Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Preparing the Farm

Definitely, but we've had this in place for awhile now. The weather does appear to shaping up this week to allow things to move ahead and I feel like a week of decent weather will allow some substantial progress. Another great thing was getting the PSD water service hooked up, so we now have good water. Septic may be starting this week with some luck. He was supposed to begin last Friday, but a wet week delayed his other job and so this week will likely be spent wrapping that up and maybe moving his equipment to our place. Here's to hoping!

LOL! I actually thought of you when we decided to extend the concrete! Sage words, oh wise one! I am indeed afflicted!

Nice work Todd, I haven't been on the forum much recently so I'm just catching up on things, that pavillion will be a great place to relax and forget about the legal system.

Not to be a killjoy, but those munching a lot of ibuprofen or other NSAIDs might want to check that ole potassium level and keep it within bounds. Hyperkalemia can surely ruin a good party.

Todd, I just found this thread. Lookin' good - keep on truckin'!!!

No doubt about it, buddy! I plan on doing a lot of decompressing there once this thing is wrapped up. Another delay on concrete because of heavy rains, but on the plus side, I am at completely full pool now and the pond looks as nice as it has in awhile.

I borrowed some pallet forks for my tractor and tomorrow will help my builder lift the horizontal beams for the pavilion into place. With a little luck, we may get a lot of the frame structure in place tomorrow so they can begin really tying things together next week, including getting a start on the roof.

Thanks, Randy! It's been an incredibly frustrating process, but I am actually learning a bit of patience in spite of myself!

Todd:

Did you say you have a ballast box, or are the tires filled? (tractor)

Looking Great Todd! Can't wait to see it all finished. You're gonna love it, and it adds to the inspiration on this site.

Todd, I will trade you 10 100+ degree days for 5 inches of rain.

I'll up the ante by 5 90�F clear, 50% humidity, sunny days.

Lydna and I were about 30 miles north of Todd's neighborhood today, and not too far south of Sunil's pond. At about 4:30 PM, we headed to the local firehall for a luncheon.

Locals from these parts of the mountains of WV/MD/PA parked on each side of our car. As we headed into the firehall, they were complaining about the heat.

The car thermometer said 79. We were on the banks of the Cheat River. It was running very fast, and near the top of its banks.

It makes us in Appalachia feel really blessed, while at the same time, guilty about what we have. I wish we could spread out a little bit of our moisture.

The group I was with today all know Todd, and they said they are just waiting for Todd to invite us over for a fish fry! We'll even bring the fish -- even if we have to stop by Sunil's with some "duPont spinners" to get what we need. How about some turtle stew, too?

Ken, somehow I had a softshell walk it's way to my pond. How, I don't know, but it's about 14" across. Will he do?

Probably. I've never tried one like that. Lunch is lunch! I'll try most anything -- at least once.

So exciting Todd! As dream becomes reality, special adrenaline comes when adding custom improvements to your own property. Combine that with putting your tractor to use with your son in the project and you have to ask yourself, does it get any better. Very impressive the way you did the conduited water line. Please keep the pictures coming and send some of that rain down south.

The tires are loaded, Scott. The total additional weight is around 650 pounds.

Thanks, buddy. Spent the entire day out there yesterday getting all the 8x8 beams up onto the posts. The tractor and my buddy's pallet forks were a perfect combo for lifting those big boys into place while the contractors put them into position. I'll have some pics this week.

I can't wait for it to be done because I just want to spend some time chilling by the pond once in awhile!

No thanks, lassig! We've had our share of days hovering right around 100 this year, so I'll just keep the ones I've already had and my full pool, thank you very much!

Seriously, I hope all of you guys catch a break with some rain - I know it's desperately needed all around the country. No question about it, we've been blessed to get some relief from what began as a very dry summer.

The invite is open! Just let me know when you wish to accept! Definitely stop by Sunil's with those special spinners and while you're at it, bring him along, too!

It's been a blast, my friend! We had a great day yesterday and got a lot done. AJ helped me build a big firewood rack to replace the woodpile we've had on the ground for the past three years. We wanted to get it out of the direct view from the pavilion to the pond and also wanted to move those fertile critter nesting grounds to another location away from the area where we do our thing. The rack is awesome and I'll put up some pics, along with pavilion updates, later this week. Plus, I have an interesting snake story!

So this project has been a saga of learning. I have shared with a few of you here, but the quick story is that I hired a guy I knew and who had done a fair amount of work for me over the past two years. We had a contract for the whole pavilion project to be completed by June 7th. He obviously missed the date.

