Happy Mother's Day!!

I'm a little behind in this, but I have an excuse. Old age. I forgot to send even a card, then around Thursday realized I had sent nothing for Mother's Day. So here's my gift, a VERY short pictoral of Mom through the years. To build the suspense towards the inevitable embarrasment, I started with the most recent and went backwards. First, lovin' her grandkids:
Hangin with the family last summer:
I didn't take the time to find many pics, so we're skipping to a few years ago. Mom loved this activity, as you can see on her face. Pure horror! We started early in the torture of the poor woman. Beth and KB are enjoying this a little too much....

And since we love to give her grief about her hair, a pic of back in the day when the hair and the outfit were TOP NOTCH!! (not too mention that super cute little girl there...)

Sorry it's not more, but happy Mother's Day Mom!! Hope you enjoy it!

Goings on....

So, lot's going on lately. First off, I decided to do a little work on the yard to make it not collect water so much. I don't have picture to post, but this one little area outside the front door would not drain water, so I have had a little lake there for most of the winter. So I decided to bite the bullet, and pay someone to come clean it up. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, he spent about 8 hours with his little excavator digging a proper drainage ditch from the back of the house down to the ditch at the road. Now, the fun part of this is we paid someone to do this when we had the house set there. But we found out they never did. And since we were so frustrated with the construction outfit by the time we figured it out, we never went after them to fix it. So, $680 later, I have a proper ditch.

In the process of doing the ditch, he kind of cleaned up the area. But also tore up a little bit of the hill. So the retaining wall I was desperately trying to not build, was now going to have to be built. So last Saturday, I spent the entire day building a wall. I laid 67 blocks that each weigh 65 pounds. Then had to fill in behind the wall with dirt from the dirt pile on the other side of the yard. Ten wheelbarrow loads later, I was physically done. I still have some more dirt to fill in, and should do another bit of block to make it look right. But at least it's presentable now. And four days later, I am still feeling it. Here's how it looks:

I've got some grass seed down, we'll see if it takes. But this is headed in the direction I always envisioned the area looking. If I was going to be here any longer, I'd make the effort to get it looking awesome. But, that's not going to happen.

Which leads to the big news. My company got a project at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Rumors were swirling on who would be going. My superintendent found out immediately that he was headed there. He essentially told the bosses that I was going with him, as well as our safety guy. We've got a great team here, and we've all expressed our desire to stay together. In the construction management world, that doesn't happen often. But apparently we've done such a good job with schedule, budget, and overall running of the project, that the bosses want to keep us together. So last Wednesday I got the call asking if I'd go to North Carolina. I said "when do I leave!" The project won't start till September or October, they still have to design it. But my current one won't be done till August. I'm hoping it stays on schedule so I can have a little time to get over there. Plus, anything can change. My project here could end up running long, and they have to send someone else to NC. So I'm not letting myself get 100% excited about the move. Only 99%. :-)

Which leads to the house going on the market.

In this market, that is going to be an adventure. I'm going to be lucky to break even on the house. I would have never thought I'd even let this thought into my head, but if I don't sell it in the 6 months I have the contract with the realtor, I may have to think about walking on it. It's sad to me we live in a time when that is even an option, so I'd rather not think about it and hope it sells for my asking price. Anyone want to move to Belfair, WA?

So, that's the majority of what's been going on here. As for work, here's some photos of what we've got up. This is TEMF B from what will be the parking lot for the Army vehicles:

You can't really tell from this picture, but it's ugly. The colors they chose are not good together. It's their building though, so whatever. The other TEMF will look exactly like this.

This is the inside of TEMF B. This is the Vehicle Maintenance Corridor. The fun thing on this area is nothing can be below 14'-0". As you can see down the way, the second floor sits down not far from the 1st floor. 15'-2" up to be exact. And leave it to our wonderful mechanical engineer to miss this little no lower than 14'-0" requirement (there's a little sarcasm in there.....). He originally had all his duct run through this area, which would have had it all at about 10' off the floor. So, what was supposed to be design-build turned out to be build-design. And I was the designer. Who needs a proper education on how to run duct? :-)

Lastly, here's a picture inside TEMF A, which is a little behind TEMF B. This is the high bay area, with the 2nd floor framing in the distance.

Things have gone very well so far, and we're on schedule. Which is saying a lot considering how much rain we've had this winter.

