Day to celebrate!!!

Allegra front completed. It was a test of patience, counting and courage to believe that I could complete this one. The front as described before (Stage 2) consisted of the piece which starts of being similar to back and then goes into a fancy miter and the two sides like flappy wings, and then a twist and great V-neck. 

I think it is stunning!! I still need to complete the seaming and finishing the edges, but I love it and cannot wait to wear this one.

I am trying to recover from a major sore throat, cold, runny nose, sneezing and high fever. From past Monday onwards, a miserable summer cold set in and was finally able to shake it off Thursday afternoon. This was a weird illness; I was relatively fine in the mornings (although fever was high), but towards noon it went downhill fast and stayed there till next morning. I could get some work done from home, chatted with team to get them on their merry way, and then afternoon slept like a log (thanks nyquil!).

During this time, I did a lot of thinking of why I don't like being ill. Some of the reasons are:

1. I don't like being ill, because it makes my todo list grow longer as nothing is being taken off. The list has a habit of growing exponentially when I am ill. So when I am recovered, I have twice the amount of work and half the time to get it done in.

2. I don't like being ill, because it means I have to take medicines. And I hate dumping medicines into me, which have more side effects than curing or preventing anything.

3. I don't like being ill, because I any given time, I am not sure, if I am really hungry or thirsty, should I be eating or drinking. Maybe I should eat, but then that may make me more ill. Perhaps drinking will help, but my nose and head is already swimming. It is all so confused.

4. I don't like being ill, because my house is a mess and it takes a week or two get it back in order. Under the guise of being ill, I tend to neglect good housekeeping principles.

5. Lastly, I don't like being ill, because there is nothing good on the idiot box (TV).

You think I have a future in non-computer related jobs like.... the army, or pressure washing, or for that matter anything else that needs hands on expertise. (This was taken by my uncle, when I was being hypnotised with the power of the pressure washer)

This past weekend, my uncle from Washington DC, paid us a visit. He was in town for a conference and stayed over the weekend to meet up with family. He is indeed a wonderful guest, as he takes so much interest in what is happening in his nieces (one of them being....me) and nephews lives. And far more, knows so much about home improvement and not only suggests what to do, but gets down and lends a helping hand to get it implemented. One of the major tasks for my yard was to get the deck and fence cleaned. It would have probably stayed on the todo list for another season and another year, if it had not been for him, suggesting and helping me to find a good power pressure washer and help me wash the deck.

For about the same price as renting, I am now a proud owner of a 1000psi Pressure washer, a one-gallon sprayer and experience of pressure washing deck and fence (Got tools, have deck, will clean for a lunch/dinner/movie!). Both the deck and fence were is dull gray and grimmy. After washing the deck, the gray is lessened to expose some wood grain and also some stain/paint in dark mahogany color. The plan was to wash and clean the deck and apply a sealant. But, now I am thinking of doing some stripping (maybe) and then applying a amber tinted transparent sealer. Hmmm..... did my one task of cleaning the deck, just blossom into a multi-step project. But I am jazzed with it, so, I think I will continue down the path. Couple of more trips to Lowes or local hardware store will do it. But I think my good deck will be great. Along with the deck we also pressure washed and cleaned the fence to completely brighten it from the dull, crappy gray to warm glow of pine. The plan is to use the same amber tint on the fence. It will look awesome. Thanks Uncle, love it when you are here. Thank you so very much for helping me along my home improvement & maintenance projects.

It truely feels being an home owner this summer, with so many items to do and more importantly done for the home. Interestingly, everytime a project is done, three more get added to the list. In one way I am happy as, this keeps me busy with the home and hearth. I dread the day, if I have nothing to do for the place.

Didn't think I would be here today...... it is awesome. I want to share this excitment, this is really wonderful. The retaining walls look really lovely. Here are the before and after pictures for the space. What a difference. I cannot wait for the planting season to begin again and phase 2-3 can start off.

  

More digging, leveling, gravel, stone dust and now the blocks. Block-by-block, pin-by-pin, the stacked blocks take shape into a a beautiful retaining wall and then another and then another. Now it is getting monotonous and repetitive news. Pictures coming soon..... I promise, stay tuned.

Mostly diggging, leveling, laying gravel and stone dust. I have kept some samples as a reference of what was used (I know, it is silly, but it is so cool to be able to say, this gravel type and this stone dust and that rock, and actually show samples). And of course, we make a field trip to get the Granite Gray Versalock blocks and caps (for the enthusiast: 248 blocks, and 237 caps). We ordered them and they had it all in stock, but no delivery until next day afternoon. Wah! But, just as we were walking out, we crossed the delivery man, and our delivery was scheduled for that day. It arrived one hour after we reached home. Wow! So we went from Wah to Wow in a matter of few hours. The blocks find a new home!

Measuring and digging starts. I am glad that I was home, during the process, because I could keep a watch over where, what, who and when it was all going to be done. Especially, the initial measurements and planning, to ensure that I was getting what I want, and be there to make decisions as needed. My conclusion for doing any project in and around the house is that you have got to be there, it removes all the frustration of not getting it exactly as you want it and avoid the 'cowboy' behavior of contractors and work crew doing what they think (sometimes they just don't think!). Sometimes they do think and they do bring experience to the table (well, thats why you hired them!). So, it is a tight balance between not aggravating your crew and trying to understand why they want to do something a little differently. Ask them, take an interest in seeing their point of view and you know, you get best of both worlds.

Thank you, father, for I am following your example and applying what I remember you doing. I remember both the times when you were managing the construction for both our homes. I could not fathom the amount of time and patience you had going through getting the house just right brick-by-brick, tile-by-tile and wall-by-wall. Now I do, and am in awe that you managed it all to get two homes built from design to implementation. You were there at the construction site everyday and everynight (as needed), ensuring you got it done exactly how you wanted it to be. My project is peanuts compared to what you have done.

This has been a great learning experience for me. From ground zero, where I had no experience to actually be able to understand retaining wall design, materials and construction. I measure the end result of the yard with terracing done, as just about 20% of the happiness. The rest 80% was the journey from concept to completion is a thrilling roller coaster ride, with its ups and downs.

Whoa! But I digress, Most of the day went in digging and digging and more digging. The interesting thing was that we hit river rocks. I expected rock ledge, which we definitely hit, but river rocks? One thought is that previous owners, perhaps, filled with a mix of soil and rocks and they used river rocks. But then we should have found some other crap too, but we didn't. I have a more exotic theory. Perhaps, way back when there was no town, perhaps there was a river/stream or something that flowed through and this is remanants of that. When I told my sister, she asked me to look for dinosaur fossils! (My 6 yr old nephew is all into dinosaurs and has declared that he is a paleontologist)

Finally the week arrives when the plans made in May and getting rolled into implementation phase. This is one project I am glad is following a waterfall methodology.  First the concept to design, requirements gathered, and actors lined up. Then the detailed design with inventory of materials and tools needed. Finally, the implementation and deployment. Thankfully any other methodology and the project timeline would slip, deadlines would have been messed up and cost increased exponentially. But, it all worked..... All the planning makes sense, and emotionally ready to be flexible with minor alterations.

Anyways, day 1 begins like any other project with cleanup crap that is there already. Cleanup begins in all earnest, tall dandelions get the axe and say bye-bye to the dead lawn. It would have taken me a week to clean up the mess, had I done it on my own. But three workmen cleaning up goes pretty darn fast. Just the clean up brightened up the space so much.