Garage Project Phase III

This is a continuation of my project involving the restoration of my old 1920's garage. This post describes the concrete work.
(Earlier post: Garage Project Phase II)

It took a couple Saturdays to get the concrete forms ready. My father-in-law, a professional builder, warned me about the need for a release agent to prevent the forms from sticking. I decided to try biodiesel. I have yet to try to remove the forms, so we’ll see how that goes.

Last week was a bit nerve-wracking because I’ve only ever worked with small batches of concrete. I really didn’t want to mess up the $675.00 worth of concrete and gravel I’d ordered for this project. Also, the only opening they had to deliver on Saturday was at 8:00 AM! Thankfully, I had the day before that off, but the list of things to get done was long.

The concrete company told me their truck needed a stable road at least a 10 feet wide, with no overhang under 14 feet. If the driver didn’t think the road was good enough, we’d have to use wheelbarrows to carry the concrete from the street – a nightmare scenario! Unfortunately, the back alley to my garage was choked with blackberries, overgrown brush, and muddy potholes!

The critical 300 foot path from the street (top) to my garage (red square) had to be cleared for the concrete truck.

After checking with my neighbors that I could chop down whatever was growing behind their property into the alleyway, I started in early Friday chopping, mowing, and trimming – with the most work being on my own overgrown hedge. The whole time, my mind was running through everything I had to prep on the garage, and here I was clearing brush! But it had to be done.

With the alleyway (hopefully) clear enough for the truck, I turned my attention to the open pit of loose, fluffy, and rotten log-filled dirt that made up one third of my garage floor. Before I could pour a new slab on top of it, I needed to compact the soil. But first, I had to dig out the bad stuff. I ducked between all the wooden braces and started to shovel. Every time I thought I’d gotten down low enough, I’d turn up another rotten log. In the end, I shoveled out 6 wheelbarrows full of dirt.

Meanwhile, a load of gravel had arrived in a big pile in the alley. It was to go in the cavity I was digging out, allowing me to get a good compact foundation on which to pour the concrete. With my wheelbarrow and shovel, I started moving gravel into the void. By this point I was exhausted and running out of daylight. There would be no time in the morning to prepare, so I had to get it ready at whatever the cost. But I hadn’t yet starting digging out the slab I intended to pour behind the garage! I didn’t even have a pick-axe and didn’t know how long it would take me. I was almost ready to forego the new slab altogether.

My neighbor Dan comes out to see concrete poured in the slab he helped excavate the night before.

That is when a hero stepped in. My neighbor Dan knew about my project, and he volunteered both his labor and tools just when I needed them. In the fading daylight, he swung his pick-axe into the boulder-filled earth outside the shop, and together we dug until we could no longer see what we were doing. I hastily laid out some wooden forms for the slab sides. With light and space for removed soil running out, we scaled back the length of the slab from 10 feet to 8 feet. Dan left his tools for me. It was late. I closed up the garage for the night, took a shower, and didn’t sleep a wink.

Dad floats the new slab.

The second hero, as always, is my dad. He arrived at 7:30 the next morning and we frantically started preparing the site. The concrete truck arrived 10 minutes early! The thing about concrete is that you have x minutes to unload the truck and they charge you y dollars for every minute beyond that as stand-bye time. When that truck is ready, your wallet is on the clock.

The driver came out to look at the alley, hemmed and hawed about branches and the stability of the surface, but thankfully decided to give it a go. His truck squeezed down the alley with inches to spare on either side, and we now had concrete right next to the project! My alley trimming the day before had been worth it.

The next hour and a half was a sweaty frantic rush of action as we moved the concrete from the truck to the forms a wheelbarrow at a time (we blew out one wheelbarrow tire). Finally, it was in! Dad and I spent another 3 hours floating and smoothing things into shape. The concrete started to get firm. We took a lunch break and came out to see that the cat had walked across the area. We smoothed over that, but later, when it was just soft enough, the cat did it again. And those prints are now permanent.