Anyway, I've killed a sufficient amount of time writing this. And it's lunch time. So, till next time...

Nothing important

Just wanted to say....

I was tempted to go down to Houston, but I'll watch from my couch. One spur of the moment trip for a basketball game in a year is probably enough.

Gotta wonder....

It's nice to know you can spend 6 years with someone, and it doesn't even take them 6 months to get over you. I hope she knows what she's getting into. And I wish I hadn't wasted my time.


On a positive note, GO CATS!!!!! If the women's team gets through to the Sweet 16, they'll play in Spokane. And it would be against Stanford. Oh, I'll be torn. I'm contemplating driving the 5 hours to see it. I need a vacation anyway.

At last...

I debated on whether to show the before first or after. It's not a shocking difference before and after, so I don't know why this was a stress for me. Anyway, since several people have asked about this, here's my bathroom.

Before:
Notice the carpet flooring, hideous light fixtures, and $20 faucets.

After:

I installed the tile flooring, changed the light fixtures, and changed the faucets. I also added base trim around the perimeter of the floor to give it a proper finished look. See below:

When I first started really contemplating what to do here, I had a grand plan - ceramic tile floor, new counters, tub surround, maybe even some tile work on the shower. After seeing how much that would have cost, I went with the cheap and quick idea. The guys at work gave me a little crap about it, but in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't have gotten a penny back on it. Not only that, I live in a prefab house. I have discovered that the life of one of these before major fixes start appearing is about 5 years. Or maybe it's just that I'm super picky on a quality house, and notice things need to be fixed before most people would. I am a quality control person for a living after all. I couldn't see myself putting in this super nice, custom bathroom in a house that, according to the banks, isn't even really a house. And I'm at the 5 year mark. I'm looking to ditch it before I have to start fixing it. Anyway, I think it came out pretty nice, it's defintely nicer to walk into.

So, being as I have not a single ounce of interior decorating sense in me, I can't figure out if I should paint at least an accent wall in here. I'm thinking the wall the towel hanger is on, perhaps a light brown. I've got an accent wall in my adjacent bedroom that is a deep red. And that color has carried into the bathroom. I just don't want to over do it. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

In the meantime, it's still not quite done. I have to paint the trim, and I want to put a door on that looks better than the el-cheapo that came with the house. I also have to re-do most of the caulking around all the fixtures and countertops (see above: fixes at 5 years). I spent around $450 on the whole thing, and it's taken me 4 weekends so far. I could have done it a little quicker, but after dealing with the floor, I was a little burnt on the whole thing. Now I know what to expect for future reference. Anyway, it's nice to know I accomplished this, I feel a little smarter on home repairs and whatnot.

Part 2 (I didn't know how to switch gears thoughtfully, so we'll go with Part 2)

Friday night I went outside to take out the garbage, and noticed the peacefullness of the evening. It was raining a little, and somewhat cold. But it was beautiful. You could hear the wind blowing through the trees, and nothing else. I live in the boonies, the forest. This is the view from my house:

This is my backyard:

I couldn't help but stand there and enjoy the moment, breathe in the refreshing air. I have been a little nostalgic the last week or so, mostly for three reasons. First, one of the girls I taught as a Mia Maid back in Maine went into the MTC this week. It didn't occur to me till yesterday that meant she is 21, talk about make me feel old. But I took the opportunity to call her family and catch up, which was really fun. They kind of took me in and took care of me while I was on my own back there.

Second, we have a co-worker that takes his job waaaaay too seriously. He's a safety guy, and he knows safety up, down, left, and right. He doesn't, however, know how to apply it and make the guys want to follow it. He's always preaching leadership, then goes out and rips the guys for the littlest things. He cusses so much I sometimes wonder if he knows any other words. He essentially doesn't really know what leadership is. In conversations with my office mates, it has made me think back on the people who helped shape my thoughts and abilities as a leader. It goes back to high school, to working at Lady Foot Locker for a few years, to the several years I worked at Mortenson. And of course my parents. I had great leaders who taught me more than any schooling ever could. I feel grateful that I've had jobs that have afforded me the opportunity to learn and grow, and become a better teammate.

