing the ditch I’d started for the sewer. It started to rain(thank you Lord!!!)
We went inside; he called his brother (Kenneth) and later went over to visit with him for a while. Paul has to have his larynx removed this month, so I would ask for anyone who reads this to say a little prayer for him and his.

Thad was first on site and began arranging (ladders & scaffolds) and made sure the welders were ready for use. David, Cleddy, and TD arrived and while TD was cutting the joist (C purlins) to length, Cleddy and David attached weld plates to the spots that had been marked yesterday.

Charles Kasparian, excavator for McLennan County Co-Op (our electric company) stopped by to evaluate the job site. He will be bringing equipment out later today to dig the trench from the electric pole to the transfer box. We have decided to run all the electric under ground to the house versus over head.

By midmorning, the welders started hanging the joist TD had cut . They started over in the home office, moved on to the laundry room, the utility room, then the guest bedroom, and finished up with the kitchen.

When the guys took their lunch break, I offered them some “Black Diamond” watermelon I had gotten while on my road trip. (It seems this old-fella came into the service station/food mart, gave them about 50 watermelons and told them to just give them away. I took two and gave one to Gary Hames, owner of Concrete Colors, Inc.

By 12:30 PM all the welders work was done until our contractor, Gary Baize, comes back. That should be Thursday or Friday.

About 3:15 pm Charles drove in with his supplies in-tow. He said he'd be back tomorrow with his back-hoe to cut the 5' deep ditch for the high voltage(40,000 volts) cable.

Gary told me on Friday he was going to be out of town till Thursday, August 7th, but the crew would be back Monday, August 4th, to continue on with the framing of the 10' ceiling areas and the perimeter.

The crew (Thad Vincent, Cleddy Baize, TD Brookshire) arrived about 7:15AM. David (interim boss) showed up about an hour later and once they got going it went up pretty fast . By lunch break, they had encircled the Storm Room with red iron. David was having some trouble getting the guys (TD & Cleddy) fired-up after 40 minutes under the "Porta-Cool", but once again our Youngman of Texas arose to the occasion! I did hear one of them say "I didn't say I wouldn't work, I said I don't feel like it." David turned to me and said "No more porta cool for the boys" They started by finishing the wrap-around the Storm Room and finished the day with the perimeter.

David said they'd measure and lay out for the ceiling joist before they left; so all they would have for tomorrow is to cut and hang them in place.

If you’re wondering how hot it is here in this spot of Texas - Hot enough to partially meltour citronella candle.

Chris was the first to arrive about 7:15 AM, followed shortly by Gary Baise (the steel framing contractor) with his four (4) man crew. Then came Opa & Scott rounding out the count to an even eight (8). David Polk arrived a little while later and that made nine (9).

While Opa, Chris, and Scott removed the forms (inside and out) from the storm room, Gary and crew started setting up there equipement. It wasn't long before the red iron started going-up about 9:25. By 4:30 PM they had pretty much completed the section over the master bedroom suite with the exception of the roof.

While all this hard work was going on, I built some temporary steps and attached them to the east side. This is where the door unit will eventually be installed.

The jobsite is quiet now. The storm room looks naked and Lady is resting comfortably in the cool sand.