Wet concrete fills the pit that once held 80 years worth of rotten wood. A proper floor at last!

Anchor bolts in the foundation forms.

Next: Removing the forms, replacing the sills, and maybe lowering the structure into place!

Happy Easter!

The weather was rainy today, but Oliver had a great time. Jenny hid eggs around the living room with some toddler gummy treats in them. We had to point a few of them out, but he ate the treats as he went, so pretty soon he was searching for them himself.

Oliver was standing around, hugging Abbie. I took a few pictures because she usually isn't that patient with him. I was kind of kidding when I suggested that he give her a kiss, but to my surprise, as soon as he got close, she leaned over to give him the kiss first!

Steppin Outside

Now that we're having a bit more daylight, Oliver insists on going outside and walking up and down the sidewalk as often as possible. In this video, I hand him his coat so he can try to put it on himself. What happens next cracks me up.

-Keith

Spring! and Garage Project Phase II

Oliver is 16 months old. We need to start writing down his ever growing vocabulary! He recently impressed us with "apple," "eye" (including finger jab into dad's said object), and "mouth." Generally, he gets more talkative the closer he is to the ground. Drop him down to run in the grocery store and you'll soon be hearing about everything he can point at.

He likes to walk around the block, where he can point out birds or an ever-present FedEx airplane passing overhead (we live directly under their landing zone to the airport -- not that they're scraping our roofs or anything).

Here are a few classic toddler negatives: He's suddenly not enjoying his bath. His mastery of the fork and spoon also needs work. And when denied something, we get a real show of stomping and crying. Fun!
But we love the little guy.

Here is my garage. It was built with the house in 1928, and was clearly cobbled together with scrap lumber left over from the main house. After rainwater leaked in and ruined a bunch of stuff and some thefts from the less-than-secure structure, I decided to start restoring it.

Phase I was last fall, when my dad and brothers (what would I do without them?) helped me put a new roof on the building. That took care of the water problem. The next big issue was the foundation. When it was built, the builders stacked a wall of bricks 3 high and laid the wood on top. They built up from there. Over the years, the bricks sank, the soil rose (under a big cedar tree), and the bottom sill thoroughly rotted out. The whole structure was leaning. I didn't even know there was a brick foundation until I'd done a lot of digging!

Rotten 4 X 6 sill

Phase II started over the winter, as I reinforced the roof structure, adding metal brackets anywhere I could. Yesterday, my dad, brothers and I did a LOT more reinforcement, then set up jacks and posts under giant beams I'd affixed to the ceiling truss structure. Using 4 jacks, we slowly lifted the whole structure off the ground about 10 inches. It was stop and go. There was a constant discussion about how to proceed, and we always erred on the side of safety, deciding that we needed more support and insurance for our points of failure. We were soon ducking under a network of cross-ties, but we got the job done. The rotten sill was knocked off and we were able to get some of the foundation forms in place.

NEXT!

Phase III: Concrete poured in for a new floor on one side and fill in the concrete forms.

Phase IV: Lower the structure onto the new foundation.

Phase V: Rebuild the doors, replace the window, etc.

That should do it. After that, I'll just work away as time allows, building workbenches and a ladder to the loft. More home projects are waiting, and this will be the construction base.

A Sunny Weekend

We had an unexpectedly dry weekend -- even sunny on Saturday. It's been so wet for so long!

Here is a video of Oliver dancing to the Latin beat of his electronic maraca. This kind of dancing is pretty common for him (as is the abuse of his toys).

Baby Loves Disco!

Yesterday, we joined about 200 other parents and kids under 6 at the Wonder Ballroom in NE Portland for Baby Loves Disco! – an event hosted throughout the country.

Remember those high school dances in the gym, where a mass of people did their best moves to “We Are Family” in the middle of the room, while others milled around quietly nearby, and a few more sat softly crying around the edge? Well imagine that, but with the floor is covered in apple juice and goldfish cracker crumbs. Oh, and there are hula hoops and bubbles.

