I struggle to get my first blog posted and realized after posting I had forgotten to mention my wife in the first blog entry.Cherie my wife, is obviously the boss and I do what she says. (that's the boss on the ladder painting).
She is my partner in life and in building this house. Amazingly, we are not at each others throats and enjoying our building experience together.
This month was drier than usual and an opportunity to pick up 5 acres of leave from last season. Two-thirds of the yard took 4 days to pickup. First day was raking by hand (which was very tiring for 3 people). Second day we got smart and showed-up with a 24 hp lawn tractor and a triple bagger with a mulching blade. Best money spent. Purpose is to remove the leaves in low areas and areas where trees will quickly grow leaves and block the sun. We need grass to grow under all these oaks. Cherie, Myself, Brother Steve and friend Jimmy helped out with the leaf clean-up.
Although we obtained a second permit for the garage door, some windows, exterior insulation, hardiplank siding and 1.5 of closed cell insulation, we are holding all closing of the structure until all ground water issues are under control. Super insulation is great as long as you don't trap moisture inside. So were monitoring our progress.
Two weeks ago, an exterior sump was installed to relieve the rising water table. Fortunately, we found no water due to the unseasonably dry conditions. This last week Friday, we enlisted our friend Rob and crew to excavate the entire rear of the house and install slotted drain tile (since we assumed we had none). We are hoping the combination of roof gutters and drain tile will help control crawl space moisture (our biggest unknown).
In honor of McHenry County Building Department, we removed the backyard pool they have complained about for years. See photo to left of the dirt ring.We uncovered some nice yellow daffodils in a courtyard to the west of the old garage and we began to excavate for the new side load driveway and garage door. Front yard was regraded to get water to drain across the yard and not toward the house.
Gutters go up this week. Garage door is ordered and final remaining windows are being ordered this week. Home Depot has been a ghost town most of the month and been a great resource if your looking to buy Anderson Windows.
