A Busy Day, Today

It was a VERY busy day today! It started with a phone call during breakfast from the furnace installers for House #4. They said they were on their way out to the house -- and did we have the 2 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood they needed to place the furnace on in the attic? We thought we had another day or two, so hadn't gotten them yet -- but, oops, they're on their way!


I called the Hardware Store in Jamul -- not only were they open at 7:15, but they carried the plywood we needed. So, off I went (in Forry's brown pickup), down to Jamul, picked up the plywood, back past camp and up Barrett Lake Road to the house. I met Ken and his crew at the driveway, so at least had someone to help unload.


Back to camp to finish getting ready for the Dedication of House #3 scheduled for 10 o'clock. Oops, my pickup is at the shop getting its 45,000 mile checkup, we don't have enough rigs to get the cooks and office staff to the dedication as all of the rigs are out on job sites with crews who were planning to go directly to the dedication. Ah, here comes Mel, our California MDS rep, from San Diego, who says he can take the ladies out with him.


Load up the gifts: the Bible, the wall hanging, the programs, the "Hammer Rings Hope" book, the punch, cookies and Diane's black bottom cupcakes in the brown pickup and head for House #3. Oops, look at all the people! I didn't print near enough programs -- guess we'll just have to ask everyone to share. Program goes well, Robert seems pleased with all the gifts and attention -- he's even put on clean clothes!


Crew from over at House #2 reports they didn't have enough wood chips to finish covering the disturbed ground. Lead I had from yesterday calls back and says she cannot deliver a load. Head into Jamul with Forry to pick up my pickup from shop. Check with local nursery, yep, they got bark. Pick up my white pickup from shop, go back to nursery followed by Forry in brown pickup. Load 25 VERY pricey bags of bark in back of white pickup, head for House #2 while Forry goes back to hardware store for sprinkler parts. Norm's crew unloads and spreads bark --oops, 25 bags is barely enough (besides all of the wood chips we put on yesterday).


Decide to wait for Fire Marshal to arrive for Fire Inspection (fire sprinkler guy arrives and tests the system to make sure it works). Norm finshes spreading the load of DG (decomposed granite -- looks just like dirt to me!) on the driveway that we had had delivered yesterday. Forry and Norm start building the sprinkler system that the inspector insisted on yesterday -- at least he compromised and allowed it didn't have to be installed underground...


Fire Marshal arrives, wants a sign pointing up the hill to the hydrant installed by the water tank up on top. Says she really likes the houses we are building and signs off on the plan. Her signature means we can order a FINAL inspection for tomorrow!

Head back to camp for dinner. Robert comes to share his fire story -- takes home two buckets of watermelon rind for his goats.


Decide after dinner to go over to House #5 and check out the site and see how the pad for the house looks after the soil compaction. This picture is taken from the house pad looking up at the hill behind.

The second picture is looking down from the house pad towards the road:

The homeowner (lady in purple jacket in first picture) formerly had a landscaping business. She has already bought plants for the hillside -- we won't have to worry about planting at this site!