Oliver is a natural dancer (he must get that from Jenny), and no sooner had we set him down than he started his usual bopping in place, arms swinging and sometimes clapping. Other than getting bumped a few times by other kids, he enjoyed himself like that for almost 3 hours. He was far from the smallest kid; some parents brought their 3-month-olds, and tried to get their $13 worth of the dance experience with the little ones on their shoulders. I don’t think we would have tried this when Ollie was that age.

Of course I had to save my best "Solid Gold" karate disco moves for fear of kicking some little tot at my feet.


After the dance, we went to get groceries, assuming that he would crash once we got in the car and one of us would stay behind while the other got the shopping done. (This one-parent-shopping arrangement is something we turn to more and more often these days. Usually, one of us has to take Oliver to some remote aisle and let him run.) But even after all that dancing, he was ready to play and flirt with the ladies in the store, so we were all pretty tired when we got home.

Wow! I’m sure I’ll say this many more times in the future, but this stage of Oliver’s language development is amazing! Not only does his constant babbling have the rhythm and cadence of natural speech, but real words are popping up here and there. As we read about speech development, we’re learning that toddlers learn to use distinct, if not correct, words for items and general concepts. So we’re slowly understanding what he wants. He’s also gesturing aggressively now, pointing at everything, talking about it, and opening and closing his hand at the things he wants. (I'm having temporary problems posting video)

Also, for the first time today, he looked at a picture of a cow in a book we often read, and said, “Moo.” Exciting!

Now what does “Dee-daw!” mean?

Children's Museum

Last weekend, Oliver and I headed to the Children’s Museum and the Rose Garden. The weather had been pretty icky so I thought this would be a great place for Oliver to burn some energy.


After the museum we headed to the Rose Garden. With the weather being so iffy, we practically had the place to ourselves. It was kind of nice after the crowds at the museum. - Jenny

Christmas 2007

We hosted some of the Evers clan at our house this year. The presents were wrapped, the fridge was stocked and the house was clean. Everything seemed to be going too well, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when Oliver woke up and his eyes were practically glued shut with a gooey crust. We hit the web and our parenting books but ultimately called the advice nurse at Kaiser who confirmed that Oliver had pink eye. A few drops later and we were ready to enjoy the day. Christmas Eve day turned out to be quite clear so Keith, Dave and Oliver took the dogs for a walk. Oliver got pretty excited and started walking with a bit more speed on the sidewalk. Our sidewalk is a bit uneven in spots and Oliver took a header, didn’t get his hands out in front of him, and hit the sidewalk with his forehead.

I’m not exactly the Martha Stewart type so actually having matching linens was a big deal. I asked Keith to take a picture because this may be a one-time-thing. Big thanks to the Bunko Gals who allowed me to keep the place card holders during our Christmas Steal-A-Gift Party.

Below are a few pictures from Christmas. Oliver was very festive in his new Christmas PJs, red eyes and scuffed red forehead. He was a real trooper through it all and was delighted with all of his presents.

Oliver and his new little friend the ladybug. I kept waiting for him to squash the bug or put it in his mouth. I’m happy to report that the ladybug survived her meeting.

Oliver just beginning to open his gifts. He kind of looks like Rudolph, if Rudolph had had a red forehead instead of a red nose.

Hey, if I take out the paper there is stuff in this bag!

Just taking it all in.

More Adventures in Food

(shameless plug alert!)
Oliver's Aunt Karri and Uncle Mike have a restaurant called Philly Bilmo's, where they make great cheesesteaks, pasta dishes, sandwiches, and much more. Last night I picked up one of my favorites, their Chicken Parmesan (which, it turns out, I can't spell -- see my earlier attempt at avocado).

Oliver loved it. -Keith

First Haircut

This is the "before" shot, or Oliver getting ready for his first haircut. We went to a place that specializes in cutting kids' hair.
This is the barber's chair, a little toy car. My first thought was, cool! My second thought was, how much random kid hair collects in this thing?
The barber was fast. Lot's of distractions. Oliver thought he was playing the whole time.
Finished. What a handsome guy.

