Folks -
Well, for better or ill, the footings are cut for the foundation. The North
side trench is okay, it's the southern one that is wide, but I rationalize
that it'll just give me more room to work...
There isn't much to show picture wise today, but I'll sort through and post
a rogue's gallery of the good, the bad and the ugly by tomorrow...
I was surprised at how much darn dirt came out of those trenches - 'course
hav'nm be 6+ inches deeper/wider'll do that...
I checked out compactors and will probably use the smaller one for the
trenches and the larger one for the slab - there is a lot of loose material
in the bottom of those trenches, so I do have some scut work ahead of me.
The backhoe guy was an old salt of the earth guy... s l o
w e s t
damn ta aaa a
a aaaaa lk er I've come across in a while.
While he was working he liked to do two things; take a break, and tell
stories.... Lordy! Today, he was cutting a trench and stopped at about
11:30 to have a soda (and it WAS a soda) and he just sat in the shade in on
his backhoe until after 1.... So you can see how this fellow might have
this former "A"- Type a bit....antsy...
He worked for two solid days, but his bill came to $425 for 8.5 hours work,
I thought it was going to end up being a lot more. He spent 3 hours of that
total pulling stumps. He had originally quoted me 200 for the footings and
he ended up pulling out a step, sidewalk section and several posts, a tree
and couple of shrubs, so I'm feeling a little better about it. I still wish
he'd played closer head to the cutlines, but it's dooable.
For those of you who may be thinking I'm a hypocritical a*shole because of
my earlier rant.... You're right, but goddammit, it's my project! hehehe....
Locally I can't even rent a backhoe from my local Binford Rent-All 2000 for
50 bucks an hour... and I *DOUBT* I could have done what he did in 8.5
hours...
More to come!
John
PS: Mt. Storm overcharged me for some lumber about 2 months ago, and
they've agreed to make it right... so tomorrow Wif and I are going to get
about $400 in .....something.... I'm thinking some Cherry and Maple...