Friday, Week 1

Late Thursday night, we were looking over our remodel and we realized that they had put forms and rebar in the retaining wall for our stairs up to the same height as our porch. We didn't want people to feel like they were walking down into a cave, so we decided to call first thing in the morning and ask if that could be changed. We hoped that if we called them before they ordered the concrete we could change it. We called just before 8:00 and found out that that would be fine and someone would be over to change it in just a few minutes because they wanted to be here when the concrete cutter was there. He apparently was coming before 8:30. We had been told that we had through the weekend to get things ready for the cutter. We still needed to take studs off the wall that they were going to cut, take out an outlet (meaning we had to cut power to downstairs for a little while), and take down a wall that was right where the door for the salon needed to go. Nathan started taking down the studs, but had to stop for a conference call. The cutter came and got set up while I moved all of the stuff out of the east side of the basement so he could cut for the plumber. I was supposed to do hair that morning at 9:30, but had to push one friend back to 10:30 and switch another appointment to a different day so we could get everything ready for the concrete to be cut. Nathan finished his call and got the outlet taken care of and the wall and the studs down. I got the washer and dryer moved and all of my new salon stuff moved over to the "storage area." The people that came to work on our concrete came in and helped me (okay, I helped THEM) mark the lines for the cutter to cut for the plumbing. The cutter cut everything that needed to be cut, Nathan finally made it to work, and I permed J'lene's hair. The concrete guys ended up cutting down their forms (they told me they were old anyway and it was fine to cut them) to accommodate the shorter wall and got the concrete poured for all of the walls. All in all, it was a productive day all around. We saw a lot of progress and averted much disaster.

First, here was my day. I permed my friend, J'lene's hair. I had to steal the pics from her blog. She wanted to go home and get ready before we took any pictures (I would feel the same way). Here's a back shotAnd a side/front shot. Thanks for taking the pics, Brandon.And to my yard . . . This is from my driveway. To the right up against the house is where the stairs are going to be, then you can see the shorter retaining wall with the storage room walls behind.A front shot.Looking down into the storage room. You can see the window that was cut to be the new storage room door.Another shot.The new view out my door. That ladder is now how they get into and out of my storage room.Looking down to the right.And to the left. Here's a good shot of the future stairs. Notice Shadow surveying the scene. He is really good at making sure he's always there. In this shot, you can also see the pine bark that they put over the top of the concrete to keep it from freezing.When they cut the concrete, we didn't have our doors even picked out, so they just made the cuts and left the concrete there. Here's a shot of our new storage room doorway.And our salon doorway. They had to cut it in half because there isn't enough room outside the door to take it all out in one pieceAnd another shot of the salon door.I somehow didn't get a picture of the cuts for the plumbing, so I had to go back and take those a few days later. This is the beginning of the cut (where the salon sink is going to be). I can't really get a good picture because our tub is over a lot of it and we had to move our washer and dryer back over it, too.Here is the other end of it. We still have a bit to get out after we move the pressure tank and the pump. But that will be done later.We got some snow on Friday night/Saturday morning. Here are some shots from Saturday after the snow. Another front shot.And one more from the doorway.

Friday night, we went out to Stockman's Steakhouse with Nathan's parents, then we went to Idaho Falls to look at some outside doors that someone was advertising on Craigslist. We liked them but had to have one put in a frame and the other one needed a different window. We ordered them to be delivered sometime the next week.