Retaining Walls and Excavation

Demolition and excavation on the back retaining wall began this morning. It was leaning into the alley way about 15°, due to the heavy rains we had over the winter. It's a wall that I share with my neighbor, who is picked up the cost of her side of the wall and all the demolition on both sides. I'm unsure what I'll do with my side as of yet. I'd like to have the 5' retaining walls in my backyard repoured as well as a new two car slab, to replace the 1.5 car slab. (The old walls where once part of a garage, which was there some 30 odd years ago). But the cost is close to $9,000, for about 55' x 5' walls of concrete (from Emerald Concrete).

The guys who are doing the work today, gave me a bid of $3,000 (for only 3' section) on my side of the property. I seems a bit much, from the perspectice of the Emerald bid, so I'll pass.

Here are some action shots of today:

Fireplace Demo

The majority of yesterday's time was spend tearing down the 'entertainment' center above the fire place. With its modern look of a lightly colored hardwood facade, sliding glass display case and the bulbous shiny brass hardware, would stick out as an eye sore in a restored Victorian.

I have a few more hours to go before the entire structure is disassembled, but so far I've recovered over 200 brass screws and depleated one of my 16.8V batteries on my cordless drill, where it no longer holds a charge. I've been as careful as I can, trying not to damage too much of the drywall.

But one thing is puzzling: the past owner who built this center, used a thin, high gloss backerboard, glued directly only onto the bump out sections of the drywall where the CO2 stack is positioned, and no where else. But this will be the only section of drywall that will require replacement. But I would really like to just remove this CO2 stack all together, and vent it out though the side of the house (like some fireplaces do). Has anyone tried this?

Before









After

Another Damaged Shipment!

I can't believe it. The shipment containing my pole jack scaffolding (consisting of three items) was missing and damaged. One box was damaged with the top section of the box off, while another was completely missing, though the two long 24' poles made it here. I just rejected the whole shipment again. I'm two for two on shipping now. I wonder how businesses survive with this poor shipping records.

I'll be reordering the shipment from Amazon again and the siding will have to wait another month.

I'll begin the teardown of the fireplace this weekend then, saving as much of the unfinished oak material as I can for other projects. This will eventually be tiled in with a celtic mosaic pattern...

Happy Mayday!

This weekend and half of last week, when mostly towards celebrating Spring and visiting family and friends back in Minnesota. The Spring celebration comes in the form of the anual May Day Celebration, sponsored by the Heart of the Beast Theatre in South Minneapolis. I've been attending for the past 15 years, of its 34 year history.

The MayDay Ceremony in Powderhorn Park has become a joyous annual ritual for nearly 50,000 people in the Twin Cities. Each year, a 200-person pageant re-tells the story of that year's parade, with children and adult dancers, puppeteers, a live orchestra and four giant serene puppets who represent the Prairie, Sky, River, and Woods.

It culminates in the Tree of Life Ceremony: to the steady beating of drums, a resplendent red Sun Flotilla paddles the Sun from across the lake to the shore where the Tree of Life sleeps, waiting to be reawakened.

The weekend didn't go without some home renovation: I got my brother started on his own kitchen demo by helping to take down a few lath and plaster walls.