THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION I ASKED LAST TIME IS . . . NO

'This is called a 'Transit'.  This particular one is a $2500. piece of equipment.  It is suppose to tell you if the ground you are measuring is level.  If you remember from the last Blog, we wound up with a  3 1/2' difference from one corner of the house to the other.  (I did suggest we just put in a sunken livingroom but the humor was 'overlooked')  :/

Soooo . . . the next weekend it was back with this transit, the bulldozer, the bobcat, the excavator, the dump-truck, a dump-trailer and son-on-law Bob (oh yes, along with dear friends from Boise who came to visit for the weekend. It was suppose to be a Golf weekend for the boys, but . . . uh, that didn't quite work out . . .)  Bob drove all the excavating equipment  

  

and kept filling both the truck and trailer with a total of over 20 loads of dirt.  Glen just kept driving back and forth to the dump site and unloading either the truck or trailer, whichever was full.  They worked all day until dark...

and started up again on Sunday morning.  They finished about mid day, satisfied it was close enough to where it should be for the posts to be re-dug.  They were satisfied because the 'Transit' told them so.   Now . . . it still looked off, (I'm just sayin')  but 20 loads of dirt had been removed from the property and the Transit never lies.  

OH YEAH??!!

Workers back on Monday to re-dig for posts.  :)  Workers left on Monday without re-digging for posts.  :(

Seems the property was still not level.  Hmmm.  Twenty loads of dirt out and we were still 2 1/2' off.  Their $1500 Transit said our $2500 Transit lied.  Who you gonna believe?  Them.  Cause they are the ones digging the holes, and while they said they would dig the holes if we wanted, the offer came with an ominous 'But we're not guaranteeing anything and you'll wind up paying for it later' warning.  A little sour if you ask me. . . .

S o o o . . .  last weekend, once again, Bob, the Bobcat and the Bulldozer come back.  (Along with Jeff, our grandson Seans friend, who was lured with the promise of being able to try out the jack-hammer they thought they might need to break up some of that foundation Glen found when he went to the lay the water/sewer pipes.  Never had to use it so Bob let him jack-hammer dirt in his yard when they got home :) ) This time Bob and Glen pushed and pulled all the dirt around (what was left) and FINALLY got it to grade.  

Of course, this threw the scheduling for the house to the wind so we are now in limbo-land.  They were going to be here this past Wednesday and then, surprise,  it became next Wednesday.  Supposedly they didn't finish another project when they should have.  Our guess is they slipped a new project in front of ours.  By next Wednesday we will be a month behind where we thought we would be.  It's all about patience.

     

Since we actually had a free Sunday we decided to take a ride up in the hills behind Mullan.  This is the road (?) we wound up on.  It just kept getting narrower and narrower and . . .  Glen thought there would be a turn around but but no such luck.   It's then called 'backing up the Jeep the last quarter mile you just drove'.  Better him than me.  But then, I would have stopped driving on this road about 10 feet in.  Just sayin'.

Sunset on the way home.

See you soon!  (I hope!)

Charleen

DO THINGS EVER GO AS PLANNED . . . .

It's been a while since I've written but the building supplies that were suppose to be delivered July 1st . . . weren't.  They were suppose to be on the back end of a 40' truck that had another delivery in Montana and our supplies were going to be dropped off on the way there.  Unfortunately, the Company did not check our location before they made those arrangements.  The road up to our property is narrow, with several sharp turns and does not smile at 40' trucks.  They had to rethink their strategy and it took them an extra week and a half to do that.  

The Building Supplies.  :)

They had big, deep holes they had to dig for the Building posts.  They didn't want to start that until everything was here.  Delivery finally happened around the 10th and the post hole digging was again scheduled to start the next day.  

They sent a nice young fellow up with an Auger.  The holes are suppose to be approximately 4' deep.  This area we are in is called 'Boulder Canyon' or, as the locals call it 'Boulder Draw'.  The only thing the Auger managed to hit was Glens newly laid (and functioning) water and sewer pipes. That ended the work for that day (and the day after, and the day after, and . . .)  Pipes get fixed and back they come.  This time with a mini excavator ~ much more suitable for digging in this terrain.  But, before they start digging everyone realizes that the pipes are in the way and are only going to get hit again.  Re-measuring is done and the whole house (fortunately just string at this point!) is moved 5' in one direction.  Holes are dug with promises to be back the next day.  

  

This is not just any hole.  This is the hole with the broken water and sewer pipes.  :(

Three days later  the 'team' (2) shows up to set the posts.  BUT, what hadn't been noticed is the drop-off level of the property.  Yes, everyone could see that the property sloped but what no one realized is when the house was moved the 5' it threw the slope off expotentially and now we had this 3 1/2' difference in the floor level from one side of the house to the other.  Not a good thing.

Glen and helpers will be re`excavating one side of the property this weekend in order to level it off so 'maybe' next week they will REALLY get to start on the actual building.  

In the meantime, we have had more company in the last month than we had in one year over in Wenatchee.  I'm thinking that friends and family are glad we are back  :)  But, remember, we don't have a house yet!  So it has been fun figuring out who is going to stay where.  Tent, Trailer, the one bedroom in the apartment . . . We've had company from Coeur d'Alene, from Newport,Wa., from North Carolina, from North Dakota, from Lewiston, ID (and most of them all came on the same weekend ~ Thirteen people and 5 dogs!)

     

On the left:  Friends and family around the campfire.   Up at the top that's us at about the 9th hour of the Wallace Blues Festival.  We manged to last about 11 of the 12 hours it went on. :)

On the right:  Tents, Trailers, ATVS, motorcycle and Bikes all on our property.  Our RV is not in the photo.  (This is not a big piece of property by the way . . .)  The drink in the corner is mine!

                                                 
The Campfire at Night.  We needed something for a Campfire.  In the past Glen has built us some very nice Fire pits but for now we needed something temporary until the house is built and we have a permanent spot.  So, this is our Washing machine tub.  Uh huh.   They certainly don't look like much during the day but at night they just glow with the flames showing through all the holes in the tub.  The owner of the appliance Repair Shop said he can't keep them in stock.

Some Treasures from the property.  During the initial excavation the 'Cap Gun' up at the top was found.  Anyone remember those?  I had one.  I played Annie Oakley with mine . . .

In the mint green and violet trimmed garage that was on the property when we bought it, the other treasures were found up in the attic.  The fellows decided to get up there and see what was what.  Among other things, there were 3 old wooden boxes filled with books where Smokey the Bear was found, the old sled, and that's about a circa 1960 something International Pickup Tailgate.  Believe it or not, I've come up with a use for the Tailgate.  I'm going to let that be a surprise when we get to that point.  :

A Mullan Sunset over the property.

More Company arrives tomorrow from Boise.  They are (very) 'old' Friends.  :)  Hope they bring their work clothes!

Charleen