So I'm assuming anyone who follows this thing has probably already been informed through facebook or phone trees that we took some damage. The house will endure, but unfortunately some of the paneling was damaged beyond repair. One huge tree (outside of my property line) came down taking out two of my trees on the way to land in one big group on the house. For the record, it was one enormous elm (in the words of the tree guy) and two hackberry trees (yeah, I'd never heard of them either).
The roof, overhang, and one exterior wall took some pretty extensive damage. The den window is broken and the lentil is destroyed. The roof took some pretty severe damage. There are some holes in the roof over the dining room as well and a pretty significant amount of water came through the ceiling above the french doors. The house did not flood and all was not lost. The tree was removed late yesterday evening and hopefully this weekend I will have contractors look at it to begin repairs.
It appears that we won't have power for a while. Entergy released a schedule of when different neighborhoods can expect power back. Mine wasn't on it. None of the neighborhoods around me were on it. Yay. Jenny and I may travel to Lafayette to purchase supplies today and to experience a bit of normalcy: to get gas without a line, to grocery shop in the air conditioning, eat a hot meal in a nice, cool restaurant, etc.
I want to mention a few people here who have been great through this whole ordeal. Michael and Sarah top the list. They sheltered us through the storm, fed us dinner, gave us a place to stay and have been caring for Izzy ever since. Chris has come a number of times to help us clean up/work on the damage. He gave us a nice air conditioned office to sleep in for a night and fed us dinner. David and Terry Hebert (my bosses) have allowed us and some friends the use of the office to eat sleep, etc. while we are without power and until I can get the house livable. Carmen has let us shower in her condo and let us do some much needed laundry. I also want to thank Brooke and Nathan for coming to help clean up my mess after spending hours at Nathan's parents' house cleaning up their mess. It's cliche, but it's true. You really how many friends you have when something bad happens.
I'll try to keep this thing updated as best I can. Cell phones are working a little bit better every day, so if anyone needs to get in touch, you probably can. Take care.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Fence is done! (Almost...)
Well, technically the fence is finished and the gates aren't, but anyway...
Michael, Nathan, and Chris came over on Saturday and helped me get the runners (2x4s) cut and nailed up. Jenny and I had marked the posts earlier in the week. With a borrowed framing nailer and staple gun (from Mark) things went pretty darn well. The rain dampened our spirits a bit, but it cleared off and we were able to resume.
We started putting up the pickets, but had to cut it short so that Jenny and I could get cleaned up for David Smith's wedding in Opelousas. We had a good time at the wedding. It turns out we knew about a half dozen people there (other than the groom and his family). I have to bitch about the 6 oz. cups of beer that they served, but I just resorted to getting 2+ at a time. David told me he was a big fan of the blog (who knew we had fans?) and when he introduced me to his wife she knew who I was. Crazy. Congratulations to David and Emily (I hope you read this), I wish you the best!
Anyhow, I woke Nathan up on Sunday and he came over and we rocked and rolled on the pickets and got the rest of the fence done (except for the areas where gates are going). I continued to work on the fence this week to hammer out some odds and ends. I had to purchase some 8' pickets for one area of the fence that traversed a particular low portion of the yard. I cut them to fit and stapled them in place. Hopefully Mark and I can get together this weekend to get the gates finished up. If he doesn't show, I'll probably have to resort to doing them myself.
I was able to get the yard to the point that Izzy can roam freely now. I had some trellis laying around that I tacked up where one of the gates will go. The back corner of the yard is temporarily fenced off because their is a pile of bricks and other assorted "stuff" back there that I am going to have to pick through before Izzy gets back there. Pictures to follow as soon as I take them and upload them. :)
Michael, Nathan, and Chris came over on Saturday and helped me get the runners (2x4s) cut and nailed up. Jenny and I had marked the posts earlier in the week. With a borrowed framing nailer and staple gun (from Mark) things went pretty darn well. The rain dampened our spirits a bit, but it cleared off and we were able to resume.
We started putting up the pickets, but had to cut it short so that Jenny and I could get cleaned up for David Smith's wedding in Opelousas. We had a good time at the wedding. It turns out we knew about a half dozen people there (other than the groom and his family). I have to bitch about the 6 oz. cups of beer that they served, but I just resorted to getting 2+ at a time. David told me he was a big fan of the blog (who knew we had fans?) and when he introduced me to his wife she knew who I was. Crazy. Congratulations to David and Emily (I hope you read this), I wish you the best!
