From the swim lessons I took him to his 1st [...]]]> Our weekend began on Thursday evening.  Eric had his final swim lesson at the Holland Patent pool.  He is doing basic strokes; crawl and backstroke.  He is jumping off the diving board.  He is treading water and learning to dive off the side of the pool.

From the swim lessons I took him to his 1^st little league baseball practice.  It is playing Minor League B in which the coach pitches to the kids.  He played short stop in the field and took his cut at batting and made a 3 hits out of six or seven pitches.  The practice was cut short due to lighting.  The next practice is scheduled for Tuesday night.

We continued our home remodeling.  I removed the TV sliding tray from our entertainment center moved all our computer equipment into the entertainment center and co-located it with the desk in the living room.  We working on getting the layers (and layers and layers) of wallpaper and plaster from the foyer.

I removed nails from all the molding and wood which had been pulled out of the house.  Eric and Trevor sorted through the wood pile claiming boards to use for their log cabin.

We did two coats of paint, ceiling and walls in Eric’s room – Barely Beige on the walls and one wall of a dark, brick or Spanish red.  Saturday night Eric slept on the coach and despite the room being finished on Sunday night the fumes were too much to have him sleep there Sunday evening. His closet is opened up and is the last item to be completed.  Yet to be completed is the painting, installation of the shelves and drawer unit and the sliding doors.

There was an announced burn [...]]]> When I returned to our house on Saturday evening I was met with the sight of fields burning around our house.  It did cause a bit of excitement.  Apparently my neighbor decided to burn the weeds and dead grass in the hay field, since it didn’t get mowed and baled last summer.

There was an announced burn ban which took effect the previous Monday.  I was told the State Police showed up and issued a ticket.  It was still burning at 7:30pm, but died down shortly after that.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  Eric and Trevor opened up the sand box while I started recycling lumber by pulling nails.  I listened to the NCAA March Madness Tournament – Cornell winning vs Wisconsin and Michigan State winning vs Maryland.

The new 12″ bearing beam can be seen at the top of the [...]]]> Our living room is opened up now.

The new 12″ bearing beam can be seen at the top of the picture below.

The picture of our house was taken last evening looking from the pond just south towards our yard [...]]]> “Our house, is a very, very fine house.”  CSNY

The picture of our house was taken last evening looking from the pond just south towards our yard and house.

We moved our peonies along the fence between the [...]]]> A lot of people have complained about the weather this summer: cool, with frequent light showers and thunderstorms.  However, for someone starting lawns in July it has worked out well.  The lawn around the house has recovered nicely and will likely be trimmed the next time we mow.

We moved our peonies along the fence between the fence and driveway.   They are doing well considering they sat in tubs under the shed for a couple of weeks.  The re-seeded lawn is thick and doing well too.  Also visible is the driveway rubble mix that we spread on the new driveway.

The other hillside sections got seeded later and are a little slower coming in, but look like they will be OK.  The mulch we spread is still visible as the wet bales of hay were very clumpy and hard to spread.

Finally a shot of our driveway looking down from the deck.

Here is the view from the outside.  In addition to new blocks on the north wall the west wall was parged and new drainage was installed.  [...]]]> Our new foundation wall was completed.  Here is what the new north wall looks like from the inside.  The plan is to install shelving units where the two lights are shown.

Here is the view from the outside.  In addition to new blocks on the north wall the west wall was parged and new drainage was installed.  The downspout from the gutters was run into the drainage lines.

Afterwards fill was replaced and the foundation plants were replaced.

We also had to re-plant the peonies that got dug up.  We now have a 72′ row of peonies between the driveway and fence line.

Then we begin picking stone and hand raking the fill.  And there is a lot of fill – this is the view from our driveway showing the new driveway leading to the location where the attached garage would sit.

The fill forms a ‘mow-able slope’ that extends across the old driveway and nearly to the honey locust tree.

Here is the view from the south.

We at about 3/4 done picking stone and raking with plans to re-seed grass this weekend.

The concrete blocks and sand are piled up outside for the construction.

Our foundation plants have taken a beating in this process and may not recover.  We [...]]]> The north wall is removed and tarped off.  We got a little wind and rain on Monday night.  The sound of the tarps flapping in the breeze was reminiscent of camping.

The concrete blocks and sand are piled up outside for the construction.

Our foundation plants have taken a beating in this process and may not recover.  We will see.