Regaining my Land Legs.

Things are moving so fast I can't seem to keep up. After numerous trips to the dump and 3 gigantic dumpsters later, we have almost rid ourselves of all the dirt, concrete and debris from under the house. We discovered a plastic bin with sump pump under the floor in a closet, it was full of stagnant water....no wonder that closet smelled so bad. We've jackhammered up a lot of stone most of it shale, so it comes out pretty easily. The red truck is a thorn in my side. It broke down .....again. This time it was on a building site when I was picking up shoring posts from some scaffolding guys. It was yet another exciting jump start when they had to use their ginormous truck 4 times the size of mine to jump it. I think my truck has a thing with getting hooked up with big brutish trucks, because those are the only times that she doesn't start. It is getting embarrassing now. This time we had the starter replaced......let's hope that third time is a charm.

Dad and I have been shopping around for truck racks for the red truck and they are ridiculously expensive even used ones are near $500. Richard, one of our workers informed us that there is a truck salvage yard called the Pick N Pull in Richmond where we can get them for cheap. Sooooo, Dad and I saddled up, crossed our fingers that the red truck will make it and ventured across the bridge and into the bowells of Richmond. It was quite sad getting to Richmond however. It seemed that every third house along the trash laden street was boarded up with a For Sale sign limply hanging from one chain. The rest of the homes were in such poor shape, peeling paint, broken or barred windows, junk all over the 4' weed covered yards. All of which is protected by a 6' high gate and fence. Each block seemed to have one jewell though. Nestled in the thorns you could spy one pristine little cottage, something that someone loved, something that someone probably had lived in for the last 40 years. It was quite a learning experience, as was the next adventure that we were about to embark on.


The salvage yard

So we arrived at the Salvage yard. It cost us $2 to get in and we had to bring our own tools. Everyone was looking at Richard with eyes of betrayal as he lead Whitey Ford and daughter into their sacred place where no white man had entered before. I felt a little awkward to say the least. As I entered the gate I saw football field after football field of totalled, smashed, rusty and dilapidated cars teetering on old wheel wells for blocks. There were 1000's of them. The aim of the game is to meander through these parking lots of trucks, cars and vans with your wheelbarrow and if you see something you like, you can take it off the car and pay for it at the check-out. I passed a guy taking some glitzy wheels off a smashed Jag.....nice find! After a 10 minute walk we arrive at the truck lot and began our search. Richard had already preselected 2 or 3 racks for us to choose from. We took the biggest and strongest, not thinking that we would have to carry it back on that 10 minute walk.....poor Dad and Richard had to carry a 10' long steel rack all the way back, it was laborious and Dad is still hurting 2 days later from it, but one bad back, an adventure in Richmond and $65 later, we had a rack.

Dad with his newly acquired rack and a milkshake.

Now we were ready for the fun stuff.

Saturday was the best day for the house by far. It was the day that we jacked the house up...or at least started to anyway. As it turned out the house had sunk 6". We decided that we would jack it up 3" on one side and then drop it 3" on the other side when we reframe that end of the house. The boys had the system down. Anton, Raymond and Richard would all operate a jack in sync while Dad cracked the whip and measured with the laser level. After every 6 -8 pumps, everyone would run around tightening all of the shoring post and then start again. The whole house creaked and groaned and moaned and creaked again. I actually stood on the third floor for a while and watched as all the plaster walls cracked before my eyes....creepy. But we got the house up and it feels fantastic. We still have the back side to do and the kitchen end, but the low end that made people seasick is done woohoo!!

The boys doing their routine

Cracks in plaster


We also tore down the East side of the house in order to frame out for the bi-fold doors. It looks like a bomb hit the side of the house leaving a huge hole. A huge hole I might add that a little racoon has been using to come in and help himself to the trash while we sleep. Each morning we come in and see little Racoon footprints everywhere and our trash spread all over the floor. Last night I was preparing for bed and I found a bowl of fruit sitting on the floor by the opening. Dad has decided that he likes our nocturnal visitor and laid a platter of pineapple and peaches out for him.

The huge hole.......

Anyway, I have rambled enough. Today we finish the BBQ....I hope.