New Office Floor

Gary gets to use big trucks and power tools. Yes, dear Internet friends.... we have another project happening here at Deerledge..... our new office!! I know many of you were astounded with the speed that Gary gets a project done around here. Remember The Great Closet Dilemma of 2006 that almost sent me over the edge? Well..... hang on because this is going to be a bumpy ride!

I hate the office being inside our house because it is impossible too hard to 'leave' work. We hear the phone ringing at all hours of the day and night, the computers are in plain sight and it's so easy to just say..."a few more minutes and I'll be done" or "I'll finish this after supper." If we have a client come to see us, we have to meet at our kitchen table complete with our dog going ballistic because a stranger is in the house and cats jumping in their laps. Not the most professional atmosphere. We need some semblance of normalcy in our lives. Having our own growing business has it's blessings and it's misgivings. The biggest blessing is we are our own boss and the worst is we are joined at the hip to the business 24/7.

Anyway....back to Gary and his love of projects. He's in his glory right now.... calling for hammers, coils of nails, OSB, trusses and other stuff that I don't understand. Against every grain in his soul, he has gone to our town office and purchased the appropriate building permit to dig the hole that will become the concrete slab. "Why I need a permit to dig a hole in my own yard is beyond me!" he screams. as he pays $134 for that permission.

He and Ben dug a big hole around the perimeter of the new office which is going to be an addition on the existing boat garage. Re-bar is attached to the existing slab. That is not Gary's butt in the picture but the guy who did the concrete. He's checking for levelness of the form boards with some beeping thing on a stick. Very high-tech.

In this picture, Gary is explaining to the guy how if it's not perfectly level to pour the concrete anyway because that's how we roll around here.
Then this monstrosity showed up in our driveway and Gary began to drool with glee and I started sucking my thumb and hemorrhaging money.

The two men working the concrete jumped right in the goo, using all sorts of fancy hand signals to the driver of the concrete truck. The signals told the driver when to mix, pour, how fast to pour and when to stop. Here's the STOP OR YOU'LL BURY ME signal:

Then they start moving the concrete, forcing all the air out of it and 'floating' a nice finish on it.

Finally, it is finished and now needs to cure for a couple days. We are ordering all the building materials today and my brother will start framing and ripping off the old roof next week. Stay tuned!!