Anyhow, I woke Nathan up on Sunday and he came over and we rocked and rolled on the pickets and got the rest of the fence done (except for the areas where gates are going). I continued to work on the fence this week to hammer out some odds and ends. I had to purchase some 8' pickets for one area of the fence that traversed a particular low portion of the yard. I cut them to fit and stapled them in place. Hopefully Mark and I can get together this weekend to get the gates finished up. If he doesn't show, I'll probably have to resort to doing them myself.
I was able to get the yard to the point that Izzy can roam freely now. I had some trellis laying around that I tacked up where one of the gates will go. The back corner of the yard is temporarily fenced off because their is a pile of bricks and other assorted "stuff" back there that I am going to have to pick through before Izzy gets back there. Pictures to follow as soon as I take them and upload them. :)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
This will probably take a while...
The fence posts are all set!
That said, I owe many people a significant debt of gratitude. First and foremost Chris Broussard. He and I both completely physically exhausted ourselves yesterday. By this I mean we both collapsed. The most exhausted I have ever been. I got light-headed an hour and a half before we stopped. Then we both got up and started again today. Thank you Chris. I won't give you my first-born daughter, but I owe you something big. In a close second: Mark (my fencing sub-contractor from work) Will, Paul, Michael and Dustin. Everyone was a huge help. Y'all are awesome for showing up and for not hating me at the end of the day. I owe y'all as well. Oh yeah, and Frankie. Thanks for dropping by ;)
I set up this blog for two purposes: the first is that it is a way to keep all of our family and friends (that we may not talk to as regularly as we should) up to date on what is going on; secondly (as it was so delicately pointed out today) so that others can learn from our experiences. I have a pretty decent "nugget of wisdom" to drop on y'all here. Part of it is things I did right, and part of it isn't. If you never plan on building or having a fence built, ignore the next part.
1. This is key - If you have a significant number of trees in your yard and are building a fence over 150' HIRE SOMEONE. I knew this would be a good deal of work, but I would not have believed how much work it would be if I hadn't been there.
2. Rent an auger. Unless you are setting four or less posts, spend the money and rent an auger. This will make the job was easier. If you think the job won't be that bad, see #1.
3. It is advisable to have a professional or experienced amateur on hand. I thought I knew all that I needed to know (I've been picking my Mark's brain for weeks), but I didn't.
4. Have a reciprocating saw on hand. When you find a significant root, you'll understand.
5. When asked where you want the gate to go, don't say "ask the wife." You will end up with a double gate large enough to fit a semi-through (almost).
6. We hit a root larger than 8" across more than a foot in the ground. We dug out barbed wire a foot underground. We ran into concrete. We had to cut down a couple of small trees (up to 5" in diameter.) You will be amazed at what you find and the extra work that crops up.
7. This seems really obvious, I know, but it bears noting: 80 lbs sacks of concrete are heavy. The first one may not be that bad. The 5th one sucks. It gets worse from there.
8. Shop around for prices. Call the lumber yard 20 miles away. If they have the best price, they may deliver for free. If they don't deliver for free, Lowe's will probably price match if they can verify it. I shit you not, one Lowes (out of 3 in BR) has fence pickets for 30 cents less than the others. No 30 cents doesn't seems like much. Multiply it by 500. That's not just pocket change.
9. Home Depot sucks (don't ask).
10. You can't have too many friends. You know they are friends if they know that you are calling to ask you to help set posts and they still answer.
That's all for now, but if I think of anything else I'll post it. I thought it was a bit amusing that my neighbor walks over today as we are setting the last half dozen posts to tell us that we are welcome to tie into his fence. I didn't want to because it is only 4 feet high, but I thought it was kind of funny. Jenny has been taking pictures and I will upload them at some point. I believe that's all for now. I will update when we finish the fence, but that may be a couple of weeks.
That said, I owe many people a significant debt of gratitude. First and foremost Chris Broussard. He and I both completely physically exhausted ourselves yesterday. By this I mean we both collapsed. The most exhausted I have ever been. I got light-headed an hour and a half before we stopped. Then we both got up and started again today. Thank you Chris. I won't give you my first-born daughter, but I owe you something big. In a close second: Mark (my fencing sub-contractor from work) Will, Paul, Michael and Dustin. Everyone was a huge help. Y'all are awesome for showing up and for not hating me at the end of the day. I owe y'all as well. Oh yeah, and Frankie. Thanks for dropping by ;)
I set up this blog for two purposes: the first is that it is a way to keep all of our family and friends (that we may not talk to as regularly as we should) up to date on what is going on; secondly (as it was so delicately pointed out today) so that others can learn from our experiences. I have a pretty decent "nugget of wisdom" to drop on y'all here. Part of it is things I did right, and part of it isn't. If you never plan on building or having a fence built, ignore the next part.