A Wobbler at Last

For a while there, I thought I could try to follow a particular theme for each blog entry (like describing of the back of a baby’s head). But recently, we've let a little more time elapse between postings and I suddenly find that I just need to dump our anecdotes, discoveries, and the contents of our photo files into this blog.

Thanksgiving was at Jenny’s sister, Karri’s house. The food was terrific. Oliver got to spend time with the grandma and grandpa who live furthest away. His little digestive system was introduced to pumpkin pie and whipped cream and seemed to like them just fine. After stuffing myself, I fell asleep on the sofa (which is my habit). Because I try to reflect every day on all the things I’m thankful for and for which I feel very fortunate, I won’t go into details here. But life is good.

For the rest of the long weekend, we took care of some projects around the house. Jenny sewed some curtains for Oliver’s room. I did some stuff in the garage in preparation for the new foundation this coming spring. I also installed a little twanging door-stop in Oliver’s room. He can’t leave it alone. Finally, I lost myself in a snappy horror thriller by Scott Smith called “The Ruins.” Right now I’m 2/3 through it and calculating how much time I can shave off tonight’s sleep to finish it.

With Oliver now spending a majority of his time on two feet, it seems there are a dozen little breakthroughs to report. Since this time last month, he seemed to add a few steps every week to his walking distance. Just in the last week, he’s learned to go from a crawl to a squat, to standing, to walking. He now covers any distance between our walls and furniture with a bow-legged stumble, his arms up in the air so that when he falls, he can keep the momentum going in his furious crawl.

He loves to dance. He pushes buttons on one of his electronic toys and when “Old McDonald” or “The Saints Go Marching In” starts playing, he bops in place to the music, waving his arm and smiling. He’ll dance for a long time if someone keeps hitting the button.

He has a thing with placing hats and other objects on his and others’ heads. Here’s a plastic blue ring that he wears sometimes, or sticks on someone else’s head. It’s pretty funny.

He’s learned he can get a finger up his nose. I’ll spare you a picture of that.

His vocabulary is still shaping around a few crude words (dada, mama, nana, duck). We’re encouraged by the long periods of babble, where he talks at length in sounds we don’t understand. Sometimes there are questions, or exclamations (“Yeeaaagh!!!!” = “kitty/doggy, I’m coming for you!”), and also frustrations punctuated by thrown objects. Yes, the tantrums have started, revealing the classic toddler struggle between independence (put me down!) and complete dependence (pick me up!), along the way discovering subtle cues that certain behavior leads to consequences. Yesterday we took him shopping for groceries and when Oliver saw the box of graham crackers, he started reaching and pleading. We hid them under other stuff in the cart, but it was too late. He’d seen them, and in the interest of getting through the trip as quietly as possible, we opened up the box and gave him a graham cracker. Naturally, we ask ourselves – what are we starting here?

Despite all that, we just love every minute with him. He loves to wobble up to us and give us big hugs. What more could we ask for?

Catching Up

A lot has happened since we last posted. Oliver turned one last Sunday and we celebrated Halloween. Here are a few pictures from the festivities.

Oliver and I hanging out waiting for people to arrive to his party. Amazingly, I wasn’t running around at the last minute trying to get things done.

Oliver and his cupcakes.

Oliver tasting his first cupcake. He approached it as one would a fine dessert, slowly sampling and then diving in!

Oliver was Indiana Jones for Halloween. He didn’t get dressed up on Halloween, just looked at all the kids that came to the house. Here is a picture of him all dressed up at the party they had at his daycare. He’s missing his gun but that spider is hanging on for dear life.

I needed some inspiration when designing my jack-o-lantern. I decided that I should model it after my little pumpkin. For those of you keeping track of teeth--Oliver now has 3 ½ teeth. That last one is coming down pretty fast. He has two on the bottom and two on the top.
- Jenny