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The Big Wall
beginning February 26, 2007
 crew: Ken Breuner- GC, Duffy- horticulture guy, Elmer- crew forman, 2 other guys (forgot their names) Ernesto and Ildar- our guys, Lynette- frantic homeowner.
it was raining , quite heavily at times, all day.
DAY 2 , mock-ups , 4th day , Day 5 , Mar 7, Mar 9, panoramics, big shotrcrete day, bedroom pateo fiasco, medallions , white finish coat
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Day 1

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Ken slinks past the corner

not much room to spare!
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he skids a level path on the way round
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Luckily we put that wire fence in on the edge of the slab to contain the exuberance

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plywood lines the lower perimeter protecting the plants below. initial digging with pick and shovels done around top side of Mexicola Avo

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Duffy pulls the tree aside to allow the scoop to get around the other side
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tree is free and crew stabilizes the root ball on the scoop
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lifting avo over to wine barrel

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avo nested into container

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avo done, onto the olive

site quickly becomes mucky

scooping around olive, some topside digging done with shovels before cat

where is ground level now? Lynette and camera leave to get dirt before olive actually lifted out of dirt. Apparently straps used to lift tree also stripped off bark. major root also broken underneath. Duffy promises to get 36 inch box olive at wholesale price

wall will go from one corner of property to the other. Fig at bottom of driveway also transplanted out of way. Ernesto and Ildar transplanted the runty fuerte avo and numerous flower bulbs out of the way earlier. four trees transplanted today.

damage fron bobcat
 
 
Day 2
Mock ups

mock up 1
click photo for larger version. I've asked Elmer to help mock up the heigth of wall further down driveway.

mock up 2 &3

mock up 4 & 5
click on 5 for enlargement


these stairs nixxed- too ugly
4th day

mockups for bedroom patio

mess to avoid- precious ancient ivy and utilities- gas, electric, water

width of stairs. other tiled stairs by garage are 40 inches

 

2 pm thursday
Friday, Day 5, March 2nd

how many more bobcats can we fit in this driveway?

Drill bit used to drill 12 feet down for piers. Inspector was here today and engineer Art Lang will be by later today to right a note to cover some stuff that wasn't ready for the inspector lady. In the first couple hours today, the sewer line was broken, the water line had to be cut (so the water is off) and the circuits were popped while Terrie and I were working on the computers. The dog hasn't run away though and the chicken is back in the yard. ARGH! Tomorrow is the first concrete pour.

Mar 7, Wednesday


Rock wall is crumbling at bottom of driveway.
How are we going to support and retain the bottom of the driveway where it meets the road?

Sketch by Margaret of driveway to street transition


when the new driveway is done eventually, it will be at the lever of the top pink line. Ken remembered that it was George who suggested we bring the height up of the wall a bit. Good thing! It will only be a curb by the time the new driveway is poured.
Grade beams will be poured Friday and the big wall shotcreted on the following Wednesday.

Mar 9

We need to fix the way the water always washed across the street
instead of staying on the same side of the road and going down drain to left of truck

this wall will be shotcrete against the plywood.

another mockup attempt


6 inch curb along outside edge that levels out to 18 ich high wall as driveway falls down hill

The big shotcrete day

The plywood backboard is ready. Shotcrete can be "screed" but not "troweled"

patty cake to fill in voids


Another swipe will be coming by to fill in more. These are possible stair brackets.
Garage is completely tarped because of the overspray

an early day requires donuts!


one of 3 concrete trucks filling pumper hopper


overspray!


Oscar in green t- shirt sprays on the concrete and then needs a second person (Jorge today) to shoot compressed air just after him to get rid of the loose gravel in the mix.


Oscar charges 1500 for the day no matter how much gets done. He lives in a remote area west of Sebastipol. His wife homeschools his 3 children. no TV!

Panoramics
day 1


April 9, 2007

 

Bedroom Pateo

Look how wide these stairs are where Ken is compared to where the stairs will be coming through where Elmer is (40 inches). Stairs at top of run were 59 inches.
No bueno! George says rip it out and move the wall over! Ken very nice about it and took
responsibility for it. Rebar cut off and more jack hammering begun. Meanwhile Ken shows up with a bob cat and backhoe to start filling in the drainage behind the new big wall

Tuesday March 2oth , Moving the wall over. The shotcrete day moved to tomorrow afternoon
Since we are moving the wall we will include in the new plan- making stairs fit the tile to be used-

Medallions

April 6 -White finish coat going up

Jonathan

Bruno

Pedro

Tom

 

Jorge

 

 

Olive tree replanted
avos replanted

 

 
 
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