1. This is key - If you have a significant number of trees in your yard and are building a fence over 150' HIRE SOMEONE. I knew this would be a good deal of work, but I would not have believed how much work it would be if I hadn't been there.
2. Rent an auger. Unless you are setting four or less posts, spend the money and rent an auger. This will make the job was easier. If you think the job won't be that bad, see #1.
3. It is advisable to have a professional or experienced amateur on hand. I thought I knew all that I needed to know (I've been picking my Mark's brain for weeks), but I didn't.
4. Have a reciprocating saw on hand. When you find a significant root, you'll understand.
5. When asked where you want the gate to go, don't say "ask the wife." You will end up with a double gate large enough to fit a semi-through (almost).
6. We hit a root larger than 8" across more than a foot in the ground. We dug out barbed wire a foot underground. We ran into concrete. We had to cut down a couple of small trees (up to 5" in diameter.) You will be amazed at what you find and the extra work that crops up.
7. This seems really obvious, I know, but it bears noting: 80 lbs sacks of concrete are heavy. The first one may not be that bad. The 5th one sucks. It gets worse from there.
8. Shop around for prices. Call the lumber yard 20 miles away. If they have the best price, they may deliver for free. If they don't deliver for free, Lowe's will probably price match if they can verify it. I shit you not, one Lowes (out of 3 in BR) has fence pickets for 30 cents less than the others. No 30 cents doesn't seems like much. Multiply it by 500. That's not just pocket change.
9. Home Depot sucks (don't ask).
10. You can't have too many friends. You know they are friends if they know that you are calling to ask you to help set posts and they still answer.
That's all for now, but if I think of anything else I'll post it. I thought it was a bit amusing that my neighbor walks over today as we are setting the last half dozen posts to tell us that we are welcome to tie into his fence. I didn't want to because it is only 4 feet high, but I thought it was kind of funny. Jenny has been taking pictures and I will upload them at some point. I believe that's all for now. I will update when we finish the fence, but that may be a couple of weeks.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Fencing
When I say fencing I don't mean the kind with swords, that would be too much fun. No I mean the 6' dog-eared wooden fence kind. The $8 per linear foot kind. And yes, that's if you do it yourself (which I am for obvious reasons). That doesn't include gates. Did I mention my lot is 100' wide? So yeah, this is me bitching.
Izzy needs a lot more space to run around when we aren't home, so our immediate project is the fence, but the sheetrock is a close second. I previously did a preliminary layout with measurements in order to estimate the cost. Today Jenny and I put stakes at the corners (there are more than 4) and ran string lines to get an idea of how it will look and how much space there will be. It looks pretty good and Izzy took a few laps to try out the space. Next step involves purchasing materials and setting posts. I'll let you know how that goes.
Back to the den... When the den was added to the house, the way they tied the old roof to the new roof does not allow access to the attic space over the den (a considerable area). After conferring with David (my boss) I elected to put a small access panel to the attic in the den. In order to do this I will have to do quite a bit of framing work with the ceiling joists. I already removed the necessary ceiling tiles to view the area in question. I am going to wait to do the framing work until after we get the fence done, since that is a bit more pressing right now. As soon as the fence is done, it's back to the den to get the job fully underway. We have quite a few activities scattered over the coming weekends and football season is quickly approaching. I need to focus in order to make decent progress.
The other backyard operation is cleaning out the swale (small ditch) in my backyard. I did some work in there two weekends ago and again this morning. It's almost done. Since the swale won't be included in the fenced area, I feel the need to clean it up a bit before we hide it. We are probably going to go to our friends' house, Michael and Sarah's, this afternoon to let Izzy play with their lab Loki. I hope it goes well :/ It did last time.
Hope to update again soon!
Izzy needs a lot more space to run around when we aren't home, so our immediate project is the fence, but the sheetrock is a close second. I previously did a preliminary layout with measurements in order to estimate the cost. Today Jenny and I put stakes at the corners (there are more than 4) and ran string lines to get an idea of how it will look and how much space there will be. It looks pretty good and Izzy took a few laps to try out the space. Next step involves purchasing materials and setting posts. I'll let you know how that goes.
Back to the den... When the den was added to the house, the way they tied the old roof to the new roof does not allow access to the attic space over the den (a considerable area). After conferring with David (my boss) I elected to put a small access panel to the attic in the den. In order to do this I will have to do quite a bit of framing work with the ceiling joists. I already removed the necessary ceiling tiles to view the area in question. I am going to wait to do the framing work until after we get the fence done, since that is a bit more pressing right now. As soon as the fence is done, it's back to the den to get the job fully underway. We have quite a few activities scattered over the coming weekends and football season is quickly approaching. I need to focus in order to make decent progress.