Without going into tons of detail that isn't really relevant to the project, he kept delaying after an initial push to get things done, blaming it on other jobs and just being busy. I figured with our history that he was shooting straight with me. After months and months of excuses and cover stories, promises and second and third chances, I finally fired him. All of the money I budgeted was spent and he did nothing other than pour the pad for the pavilion, erect most of the rough cut timbers for the frame, and rough frame the bathroom.

I have since learned from former employees of his that he was apparently bitten hard by the crack cocaine bug and is spiraling out of control. It sure makes sense with the run around I was getting and the absolute lack of work.

This is what he left me with:



And a view from the side - note the one missing rafter that he made excuses for over a three month period:



Fast forward to about a month ago. I got in touch with a good friend who remodeled my house and has done a ton of other work for me. He is a solid guy who I would trust with the care of my family without question. He works by himself 95% of the time and is a little slow, but his work ethic and product are outstanding. He agreed to help me for no cost out of friendship. Of course I will compensate him, but his generosity is outstanding.

While I don't have pics downloaded to my laptop yet, we took the frame about and spend a weekend fixing it. Turns out the first guy bailing out on me was a blessing in disguise as his work product on this job flat out sucked. The entire frame was out of square and out of plumb. It was also totally unstable. After my buddy Ed came and looked it over with me, we developed a plan of action.

The first thing I did was see a local fabricator and had him make me a bunch of 90 degree brackets to match the size of the 8x8 timbers on the frame. I prepped and painted them and Ed and I spent one weekend getting the frame squared and plumbed as closely as the original work allowed us. It was really bad, but we got it dialed in reasonably closely, enough that we could work with it. The black steel brackets on the wood look incredible! It now has the feel of a big western lodge with the rough cut timbers and the brackets.

A couple of weekends later we did the entire roof. Instead of using the normal plywood roof sheeting, the original guy had speced the job for 2x6 tongue in groove lumber. Since the inside "ceiling" was going to be exposed, the tongue in groove gives it a fantastic finished look that will really pop when I stain it probably in the spring.

Anyway, we finished the roof sheeting and then later that week got one side fully shingled while the other side is still tar paper. Ed, my current contractor, is in the middle of a big job and has about two more weeks before we should be able to dive back into this and get it wrapped up. He figures we have just a few weekends and evenings of work and we can finish it.

A couple of weeks after Ed and I last worked together on it, a client of mine who is a mason agreed to help out. He and I spent two days and reformed the pavilion extension as well as a ramp for the existing building so I can drive my tractor, lawn mower, and ATV in and out more easily. We also dug and poured two foundations for stone piers that will line the entrance to our farm. He'll finish the interior block work in the next week or two and then we'll do the stacked stone exteriors in the spring when the weather warms up enough.

Brettski, just for you, instead of adding 4 more feet to the pavilion's overall length, we decided to go 8 feet. Figured you'd appreciate the add on-itis! We also inlaid flagstone along the edge of the new extension where it meets the old end to dress up the transition a bit more. The pics below were taken right after we wrapped up and so it hadn't been power washed. In fact, it still hasn't been, but I'm hoping to get to that next week.

Here is the concrete truck finally coming after what should have happened about 5 months ago. Yeah, I know there's not much exciting about a concrete truck, but for me it was literally a point of getting over the hump on this nightmare and finally waking to daylight!



Here is the pavilion extension ready for the pour:



And here is the finished product:



I just went out today and took the forms off of everything. I'll be installing footer drainage around the whole structure and backfilling with river gravel. The piping will have a couple of places for downspouts to be added later when I gutter the whole affair and all of the water will be routed into the pond.

Again, once I get my other pics downloaded, I'll post those so you can get a better idea of where we stand now. Suffice it to say, I am as happy as a pig in mud - and there's plenty of that right now! - to see things finally coming together.

Todd, that looks great. Did ya get the brackets powder coated?

It sure feels good to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it helps to have reliable people doing the work.

Now if winter can hold off for another few weeks.......

We missed ya buddy!

We also got our septic system installed this summer. We went with an aerator and 260 feet of leach field. The excavator who did the work is an outstanding gent who has been doing this work for 40+ years and really knows his stuff. He also did a boat load of grading and took out some trees, really opening up the view to our second pond from the main field where we'll eventually build our house. He also filled in a big drainage ditch with about 260 feet of 18 inch culvert and joined the two parts of this field so we'll have a nice continuous front yard when we build. More pics of that to follow as well.

Here's the tank in the ground:




And here is one of the legs of the leach field looking back towards the pavilion. Sorry for the small pic - the phone did something to the sizing on this one (and some in the prior post):



And here is a pic of what happens when you spend too much time at the farm!

Lookin' good. thanks for the update...

Looking good Todd! I like the inlaid stone on the new extension.

Sorry to hear about your contractor woes. Been there, done that. After many, many excuses, he had the nerve to call us from the other side of the state to bail him out of jail.