Chapter 143...Pouring The Concrete Slab For The Store And Clean Up

Today is the day.  We will have the concrete slab poured and then if the weather holds Mike and I can start construction:)

The concrete company and our workers are ready to go:

They will need 12 1/2 yards of concrete so the truck will have to refill and come back.  This is the first truck and the concrete crew smooths out the first section:

While they are doing that, Mike and I brought the chainsaw to do some clean up work.  We have a big tree trunk down on the back hill.  Mike gets in the Jeep and backs it up as close as he can.  I take the chain and wrap it around the log so Mike can pull it off the hill:

Mike starts cutting and I start loading.  Now we have a nice start for our wood pile for next year:)

Back to our concrete crew.  The second truck of concrete is here:

Using the chute to pour the concrete onto the slab:

All the concrete is poured and our contractor does the finishing touches for a smooth slab.  He uses a troweling machine to smooth it out.  Looks good:

Now we have to let it cure before we can do any building.  We also need a dose of good and dry weather.  Mike and I will order the lumber and start building as soon as we have 3-5 good days in a row.


We do get a chance to go back to the lot to clean the land.

First we have to buy a ride on mower since we sold our last one.  I use a push mower at the house but that would take too long here.  So down to Lowe's we go and we pick up a Troy-Bilt Pony mower which has the exact same engine and size cut as the John Deere but it is $500.00 less:)  Troy Bilt Pony

The only problem we have is Lowe's forgot to give us a manual and a key....grr!!!  Lowe's is too far for us to make a trip back so Mike stuck a screwdriver in the key hole so I could start it.  Hey...it worked for now.

Getting the equipment to the property:

Mike unloads the mower onto the grass for me:

And off I go.  While I mow and blow all of the debris on the hill by the road, Mike works with the tractor.  We have a lot of clean up after the grading was done.  Mike wants to make sure we have a nice small ditch from the back of the building to the road at the other end of our property.  This way any water that comes down the back hill will get caught in the ditch and carried away from the building.  It's a mess and it takes Mike a long time to get it somewhat cleaned up.

The lawn is cut:

For the next week we have to work at home but now we are back and it's time to rake and seed the property where Mike has cut it open.  I start out by weed eating the front 400 feet of the property while  Mike once again works on the tractor:

And he grades it out:

I get the grass seed, the shovel and the rake from the car.  I start at the far side by the road.  I need to dig out the one small hill so the water can flow into the lower section of the ditch by the road.  Unfortunately it is too hard and I need Mike to break up the dirt for me:

Now I can get some work done:)  I rake out the ditch line that Mike made, shovel up all the rocks and throw seed down.  It is a slow process.  I get about 100 feet done and I have to stop.  Mike is working on a muddy area and there is nothing I can do there so I do the same job behind the building.


My sections are cleaned up, raked and seeded.  The front of the ditch by the road:

And behind the building:

That is what we are up to on that lot.  Now we need a big break in the weather to start construction.  Mike and I can't wait.  It will be hard on us to build but this is something we both really enjoy doing.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will write again soon:)