The last thing that got me all nostalgic was, oddly enough, a tv show. I absolutely love the tv show Friday Night Lights. Not the movie, don't confuse the two, they are nothing alike. Okay, sort of alike, there's a lot of the same actors. But the tv show is about more than football. In all reality, football only takes up about 20% of the show. The rest of it is about life. The main characters are the coach and his wife. Some of the speeches the coach gives in this show make me want to get up and go play. But the last episode of the series (which has aired on Directv already, it'll be on NBC this spring) got me thinking about my experiences with sports and life. As they were heading into the stadium for the state championship game, it made me think back to winning the state championship in marching band, and the "secret weapon" Mr. Cornish read to us before we marched in finals. It reminded me of being up with 2 outs, bases loaded, in the bottom of the 6th, a trip to state on the line, and grounding out to the shortstop. We lost that game. It reminded me of the pep talks I gave to the girls at Cal high, and how each year I managed to give one that had even me surprised at what came out of my mouth. I pumped myself up. Mostly, it reminded me of being on a team, and how awesome it is when a group of people comes together for a common goal. Whether you achieve that goal or not, you know deep down you achieved greatness for just trying.

Looking back every now and then is good for the soul, it reminds you of how you got to be where you are today. So thanks to my family, my friends, Amy, Mr. Cornish, Coach Barren, Cal High, my girls, and all you others you have helped make me who I am. I may not be perfect, but it sure has been fun getting to who I am today.

My painfull, but productive, weekend

So I finally bit the bullet and ripped out my bathroom floor. I've been wanting to do this since moving into the house, but was either too busy, too initimidated, or thought it would cost to much to do. Since I will most likely be putting the house on the market this spring, I figured there's no time like the present to do the work, because carpet in a master bath doesn't exactly scream "Buy Me!" I really wanted to do ceramic tile floors with new countertops and tub surround. But the reality of how much time and energy that would cost and take, and knowing I wouldn't see a penny of it back, I went to plan B. Which is vinyl tile. Not the best application here, but the cheapest, quickest, and easiest. And it really does look like tile.

I'll do before and after's when the whole thing is done, but here's what I did this weekend. First, I woke up bright and early yesterday and removed the carpet, cushion, staples holding the cushion down, and the carpet strips. A couple of hours and a couple of seriously scratched up hands later, and this is what I had:

Then I went to Lowe's and got all the fixin's. Little did I know I had to prime the floor before I could stick the tiles down. So Saturday night I primed and let sit. Then I set the ipod to '80's music, and jammed away as I spent the majority of today tilling (yes, there was some singing along to NKOTB). And my body feels it. Holy bessie I'm tired. And sore. Anyway, here's some shots. It's not done, but at least it's most of the way. And it still needs to be grouted.
The two tile on either side of the door were my patience testers. Geometry is not my forte, so figuring out those shapes was a little trying. Each took two attempts, but they eventually got close enough. Nothing a little grout, caulk, or trim can't cover. I learn tricks at work. :-)

I still have to finish this side of the bathroom, and around the toilet. All kinds of custom fitting, yippee!.........

At least I'm finally getting this done. I figure with this, changing the light fixtures, and changing out the plumbing fixtures, I should have a somewhat updated master bath to impress people with when it comes time to sell. I must admit, even though my body aches a lot right now, I feel pretty good about this. It's kind of fun tackling a project and seeing what you can do. I'll get more photos posted as the project continues.

How we roll...

This is how we roll in my office:


That would be my superintendent Mark on the left, and my safety guy Tim on the right. I had been next door doing work, and came back to find this. How upsetting huh? Mark got my desk all dirty with his shoes while I was slaving away. Rude. :-)

Anyway, here's some shots of one of our buildings. This one is the repair bay area where they'll bring the big vehicles in to work on. There will be a total of (9) 20'-0" tall by 24'-0" wide garage doors for this area. It also will have a 10-ton crane that runs the length of this space. You can sort of see the runner beams on each side of the picture.

This one is of the storage areas on the other side of the building. There's an arms vault, comm security vault, tool and weapon repair room, and storage rooms in there. It's hard to see that in this pic due to all the scaffold.
And this is the 2nd floor just after we poured the slab. It will eventually all be framed out for office space.

The other building is slowly coming along. We're due to start setting the steel frame structure in a week and a half. Fun times are a'happenin at work!! Oh, and it's sunny today. Can't argue with that. We have a perfect view of Mt Rainier. Beautimous!!