The other backyard operation is cleaning out the swale (small ditch) in my backyard. I did some work in there two weekends ago and again this morning. It's almost done. Since the swale won't be included in the fenced area, I feel the need to clean it up a bit before we hide it. We are probably going to go to our friends' house, Michael and Sarah's, this afternoon to let Izzy play with their lab Loki. I hope it goes well :/ It did last time.
Hope to update again soon!
Monday, June 16, 2008
She has a name!
And it is Izzy! Short for Isabelle, of course. We had to pick a name today so that we could bring her to the vet to get checked out. She checked out great, with two exceptions. The vet believes that she is a little older than we were told. Based on her size, he estimates that she is closer to 12 weeks than the 8 weeks we thought. She also tested positive for an intestinal parasite which is very common in puppies. No big deal. The vet gave us some medicine to give her daily for the next couple of weeks. She had her first dose tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seriously.
She weighed in at 13 lbs and was adored by everyone at the vet clinic. It didn't hurt that we interrupted a nap to make our appointment. She was very docile.
THE HOUSE!
So a small, but important update about the house. We met with Patti Crum on Sunday (father's day). For those who don't know her, she is Mr. James' sister. If you don't know who Mr. James is, consider Patti to be Jenny's aunt. She is working (at no charge) as our interior designer. We discussed what we needed to in order to get things moving again. We can begin sheetrocking shortly. We have chosen interior and exterior colors for the house. I am excited. I hope to have the den done for football season.
She weighed in at 13 lbs and was adored by everyone at the vet clinic. It didn't hurt that we interrupted a nap to make our appointment. She was very docile.
THE HOUSE!
So a small, but important update about the house. We met with Patti Crum on Sunday (father's day). For those who don't know her, she is Mr. James' sister. If you don't know who Mr. James is, consider Patti to be Jenny's aunt. She is working (at no charge) as our interior designer. We discussed what we needed to in order to get things moving again. We can begin sheetrocking shortly. We have chosen interior and exterior colors for the house. I am excited. I hope to have the den done for football season.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
New Addition!
So this post doesn't actually pertain to the physical structure of the house itself, but rather to those who live in it. We got a puppy! She is cute as a button and no, she doesn't have a name just yet. We are working on it. Her mother is a black lab and her father is a champion cattle herding Catahoula hound (state dog of LA). She and her siblings (I'm told there were 4 altogether) are the result of a hook-up at a social function for the owners of her parents. Her mother weighs in around 50 lbs and her father around 60-70. Hopefully she will be smaller than either of them *not holding breath* but we'll just have to wait and see. I am going to start a photo album for her.
Suggestions for names are welcome. She's active and likes to chew everything and is quickly learning what she she is allowed to chew on and what she is not. She loves playing outside and especially chewing on leaves, grass, and anything she can find. We are working on the house breaking thing and that's going okay. Right before we got her she learned to retrieve and can do that pretty well (for a 7 week old, come on...). She seems pretty smart.
She says "rwoo rwoo rwoo"
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Explanation...
This post is a result of harassment from the peanut gallery via facebook. The reason that the blog hasn't been updated recently is because there hasn't been much progress :( The last couple of weekends have been pretty busy. My birthday weekend we threw a crawfish boil on Friday, recovered on Saturday (and played a lot of Mario Kart at Miranda's) and then went to another crawfish boil on Sunday. This past weekend we went to dinner and Will's show on Friday. Cleaned house, grocery shopped, moved my BBQ Pit and the buffet, etc. on Saturday. Sunday we hosted Mother's Day for Mom, Cherie, Mimi, Nanny, Ms. Shirley, Dad and Uncle Joe. And Tuesday night we had Grandma, Aunt Linda, Paul, Christy, Brandy, and Ms. Shirley come over after dinner (at Sammy's) for cake and a tour of the house (and some Mario Kart).
The one bit of progress I have made was yesterday. All of those dangling wires seen in the last post are a result of removing the closet. I used the VERY limited knowledge of electricity that I have to get the two receptacles and fan that weren't working back into service. And I didn't shock myself!! (this really surprised me; I usually find a way)
I will post as soon as there are more developments. Hang in there!
The one bit of progress I have made was yesterday. All of those dangling wires seen in the last post are a result of removing the closet. I used the VERY limited knowledge of electricity that I have to get the two receptacles and fan that weren't working back into service. And I didn't shock myself!! (this really surprised me; I usually find a way)
I will post as soon as there are more developments. Hang in there!
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