Florida Flip 2...Part 6

French Doors Here is another part of our story. The back of the house had one 16 foot sliding door and one 8 foot sliding door. Mike and I debated whether or not to change these doors out. We had to work within a budget and new back doors would eat a lot of the budget up. Well after going back and forth we decided to go for it. Our vision for this house is to make it have a water view, and also make it fresh and new. Old sliding doors will not work with our vision....so out they go. We start with the one big 16 foot door. We got the glass out. Next Mike pulls up the floor track. Then he works on taking the door frame out. We put up a 2x4 just as a temporary support until we get the new doors in. I am trying to clean up the floor under the door track. We decided on French doors with built in mini blinds for the new doors. This way you can always see the water, have some privacy when needed, and not have blinds or curtains blowing around. The first door is in place. And the second door is in place. There was another problem with the original 16 food sliding doors. It allowed no privacy into the master bedroom. If someone was on the back patio they could see right into the master bedroom...not cool. So Mike and I decided to replace the one big 16 foot sliding door with two 6 foot French doors and build a small 4 foot wall near the bedroom for privacy. Mike is anchoring the base for the new wall. The frame for the new wall is done. (Do you like our fishing line holding the doors closed, lol? Without that the doors could swing open and fly out until we have them completely installed) We will have to install the door knobs as soon as everything is in place. We bought cement board for the outside of the new wall. We will use sheet rock on the inside. Mike cutting the cement board. Mike installing the cement board onto the 2x4's. And my favorite. Putting some insulation in Once the doors are level and working properly we need to finish them. We fill in insulation around any of the air gaps. Now it's time for trim to make them look nice. Mike screwing in the side trim. The trim is done on the first two doors. Same thing for the third sliding glass door. Mike unscrews the frame. And pulls it off. While we were at the store buying the doors we picked up a new gadget...and I get to use it first It is a very cool tool Another small wall needs to be built. Since we are replacing an 8 foot door with a 6 foot door we are adding the extra 2 feet on the outside portion of the new "big" room. The three new doors in the main area are in along with the new door knobs. OK....only one more sliding door to replace. The small bedroom in the back of the house has a 6 foot sliding door that goes out to the back patio. Getting ready to take the glass out. The glass is gone and Mike is working on the old frame. The new doors are in and functioning. Mike screwing in the new frame. The last French Doors are in. Now we just need to fill the gaps and trim it out...oh and of course paint everything. That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed the French Door story. Lisa

Florida Flip 2...Water Heater and Demo

Water Heaters and Demo Good morning. It's time for another chapter in our story. I am trying not to overload everyone with pictures so I am taking it slow. At the time of todays story we were still working on the other house so we haven't gone full blown crazy yet Lets go back to December 8. Mike and I are almost done with the other house. We have a few more weeks before the carpet goes in there and then we need to move over here. So first things first. The water heater in this house is no good...so we need to replace it. Mike does such a nice job of this He starts out by disconnecting the old water heater. Using the cut off wheel to cut the old water pipes. After that we took the old water heater out and I cleaned up the floor and the walls. Then we put the new pan in and the new water heater in the pan. Mike putting the thread tape on to protect the new water lines from dripping. Adding the new flexible water lines. The flexible lines make it so easy. Mike hooking up the electric and he is done The new water heater is in. We should really get back to the other house to work but we just can't resist a little demo work. We have big plans for this house because of it's location. The biggest thing we want to do is make sure you see the water view when you open the from door. That means we have to take down walls and move rooms. This is the floor plan for the house when we bought it. This is not to scale but it will show you what it was like. The whole kitchen needs to go Some of our contractors have taken the stuff they wanted. Mike and I already took the cabinet doors off the cabinets in the kitchen. Time to tear out a kitchen The view from the front door....those walls have to go. The dining area that also has to go. Oh yeah..and the den which has to go Mike and his trusty ax....I always call it the sledgehammer Say good bye to the old rotted cabinets While Mike goes crazy with the sledgehammer I clean up behind him. Yeah...that seems to be the story of my life, lol. He gets to have all the fun while I clean it up We get all of the cabinets out and thrown into our garbage pile in the garage. Time to bust out some walls Mike starting on the first kitchen wall. And he is through. Now we can work on the other side and tear off the sheet rock. Time for the back wall of the kitchen. Just breaking through. The sheetrock is coming down. Ooh....look...I see a view from the front door That's two walls almost down. Time for the last wall in the kitchen. Almost clear And that's how fast we can make a mess Me cleaning up. While Mike was busy at one point I went around to see what I could do. This is the master bedroom. We have already gotten the carpet out and we will need to prep it very soon to move into. Here I am using a shovel, hey we don't have our tools here yet lol, to get the tack strip off the floor. And the next day....I pulled the "planter" out of the bathroom. Next week's story will be about us getting ready to move over to this house and doing some more work. I hope you all enjoyed this story. Have a wonderful week. Lisa